Help building a new media centre pc plz :)

swills

swills

swills

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Hi guys, i want to build a new media centre pc and not entirely sure where to start. The pc will be used in my front room hooked up to a tv to watch dvd's, films etc. I have a new lcd tv with a rear VGA connection. What is the minimum spec that i will require, ideally i want to spend less than £300, is that possible?

Thanks in advance

:D
 
Unfortunately not, i only have my main pc which is of quite a high spec and dont really want to use any of the parts from that, thanks though.

Also i want a cool media centre type looking case but will i need a micro atx mobo?
 
no media centre type case but my first attempt, it may not all fit together so wait for confirmation first before buying

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Product Name Qty Price Line Total
Pioneer DVR-212DBK 18x DVD±RW SATA Dual Layer ReWriter (Black) - OEM £17.99
(£21.14) £17.99
(£21.14)
Western Digital Caviar SE16 500GB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (WD5000AAKS) £55.99
(£65.79) £55.99
(£65.79)
Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 2600 PRO 256MB DDR2 HDTV/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (11117-01-10R) £44.99
(£52.86) £44.99
(£52.86)
GeIL 2GB (2x1GB) PC2-6400C4 800MHz Ultra Low Latency DDR2 Dual Channel Kit (GX22GB6400UDC) £31.99
(£37.59) £31.99
(£37.59)
Intel Core 2 Duo E2140 "LGA775 Conroe" 1.60GHz (800FSB) - Retail £38.99
(£45.81) £38.99
(£45.81)
Asus Vintage V3-P5945GC Barebones System - Intel Core 2 Duo (LGA775) £54.99
(£64.61) £54.99
(£64.61)
Sub Total : £244.94
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
City Link Parcel Next Day (Delivered Mon-Fri)
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £9.95
VAT is being charged at 17.5% VAT : £44.61
Total : £299.50

if you pick the case you want then it may be possible to build around it if it doesnt take up a stupid amount of your budget
 
300 might be a bit optimistic.
A stylish case could set you back 70 quid alone
Depending on case, you can go with ATX not micro ATX (tends to be cheaper)
recommend dual core, amd or intel, can be the lower end of the spec range
hardware decoding built into the GPU for HDTV
2 Gb of RAM will be fine

Search the forum, there has been enough HTPC spec requests and that will give you an idea for price
 
Does the machine have to fit into a specific space, or could it sit beside the tv?? If it could sit beside, how about using a barebones as the base for the machine as then, case, psu and motherboard are all catered for.
 
What output do you need to the TV?

I'm using an AM2 asus board with built in component out Nforce 6150 putting out 720p through RCA cables to my old style LCD in the spare room.

Depending what output you need you can buy a cheap motherboard with built onboard graphics , component, HDMI, s-shs etc , a low end CPU and 1 Gig of ram for around the £100 mark especially if you don't mind pre used parts.

Then you have enough change for a case with psu and a couple of HDD's.

AD
 
the output on the rear of the tv is a VGA port and i already have a vga male-to-male cable so i guess either a dvi or vga port on the mobo will suffice, any suggestions on the mobo that can accomodate this?

cheers
 
spec4.PNG


Decent enough spec for a media PC will play HD stuff aswell with out a sweat, plus it should be silent. I know for a fact the samsung drive is virtually silent. Plus you get VGA, DVI and HDMI which is great especially if you buy a new TV with a HDMI port unless you already have one :).
 
Just read around the forums and have put this together, any thoughts, went for a dedicated pci-e card fror the extra inputs:

Case:
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-092-AN

Mobo:
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-137-AB

HD:
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CD-096-SA

GFX:
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-085-PC

CPU:
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CP-202-AM

RAM:
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MY-064-GL

Total is £287.75 including VAT & Shipping

As always any help/thoughts are much appreciated :)
 
Mine is better, its cheaper. Also Intel CPU's are better than AMD although you will never see the difference in a media PC. Also no need for a dedicated video card as the onboard one is good enough it has all the necessary video outputs for a media PC HDMI, VGA and DVI. It also has a good size hard drive, enough to hold a lot of HD content plus it is silent. Also I think you left out a hard drive in your spec ;).

Which ever one you choose to go with both will perform well, although if it were me I would go with mine as it is a better all rounder :).
 
Thanks but i dont think i will go for the blu-ray just yet :)

Yeah after looking at it yours is better, yeah just noticed i left out the hard drive lol, anywho thanks for your help and i think this is what i am going to get:

Case:
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-092-AN

Mobo:
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-098-GI

Hard Drive:
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HD-036-SA

Optical Drive:
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CD-096-SA

CPU:
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CP-151-IN

RAM:
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MY-064-GL

Total is £290.10 including VAT & Shipping

Unless of course any one can notice any gaping holes in this system or compatability issues?

Thanks again for all your help, ill post up when its built :D
 
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