Media Centre PC Spec Please

squiffy said:
I gave you those FFDSHOW instructions to follow because you said you didn't understand and believ yours is scaling in high quality mode ala FFDSHOW. If you refuse to do it, and found that offensive that is your problem.

But I guess people just don't like to be corrected/pointed out. It takes a strong man to realize when you're wrong. I guess some aren't....
Click to expand...

I didn't write that and I'm not in the least bit offended, please read my posts if it is that important to you. You may be getting confused!

It's not that I don't like being corrected, it's that I don't like being told what to do.

I've just apologised to you, why do you want to continue to get personal, your only winding yourself up.......and at worst, I'm just amused.

Finally, how can you be sure I am a man, are you sure you're not being a little sexist?
 
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michael baxter said:
I believe some motherboards are equipped with an integrated wireless adapter.

Obviously, if you want to transfer media around, a wired network will be faster and more reliable.

For your interest, I've run wired gigabit ethernet throughout my home, and use an old P3 system with a RAID 0 card and 4 PATA drives as a fileserver. Surprisingly, this gigabit attached fileserver gives better performance than any of my locally attached drives and centralises the media. Additionally, it means the hard drive within the media center is powered down most of the time, and hence less noise. Although it may seem exotic, it was very cheap to set up using older hardware and using FreeNAS (www.freenas.org), although I'm currently running WinXP Pro. However, I think I may be going off-topic........

Again, I stress that the noise of a Media Center PC can be very intrusive, and should not be underestimated.

Just my thoughts on the topic!

Regards,

Michael
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Cheers mate - again some nice info :).
 
Oooooohhhhhhh, this has gone and gotten (sic) tasty..... :eek:

So, ignorant/ignorent ;) as opposed to your/you're ;)

...let he who is without sin and all that.... :cool:
 
Bloodshot said:
Hi Guys,

I'm interested in building a media center PC, and was wondering if you guys could give me some help in picking the right components. I've got a spec which I made up - but it's slightly over budget (£700).

Could you guys help me remove / downgrade some stuff to get to that price? :) I need to be able to watch and record TV at the same time - but it won't be used for gaming.

Thanks,

-----------------------------

Media Center PC Price:

Silverstone Lascala SST-LC03 HTPC Case (Black) (CA-025-SV) £82.19
AMD Athlon 64 3000 Retail / Asus A8N-SLi SE / 2GB Geil PC3200 Dual Channel Kit - Bundle (BU-031-OK): £260.81
Pioneer DVR-111BK 16x16 DVD±RW Dual Layer ReWriter - (Black) OEM (CD-041-PO): £26.97
BFG GeForce 7300 GT OC 256MB DDR2 HDTV/DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-032-BG): £55.21
Hauppauge WinTV PVR-500 Media Centre Edition Dual TV Tuner (GX-028-HA): £111.57
Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 320GB ST3320620AS SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (HD-078-SE) £70.44
Tagan TG480-U01 480W ATX2.0 SLi Compliant Silent PSU (CA-000-TG): £51.99
Microsoft Windows XP Media Centre 2005 Edition - OEM - 1Pk (M93-00200) (SW-008-MS): £77.54
Microsoft Windows XP Media Centre 2005 Remote Controller (SW-009-MS): £23.49
Microsoft Remote Keyboard for Windows XP Media Center Edition - OEM (KB-053-MS): £58.74

Total: £820 (inc VAT).
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Bloodshot,

I've just been browsing for you, and suggest this as an alternative spec' for the motherboard, CPU and memory. The motherboard is 'conroe' compatible, ensuring excellent upgrade options. You would have to check compatibility, as I've only rattled through the spec'.

MB-004-AK
Asrock Conroe945G-DVI (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard
£45.99

CP-117-IN
Intel Celeron D 326 2.53GHz (LGA775) - Retail
£24.99

MY-030-GL
GeIL 1GB (2x512MB) PC5300 667MHz Value DDR2 Dual Channel Kit
£59.95

Subtotal £130.93
VAT £22.92
Total £153.85


There will be a little cash left in your budget for those Zalman products I was suggesting. These could include a flower cooler for the CPU, a replacement northbridge passive cooler, a silentpipe cradle for the hard drive (with rubber mounts for reducing noise) and a few fanmates to adjust the fans. If you were to take this route, you will be able to achieve very low noise with a little care, whilst ensuring nothing overheats.

My only other suggestion would be to consider a PSU with a 120mm fan fitted, such as the Akasa models. They are about the same price as the Tagan, and boast a tiny 18dB of noise. I've recently fitted a couple of these to new builds, and I'm impressed.

By the way, I very much like the Silverstone case you are considering!

Best wishes,

Michael
 
"CP-117-IN
Intel Celeron D 326 2.53GHz (LGA775) - Retail
£24.99"

Having a laugh, that won't scale video. Will you please stop recommending stuff when you have clearly no idea.

Have you tried FFDSHOW yet? Are you trying to get the OP to waste his money on something that even won't play smoothly? Great idea to put money into quietening items when the base system isn't capable of. Well done.

Download a 720p and 1080p on yours and see how it fares..

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/musicandvideo/hdvideo/contentshowcase.aspx

Some more..

http://www.highdefforum.com/showthread.php?t=6537
 
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