Budget Home Theatre PC

[The_Techie]

Howzit guys

I need to buy and build a PC to use as a home theatre PC, which is to connect to our router and play the media hosted on my server (displaying it on an old, bulky CRT television), and I want some suggestions for which parts to use.

Regarding the budget, the lower the better It needn't be too powerful a PC, since it'll probably just play a few .avi files or DVD images, nor does it need anything more than an 80GB hard drive since all the files are accessed remotely.

Any suggestions for which parts to use would be appreciated.

 

[feo]

You best start reading here.

 

[The_Techie]

Will do, thanks

EDIT: I think I'll find everything I need there, so consider this sorted for now

 

[hyperian]

I was thinking of getting one of those little acer laptops for R2500. It could have access to my main machine via wireless, and play whatever is on there straight onto the tv via its video output.

 

[hj2k_x]

Beanie asking a question about computers? Surely not!!

 

[The_Techie]

Beanie asking a question about computers? Surely not!!

It's been known to happen

 

[hj2k_x]

It's been known to happen

Such a noob

 

[The_Techie]

Such a noob

 

[howardb]

Such a noob

 

[The_Techie]

I've put together a few parts.

Intel D945GCPE Plum Creek
Intel 430 Celeron 1.8GHz
Kingston ValueRAM 1GB DDR2-533
Seagate 80GB SATA
XFX-T86S-WAN GeForce 8400GS
Midi Tower Case + 300W PSU Black 2x Front USB

Will this be sufficient for a Home Theatre PC? This amounts to round-about R2,400.

 

[Glordit]

If you could spare about R100 you could get a E1200 It's daul core that's almost free! - my copy of UT3 cost more

http://www.prophecy.co.za/intel-celeron-dualcore-e1200-16ghz-65nm-lga775-p-25345.html

 

[kronoSX]

Such a noob

 

[medicnick83]

Intel 430 Celeron 1.8GHz

NO!!!!!!!!!!

 

[The_Techie]

If you could spare about R100 you could get a E1200 It's daul core that's almost free! - my copy of UT3 cost more

http://www.prophecy.co.za/intel-celeron-dualcore-e1200-16ghz-65nm-lga775-p-25345.html

Will have a look.

NO!!!!!!!!!!

It's a home theatre PC, it only needs to play DVDs

So, all in all, this should work as a HTPC?

 

[medicnick83]

No!!!!!!!!!!!! To Celeron!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Celeron Is The Devil, Celeron Is Robert Mugabe! No To Celeron!

 

[Glordit]

No!!!!!!!!!!!! To Celeron!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Celeron Is The Devil, Celeron Is Robert Mugabe! No To Celeron!

lol Mabey the old celeron but these new one's

 

[The_Techie]

I'll probably buy the dual core one So, what do you guys think? Will this get the job done?

 

[killadoob]

beanie get the single core 1.8ghz

i put it in as an office computer and its pretty fast

celeron is not bad to be honest and for what you want to do i dont see why u need a dual core unless you want to spend the extra cash

 

[The_Techie]

beanie get the single core 1.8ghz

i put it in as an office computer and its pretty fast

celeron is not bad to be honest and for what you want to do i dont see why u need a dual core unless you want to spend the extra cash

My thoughts exactly. Anyone have a reason why I need a dual core?

 

[Beta]

+1 for celery, you have the 1Gb RAM, no worries. Unless ofcourse you decide to run Vista. I would go open source, something lightweight, not too custom. Mint Linux would be nice and friendly for home environment. We know that XP would run it fine too, adding that in for killadoob.
My friend has a media centre also running CRT, running a Pentium 3 MMX and 250Mb SDRAM. Using a Q6600 on my main machine now, dual core opty, venice, celery on the side.