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Author Building a Media Center
Doug
Member

Registered: 8th Oct 03
User status: Offline
17th Nov 07 at 14:28   View User's Profile U2U Member Reply With Quote

Im looking to build a media center that I can just plug into my TV and stream stuff off the home network with.

I have had a look on ebuyer and I have decided on a couple bits, but I dont understand what mobo, ram and processor I will need

Here is the list of what I have chosen so far....

Case - Antec Fusion V2

Keyboard

As you can tell I don't know what else I need

The computer is just going to be used for playing films that are stored on the network, burning data disks, browsing the net and downloading. I currently have an external HDD that I will plug into it for now until I get my NAS for the network.
I'm unsure about what OS to run on it at the moment, will media center be a PITA when I have all my TV shows etc organized into separate folders on the external HDD?

My TV is a R88 32" samsung so I need the graphics card to be compatible with that. I dont have surround sound so for now I dont need a great sound card.

I want it to be upgradeable (ie a couple TV cards in the future)

I need a DVD-RW drive that suites the case. And USB ports at the back.

I hope I have covered everything here, all be it in a very random way. So to sum up... given my requirements what is the best spec to go with, don't want to spend over £300 really unless its WELL worth doing (don't need it for gaming or anything)
I need advice on:
-HDD
-RAM
-Mobo
-Processor
-OS (I have XP and Vista legit versions here so will prob go vista unless media center is the better choice)
-DVD drive
Doug
Member

Registered: 8th Oct 03
User status: Offline
17th Nov 07 at 16:56   View User's Profile U2U Member Reply With Quote

Thinking about it I can push the budget to £400 absolute top's if it means I will have a much better spec.

I want it very quiet and as fast as possible

I also forgot to mention that I will want a network card in there. An Ethernet card.
Doug
Member

Registered: 8th Oct 03
User status: Offline
17th Nov 07 at 17:41   View User's Profile U2U Member Reply With Quote

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Antec-Fusion-Black-Media-Center-HTPC-HDMI-System-5200_W0QQitemZ170170330694QQihZ007QQcategoryZ179QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Basically something very similar to that

Can I have a HDMI output from a graphics card to the TV? Or is it best to stick with VGA to VGA?

 
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