Media Centre PC

fionny

Hi All,

Looking to build a media centre PC on the cheap to replace an ageing broken machine,

Components I have:

Hard Disks - 1 x 2tb Drive, 1 x 500gb Drive
DVB-S2 Dual Tuner - Fits into a PCI Express x1 slot.
Bluetooth Keyboard / Touchpad
Windows 7
PSU - Iffy on this, its relativley new and 500watts.

What I want:

Something in MicroATX form, QUIET! CHEAP! 1gbps LAN

My budget is sadly not extensive so I would like to keep things as cheap as possible maybe 300euro give or take, open to suggestions.

What its for:

Media Centre Server / Client.
Will be hooked up to Freesat via card.

Low power consumption would be nice

Thanks,

fionny

Was thinking this?


Prices in GBP

ASUS P8H61-M Rev.3.0 Intel H61 1155 Motherboard (PCI-E 2.0 x16, DDR3 1333, SATA, On Board Graphics, Micro ATX) - http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B004RBYPN6/ref=ox_sc_act_title_4?ie=UTF8&smid=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE - 58.90

Intel Celeron Dual-Core G540 2.5 GHz Processor with Socket 1155, L3 2Mb, Sandy Bridge, 32nm -
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B005JBPR30/ref=ox_sc_act_title_5?ie=UTF8&smid=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE - 35.98

Zalman CNPS8900 Quiet Heatsink and Fan - http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0072IQHCI/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?ie=UTF8&smid=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE - 30.99

Crucial Ballistix BLS2CP4G3D1609DS1S00CEU 8GB (4GB x2) DDR3 Memory Kit - http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B006YG94Y2/ref=ox_sc_act_title_2?ie=UTF8&smid=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE - 28.50

Silverstone SST-SG02B-F PC Case - http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B001A4U154/ref=ox_sc_act_title_3?ie=UTF8&smid=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE - 60.98


Total: 215.35 GBP + Irish Vat Difference =220.73 I think

Will use old / newish PSU,
2 x HD's
DVB-S2 Dual Tuner
Brother has spare DVD Drive for me

Suggestions Edits etc.. welcome!

U_Fig

fionny wrote: »

Was thinking this?


Prices in GBP

ASUS P8H61-M Rev.3.0 Intel H61 1155 Motherboard (PCI-E 2.0 x16, DDR3 1333, SATA, On Board Graphics, Micro ATX) - http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B004RBYPN6/ref=ox_sc_act_title_4?ie=UTF8&smid=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE - 58.90

Intel Celeron Dual-Core G540 2.5 GHz Processor with Socket 1155, L3 2Mb, Sandy Bridge, 32nm -
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B005JBPR30/ref=ox_sc_act_title_5?ie=UTF8&smid=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE - 35.98

Zalman CNPS8900 Quiet Heatsink and Fan - http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0072IQHCI/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?ie=UTF8&smid=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE - 30.99

Crucial Ballistix BLS2CP4G3D1609DS1S00CEU 8GB (4GB x2) DDR3 Memory Kit - http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B006YG94Y2/ref=ox_sc_act_title_2?ie=UTF8&smid=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE - 28.50

Silverstone SST-SG02B-F PC Case - http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B001A4U154/ref=ox_sc_act_title_3?ie=UTF8&smid=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE - 60.98


Total: 215.35 GBP + Irish Vat Difference =220.73 I think

Will use old / newish PSU,
2 x HD's
DVB-S2 Dual Tuner
Brother has spare DVD Drive for me

Suggestions Edits etc.. welcome!

Item|Price
ASUS P8B75-M LX, Sockel 1155, mATX, DDR3|€53.54
Intel Celeron Dual-Core G550 Box, LGA1155|€38.47
8GB-Kit G.Skill PC3-10667U CL9|€27.68
Scythe Kozuti, für alle Sockel geeignet|€25.29
Shipping|€18.99
Total|€163.97

i'd go for this.... the mobo has a SATA 3 port so you could add a small SSD boot drive and dramatically speed up performance...also there's not really any good cheap mATX cases on HWVS so you could get that elsewhere and the G550 is actually cheaper by .02 than the G540..

forgot to add a CPU cooler..

Andy!!

Why 8 gigs?

U_Fig

Andy!! wrote: »

Why 8 gigs?

True that I just went with the op's original post and tweaked it.. 4gb is overkill for HTPC really

Andy!!

Well 4 would be fine I reckon, would be strange building a new system these days with less than that. This isnt an apple gadget :P plus itll be cheap enough.

fionny

I got with 8gigs because I want some future proofing on it, RAM is cheap, my gaming pc has 16gigs in :P

Andy!!

fionny wrote: »

I got with 8gigs because I want some future proofing on it, RAM is cheap, my gaming pc has 16gigs in :P

Movies/TV shows are gonna need 8 gigs to run? :rolleyes: Go with 4 and bump up one of the other specs with the saved cash, maybe the processor or storage.

fionny

It will be a server of forms also, processsing files, extractions etc...

fionny

4gigs 16.79euro
8gigs 27.68euro

Thats not enough to upgrade anything else.

SouperComputer

"Future proofing" usually results in paying exponentially for functionality you won't use. By the time you actually will be using 8GB you'll be able to buy 32 for the same price. Your call but I would say don't bother. Our "main" PC serves duty as a media, file server as well as running a VM and a web/database server with 4GB of RAM and the only time it even gets close to utilizing it is when I decide to edit video on it. Even then there's no perceptible change in performance.

Put the money towards an SSD or a Hybrid. That is where you will see the most noticeable gains. Its more than worth it especially it its going to be a media client.

Power consumption wise, your HD's are going to be the biggest consumers so bear that in mind.

fionny

Thanks, For the sake of 11euro ill double my ram now.

HD's will have to do some the moment, I have the Caviar Green's from WD so they shouldnt be too bad.