Jon Posted October 15, 2008 Posted October 15, 2008 I am considering building a media centre PC. Just interested in any ideas or recommendations as to what components I should go for. Cost is everything...I am looking to do this as cheaply as possible..
jmcdermott Posted October 15, 2008 Posted October 15, 2008 (edited) I am considering building a media centre PC. Just interested in any ideas or recommendations as to what components I should go for. Cost is everything...I am looking to do this as cheaply as possible.. Mythtv (or mythbuntu) free linux based media center very good, but recommends a lot of hdd space, i am currently running it on the following hard ware: AMD 3500+ CPU 1 gig ddr ram 320gig hdd onboad sound PCI free view tv card. 300w psu cheap nvidia GF 6200 gfx card (only needed if require tv out). just priced all this up in ebuyer and it came to £230 for better equipment. Edited October 15, 2008 by jmcdermott 1
cromertech Posted October 15, 2008 Posted October 15, 2008 How cheap is cheap? I bought my system for around £400 although I use it for games as well. The trick is to go for passive cooling if poss because fan noise can be a real burden if you put it in a bedroom and it wakes itself at three in the morning to update the guide listing My specs Vista Home Premium Intel E6750 dual core 2.66Ghz Nvidia 8500GT passive Graphics Zalman passive processor cooler with a 120mm fan attached which i can turn on for games WinTV Nova dual DVB TV card 2Gb DDR2 Ram 1
dhicks Posted October 15, 2008 Posted October 15, 2008 I use a MacMini with an 1TB external drive I second that - I have one in my lounge. I got it off eBay for £200. I'm thinking of getting either a projector or one of those 26" LCDs to run with it. -- David Hicks
FN-GM Posted October 15, 2008 Posted October 15, 2008 I'm thinking of getting either a projector Always goes one better
cooper Posted October 15, 2008 Posted October 15, 2008 I have a popcorn hour HD media streamer with no hardrive so nice and quiet with a server in another room with 2 tb of video Welcome To Popcorn Hour
RabbieBurns Posted October 15, 2008 Posted October 15, 2008 The netgear eva8000 dropped to just over £100 recently on amazon.co.uk
FN-GM Posted October 15, 2008 Posted October 15, 2008 The good thing with a Mac Mini is that they are nice and compact and you get a little remote
FN-GM Posted October 15, 2008 Posted October 15, 2008 And they run silent. Plus front row makes an excellent Media Centre.
webman Posted October 15, 2008 Posted October 15, 2008 Fanless Mini-ITX board running Linux - GeeXboX/Freevo/MythTV. Cheap as chips.
Midget Posted October 15, 2008 Posted October 15, 2008 I have an XBox with Xbox Media Center, which you can now run on a PC (they even have a live CD) and it's great look into it XBMC Media Center
DrummerBoy Posted October 16, 2008 Posted October 16, 2008 Bought an Elonex Media Centre case, with quiet fans etc from ebuyer (with MoBo so onboard sound and graphics) £100, 2GB RAM, 500GB HDD, DVD ROM, Hauppauge D500T dual tuner, Core2Duo e6400 Proc, Wireless Keytronic keyboard and mouse and Vista Ultimate OEM Total Price was around the £450 mark. Don't skimp on the processor, bought the wrong one at first (Dual core instead of core2duo) and the picture stuttered. Have since upgraded MoBo and DVD to a combined BluRay/HDDVD drive and upgraded the graphics card to a Ge9600 HDMI thingy!!! Probably another £200 in upgrades, but is now all singing and all dancing, and very quiet. For cost eBay/eBuyer are your friends! 1
Jon Posted October 17, 2008 Author Posted October 17, 2008 Thanks to everybody who replied, its great to know what you are using
FN-GM Posted October 17, 2008 Posted October 17, 2008 Thanks to everybody who replied, its great to know what you are using What do you think you would go for? Z
Jon Posted October 17, 2008 Author Posted October 17, 2008 Hmmm, Still not sure yet. I have a budget of around £300. I already have an xbox with XBMC set up and running. What I really want to acheive is to be able to record freeview and freesat in HD. Stream mp3 and divx etc from a storage area (I already do this with the xbox). Also want to connect to a 37" LCD with either VGA or HDMI. Fit a blue-ray / HDDVD player...and run maybe vista ultimate(I already have a licence for this). Also want all of this to fit in as small and quite a case as possible. Is all this possible for sub £300?
JohnMason Posted October 17, 2008 Posted October 17, 2008 (edited) As small as possible... I guess you'd want it as cool looking as possible too? Why not make yourself a NES-PC? Build a Nintendo NES PC I've seen Nintendo's going for £20 on ebay, working. A broken one should be even cheaper. Add in a wireless mouse and keyboard plugged in at the back... If I can ever afford to make a media pc, it will have to be a NES PC. edit: Of course, I'm not suggesting you do the whole installing emulators and playing pirate games bit. If I do it, I'm planning on doing everything bar the last step or two. Media PC or not I want a keyboard and mouse and a normal windows front end. edit2: Note: You'll need a Mini ITX motherboard, which generally aren't all that powerful. Still extremely cool to have though! Edited October 17, 2008 by JohnMason
JOrdan01070 Posted October 17, 2008 Posted October 17, 2008 How about this XFX nForce 630i Socket 775 GeForce 7150 onboard HDMI audio mATX Motherboard - Ebuyer with LG Electronics Blu-Ray & HD-DVD-Rom Combo 16x DVDRW Black SATA - Retail Box With Software - Ebuyer this and your choice of cpu, memory and HDD and freeview card
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