Media centre

[ManofScience]

i got one of these, my mate had it for years unused, came with a XP Media Centre posh PC he bought so he gave it to me. Does the job, cheap as owt 2nd hand. I never used half the buttons as i don't have a TV Tuner in my HTPC

I'll knock up a guide in the next few days as there's a few customisations you can do (adding/removing menu options in MCE, changing Icons, etc) and a few apps to get to help you along (Media Centre Studio, Restorator) and then a good collection of icons for the Media Browser plugin

 

[BIG-HOL]

i got one of these, my mate had it for years unused, came with a XP Media Centre posh PC he bought so he gave it to me. Does the job, cheap as owt 2nd hand. I never used half the buttons as i don't have a TV Tuner in my HTPC

I'll knock up a guide in the next few days as there's a few customisations you can do (adding/removing menu options in MCE, changing Icons, etc) and a few apps to get to help you along (Media Centre Studio, Restorator) and then a good collection of icons for the Media Browser plugin

looking forward to it mate!

 

[little_pob]

thought it would have been mate to be honest, well we could drop the sata 3 compatability as i will be using the htpc to download my films so be no transferring really from other devices,to be honest mate i just want it for watching films, and general browsing, but it needs to be fast at these things as i hate a sluggish interface, i could live with just 1 hard drive bay too, as 1tb is plenty for the brrips i download, my projector is only 720p so thats all i could play anyway, was just thinking 1080 for future proof, also you could knock the 1tb drive off price as iv got 1 that could go in, that any better to work with, lol, thanks for looking though as id be snookered as i aint gotta clue whats compatible with what!

I quite like the case this ASUS barebones comes in: Asus P6-M4A3000E Barebone | Ebuyer.com
Throw in a AMD Athlon II X2 250 3.00GHz Socket AM3 2MB L2 Cache,
Corsair 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 1333MHz Memory Kit Unbuffered,
OCZ 120GB Vertex 2 SSD 3.5" SATA-II Read
plus the 1TB drive you already have and you'll be good to go for just under £300.

Baring in mind that there are only 3 SATA connectors on the mobo and that it's low profile, you can then decide whether you want to spend the remaining £50 on another 1TB drive, an optical BD drive, a low profile graphics card (and low profile bracket), low profile soundcard, USB TV tuner or remote control.

...decent remote...

... i was thinking maybe a remote would be handy i think...

For the remote you've both got a couple of options:

• If you've a smart phone there is probably a remote control app for it.
• A USB IR receiver plus a Windows compatible remote such as the MCE remote that MoS mentioned or the Logitech Harmony range.
• An gyroscopic/accelerometer mouse such as the Logitech MX Air.
• Wiimote + GlovePIE.
• A wireless RF media keyboard with built in nipple mouse or trackpad.

......and a bigger hdd also?

If you're streaming, you shouldn't need a bigger hard disk. However, if you do intend to store files locally you could swap out the 120GB SSD for a 500GB hybrid and save £40 in the process. If you drop to a 500GB fully mechanical drive you'd save at least £70 on the SSD price but, even if you go for a 7200RPM WD Scorpio Black, you will loose the boot speed.

,what sort of system would you go for if it was you?...

If I was building from scratch, I'd probably go for an overpowered machine in a snazzy case, then complain about the noise. As it happens I've got the Acer Revo RL100. Upgraded it to 4GB and threw in a Seagate Maximus hybrid hard disk.

 

[little_pob]

...OCZ 120GB Vertex 2 SSD 3.5" SATA-II Read...

Just realised this is actually £7 more expensive than the newer 2.5" SATA 6Gbit/s SSD that I spec'ed in for mike361. You'll likely need a 2.5" to 3.5" drive converter to mount it in the Asus Pundit 6 case, but they're only £3: Kingston 2.5" to 3.5" Hard Drive Bracket and.. | Ebuyer.com

For what it's worth, miss matched SATA standards run at the lowest common speed. In this case, a SATA 6Gbit/s SSD on a SATA 3Gbit/s mobo would run at SATA 3Gbit/s speeds.

 

[ManofScience]

have a look, see what u think guys!

https://www.digitalworldz.co.uk/index.php?threads/271696/#post1996431