Spec me a media centre for a relative

-Mike-

-Mike-

-Mike-

Soldato
Joined
22 Dec 2002
Posts
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Location
Minehead
Hi all,

I've managed to convince my uncle to ditch all his dated bits and pieces and get a media centre setup. He needs plenty of storage space and the unit to look neat and tidy next to a 32" HDTV. It must also have a dual tuner :)

Are shuttles the way to go nowadays or are you better off going the uATX route and making your own system?

Please pick holes in my specs or suggest me a better alternative! Thanks very much



Shuttle XPC SD32G2 Aluminium Barebones System - Intel Core 2 Duo (LGA775) £172.50 (£202.69)

Hauppauge WinTV Nova-T-500 Dual Freeview TV Tuner £54.99 (£64.61)

Intel Celeron D 356 3.33GHz (LGA775) - Retail £33.99 (£39.94)

GeIL 2GB (2x1GB) PC6400C4 800MHz Ultra Low Latency DDR2 Dual Channel Kit (GX22GB6400UDC) £99.99 (£117.49)

Western Digital Caviar SE16 400GB 4000KS SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM £64.99 (£76.36)

Sony AW-G170ASV 18x DVD±RW x12 Ram Dual Layer DVD-Writer - (Silver) OEM £16.99 (£19.96)

Creative SBS 580 5.1 Speaker Sysytem - Retail £32.95 (£38.72)

Microsoft Remote Keyboard for Windows XP Media Center Edition - OEM £29.99 (£35.24)

Microsoft Windows XP Media Centre 2005 Remote Controller £19.99 (£23.49)

Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium 32-Bit Edition DVD - OEM - 1Pk (66I-00715) £63.99 (£75.19)
Sub Total : £590.37

Finally, what graphics card do I need to connect this pc up to a HD ready TV? Just standard VGA connection will work or do I need something more special? ;)
 
You pay a premium for a shuttle based system.

Consider one of the Antec uATX cases - neat looking, good strong PSU and cheap. Get a cheap (ish) µATX mobo and you are sorted
 
400 Gb Samsung HD400LJ Spinpoint T
Microsoft MCE Black Infrared Remote Keyboard
Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium 32Bit 1Pk OEM
Microsoft Windows Media Center Hardware Kit (Remote/Receiver) Creative Inspire P5800 5.1 Speaker System
Antec NSK2400 Desktop Case uATX, has Hi-Efficiency 380W ATX12v v2.0 PSU
2x Compro VideoMate DVB-T200 Combo PCI Tuner Card for DVB-T
32" Silver/Black LCDTV, HD Ready1366x768, 8ms, 1200:1, 500cd/m2, Widescreen, Speakers
AMD AM2 Athlon 64 3800+ Windsor Core, Dual Core 2GHz, 2x 512KB Cache, Energy Efficient Retail
Abit NF-M2 nView WiFi, NF430
NEC AD-5170A-0S Silver x18 DVD±RW Dual Layer DVD-Writer
2Gb (2X1Gb) Corsair Value Select, DDR2 PC4300 (533),

Comes to a total of 950 including VAT. Any missing things there or suggestions? Do I need 2gb for a Media centre pc?
 
A Sugo evo case offers more flexibility, is cheaper than a shuttle and takes a matx case, why not try that out?
 
Last edited:
Dingleberry88 said:
No, 1GB will be fine.

You'd probably even get away with 512mb.
Click to expand...


hmmm 512MB is borderline, I'm currently running 600MB usage in XP MCE, and I only have OE and opera running (plus slimserver)

As for OP spec, bit of a mis-mash spec, get less RAM but better CPU, not Celeron rubbish. Mike's second spec is better but I would downgrade to 1GB.

A Sugo evo case offers more felxibility, is cheaper than a shuttle and takes a matx case, why not try that out
Click to expand...

I agree with that, cheaper and allows more efficient cooling (and quieter) rather than a cramped small case. Although there are better designs that the Sugo (limited space around CPU)
 
Just using XP smoothly I would recommend 1GB, with Vista I would defo go 2GB

I would have thought the additional memory would have helped with tuner recordings also - but this is just a guess.

imo XP with 512mb is just painful, same goes for Vista with 1GB
 
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