Spec me a Media center PC £1k ish

Ultra_Extreme

Ultra_Extreme

Ultra_Extreme

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Hey guys, looking to build up a Media center PC to take over video duties as my main rig now mines litecoin 24/7. id like something interesting preferably a media center style case it needs to take an r9 290 and id like the option for SLI. Budget is quite strict and must include a single r9 290 tri x. Infra red or some control method is also required tho if the consensus is to buy a logitech harmony or maybe just pick up an ipad mini and remote mouse type app i could get on board with that.

Go nuts!
 
Yeah the main server has about 9Tb installed atm, i want a full PC because to my knowledge nothing else out there will output unaltered digital audio, it will be feeding into a high end home cinema (7.1 and i need it to pass through DTS HD etc mostly from MKV containers) the reasoning behind the graphics card is simply that im bound to install steam and play some games on it however it wont be my main gaming rig as i have a watercooled i7 + 3 way xfire r9 290 rig for that.

All this being said if there is some small all in one box that meets my audio output needs please let me know!!!
 
Seems a bit of an excessive budget just for a HTPC if you already have another machine as your main gaming PC.

I have just built a cracking media PC on a £400 budget.
 
Xire said:
Seems a bit of an excessive budget just for a HTPC if you already have another machine as your main gaming PC.

I have just built a cracking media PC on a £400 budget.
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I appreciate that but some of the silverstone cases I was lookin at are 300 alone. Im well aware that an i3 basic box 8gb ram and low end gfx card will do the biz, zoostorm do a range that would suit for under 350, but id like something a bit more custom and interesting
 
To reiterate, because im open to all ideas i need this

"a box that will output HDMI @ 1080p and up aswell as full multi channel surround sound to a reciever. Additionally this needs to be controllable without a mouse and keyboard and should look like a peice of home theatre kit rather than a PC"

I know none of the consoles can do this currently, and to my knowledge all android based standalone MCE-type boxes downmix the audio from multi channel to 2.0.
 
Ultra_Extreme said:
Hey guys, looking to build up a Media center PC to take over video duties as my main rig now mines litecoin 24/7. id like something interesting preferably a media center style case it needs to take an r9 290 and id like the option for SLI. Budget is quite strict and must include a single r9 290 tri x. Infra red or some control method is also required tho if the consensus is to buy a logitech harmony or maybe just pick up an ipad mini and remote mouse type app i could get on board with that.

Go nuts!
Click to expand...

You want SLI but a AMD card?
 
HalfBakedJake said:
You want SLI but a AMD card?
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cmon serious?

I mean crossfire ofc :)

im sure there are vast technical reasons people could dish out explaining the huge differences between the two but as far as im concerned 2 cards has always been SLi i guess because iirc they were first to the table, that and xfire is less memorable. But lets not get hung up on nonsense if i want and r9 290 and bearing in mind i already run r9 290 in tri fire (3 way sli too i expect) and also a second mining rig containing 2 more r9 290's im obviously aware that is xfire i need, however thanks for pointing it out.
 
Had a crack at it. Probably missing a few things (do you need storage?) and I haven't added extra fans. Did have a good look at the case and its manual (its very thorough, detailing all the possible motherboard size/HDD/GPU combos etc). Looks ideal for what you want, imo.

http://www.silverstonetek.com/product.php?pid=331


YOUR BASKET
1 x Sapphire Radeon R9 290 Tri-X OC 4096MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card (11227-00-40G) £347.99
1 x Intel Core i5-4670K 3.40GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - OEM £161.99
1 x Silverstone Strider Gold Evolution 1000w '80 Plus Gold' Modular Power Supply (ST1000-G) £127.99
1 x Silverstone Grandia GD08 Home Theatre Server Case - Black (SST-GD08B USB 3.0) £124.99
1 x MSI Z87-G55 Intel Z87 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £91.99
1 x Samsung 120GB SSD 840 EVO SATA 6Gb/s Basic - (MZ-7TE120BW) £79.99
1 x TeamGroup Vulcan ORANGE 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-19200C11 2400MHz Dual Channel Kit (TLAD38G2400HC11CDC01) £55.99
1 x Thermalright AXP-200R Low Profile High Performance Cooler ROG Edition £48.95
1 x OcUK Wireless Media Centre Keyboard - Black (9039ARF) £17.99
Total : £1,072.87 (includes shipping : £12.50).




If you don't want to fork out on something like a Logitech Harmony, you could just think of the media centre keyboard as a big remote control. :p
 
hey thanks for that danny looks a solid spec, can anyone comment on the silverstone cases with front display screens versus the plain ones, any real benefit as that is where im torn.

As for remote the more ive been playing with some of the remote mouse ipad apps the more im thinking ill grab a 1st gen ipad mini as a remote, pretty slick stuff!!

EDIT i meant the Origen cases with front display not silverstone!! doh!!
 
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Ultra_Extreme said:
hey thanks for that danny looks a solid spec, can anyone comment on the silverstone cases with front display screens versus the plain ones, any real benefit as that is where im torn.

As for remote the more ive been playing with some of the remote mouse ipad apps the more im thinking ill grab a 1st gen ipad mini as a remote, pretty slick stuff!!

EDIT i meant the Origen cases with front display not silverstone!! doh!!
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IMO, they are pointless and don't really have a purpose. Everything you need will be displayed on a much larger screen just above where it's sitting!
 
Hey Ultra, hope all goes well and that the cooler fits that particular mobo without issues. Maybe ask OcUK to confirm?

Also might need some more fans eventually with that GPU. But see how it goes. :)
 
will do m8, cant see cooler being an issue looking at the case reviews it can take a sizeable artic freezer type so should be ok, case comes with 2 extra 120mm fans for cooling HDD which i dont need as im only putting in 1 ssd so ill repurpose them as GPU intakes!!
 
Ultra_Extreme said:
will do m8, cant see cooler being an issue looking at the case reviews it can take a sizeable artic freezer type so should be ok, case comes with 2 extra 120mm fans for cooling HDD which i dont need as im only putting in 1 ssd so ill repurpose them as GPU intakes!!
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Nice one. Sorted for intake then. And if you ever need to exhaust at a greater rate, those 2 x 80mm fan slots at the rear should come in handy. :)
 
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