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hi,
my brother is looking into getting a Media centre PC to go along with his new 40" rear projection HD TV. i said i would look into pricing one up for him and see if i could built one. only problem is it seems a little more complicated than i thought. so does anyone know of any good guides around on what kind of specs a Media PC needs?
I haven't checked into the specs, but if you are wanting to put Windows XP Media Center edition on it, that is only available to OEMs from what I have seen. End users cannot buy it without a PC - only XP Home and XP Pro are available.
your right! but it looks like i can buy it OEM without a computer;
http://www.cclonline.com/product-inf...956&pc=froogle
As long as you can get MEC drivers for the hardware, then you shouldn't have too many problems, epecially with MCE2005. The vast majority of TV tuner cards have MCE drivers now, and I don't hear of many propblems with installing it these days.
I'll be installing it myself in the next few days :)
yeah I’m sure i will be able to figure it out and get it working. only problem is i don't know what hardware is needed.
A reasonably fast CPU (At least an AMD 3500, or whatever the equivalent Intel is)
A mid to high-end graphics card (Nvidia 6600 or ATI X800 or above)
1 GB of RAM
A TV tuner card, or preferably two.
Lots of hard drive space - recording video really eats disk space. I would consider 250GB a bare minimum.
i have lying around a 3GHz P4 HT and the Asus Mobo to go along with it. only problem is that the P4 one of the older sockets(it's a Northwood) and i assume you need a mico ATX board for a media centre to keep it as small as possible. also i have a 6600GT, again lying around, but don't know if it is very suitable as those cards run Very hot due to a very high clock speed. and the last thing i have going spare is 1.5GB DDR3200 so that should be fine. and as HD's are so cheap i think i might get 2x300GB as that’s only about £140. TV cards i can probably look into my self. the problem that I’m not sure about is what mobo to use? can i use standard PC parts(ie. HD's,Gfx cards) in a small media centre case? and is there any special cooling needs that i might need to look into?
P.S. on a side note i can never work out why media centres are always so high end? my old PC with a 450MHz P3 can run videos fine. and with my TV card in my current PC it only takes up about 5-10% of the CPU. also on board gfx can display TV fine.
Ditto to Nick's suggestion ^^^^
Does his TV have a DVI socket? will you require a HDMI adapter? not sure if HD TV Cards are available yet.
I'd ditto the drive space too, it's pretty cheap nowadays anyhoo, should be around £60 for a 250gb drive if you know where to look. ;)
Liam
I think the reason that a lot of MCE computers are highly specified is that people use them for viseo editing and stuff, where you do need some fast components. But iff all you want to do is use it to play music, videos and a PVR, then it isn't necessary to go all that high end.
It's entirely up to you whether you want to try and fit the components into a small format case, but there is absolutely no reason why you need to.
well i might give him the option then. i can use a normal case and build a good media centre PC in a standard case for about £400 as i have most of the parts already. or, as i suspect, he wants a small 'sleek' looking media centre to fit in with his SKY+ box etc then it could end up costing £600+.
and Liam i have not got any TV cards for his comp yet so i will have to do some research into the best. as i said the TV is HD and that’s what picture he will want eventually but i think it's too early to buy HD stuff and as you said most of that stuff doesn’t even exist yet. also as he is in England HD isn't very easy to come across. Sky’s HD is far to expensive for what you get at the moment and HD DVD's/Blu-Ray is still a bit off. it may just be best for him to upgrade when HD is more widespread and cheaper.
This card has been getting rave reviews - I haven't seen a single criticism of it:
http://tven.terratec.net/modules.php...rticle&sid=240
It has dual digital tuners for little more than the cost of a single tuner card. Note that it is available as PCI-express only though.
looks nice. but i will need one that can receive digital satellite ie. SKY, and from what i read it's only digital terrestrial TV.
EDIT: actually now i think about it can you get 5.1 sound with the right TV card and Sound card? if you have SKY+ then you get 5.1 sound on some channels and i was wondering if you could still get this with a satellite TV card?
You'd have to check the specs of the individual card for that, but I would have thought that if it's transmitted as 5.1 then the card ought to be capable of receiving it. Unfortunately your choice is going to be a lot more limited, there only seem to be a handful of cards around that can handle sattelite.
That's what I was reading just the other day in PCMagazine; Louderback writes:Quote:
Originally Posted by jdc2000
Here's the column.Quote:
Let's start with Microsoft. Windows XP Media Center Edition's been out for years, but you still can't (officially, at least) build it into your own PC. I've tried and tried to get a boxed copy, but Microsoft refuses to comply, saying it's only for OEMs, because of the variable "quality of experience."
Can the OEM WMC be taken from one computer to another, or is it one-use-only?
Quote:
Originally Posted by lgbpop
I'm pretty certain that it would be the same as any other OEM version of Windows, and that it officially lives and dies with the motherboard.
