I found an excellent hardware setup for streaming. This involves any thin client that runs windows xp embedded. Mine specifically are a Termtek TK-3370 and a Wyse 941GXL. Both are 1ghz processor units, and have no moving parts. But the best part is they are LOW power consumption and are silent. They can be had for around 25-50 dollars depending on demand. You can run any windows xp compatible program from them, but just have to be careful on not filling up the flash memory. Mine came with 512meg, but can be upgraded to 1gig. Ive even heard of people loading regular XP on these.
Some other models are HP T5700.
Some other models are HP T5700.