On the social front, I find that if I purchase a new toy for "the wife" when I get one for myself, it keeps the peace.

I'm in the process of building a silent MythTV client with HD capabilities based on a Via nano-ITX board containing an EPIA N CPU, CN400 HD MPEG2/MPEG 4 decoder, VT1625 RGB to YPbPr encoder. After waiting for months for the nano-ITX board to ship, I managed to snag one. Of course, this $470 toy ($400 for the board, $70 for RAM), meant I had to get my wife a digital camera. Fortunately, she settled for a $90 Cobra 4.2 MP and 512MB SD card (also around $90 for the 20 MB/s version).

I call it the "marriage tax".

The MythTV client will be in a Silverstone Lascala LC08 case, with slot-loading DVD/RW drive, and 200 GB or 400 GB hard disk. Overall budget for it is around $1000. A bit expensive for a glorified networked DVD player, I suppose, but the option for over-the-net remote ripped DVD and saved HD program playback is priceless to me. Of course, it will play back CDs as well (from a CD, local disk, or ripped copies over the net).

Making such a device is easy. Making it fanless is hard. Damn hard. While the hard disk might produce some noise, it is possible to make a completely diskless version with all media access via the local drive or over the net.