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media pc

psalliss

psalliss

psalliss

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Joined
18 Oct 2002
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lancaster
hi im a bit out of touch with the current hardware. im basically wanting to build a media pc for the lounge mainly to be used for playing dvds and music, but will also be used for the occasional games and surfing. ive currently got a denon 3910 dvd player and am debating selling it and using the media pc to play all dvds. intend to store all my dvds on the hard drive. so am wanting a setup where the dvd playback quality is similar if not better than my denon.
dont need a monitor.

not sure on price but as cheap as possible to do what i want really, all suggestions welcome.
 
hardware
8600GT card
E6600
2gis 800mhz ram
hard drive
wireless keyboard and mouse

Software
Windows XP
Media Portal
ffdshow - codec for almost all video and audio out there.
 
hows this any better, what about the cpu and motherboard any better suggestions? possibly one with oneboard graphics that i could use for now then add better card later if i feel i need it.

Your basket
Product Name Qty Price Line Total
Zalman HD160 Home Theatre PC Enclosure - Silver(£185.64)
Zalman ZM600-HP Heatpipe Cooled 600W Modular PSU(£82.24)
Intel Core 2 Quad Pro Q6600 "Energy Efficient SLACR 95W Edition" 2.40GHz (1066FSB) - Retail(£176.24)
Abit IP35 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard(£82.24)
Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 1TB SATA-II 32MB Cache - OEM (ST31000340AS)(£455.88)
Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate 64-Bit Edition DVD - OEM - 1Pk (66R-00838)(£115.14)
Western Digital Caviar SE16 320GB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (WD3200AAKS)(£51.69)
GeIL 2GB (2x1GB) PC2-8500C5 1066MHz Black Dragon DDR2 Dual Channel Kit (GB22GB8500C5DC)(£99.86)
Samsung SH-S203NRSMN 20x20 DVD±RW Dual Layer Serial ATA Lightscribe ReWriter (Black,Silver,Beige) - Retail(£22.31)
EVGA GeForce 8800 GTS SuperClocked 640MB GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (640-P2-E825-AR)(£264.36)
Total : £1,550.81
 
When you say occasional games? What do you mean?

You wont need a Q6600 and an 8800GTS in a HTPC.

My one at home comprises of
C2D E2410
7800GT with Zalman VF900 cooler
Gigabyte DS3P motherboard
2GB GeIL ram
500GB Samsung Spinpoint
Hauppauge WinTV 1300
DVD-RW SATA
Silverstone LC17 case.


You've of course missed the most important thing a TV card.

Made me laugh with the 'Cheap As Possible' yet you've speced a £1,500 Media Centre.
 
The 8800GT will out perform the 8800GTS despite being cheaper.
Dual DVB-T TV card
Dual Core C2D
2x500GB HDD's

This should comfortably handle most games you can throw at it, and be very good for tv/dvd/audio (etc)

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Last edited:
nikebee- i know i think i got carried away, dont really think i realise that you can get top performance for a lot less know.
dont actually require tc card as not going to play tv through it as ive got sky hd.

will the cpu you suggested run vista 64bit then???
storage is the key part in some ways as my plan is too put all my dvds onto the hard drives to play through media centre and can then tody a lot of my dvds away.
 
That is very very good spec and shows whats available.

For an HT PC there is no need for seperate GFX unless you are playing the latest games.

The HDMI 1080p output of this onboard GFX is stunning.
 
that'll do it just fine. not my choice of case, the fusion, but its solid. the only thing i can think of adding is a quality analogue sound card if youre interested in playing bluray/hd-dvd. oh and an optical drive to read the discs:p
 
Butters said:
That is very very good spec and shows whats available.

For an HT PC there is no need for seperate GFX unless you are playing the latest games.

The HDMI 1080p output of this onboard GFX is stunning.
Click to expand...

Yes but that spec misses some key things out. DVD drive for a start.

Sound card isn't a must have, but it really helps... personal preference I suppose?

500GB HDD... that may not be enough.

I've nearly filled my 500GB HDD in my Media Centre.

If the plans are to stick Vista on it then I'd look at getting 2GB rather than 1GB, especially if gaming is on the agenda.

The key fact here really is what type of games you want to play on it :)

If its anything remotely recent, then something like a x1950 or better would do fine really.

Do you know the resolution of the monitor/tv you'll be running this on? As that will also effect what type of graphics card you'll need, or whether you'll need one at all really.


psalliss - any Core2Duo processor will work under 64bit Vista :)
The only thing I'm not sure of on my list would be the TV Card, but since you don't need that anyway... :)
 
have took onboard a lot of what people where saying and am now possib
ly looking this direction. can always add a dedicated card later if required and will add a nas my book when cash allows for the storage. what do you guys think?

Intel Core 2 Quad Pro Q6600 "Energy Efficient SLACR 95W Edition" 2.40GHz (£173.89)
Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate 64-Bit Edition DVD - OEM - 1Pk (66R-00838)(£115.14)
Samsung SH-S203NRSMN 20x20 DVD±RW Dual Layer Serial ATA Lightscribe (£22.31)
Shuttle XPC SG33G6 Deluxe Aluminium Barebones System - Intel Core 2 Duo (£284.34)
GeIL 2GB (2x1GB) PC2-8500C5 1066MHz Black Dragon DDR2 Dual Channel Kit (£99.86)
Western Digital Caviar SE16 500GB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (WD5000AAKS(£70.49)
Total : £776.55
 
Check every devise and software you want to use, like future TV cards maybe, or Media interface software etc runs ok Vista. I plan to build similar soon, but will stick with XP.
Just my thoughts.....
 
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