Media Centre PC

[Clarky]

I'm toying with the idea of building a media centre PC from scratch. I've had a look at various guide across the internet and there all pretty dated. I'm just wondering if you guys can point me in the right direction. I've build standard desktop systems before and hopefully this isn't too different.

I've got quite a few questions. I'll start off with these few. There's bound to be a lot more

Cases .. need recommendations. Small form ATX seems favourite as I would like it to be sleek and fit under my TV.

Motherboard .. This is really dependant on the case I guess due to size restraints. Will a regular motherboard fit most slim cases?

CPU/RAM/Fans .. CPU and RAM seem to be dirt cheap at the moment. I know dual core offers more in he way of performance so that is the way I'll go. RAM 2GB should be sufficient? Fans is where I come unstuck. There's no room for a big Sythe Ninja, so would this restrict me to buying a mobile CPU

More questions to follow.

Any links posted to guides and possible set ups would be appreciated.

[machinist]

I had the same sorta questions when I started out. I'll post my full spec which works beautifully, and that'll give you a starter for 10

Antec NSK1300 Case
MSI K9NGM2-FID microATX motherboard
2GB Corsair 800Mhz DDR2
AMD AM2 X2 3800+ processor
Zalman CNPS8000 CPU cooler (only one that fits in the case and is nice n quiet)
Samsung 400GB SATA hard drive
Optiarc DVDRW black
Onboard sound
MSI Geforce 8600GT Silent
MS Windows Vista Home Premium

I tried an ATI HD2400 Pro gfx card and was not impressed by the image quality. The 8600GT I've listed above is coming soon.
I attach my Media Centre PC via VGA to my 32" LCD TV, and the sound in to a 3.5mm jack on the back of the TV too.
Works a treat - kids love all the divx movies I've got on there

Good hunting......

[tinners]

Take a look here
http://www.avforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=586977
http://www.avforums.com/forums/showp...&postcount=302

or mine in progress here but needing some dremel work to get going again
http://www.avforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=596169

[James Thorburn]

If I were rebuilding my Media Centre system I'd be sorely tempted to go the Athlon 64 X2 3800+ and 690G chipset route.

Means once Blu-ray and HD DVD drives become affordable you'll still have HDCP DVI or HDMI, and cuts down on heat by avoiding a discrete graphics card.

[this_is_gav]

Cheap route would be to get an Elonex Artisan (if you can find any still going around) and stick a 500 series P4 in it.

Personally, I got the Elonex Artisan case (as many did here when it was on offer a good few months back), but stripped out the included motherboard (was a 915G chipset-based board) and replaced it with some mobile chips and a board (Core Duo T2500 laptop CPU in an ASUS N4L-VM DH motherboard) - way overboard for most, but I loved the idea of having a ridiculously low-powered system capable of running just about anything outside of games.

[master811]

I tried an ATI HD2400 Pro gfx card and was not impressed by the image quality. The 8600GT I've listed above is coming soon.

In what way was the image quality bad, do you mean for the DivX files? Would the GPU really make that much of a difference if so?