Anyone convert a home PC to a Media PC

[Jason McKenzie]

I'm thinking of turning my desk top PC to a media PC.
It's not state of the art but it's a dual core P4 with an AGP x8 video card
Sound blaster Autogy sound card.
I think All I'd need is a new case, Video tuner and a new OS

What do you think

J

[Otty]

I think you will need a better video card if you are wanting to go Hi-Def. I just picked up a Quad Core that is HDMI and PVR (Personal Video Recorder) ready. Are you wanting it to record off the TV?

[Jason McKenzie]

My goal is to get ride of my current DVD player, VCR (why I even have it set up is beyond me) and maybe my Amp. then stream all TV through the computer. Have it as my entertainment centre.
So Yes I will be recording TV and perhaps internet content. I would also like the ability to serf the net during commercials.
I currently do not have a HD TV but it's on the sort list of this to get.
I want to spend as little as possible. I figure I could get a brand new Media PC for about $1100 and that would be a quad core with PCI-E graphics card and a 750GB HD.

I'm starting to think it would be better just to get anew PC

J

[Otty]

If you are going to record TV and maybe even HD later then you should at least get 1TB for storage because about 2 min of true HD will eat up about 128mb so you can fill a hard drive up quick.
Plus I would get one of these for graphics if your wanting this to feed the TV.
GeForce 8800 Ultra

[geekdafied]

why not get a barebone dual xeon and add the exactly what you want?

[gazog]

Originally Posted by Jason McKenzie

I'm thinking of turning my desk top PC to a media PC.
It's not state of the art but it's a dual core P4 with an AGP x8 video card
Sound blaster Autogy sound card.
I think All I'd need is a new case, Video tuner and a new OS

What do you think

J

Dual core P4 is fine whats needed is Memory, Memory and more memory. Hard drive space is a must, I have 4 500 GB set up on a SATA Raid card and they are set up to span all 4 drives which gives me a total of 2000 GB.

Heads up on the operating system, Media Center Vista SUCKS! I bought it and went out and bought XP media center 2 weeks later. Tiger Direct has XP Media Center + remote for 150 bucks.

As far as a case goes if you can use a mini tower save your money. Media center cases are not cheap. I cleaned out one side of my entertainment center where the DVD's are stored and put it in there and spent the money on the Hard drives.

I also bought a Ge-force card with s video out, mine has 512 MB memory and It does a real nice job for me. Its not one of those really high end cards though, it only cost me about 160 bucks from tiger also.

Good luck

[Jason McKenzie]

Thanks All. I might piece it together myself Like geek suggested. HDD are a dime a dozen so I think I'll build it small like 750G and upgrade as needed.

J