Me too, building a media center pc

randym431

Golden Member
Jun 4, 2003
1,270
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The old way, I had my msi pc with dual video pc and a 50' vga cable + audio going to a 50" plasma tv. I also was into online download services, like vongo, cinemanow, movielink and walmarts download service. Only issues were sometimes getting the dual out to the tv to play in theater mode. I usually had to mess with the ati control center to get it to go. Then there were those movie downloads and DRM protection. If I added or reinstalled too much to the pc, the drm would get confused and I had to contact the services to get them to resend the rights license, which they always did but it was just a big hassle.

So then I thought "media pc". With a micro-atx mb in one of those small receiver-like pc cases. Seems the perfect idea. And moving all the movie services from my pc to a media pc that would just be a tv attached media pc. A lot less wiring too.

So I guess I need to look into it some. Like, I would usually get a mb with dual video, but for a media pc that wouldn?t be necessary I wouldnt think (just using pc to tv).
Also, a lot of cases I looked at are 300w pwr supply. Is that enough???
I already have the Hauppauge hvr 1600 card and it has a nice remote. It integrates into vista well to allow access to all my movie services and downloads.

So I guess I'll start with some media pc case and ??? power supply?
A mb with hd audio out as well as optical spdif, but just one video out or maybe a dual with hdmi as the second. Micro atx in size.

And use the amd socket AM2 and probably the Athlon 64 X2 cpu of some speed.
And start off with 2 gigs of mem???
And vista home prem too, cant do without that.

I'll just get a mb where I use the built in video and audio.

Is this a good idea, and start?

Media pc's really never crossed my mind, but thats kinda what I have now, on my personal pc, doing it the hard way. I just thought a media pc would be dedicated to the tv, and the downloaded movies just kept on that pc, so few or no drm issues.

The only thing I mind is purchasing another copy of vista. I already upgraded from my xp, so I dont think you can upgrade a second time on the one copy of vista?
I also have an old retail of win98, but not sure if that qualifies for a vista upgrade. I could install win98, then vista clean. Should be interesting...
 

heyheybooboo

Diamond Member
Jun 29, 2007
6,278
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Vista + DRM = ????

As tempting as it would be to load up the IGP of the AMD 690Gs I think I would wait for a more mature version of the chipset. Be hard to beat an El Cheapo mATX/cpu with either a GeForce 8600/8500 or an AMD/ATI 2600/2400 to off-load the H.264 decode process.

Kinda feel the same way about the sound - I'd be passing it through to a $200 surround sound receiver. Keep that HTPC cool and quiet.

I hope the PC HD-DVDs come down in price by the end of the year :)