Am wanting a pc that I can stick under my tv, and stream music, movies and the like to it, as my xbox isn't in my living room and was hoping to get some suggestions as to what hardware to get, I have sky+ so there isn't any need for a capture card or a massive hdd.
I was thinking this made a good combo:
Case: Not wanting to spend much on a case, and saw this colours it one on scan, the styling is unoffensive has a psu and it seems like it would be just what I need:
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/cit-s...wer-combo-450w
CPU: I have procrastinated about this, as I was going to get a dual core, but for the couple of extra quid have decided a tri core would be better, so an AMD Athlon 2 445 or 450 (not sure, the couple of quid between them is for 100mhz difference, but it won't be overclocked so could be worth getting the 450)
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/amd-a...mhz-95w-retail
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/amd-a...mhz-95w-retail
Motherboard: Nothing too fancy, and since abit no longer make motherboards I have found gigabyte a reliable substitute:
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/gigab...raid-micro-atx
Memory: Corsair, I buy Geil for performance ram, but I maintain that for almost 100% compatibility and inherent reliability Corsair have no equal:
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/2gb-c...d-cas-9-9-9-24
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/2gb-(...9-9-24-dhx-15v
Graphics will be handled by a GeForce GT240 I currently have in this computer as it has HDMI out and the built in graphics don't, will likely be running Vista on it (have a spare license since upgrading, either that or xp home) and I have a multitude of smaller hard drives, and opticals knocking about.
One thing about the ram, for it's intended usage, I think I can get away with just buying a single 2gb stick, but want to know if that would be a wise decision or if I am underestimating the performance difference between single and dual channel ram either way it is not much more expensive to get the dual channel if that is a bottleneck (plus the xms ones have funky heatspreaders).
Totaling up the wattage of the various components (CPU 95W, GPU 69W Mobo + everything else perhaps 50W?) I come to about 215W half the 450W of the included psu, so even assuming that the psu is over rated it shouldn't need replacing.
Total:
Athlon 445, + 2gb ram: £140.23 (single channel ram)
Athlon 450 + 2gb ram: £143.22 (single channel)
Athlon 445 + 2gb ram: £154.50 (dual channel)
Athlon 450 + 2gb ram: £157.49 (dual channel)
Edit: Only thing I can find about the case online is this thread from avforums: http://www.avforums.com/forums/home-...tpc-built.html
Seems like I would have to spend a few pennies less on the memory to get standard XMS3 sticks without those heatspreaders on as the dvd drive seems to sit pretty low, but all else looks good.