home entertainment computer

holts91 · March 30, 2004, 20:13 hrs

I want to build a computer for my home theater. with a tv card and DVD drive. what should my min. req. be

Vern

Mark H · March 30, 2004, 20:28 hrs

What kind of budget do you have available?

Mark H

holts91 · March 30, 2004, 20:29 hrs

under 300?

holts91 · March 30, 2004, 20:31 hrs

I all ready have some things laying around. just dont know if they are good enough.

Vern

Mark H · March 30, 2004, 20:34 hrs

What do you already have available? If your unit of value is dollars, $300 won't get you what you are wanting.

Mark H

holts91 · March 30, 2004, 20:37 hrs

16x dvd-rom, 128ram, tv card, 32meg video card, and a 120g HDD

Mark H · March 30, 2004, 20:45 hrs

You will need a case, power supply, motherboard, processor, more RAM and hard drive, which will press your $300 budget.

I would start with the following:

AMD 2500 XP
ASUS A7N8X motherboard
Two 256 meg sticks of PC2700 Crucial RAM
An Antec Sonata case
80 gig Western Digital hard drive

Your DVD-rom should work with the above, but your video card is an unknown commodity to me, so I can't comment on it. The above will run more than $300 though.

Mark H

holts91 · March 30, 2004, 20:49 hrs

Thanks Mark H

That gives me a good place to start. I'll let you know how it goes. What type of video card do you recommend.

Vern

pat · March 30, 2004, 21:05 hrs

Perhaps one of the ATI all in wonder cards, but even the 9200 would break your budget.

holts91 · March 30, 2004, 21:11 hrs

Thanks, I guess I'll have to dig deeper into my wallet.

Vern

Andrew S · March 30, 2004, 21:19 hrs

Good Choice Mark, i have that the asus a7n8x deluxe version and is now running great

Mark H · March 30, 2004, 21:33 hrs

Don't forget the operating system either. Windows XP home should work for your purposes, which ups the amount as well.

Mark H

holts91 · March 31, 2004, 14:58 hrs

I did some shopping and here is what I found, what do you think.

CHENBRO Black Micro ATX Screwless Desktop Case with 200W Power Supply, Model "PC40522-BK"

DFI KM266A Chipset Motherboard for AMD Socket A CPU, Model "AZ30-TL"

AMD Duron 1.4GHz Socket A Processor

High Tech ATI RADEON 7000(VE) Video Card, 64MB DDR, Dual VGA/TV-Out, 4X AGP, Model "R6L-22"

KWORLD PCI TV Tuner, Video Capture Card, REMOTE, Model "KW TV878RF PRO"

Kingston 184 Pin 512MB DDR PC-2100

Subtotal ? $ 286.00

I have:
16x DVD-ROM
120gig HDD

Andrew S · March 31, 2004, 15:06 hrs

I have to disagree with your power supply. Its not very powerful at all for what you want to run. (in my opinion) I would at LEAST get a 300 watt. Besides if you plan to run win xp, i think they recommend min of 300 watt

holts91 · March 31, 2004, 15:20 hrs

thanks i'll look for a better power supply. Does everything else look good?

Vern

Andrew S · March 31, 2004, 15:22 hrs

Everything else seems to be ok to me especially for the budget you're on. I would see if anyone else replys also though to verify my opnion

Mark H · March 31, 2004, 16:02 hrs

I would still recommend the Antec Sonata case. It has a 380 watt power supply, looks good and runs quiet, which is what you would want for a system that is going to be part of your intertainment center. It can be bought for $96 at www.newegg.com (see the following link).

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=11-129-127&depa=1

Mark H

holts91 · March 31, 2004, 16:07 hrs

I'm trying to find a desktop microATX to fit in my stack. Not much luck so far.

Vern

Mark H · March 31, 2004, 16:41 hrs

Now I understand. The case you selected should be fine if you don't add any other peripherals to it (beyond what you selected). If you do, I would replace the power supply with a 300 watt supply.

Enjoy!

Mark H

Andrew S · April 05, 2004, 21:52 hrs

Do Poast back and let us know how your build went and how it all works

holts91 · April 06, 2004, 16:59 hrs

I'm still tweaking the parts. I will let you know how it goes.

Vern

the sheeep · April 09, 2004, 10:37 hrs

dont cheap out on the case... i few people i know bought cheap aluminum cases and they literally shake and rattle and make so much noise you cant stand being near them...

trav · April 15, 2004, 22:34 hrs

Would Windows XP Media Center Edition suffice for a "home theatre" pc though?

Chandler · April 16, 2004, 03:00 hrs

XP MCE is just the operating system, or more specifically, a program which runs on a special version of Windows XP Professional. You can buy "Media Center PCs" which come with XP MCE loaded on them.

XP MCE has very specific hardware requirements, and I don't even think you buy it now (you could obtain it as an "OEM" up until a couple of months ago I believe). There are alternatives, and many are better.

I'd recommend ShowShifter if you want to build a media-centre like PC, it is very stable and works very nicely for me (I had to get the DVB version to work with my USB digital TV box). It's not cheap, but it is very flexible.

If you're a Linuxian, then try MythTV, or download a distribution which already has MythTV built into it.

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home entertainment computer