Nich B

I want to buy a Plasma (Hitachi 42PD7200) and use windows media for TV, MUSIC, DVD, etc

Want a compact computer to replace DVD player, digi receiver etc

Any one done this yet

and whats it like?

Nich B

err no one then

any built a media centre yet?

Scooby Dooby Blue

We build media centres, typically in units that resemble Hi-Fi separates

Smallest one we've done was a Shuttle for my accountant.

AMD Athlon64 3700+
2GB Dual Channel DDR
Gainward 6600GT VGA Card
500GB Hard Drive
Hauppage PVR-150 Capture Card
DVD Writer
802.11g Wireless

Was a nice little system, about the size of a DVD duplicator.
Only drawback is expansion limitations. The wireless was a Shuttle ad-on (expensive) to leave the single PCI slot vacant for the TV capture card.
You can add a second hard drive to them but this is at the expense of a floppy drive/card reader.

On the plus side, they're small, practically silent (no CPU fan) and out-the-box every bit as powerful as a fullsize ATX machine.

Very simple to throw together yourself. MicroDirect are usually the cheapest retailers of the Shuttle gear.

Nich B

How much was that system?

stevem2k

Shuttle M1000 will do it out of the box and is more of an appliance , though you can design almost whatever you want ....

www.icubes.co.uk do a lot of the SFF stuff...

HTH

Steve

Scooby Dooby Blue

Think it was about a grand inc software.

Prob charged him about double that to recoup some of those 'professional fees' lol

Nich B

Nice link Steve M8

Ill have a look and see

Scooby is that the best set up now?

Scooby Dooby Blue

Far from it, but it's a nice set-up to a budget.
If it's a proper media centre with a nice hi-def plazzy you're after then £1000 is around the mark you may like to spend to get nice set-up.

If you absolutely must have the best of the best of the best (lots of punters out there like this) then you could easily spend almost that alone on a processor!

You should ask yourself aside from managing your hi-def content, TV and audio, what else are you looking to do with the system (if anything)?

Is hardcore gaming your thing? Throw an extra few quid at an FX CPU and VGA card.

Going to be doing lots at once? Double up the RAM and consider an X2 CPU.

If you want to go the other way, you could knock together a decent enough rig for around £500 as there are plenty boards around with almost everything integrated. e.g.

Silverstone Case (like a hi-fi amp with digital displays)
400W Quiet PSU
AMD Sempron64 3000+
512MB PC3200 DDR
ASRock K8-NF4G (integrated nForce 6100 128MB VGA & 8-channel audio)
250GB Hard Drive
Hauppage PVR-150 Card
Windows MCE (OEM)
MS MCE Remote & Wireless Keyboard

That's about all you'd need for a basic media centre. You should get change from £500 if you DIY (MicroDirect, Ebuyer etc)

Nich B

mmmmmmmm

If the media centre is just for playing music, films, PVR, and surfing internet

the money I could save by building own with a budget of £500 ish could save enough for an XBOX 360, so I wouldnt need the pc to play games on.

True enough about knowing what you need rather than what you want

I want 400bhp but I only need 300bhp

so is this

Silverstone Case (like a hi-fi amp with digital displays)
400W Quiet PSU
AMD Sempron64 3000+
512MB PC3200 DDR
ASRock K8-NF4G (integrated nForce 6100 128MB VGA & 8-channel audio)
250GB Hard Drive
Hauppage PVR-150 Card
Windows MCE (OEM)
MS MCE Remote & Wireless Keyboard

or similar Enough?

RoosterRoo

I've recently set up a Media center system to replace the video recorder and dvd player. It is truely the way to go. It runs great on the old components I had

Silverstone LC17 Case
450W Silent power supply
Asus A7n8x deluxe Motherboard
AMD 2800+ Processor
1Gb Ram
Gefore T14200 Fx Graphics
Hauppauge PVR350 TV Tuner
Soundblaster Audigy 2 Platinium Sound card
Belkin Wireless NIC

Microsoft MCE 2005
MCE Remote
MCE Keyboard

Now got all my music, photos and videos on it, and it runs like a dream. The MCE tv guide makes recording and series linking so simple its unbelieveable.

Have a look at www.thegreenbutton.com for all things media center related...

Nich B

I can feel another project coming on

I might have enough bits lying around, and use bits from existing PC to build something



Nice link, plenty of info Roster

RoosterRoo

Ah,

Forgot to mention you will also need a software MPEG decoder, NVIDIA's one works a treat with MCE, and costs about 20 quid.

Edited to add:

http://www.nvidia.co.uk/object/dvd_d...-trial_uk.html

DemonDave

iTrader: (13)

Just built this. Went Pentium M because the machine runs nearly silent. Excellent little box - lot of time in configuring to the best settings

Ahanix MCE302
Aopen I915GMm-HFS
Maxtor Maxpoint 250Gb
2 x 512mb
Processor – Pentium M 750. 1.83GHz
XP MS Media Center version 2005 with remote and receiver.
Antec True PSU
blackgold Digital and DAB
philips dvd rewriter
Microsoft Remote Keyboard for Media Center Edition
x300se HDMI compatible video

Nich B

How much? and where did you source the bits?

Do you connect to the internet using this system

DemonDave

iTrader: (13)

came in around £700-£800 - used a couple of companies (can provide detials)

yup - got a wireless connection at the mo - just about to put an external cat5e cable in to improve the speed

Nich B

Nice

Im moving house soon so would like to start from scratch, in between the wife having a baby, and me getting the car sorted with a bigger turbo and remap

More toys to play with