Media Center PC

[b4i7]

hey guys,

im startin to work up a sketch for a media center build i have in mind, but honestly, i dont know what kind of components would be best suited for a media center...

what are your suggestions?

[crenn]

Desktop or Tower case?

[b4i7]

either....its goin in a scratch build....

[Quakken]

A media center sounds like a lot of fun.

Processing power, if this is going to be like a set top box, you probably aren't going to need a q9860, just a mainstream, cheap processor should be sufficient for a computer DVR type box.

But I actually don't know exactly what this is going to be used for.

Describe what you want it to be used for, whether video-editing powerhouse type of media, a PVR sitting-on-your-tv-stand media box, or whatever.

What do you want it to do? only after we know that can we truly send you on your journey of media center bliss.

[b4i7]

it will mostly be used for playing movies, music ,etc. that will prolly be on a networked server, but i will also have plenty of storage on it also

im not wanting to spill too much about this project till i get my model done, but it will be an all in one center, monitor/system in one box

[Quakken]

Not too much processor (may even want to underclock for less heat. may be even passive cooled!)

Decent video card (8600)

Tv tuner?

A single 750gig hard drive should hold all you really need (or 500.)

I like the all in one monitor idea. You don't need tons of power... a slot loader drive, perhaps? I'm just throwing ideas out here... I would like to see this. I like the idea!

[Luke122]

My HTPC component list (awaiting completion of my other project first):

Pentium D820
2gb DDR2 800mhz
1 - 80gb IDE 7200rpm HDD
1 - 750gb SATA 7200rpm HDD
1 - 7200GS GPU
Asus mobo (cant recall model atm)

Cpu will be underclocked, and have a fan controller to keep the noise to a minimum. Should be plenty of power for light gaming (WoW), all my HD video, and surfing from the couch. Plus the board is a microATX, and I'm looking at a really small case, so that keeps the WAF rating high. (Wife Approval Factor)

[Trace]

WAF? Very nice. I'm going to coin that phrase from now on.

[J-Roc]

Well im also building a HTPC and i have one thing to say to you. You should build it to work with normal tv's but if you plan to have a second monitor in the case like the Zalman cases with the 7" Touch screen then thats cool.

For my comp i went with a biostar ta690 because its one of the only boards with HDMI & DVI onboard. I also got an AMD x2 4200+ to go along with it. It only cost me $150 for both. If you want HD then go with ATI graphics, they are better suited to the task and far cheaper. For a tv tuner card i think you could get away any HD tunner. However, the Happauge nova series cards let you recieve Free-To-Air satellite in HD aswell as regular coax tv and when i checked only cost $80-90. You'll obviously want a silent PSU and larger fans to keep things quiet. As for a HDD, get a SATA2 drive. Personally, i would get two 350Gb drives over one 750Gb. You could mount one drive as a folder so you wont have to go looking for your files through My Computer, probly save you some cash if you want that much storage for PVR functions. Ram isnt too important, 2Gb of value ram will suffice. The slot loading drives are nice, i would get one of thoes if possible. If you plan to get a remote, just becareful that you dont buy a MCE remote if you dont have a MCE O/S.

I'm planing to get an Imon Ultrabay so my tower will look more like a component than a computer but some sort of front panel display is almost crucial IMO.

[crenn]

You're proberly looking for something as quite as possible, I personally don't recommend low profile things.... they're normally underpowered and very hard to find. You might want to look at a decent AMD X2 or Intel C2D processor since they run fairly cool. Quad core won't be of use in a media PC. You also may want to try to look into finding a water cooling kit to try to keep noise and temps down. There is also a couple of PSUs that have water cooling built in. For your graphics card, I'd recommend a low-mid range graphics card, proberly an ATi because you can route 'true' HDMI through the card. Ram, if you're running Vista Home Premium or Ultimate (or other) then 2GB will fit the bill nicely.
For storage, I find that WD drives run a little cooler and more silent. The price point for HDDs is the 500GB drives. A couple of those will do nicely and will hold a lot of storage. If you want to use a Slim line drive, there is a couple of options, you can have a drive that pops out, or you can use something like this:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827129003
You'll need to find an adapter though.