I hope this post isn't too "commercial," but it seems pretty applicable for readers of this post's content.  My company Xtras.Net decided to assemble a set of DYI hardware components for creating your own XPMCE 2005:

http://www.xtras.net/Products/xpmce2005hardware.asp?rl=825ACD4D-738A-46F7-B2F6-727A0126CA47">http://www.xtras.net/Products/xpmce2005hardware.asp

We did so to empower .NET developers to be able to get a second working MCE 2005 box cheaply so they could create MCE 2005 add-ins. We knew nobody wanted to use their living room MCE 2005 for development and miss taping Monday Night Football, or Desperate Housewives. Smiley Plus who can afford to buy two MCE's from HP, Dell, or Sony?

Our kit requires you to get the MCE 2005 O/S from somewhere. One way is via MSDN Universal. If you don't have MSDN Universal, we are giving the hardware kit away to people who buy MSDN Universal at a sister website of Xtras.Net called MsdnSource:

http://www.msdnsource.com/Offers/XPMCE2005/?rl=3372E4BE-27FA-4758-B5F7-F1EA40BC29CA">http://www.msdnsource.com/Offers/XPMCE2005/

(If this post was too commercial, please ask an admin to delete it and let me know at mikes * at * xtras *dot* net so I'll know better next time. Smiley