Cheap media centre spec

[Johny Boy]

Hi guys, I'm trying to throw together a cheap media centre system using some old components and some new. Prefrably I'll be doing some sort of linux system although I have access to a free copy of xp mce.

I have a spare 2ghz opteron, some ram and sata disks sitting here all lonely.

So I've spect out the follwoing components,
Antec Aria Micro ATX Cube Case - 300W PSU £59.50
Samsung SH-S182D 18x18 DVD±RW ReWriter (Black) £20.95
Abit NF95 GeForce 6100 Micro ATX (Socket 939) PCI-Express Motherboard £38.95
Leadtek Winfast DTV1000-T Digital TV Tuner Card £29.95
BFG 3DFuzion GeForce 6200 LE Turbo Cache 256MB DDR TV-Out/DVI (PCI-Express) £19.95

Subtotal £169.30
VAT £29.63
Total £198.93


I hear the optional tv out for the NF95 is impossible to find so hence why I have included the 6200 LE. Will this be poweful enough? I'm way out of touch with low end kit.

It will be used for recording tv, playing dvd's, divx, streaming video, streaming audio maybe skype/video at some point.

Is the on board sound good enough? I haven't got external tv speakers so it will just be over normal tv speakers.

I'm willing to take ideas on this but don't want to spend to much more then £200 and silence is important. Anyone have experiance with this case?

 

[Johny Boy]

Also will the stock amd heatsink fit in the aria?

 

[Phil99]

Looks good.

Stock heatsink fits fine as far as I'm aware, and the Leadtek DTV1000-T is an excellent card (I have 2 in here)

Anything with DX9 support is enough for MCE, though if you want HDTV etc you'll want to look out for full Purevideo support. Not sure if the 6200LE has full support or not so you might want to look on the nVidia site.