Better to buy cheap PC for home entertainment? Or build it?

[Coldkilla]

My friend gave me his old Dell Demension 3000 a few months ago and I finally plugged it into our 55'' in our living room. I've got to say it really beats our slow GoogleTV for internet and WD Media Player that only runs off of external hard drives for media storage. The problem is the system is essentially too old to be upgraded and can't play 1080p Youtube videos without lagging up.

I'm looking to prospectively build an incredibly cheap, small form factor (PC) that can do only two things: Play HD media files, and play YouTube in HD. I've already got a Bluray/DVD player and just want to keep things simple. I own a keyboard and mouse already.

Is going with a $200 deal at one of those office max holiday specials worth it? Or building my own? I don't really want to dump more than $200.

 

[ShintaiDK]

Unless you got components to reuse. Its very hard to get something desent at 200$.

For remote we use this for our HTPC.
http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applicatio...53651&csid=_61

Its actually named Pro Magic and newer models too:
http://www.magic-pro.com/en/

We use an Silverstone SG05B MiniITX chassis, Intel DH57JG MiniITX board and an i5 661 for HTPC. Today you would use a G530/G540 and newer board.

 

[Ken g6]

See the sticky at the top of the forum? No, the sticky at the top of all forums? This thread belongs in that new HTPC forum.

Hey, wait, didn't I answer this question before?

The other option, more expensive but more worthwhile in the long run, would be to put together a new system. It would be nice to reuse some components, but:

Your CPU is too old. Replacement: $50 G530
Your motherboard's socket for your CPU is too old. Replacement: $45 ECS H61H2-M2
Your RAM is way too old. Replacement: one $20 DDR3-1333 stick
Your hard drive interface is too old. (CD and/or DVD drive too.) Replacement: ~$50 SSD because it's cheaper than the cheapest hard drive.
And your power supply is probably too old and doesn't have the right connectors. Replacement: ~$25AR Corsair 430W
OS replacement, since you'd be changing the mobo: XBMCbuntu (free)

Total: ~$190AR, assuming everything fits in your old case.

Well, sort of. That's not small-form-factor. SFF would require a SFF case and a mini-ITX mobo, such as this $80 BioStar which comes with a remote. But, as you can see, that's already blown your budget.

There is another CPU/mobo option: integrated Motherboard / CPU / VGA combos like Intel Atoms or AMD E350s. Which of those could play your YouTube videos at a decent rate I'm not sure. The people in HTPCs would know. 😉

 

[Coldkilla]

Thanks Ken for that. I completely forgot the previous thread was on this forum tbh. Been super busy hadn't thought to go back and dig it up.

Also for the HTPC forum, I didn't even know it existed until now (have general hardware in my favorites). I'll take my additional questions there. Thanks.