Home Cinema Vista based Media Centre PC - advice required!

[The Old Man]

Hi all,
I've been toying with the idea of setting up a Media Centre PC for the living room 32" Wide-screen TV, to surf the Wireless broadband net, share photos and video's, listen to MP3's, play games etc. I have a 5.1 surround system which will be handy for the 5.1 sound from the PC.

My main PC upstairs has Vista 64bit OEM Home Premium which has the Media Centre built in and it looks quite good. It gave me the idea to build a PC for the living room so I've been browsing OCUK for some parts to go with what I have already.

I noticed that OCUK is selling the Windows Media Centre 2005 Remote Control and the separate Microsoft Windows Media Centre keyboard. If I want to build a Vista based Home Media Centre, should I wait for newer versions of these controllers if there are any? I like the idea of the remote but I also want to surf the net and play games on the PC too. Any advice on the keyboard/remote setup?

Also, I'm assuming I can buy and install Vista Home Premium for the downstairs living room and its integrated Media Centre will share in some way the files that are stored on my main PC upstairs through the 2 integrated media centres of Vista? Is this how it works and is it a fairly simple procedure to set up (the wireless setup is no problem, I'm talking about the software)?

I know the XBox360 has some kind of Windows Media Extender which gets the photos, music and videos from a main PC but I don't yet have one of these so I'm hoping the lovely Vista Home Premium will do the job.

Finally can you recommend an inexpensive but pleasant enough case for the Vista Media Centre PC, I want it to fit a 6800GT graphics card. Would the Antec Fusion take a 6800GT?

Thanks!

 

[The Old Man]

Thanks Squiffy.
What do you think about HPTC's/Media Centres? Do you use it much? Is the picture okay enough on the TV for gaming or internet use?

To share files just share the directories, you'll be able to access them anywhere on the LAN (need to set up user rights though)

I do this to share files on my Wireless Laptop so its not a problem. When you use the remote, does the Windows Media Centre just picks up the shared files?

Dunno about new versions of the MS remote/keyboard, but I have the MS remote and it does the job. The MS keyboard is rubbish though, expensive, joystick control is naff and it's IR. I've just bought a Keysonic wireless keyboard/trackpad and it's pretty good. Better quality keys then the Logitech Denivo are whatever it's called.

Thanks for the feedback, I'll check out the others.

Antec fusion will fit a X1800XT, so others shouldn't be a problem. You could get the cheaper Antec NSK2400, it's very similar, front isn't metal, and it doesn't have a VFD but that's useless feature anyway. My HTPC is in a Silverstone TJ-08.

Thanks, I'm not bothered about the VFD too much either. I was just looking at the Zalman cases. They seem expensive but as they ATX I could use my existing spare motherboard which would save on the cost. The Antec NSK2400 is a great price but I'd have to buy a new motherboard and I'm not sure it would take a full size graphics card like the 6800GT. I just found the Asrock 939NF6G-VSTA Micro ATX (Socket 939) PCI-Express DDR Motherboard and its AMD 939 but its PCI and not AGP.

I've found MS HTPC front end pretty rubbish although I haven't played with Vista MC due to no Vista driver support with my SC.

People seem quite impressed with the built in media centre in Vista. I'm going to give this a go.

 

[The Old Man]

Okay thanks guys! Much appreciated.

 

[The Old Man]

Thanks Squiffy, that looks useful, similar to a laptop.