Media Center PCs

[Ruk]

Ok does anyone have some good links or info for me on how to go about building a good media center PC.

What I want to do is have a PC in my living room used for watching Anime/TV etc on it. But I have never done this kind of thing before so any help in where to start would be great.

[Chobi]

I dont really know any good sites for that in english (only in swe).

but maybe this could help u if ur willing to throw 2.300 $ on it ^^

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1895,1926105,00.asp

[Ruk]

I am willing to spend a fair amount of money, I am looking to budget something like 6-7K on a TV / PC to bring my living room out of the dark ages.

[dragoneyes001]

wait a little bit for Intel core 2 duo chips then get yourself a MB with dual video cards either(Nvidia) SLI < Gamer,(ATI) Crossfire< Media both will do what you want but ATI is more geared to Media centers. the Core 2 Duo's are going to lead the pack for the next year none of the AMD's compare on the benchmarks. the ATI X1900XT and XTX will give you the crossfire set up they run for about 629$can.each

you want ViiV since this is for media set up.

I'm curently making a new comp and i'm useing a GIGABYTE MB they have a new one that will support the core 2 duo part of their 6 quad series.
http://www.giga-byte.com/Products/Motherboard/Products_Overview.aspx?ProductID=2295&ProductName=GA-965P-DQ6

just do the reserch to find the compatible memory and the power supply although i recomend OCZ's GameXstream 700w PSU its both SLI and Crossfire ready as well as beeing super stable power,in idle and under load.

chances are you'll drop about 3-4000$ on a complete PC that should leave you a nice chunk for TV and other toys.

[Ruk]

Thanks a ton, thats enough info to get me started in the right direction. Question why the duel video cards? Is there an advantage to this that I am not seeing. I don't plan to do any gaming on this rig (but you never know).


Also ViiV is not a term / name I am familer with.

Thank again for the input Dragoneyes

[Nihsnek]

You may not need dual, but hey, why not. I still like my single 7900GT just because it has better performance for gaming.

What you COULD do is find yourself an old Xbox(original ones), put a modchip inside it, install a custom interface(they are somewhere), then load all of your anime/whatever on there. Of course, it doesn't have a screen with it, but it's another option you have.

[dragoneyes001]

heres what ViiV does:

http://www.intel.com/products/viiv/description.htm

if you want to go only one card then this is the one you'll want.

edit: the original ones i said are still better.

http://shopati.ca/product.asp?sku=2826998

[L]

If you're not gaming or doing much rendering, I suggest any dedicated video card with at least 64mb of dedicated video ram.