Hardware for a Media Centre etc

I've got a number of spare parts, HDDs, DVD drive, case etc and am thinking of putting together a system to connect to my TV and use not only as a media centre, but also as a second machine for running multiple OSs etc

Trying to do this as cheap as possible so looking at a Celeron Dual Core system (around 2.4GHz) as you can pick up these processors for less than £40 with an equally priced mobo, intend to use onboard Video and Sound and use about 2GB of RAM.

Would this system be adequate for this task? No Blu Ray planned, but may go down that route in the future
Thanks

CAT will be along shortly and he'll suggest an AMD CPU with a 780 ior 785 Mobo.... and he'd be right to do so

3...
2...
2...

over to CAT

*hands circuit monkey a "1" key*

Here you go.

I have a media center, i would say get a seperate graphics card, if you intend on watching high def content that is.

As for processor i use a 3 gig e8600 but i used to use a little c2d e2400 or something, 2 gig dual core cost about 40 quid new.

The AMDs are cheap and well up to it but i find i dont actually watch tv anymore i only watch the media center!!

The E5200 would be a better choice imo if you go the intel route as its around £35 (last time I checked. However as has been suggested and will (no doubt) be suggested, amd is the better route in terms of bang for buck.

ATI based systems are veru good value for money, their integrated graphics, while not perfect, are way ahead of the Intel ones for media playback, especially if you want to go HD. both my HTPCs are based round 780G motherboards.

Windows MCE is the easy choice, but have a look at MediaPortal as an alternative. Takes a bit to get going, but there are things you can do with it that you can't with MCE.

I use onboard ATI, and it's fine for hidef mp4s.

THAT SAID... last night I bought CoreAVC as CCCP was giving me choppy playback on hidef stuff. Have to say, along with AudioSurf, it's the best fiver I've ever spent, probably. Playback flawless now.

though I seem, impressively, to have broken Media player classic. Home cinema version works, other one crashes whenever I try and play anything on it.

Which is not TOO important as I also used mediacentre, but with MediaBrowser, which I prefer to an infinite degree over media portal.

Horses for courses, innit. But check media browser out.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Shooty*

*hands circuit monkey a "1" key*

Here you go.

---

Why thank you, I'll try to use it in future!