HTPC

dokko

dokko

dokko

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26 Nov 2005
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Thinking about building a HTPC for the bedroom on the cheap.

But what makes a good one and how far do i go in terms of components?

I'd want a Blu Ray drive for movies, while playing MP content and for it to be able to Internet browse while possibly play a bit of FM in bed. IT would also need wireless.

I like the look of the Zotac mini MB's (Zotac GeForce 9300-ITX WiFi ), but feel the Atoms are too underpowered. I'd hope the GPU would be good enough for what i need and it's got HDMI.

I was hoping to pick up 2gb DDR2 from the MM (will this be enough?) while getting some 775 dual core from the same place to keep the price down, same with the HD, but that leaves me with a case, what do people recommend?

Another option is to get a full size MB from MM and get a desktop case (slim) or a mega mini tower to stand next to the TV as it would sit on top of some draws next to the bed.

I've got W7 OS keys from uni, so that doesn't need to be considered, the rest i'd like to do around the £300 mark max.

PS: Do HTPC's really get the use, or is it more a boys toy that never reaches its full potential?

Cheers.
 
any decent dual core cpu and 2gb of ram would be good enough for an htpc along with something like a radeon 4350 or similar.
my htpc is an old dell dimension e520 with an e4300, 2gb ram and a radeon 2600xt running vista home premium and i use a cyberlink remote and i am very happy with it.
i got the shark007 codec pack and arcsoft totalmedia theatre and now windows media centre plays everything i throw at it.
i would just get a midi tower case that looks quite nice to you making sure that it takes standard size dvd roms as the laptop bluray drives are very expensive still
 
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The Zotac's got a 9300 built in, would this not be enough? It does come with a PCI-E slot just in case.

Need to measure up really and see if a standard mini would look daft.
 
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