Budget Media Centre Build

[Stephen C]

Ewo all,

Figured I'd ask for some advice as I can't seem to get my head round it.
I'm looking to build a media centre mainly for watching stored media,
My budget is around £200.

Anyone have any suggestions where to start?

------------------------------------------------------------

So this is my updated semi final decision thus far, minus the PSU which I've yet to decide on.

Mobo
CPU
RAM
HDD
Case

I've also sourced Windows 7 for the OS from a good friend <3

[Salazaar]

I guess it depends on what you've already got.

I built one recently and I found that getting a nice case took a hefty chunk of my money.

(I'll try and add a bit more later but I'm heading home from work now)

[crazyfool]

The amd route would be the cheapest either an 8200/8300 or a 780/790g board.
A 45w processor would be best for a htpc because of heat issues etc... Thats about 100 quid gone. Couple of gigs of ram is about &#163;20 so that about 80 quid left for a case, psu and hdd. If you already got a hdd then 100 quid for a case and psu isn't too bad. Antec have some nice htpc cases. as do silverstone for around that price.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

This is what I would get:

AMD Athlon X2 245 ~ &#163;49

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/AMD-A...MHz-65W-Retail

2GB PC2-6400 RAM ~ &#163;22

http://www.scan.co.uk/TodayOnly/Index.aspx

Asus M3N78-VM ~ &#163;49

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Asus-...-RAID-uATX-VGA

Has DVI,HDMI and VGA outputs.



Samsung F1 320gb ~ &#163;34

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/320-G...MB-Cache-89-ms

DVD writer ~ &#163;17

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Sony-...ightscribe-OEM

Antec Minuet 350 case with 350w PSU ~ &#163;80

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/141001

The total comes to around &#163;250.

Alternatively another build you could do is a system based around the following barebones:

MiniX AM2 Mini-ITX Barebone with 150w PSU and 780G motherboard ~ &#163;125

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/167427#

The final option is to go for an Asrock Ion 330 for around &#163;232:

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Asroc...320GB-HDD-HDMI

[crazyfool]

I would actually second the Asrock Ion 330 thinking about it, if it is purely just for playing back media then that is probably the best solution for the money... you would just need an external drive for your media (unless you have it on a server, nas etc)

[Stephen C]

Might come across stupid, but yeah.. no, it probably will.
I take it the Asus M3N78-VM doesn't need a seperate graphics card?
Just that it has a cross next to on-board graphics, confused me :x

[PeterStoba]

Might come across stupid, but yeah.. no, it probably will.
I take it the Asus M3N78-VM doesn't need a seperate graphics card?
Just that it has a cross next to on-board graphics, confused me :x

That's just a scan error

[crazyfool]

I recently bought that board and it seems pretty good... onboard can handle high def stuff, not going to be the greatest at deinterlacing as you get the best deinterlacing from a 4550/9500gt kind of card but it looks pretty good to me

[Stephen C]

Would the X2 250 be worth the extra few quid over the X2 245?

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Would the X2 250 be worth the extra few quid over the X2 245?

Nah,for a media centre the X2 245 had plenty of processing power available.

[mycarsavw]

I'm watching the thread with interest as I've been tempted so many times but never pulled the trigger.

I'm currently using a first gen xbox with XBMC as the OS and I love it, but it's just not a PC. XBMC works with Linux if you don't have an OS budget - no one's mentioned the OS yet

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

I'm watching the thread with interest as I've been tempted so many times but never pulled the trigger.

I'm currently using a first gen xbox with XBMC as the OS and I love it, but it's just not a PC. XBMC works with Linux if you don't have an OS budget - no one's mentioned the OS yet

Windows 7 RC1 can be used until early next year for free.

[Stephen C]

Well it's my birthday today so my budget's just gone up a bit

[format]

Happy birthday Zap

[Stephen C]

Thanks Format :3

I've got a copy of "Vista Business 32bit", would that be sufficient for the system Cat outlined?
I'm really not up to date on these things.. though I've just read that 32bit should be ok?

Oh and which system is likely to be faster, the diy or the ION 330?

[watercooled]

Yeah 32 bit should be fine for that since you are using less than 4GB RAM.
The Athlon X2 245 would be faster than the ION system.