The rich mans/ Poor mans Whole House mp3 server : Part 1

I have a Crestron AADS for my whole house audio. Being a Crestron programmer I was able to pick one up cheap, and I dont have to pay for programming. I also have a horribly out of date DAS-750 mp3 server from Lansonic. That made these back in the 90's and did a crappy job at it before the company went out of business. All the Lansonic DAS750 has is a PC with a hard drive in a fancy box and a outrageous price tag (when it was new)

Today Linux is easy as pie and mini ITX boards can do far more than anything made in the 90's Using MPD (MusicPlayerDaemon) and thttpd I will be building a mp3 server that will also have Crestron control via tcp/ip. Under $200.00 in parts to replicate what rich people pay upwards of $8900 for...

What is needed...

Small low power PC, ITX motherboard and hard drive in a 1u rackmount case or smallish case.
Basic linux install, no GUI, CLI only. DSL linux or Slackware. Maybe Ubuntu server. I want it to boot in seconds.


MPD
I next need to make a LAMP server using thttpd. I will need PHP to run and a smallish database. as I will need to run PhPMp for a web front end for management

I am also writing a Crestron Simpl+ module that will tie it all together.

Next time, I'll build the software list and a guide to building the OS setup and software (we will start with a VirtualBox server before we spend money)