Recommend me a Media Center PC spec

[Templar87]

I suppose for the sake of £300 quid you can have that shiny new HTPC you always wanted let us know how you get on with ur linux testing

[mediapc]

my removable drive was slow, so i've decided to backup my 2nd 250gb hdd on my pc and i'm gonna install linuxmce on there instead...will let you know how i get on.

[mediapc]

how do i setup ubuntu to be seen on my Tv?

Thanks for your help.

EDIT/UPDATE: I'VE JUST UPDATED MY NVIDIA 8800GTS GRAPHICS CARD DRIVERS ON UBUNTU AND IT CRASHED WITH SOME ERROR...WHAT SHALL I DO??

[Templar87]

the joys of linux graphics card issues eh - good luck bud

[mediapc]

It seems like ubuntu is giving me problems. I can't run linuxmce 1.0 for some reason.

After doing a bit more reading, it seems that i need to get KUBUNTU and this will allow me to install LINUX 1.1.

Will let you know how i get on..in the meantime if anyone has had experience with KUBUNTU and wants to point out any issues, please could you kindly let me know

thanks

[mediapc]

Right guys...my sincere apologies for bumping this old thread. I've had a few problems at home, where my brother fell 60ft off a house roof he was working on and was seriously injured...he is now feeling a lot better, although he's smashed his leg and foot bones, but doctors are optimistic that his leg should make 70-80% recovery after he's had the ops. This is the reason i had to delay buying the media pc up until now.

I have had a change of heart and now have ditched the idea of recording any programs onto the pc. Therefore i have no need for TV Tuner cards for now.

Now this is what i want my HTPC to do:-

1. PC for games (must be playable between 800 x 600 and 1024 x 768)
2. Browse on the net
3. Must have a wireless keyboard with built-in mouse pad
4. Must be able to output standard DVD/DIVX downloaded content on my standard CRT TV.
5. PC Case should be reasonably quiet and if possible small in size.
6. Due to my tight budget, I only want AMD CPU spec and not Intel.


I have upped the budget, albiet only by a small amount to £350 max (pc base only).

Once again my apologies if it sounds like i'm asking these questions again...my head's all over the place at the moment, due to my anti-depressant tablets.

Thank You

[kungpo]

You can do it with Intel, especially with the forthcoming price drops. Firstly, will you need a copy of Windows XP (or VIsta?).

LN18817
Intel Pentium Dual-Core E2160, S775, 1.8 GHz, 800MHz FSB, Allendale Core, 2x 512KB Cache, Retail £48.49 £56.98

LN16281
Gigabyte GA 965GM-S2 iG965, S775, PCI-E (x16), DDR2 533/667/800, SATA II, SATA RAID, uATX, VGA £48.69 £57.21

LN12200
2Gb (2X1GB) Corsair TwinX XMS2, DDR2 PC5400 (667), 240 Pin, Non-ECC Unbuffered, CAS 4-4-4-12 £43.35 £50.94

LN16905
Antec NSK1300 uATX Cube case inc Sound dampening Technology and 300W PSU , Black/Silver £48.19 £56.62

LN19223
256MB EVGA 8500GT PCI-E(x16) 800MHz GDDR2 GPU 450MHz 16 Streams D-Sub/DVI-I/HDTV £45.49 £53.45

LN18053
250 Gb Western Digital WD2500AAJS Caviar SE, SATA300, 7200 rpm, 8MB Cache, 9 ms £34.40 £40.42

LN17771
Samsung SH-S183L/BEBM x18 18x DVD±R, 8x DVD±DL, DVD+RW x8/-RW x6, DVD-RAM x12, SATA, Black, OEM, LS £15.50 £18.21

Total: £346.71 not including Hexus shipping discount (so - 10.96), but no keyb/mouse or OS. Decent wireless Logitech for about £25 or so.

[kungpo]

In fact, by getting 2x 512mb Ram, and 8400 Video card you would save a few more £s. But i think the spec above would be quite good and would oc quite well, should you be willing.

[tinners]

good spec but bin the 8500GT for media use and get the ATI 2400 PRO or XT

[mediapc]

thanks very much kungpro and tinners for a great spec...just to confirm, will the ATI 2400 or the 8500GT be able to handle most games?

thanks

[tinners]

thanks very much kungpro and tinners for a great spec...just to confirm, will the ATI 2400 or the 8500GT be able to handle most games?
thanks

Not really youd be better with 8600 or 2600

Just like NVIDIA's GeForce 8500, the HD 2400 Pro is not a big performance upgrade, but comes with a ton of new features. Certainly very interesting is support for DirectX 10 and Shader Model 4.0. But let's be honest, which serious gamer will try this on a $60 graphics card? Personally I think the more interesting feature is the new UVD video acceleration which lets you watch full HD content, even with weak CPUs.

[mediapc]

Now i'm stuffed, lol...i simply want a graphics card which can output divx etc to TV and play games...HD is not needed as i don't even have a HDTV. I don't know what to choose.

[kungpo]

My advise - buy the best you can afford. I use an 8500 and it is way fine. Better than the 6600 it replaced, and plays movies (mostly divx) no bother. As the machine is connected to the TV, you afre not going to see any better than VGA resoluton anyway, so it's not like the card will be working that hard. And when you get a HD TV, you won't need to upgrade the hardware.

[mediapc]

thanks kungpo. In your opinion (or anyone's opinion!), would the 8500 or 8600 be okay to play games such as unreal tournment 2004, need 4 speed, quake 4 etc at 640x480 or 800x600???

[dangel]

I've got a passive 8600 - it's no speed demon and the drivers don't half suck ass..

If you don't need HD get an old 1900 card - they're rock solid and good at gaming and.. dead cheap. Oh, and the drivers aren't written by nVidia. Which is nice.

[mediapc]

thanks dangel...i would be grateful though if anyone can give let me know if these cards would handle the games i mentioned earlier (read post #46). This should then give me a good idea which card is suitable for my needs