Of course MCE is an interim product really, the Media Centre facilities will be built into some of the versions of Vista when it's released. Retail versions of Vits will be transferrable.
ok time to update this thread. after talking to my brother a bit more and clarifying exactly what he want i have come up with some specs. only problem is this stuff gets quite complicated so i could do with some advice.
he's told me that he wants a dual core CPU, as he has seen other MC's with them. i personally told him that unless he is planning on doing some major multi tasking it wasn't necessary, but he insisted. also he wants quite a powerful comp to last quite a few years. so here's the specs I’m looking at;
CASE:
http://www.xcase.co.uk/acatalog/Silv...e_lascala.html
Silverstone seem to have a great range here so I’ll get him to pick one of these
CPU;
he said he wants a minimum P4D 2.8GHz or AMD equivalent
http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/produ...uct_uid=102623
http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/produ...duct_uid=94640
so which is better? i am inclined to go with AMD as it seems they are normally better and as it's a media centre it is important you keep temps to a minimum, so AMD's running cooler than P4's is a plus.
Gfx Card;
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatalog/6600_Series.html
this is very good as it's fanless and quite a capable card. may upgrade to a 6600GT depending on his gaming needs.
HD's;
Western Digital Caviar SE16 320GB 3200KS SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatal...ital_sata.html
seems to be cheaper than buying say 1 500GB HD. only problem is it's OEM. and as noise reduction is paramount what maker has the quietest drives with least heat?
Mobo;
Pretty much any standard ATX, PCI-E, Dual core, will do.
AMD one;
Asus A8N-E nForce4 Ultra (Socket 939) PCI-Express Motherboard (MB-088-AS)
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatal...ocket_939.html
Intel one;
Asus P5GPL-X Intel 915PL (Socket 775) PCI-Express Motherboard (MB-128-AS)
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatal...herboards.html
PSU;
Picked this as it’s quiet but I think it maybe a bit of overkill. Also not to cheap.
Zalman ZM460-APS 460W ATX2.03 PSU (CA-003-ZA)
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatalog/Zalman_psu.html
Memory;
i have 1.5GB Crucial pc3200 lying around
DVD-RW;
http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/produ...duct_uid=97063
or anything similar.
so any suggestions about parts and does it all fit together fine?
and now the complicated part. he wants very good 5.1 sound and HD ready components. this should not be a problem as i can easily find a good sound card that i will do at a latter date. the problem comes with TV. he has Sky+ (that’s TiVo to anyone not in the UK) and wants to watch satellite (sky) through his media centre. after some reading i found out this was very hard to do :( . apparently you need to buy a standard PVR TV card and connected the sky box to the TV card using S-Video. only problem is, as i understand, you can only watch one channel at once and cannot record another. so does anyone have any experience with this stuff? also can S-Video send HD signals? and do most Tv cards support HD content?
With the first mobo, you need an ATI card if you ever want to use crossfire in the future.
I'd go for the AMD over the Intel for certain, the X2 series are far better than the Intel equivalents.
And I would try and get a better card than a 6600, it is too low end for that system.
Other than that it all looks fine.
I agree, plus this may be a better choice for PSU: http://komplett.co.uk/k/ki.asp?sku=315953
I don't think there are too many HD TV Cards yet.....not sure about twin tuner cards either (Watch one channel, while recording another) they will probably be more expensive with the big manufacturers.(Hauppauge/Leadtek/Compro etc).
The first board has an nForce 4 chipset Nick....it's the way that the OCUK site has you confused with all of the boards together.....it's the A8NE board John picked out.....Quote:
With the first mobo, you need an ATI card if you ever want to use crossfire in the future.
And i'd probably puch for a 6800 if possible, the basic 6600's aren't upto much.
Liam
suggestions noted, thanks. Liam i think I’m pretty stuck TV card wise as the picture will have to come through a SKY+ box and S-Video. as such dual tuners won't work as it's the sky box that is choosing the tv signal and not the card. also not sure about the gfx card. if my brother is planning on doing little to no gaming then I’m sure a 6600 will be more than fine. pretty much everything he will be doing will be capable by on board gfx so a 6600 is a nice compromise. if he tells me he is planning on doing any gaming at all i might stretch to a 6800 or 6600GT. also i know that the gfx card fan can often be the nosiest thing in a computer. it is in mine now i have a Zalman for my CPU. so that could just sway my thinking to a card that doesn’t require a fan, such as the 6600.
Quote:
Originally Posted by liam858
Oops, sorry my mistake :o
I'm not too sure about Sky, I don't have it or want it. But it is possible to get satellite tuner cards. Here's one:
http://www.komplett.co.uk/k/ki.asp?sku=122098
well that’s where the problem lies. when investigating satellite TV cards further i found out that they only work with 'free to air' satellite programs. so in other words they are meant for people who just buy their own satellite dishes and get their own channels. Sky however is encrypted and not free, and as such you cannot receive it with these tuners. Also I think the technology used by sky is proprietary and they have the licenses to use it.
well i priced it all up and it came out a bit expensive :( . about £1000 in total. the problem is that the ones he was looking at where £800 and to the untrained eye the one i recommended doesn’t look that much better. but if i price up the parts that would have been used in those £800 systems, ie. cheap mobo's,P4D 2.8, cheap PSU etc then it comes to around £700. and the only possible solution i have come to regarding sky would allow him to record 1 freeview channel while recording another or vice-versa. not ideal :( .