Media machine and crunching

[moderna]

I've been starting to plan for a new PC for a media center. This would give me a new toy and more power for crunching. I would really like to get some ideas.

Yes, I am hooked!

I was thinking of a 3500+ but blackheath has mentioned the need for more power for HD. Of course that would permit more power for crunching as well!

Ideas?

[gatekeeper53]

Andy(Blackheath) has a very hot little 6300 setup that runs well. I am partial to the 4800+. I'm waiting on a cooler because the darn thing runs hot at anything over 2.6. I have better RAM and a cooler somewhere between here and NJ.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16835702001

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820145486

I also have another 4800 on the way back to Newegg because UPS smashed the box and it had bent pins.

[Strongbow]

Here's the cheap set up that I'm currently building...

ECS 945-M3 ViiV Compatible M/B
Intel Core2Duo 1.86 - O/Clocked to 2.2
Hauppauge WinTV NovaT500 Dual DVB-T
HDA Digital X-Plosion 7.1 DTS
ATI x1300 PCI-e GPU (came with the system I'm pulling apart so it's going in!)
Zalman HD160 case with remote (which is the most expensive component by far!)
Win MCE

[Strongbow]

The motherboard is useless for O/Cing but it can still push the little 6300 to 2.2 happily with a stock cooler and it's as solid as a brick!

[drezha]

You don't need a top range PC to be a decent media center! (Admittedly I'm not going HD for a good while)

Mine's this:
1.8Ghz Duron (Applebred I believe..Only Duron to have SSE)
512Mb RAM
Soltek SL-75MIV2 mobo
Leadtek DVT1000T
nVidia 5200FX AGP
Cheap £25 PC World black case (Remarkably nice actually...)

It runs fine. It's hooked upto a TV at the mo and runs very nice. Couple of slow downs at some point but I'm not sure if that's because I've got an old 10Mbps hub on the landing and thus the network is limited to 10Mbps for streaming or the PC slowing down and causing errors.

Nice little machine. Bought it all fairly cheap. As a student I can't really get HDTV for a while yet so all's good. And I think having a media center as a student is fairly good http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v289/drezha/Simlies/thumbsup.gif Certainly lets me live upto my geek label :p The freeview TV aspect and recording to hard drive is greatly appreciated.

Not sure if what the power consumption is like but I've been thinking I may sell it on and buy a low power Core Duo system or sell it and use whatever I get to buy a USB/laptop card freeview one for my laptop and keep that in the front room (thus getting rid of a PC that would be using electric). All depends on our first electric bill when it arrives.

[Strongbow]

Has anyone tested Vista's MCE interface yet? ...is it even within the RC yet?