Help me to build Media Center box

[Ice_Black]

I have decided to build a new Media Center box

Can you please help me which hardwares should I get?

Budget is £300

- 500GB Hard Drive
- 3GB Memory Ram
- Decent graphic card for blue ray movies (will not be playing games)
- Blue Ray Drive
- AMD or Intel CPU
- Wireless Keyboard
- HTPC case (stylish!)

(Without Operating System)

I will buy all the hardwares from Scan.

[Jay]

and a PSU

[scottxxx]

I'm guessing a motherboard too.

Sounds a challenge to get all of that for £300. Here's my attempt:

LN28399 - LiteOn IHOS104-37 4xBlu-Ray - £50.59
LN26734 - 500 GB Samsung HD502HI EcoGreen F2 (5400rpm so a bit quieter - ideal for HTPC) - £36.79
LN22441 - Keysonic ACK-612RF Mini keyboard with touchpad - £24.14

That comes to around £112.

A HTPC case is probably going to swallow up a huge amount of that budget. There's only one cheap one I've found - LN26582 - CiT S001 Micro ATX Desktop / Tower Combo with 450W PSU - £31.05. Expect to pay 2-3 times that for a stylish one though, plus the more expensive cases generally don't have a PSU.

That would then leave just over £155 for a motherboard, CPU, graphics card and memory. Not sure if any of the onboard graphics are good enough for decent Blu-Ray playback. If they are you may save a bit there rather than a dedicated graphics card, but it still sounds tough to get a powerful enough CPU, motherboard and memory with the money that's left.

It may just be enough for a budget dual core CPU, motherboard with onboard graphics and 2GB memory, but not sure it would be powerful enough.

If you start with the bits you can't spec any lower (Blu-Ray drive, case, keyboard etc) and see what that leaves for the bits you can skimp on a bit like the CPU, memory and motherboard it should give you a better idea.

[staffsMike]

Small Antec Case + 350W Psu ~£85
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Antec...Slots-Front-IO

The Nsk-2480 is around the same price and will hold full size cards.

Full featured mATX mobo with highly capable Integrated graphics ~£50
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Asus-...-uATX-VGA-HDMI

Cheap Athlon II ~£45
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/AMD-A...che-65W-Retail

2GB Cheapy Corsair ~£27
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/2GB-C...Unbuffered-CL5

Hopefully as quiet as their older one (blu ray) ~£80
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/LG-CH...RAM-Retail-Box

640GB Drive ~£45
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/640-G...MB-Cache-89-ms

You could cut corners with the case and blu ray. I was so happy with my LG blu ray though it's all I would buy in future.

(over budget but as I say, there are corners you can cut).

[edgars70]

This is a nice case with psu for 70 quid

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/140998

you'd need a micro motherboard, a low profile cpu cooler and a low profile graphics card

[staffsMike]

It's the same case as I suggested but different name and better price