B Grade Items

NealR · 23 Jan 2013 at 13:37

Just a quick query really. I'm looking at wanting to buy up a few items to build a cheapish, but more power media pc.

My current is a Foxconn nt-330i and despite my best efforts, I have a bug using WMC on it.

Using any of the plugins, for watching BBC iPlayer or MediaBrowser(that I use to watch videos through) works fine.

But as soon as I try to watch Live TV or watch a recorded TV video, after 10-15mins it crashes out and turns the media PC off.

This is beyond a pita currently, but it is also the only box I have ever had issues with before.

So my question is really, the B Grade items, such as: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=BG-551-AS&groupid=595&catid=689&subcat= Would be ideal for me, but despite it saying 2 ready to dispatch, there is 'No ETA' and not option to buy it.

How long does this process take until they are able to be bought? And if this particular MB is not available ever, then spec me a cheap(including B Grade items PLEASE) a quiet, if at all possible passive cooled system.

It doesn't need to be powerful, hell, the nt-330i is only an Atom ION at 1.6Ghz with 2Gb DDR, and that runs mkv playback with no issues. Just quiet, and have the option to have additional HDD's if possible.

squarehead94 · 23 Jan 2013 at 13:50

Its a stock error. It means if there's no buy now button its not there just a mistake. Call em and ask but 9/¹ⁿ times its an error. Also wmc isn't the best media centre is. Considered xbmc? As a full operating system? Its very quick and runs on the oldest of tech. Xbmc with navi x is a great media centre setup. I have a zotac Xbox id12 1.8 dual core atom 4gb ram and a 160gb HDD and run xbmc. Runs HD stuff perfect apart from 1080p but that's a graphics problem not the operating system. Look at the gigabyte z68 b grade on there for 35, that paired with a g530 for 28 quid and 8gb ram for 30 would be an exceptional buy for a media centre.

squarehead94 · 23 Jan 2013 at 13:52

I would certainly pay another 11 quid for a z68 board compared to a h61 they are much better and allow over clocking should you upgrade. Good for cheap gaming PCs so good for media centres too.

NealR · 23 Jan 2013 at 14:09

squarehead94 said:
Its a stock error. It means if there's no buy now button its not there just a mistake. Call em and ask but 9/¹ⁿ times its an error. Also wmc isn't the best media centre is. Considered xbmc? As a full operating system? Its very quick and runs on the oldest of tech. Xbmc with navi x is a great media centre setup. I have a zotac Xbox id12 1.8 dual core atom 4gb ram and a 160gb HDD and run xbmc. Runs HD stuff perfect apart from 1080p but that's a graphics problem not the operating system. Look at the gigabyte z68 b grade on there for 35, that paired with a g530 for 28 quid and 8gb ram for 30 would be an exceptional buy for a media centre.

I have tried many many full OS builds, including xbmx, but I didn't particularly like how it was laid out. I realise this could probably be corrected easily enough with a different skin/theme, but thats spending more time on finding one etc. I presume there are plugin/addons available to have iPlayer features on it?

... it was some time ago when I last tried xbmc, so I might have to revisit it again, given the situation I'm currently in.

NealR · 23 Jan 2013 at 14:11

squarehead94 said:
I would certainly pay another 11 quid for a z68 board compared to a h61 they are much better and allow over clocking should you upgrade. Good for cheap gaming PCs so good for media centres too.

To be fair, both overclocking and gaming is something this machine would not need to do at all.

It will be purely used as a media pc. The only other reason to potentially update what I have, is that I can only have 1 internal HDD on the 330i, but on building a complete pc, I could at least put 4 in over time.

sven256 · 23 Jan 2013 at 14:31

NealR said:
To be fair, both overclocking and gaming is something this machine would not need to do at all.

It will be purely used as a media pc. The only other reason to potentially update what I have, is that I can only have 1 internal HDD on the 330i, but on building a complete pc, I could at least put 4 in over time.

Also have a look at plex. The media server part for me is much better than xbmc and i prefer the user interface as well.

NealR · 23 Jan 2013 at 14:39

sven256 said:
Also have a look at plex. The media server part for me is much better than xbmc and i prefer the user interface as well.

Just havign a quick look at their website now, is plex just an application that runs ontop of whatever software you already have running? ie it is not its own OS as well ? Also, does it support Live TV and PVR functions ?

sven256 · 23 Jan 2013 at 15:28

NealR said:
Just havign a quick look at their website now, is plex just an application that runs ontop of whatever software you already have running? ie it is not its own OS as well ? Also, does it support Live TV and PVR functions ?

No pvr or live tv but you can add apps like iplayer, 4od etc

Yes it's a application to run on of a operating system even Linux.

NealR · 23 Jan 2013 at 15:39

sven256 said:
No pvr or live tv but you can add apps like iplayer, 4od etc

Yes it's a application to run on of a operating system even Linux.

hmm, I might look at it, but ideally I would prefer an AIO solution. Being able to record TV is the key thing, being able to watch live tv is a bonus, as I could just use the TV for that.

Will probably throw on XBMC later and give that a go again, but the Live TV part might depend on if there is support for the duel tuner I have. When I last used MythBuntu there wasn't, but that was 10.04 so things might well have updated

squarehead94 · 23 Jan 2013 at 19:22

if you read what i said i stated if the OP wanted to upgrade to a gaming pc. You would be silly not to pay £11 more for a board that has a hell of a lot more features, and a better overall board, simply because you dont want to overclock.
XBMC has changed hugely over the last few years, and being free, its worth taking your time finding what themes/layout suits you.
I believe they have iplayer features yes. but you can just use navi x to scrape the media you want to watch.

NealR · 29 Jan 2013 at 22:13

Thanks for the heads up on the info's above.

Having messed about with a few things, the HDD in my current media box has fallen over painfully

so now I am looking for 1 of 2 things.

I can either buy a replacement HDD, and crack on like I was, or, go down the route of buying up some cheap B Grade components which will also give me a lot more storage options

If I do buy new(well B Grade ideally), then I will need mb/cpu/ram/psu/cheap small case(ideally mini-itx, which also means mini-itx mb).

Has to be capable of mkv playback, and HDMI output off the MB at a 1080p for TV viewing.

So OcUK, what do you suggest?