View Single Post
  #31  
Old 09-11-2007, 09:34 PM
Josem Josem is offline
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Jan 2007
Location: Victoria, Australia
Posts: 4,780
Default Re: Advice for building a media center PC

ok. here's what i'm almost certainly decided upon:

after taking in advice, i've made the following changes:

same case as above.

power supply - 500w, same manufacturer, still quiet.

motherboard - ABIT F-I90HD Fatal1ty HDMI mATX LGA775 Mainboard - hdmi output, proper pcie16, 10/100/1000 gigabit lan (which may come in handy in the future if i'm shoving large files around). It doesn't have viiv, but I think i'm right to skip that.

i've done a little research, and it seems that a mATX motherboard should fit fine in an ATX case

same cpu as above

memory - Team Elite 5-5-5 PC2-6400 2GB DDR2 Kit (2x1024MB) DDR2-800MHz, 1.8v-1.9v, 2048MB - $135
the cheapest DDR2-800 memory available

hard disk - 400GB Samsung HD403LJ SATA II 3Gbs NCQ HDD - 7200rpm, 16MB Cache Spinpoint Series - $145
samsung hard disks get a good rep for being quiet; i have 160gb i can take out of my existing machine, and this is reasonably affordable too.

tv tuner - Compro VideoMate DVB-T & Analog PCI Express Card Real-Time H/W Encoding - $198 -
this one works on a PCIEx1 slot (keeping my PCI slot free for my extra video card) and does all the hardware processing, and can receive FM radio as well. this makes me happy.

O/S - Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium DVD (OEM) 64-bit
this has the media centre stuff. in addition, it'll allow me to network easily, i'm familiar with it, and my poker stuff can run on it.

monitor, keyboard, mouse, etc., already got.

total cost, including construction, $A1278.
Reply With Quote