Building a Media Center PC

[barab]

I'm looking at building a media center PC in the future, and one of the computer deals today caught my eye. I'm looking at the Compaq model SR5030NX for $299 from Best Buy. Link here I'm wondering how well this PC would work for media center purposes. I would be buying a TV tuner card for it, and probably upgrading to Windows Visa Home Premium or MCE 2005. Does this have a the specs to be able to handle that? I'd be hooking it up to my TV via VGA. I don't know much about Media PC's but this is what I would want it do to.


1. Playback in 720p on my TV via VGA. Is the intregrated video card good enough for this quality. I wont be doing games or 3d stuff. Though I like nice interfaces and if I had Vista Premium, could this handle Aero?
2. Record, pause etc live TV. I have Comcast Digital cable basic, I'd like to have use the built in media center guide and remote etc, the way I hear it works is that you bypass your cable box altogether? (Advice on tuner cards could help, too)
3. Playback video content from the Internet etc, web browsing.

Thanks!

 

[csmaster2005]

any response to this?

 

[jkresh]

What are you planning in playing back in 720p? That system can definitely output a 720p desktop to your monitor, it wont be able to game much (or even at all), and with a tuner it will have no problem recording/displaying regular cable. The processor/gpu in it means that hd (720p and up) will be difficult, and playback of hd may be an issue. If you end up wanting to record/watch hdtv with it you will need to get a tuner which can decode in hardware or a new gpu (8500gt and up or 2400xt and up), and blue/ray or hd dvd would also require a gpu upgrade (but I doubt you are planning on picking either up with a $300 computer anyway).

 

[ViRGE]

I disagree slightly with jkresh. That system should do just fine with anything HD using MPEG2, and if he somehow ends up using something in H.264, CoreAVC should be light enough to decode up to 720p.