Spec Me A Media Centre

kicks66 · 24 Sep 2011 at 18:10

Im looking into making a media centre pc, one that I can have plugged into the tv all the time and can stream music/films/tv shows to it. I wont be needing a tuner card as I have an online player that I can just use on a web browser. Ideally I want to do this as cheap as possible, what are my options?

Deep · 24 Sep 2011 at 18:18

Acer Revo is probably the best option tbh!

marc69 · 24 Sep 2011 at 18:35

I put something together for you. You'll still need a PSU and case, I've got the silverstone milo ml03b, it's a cheap case but it has nice build quality and looks the part.

Intel (Pretty much the build I have)

AMD

It's something to work off anyway.

Good luck

kicks66 · 24 Sep 2011 at 19:26

What are the minimum requirements I need to be able to play everything (1080p I guess is the highest requirement)? Want to do this on the cheap.

marc69 · 24 Sep 2011 at 19:30

http://geeknizer.com/1080p-minimum-requirements/

Deep · 25 Sep 2011 at 17:04

kicks66 said:
What are the minimum requirements I need to be able to play everything (1080p I guess is the highest requirement)? Want to do this on the cheap.

Again check out the Acer Revo R3700 it'll do exactly what you need and cost £180

chrisarm · 25 Sep 2011 at 17:18

Was thinking of something like this myself, pity overclockers don't really have much in the way of ITX mobos or cases.

kicks66 · 25 Sep 2011 at 19:17

So ive got hold of an old gaming PC that im going to run XBMC on. Its got a DVI port, so I guess I need a DVI to HDMI cable, but do I need a seperate cable for audio? Or is there a combined DVI+audio to HDMI?

Brummies · 25 Sep 2011 at 20:00

I don't think you do, HDMI should travel both audio/video.

welshdragon · 25 Sep 2011 at 21:44

Brummies said:
I don't think you do, HDMI should travel both audio/video.

DVI is video only aint it? thus dvia to hdmi would have no audio?