[kingnathski88.]

Hi All,

I am looking to build a new PC, maybe use some components out of my old tower.

I ideally want to spend no more than £200 / £300.

I want the PC to effectively be a media centre which will sit under my TV.

I am trying to find the smallest case, at a reasonable price and so far have only really come accross the antec ones around £100.

The main thing I want is for it to be able to play Blu Ray's through my 32" Samsung HDTV, and have found a blu ray frive on ebuyer for £50, see here.

In my current desktop I have both a 320gb and 500gb SATA 2 HDD, and would move one of these over. I also have 2gb DDR2 ram I believe and a few years old AMD x2 but unsure which one.

I'm just looking for advice on some parts and if I should be looking at more RAM / HDD space. And if I need a special graphics card with HDMI to connect to the TV?

It was several years ago since my last PC build and seems the components etc have changed vastly.

Any help / suggestions would be greatly appreciated

[floppybootstomp]

For a media PC oddly the case may well be the first consideration, the Antec media cases are excellent.

So that leaves around £200.00

Get an AMD motherboard with integrated graphics, Nvidia 8200 chipset is perfectly adequate.

350 watt PSU will suffice.

500Gb HDD will do to start but if you're thinking of storing lots of music and movies start thinking in terms of Terrabytes.

I'd say buy a decent case, consider upping your budget.

You may just get away with £300.00 inc case.

[Me__2001]

This thread is a great place to start, it's pretty in depth and covers just about everything relating to HTPC's including peripherals and software

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...0#post18816470

Its well worth the read, you might want to get a fresh cuppa and get comfortable before you start though

[Quadophile]

I came across the name of G. Skill memory first time! Is it that good? What happened to good old Corsair and like?

[bootneck02]

Hi Quadfile, I am running 8gig G.Skill and had do proplems seem very good and not a bad price when I bought them about 6 months ago

[Quadophile]

Originally Posted by bootneck02

Hi Quadfile, I am running 8gig G.Skill and had do proplems seem very good and not a bad price when I bought them about 6 months ago

Thanks for the feedback! I will check the prices

[bootneck02]

This web site may be helpfull Quadfile http://www.memoryc.com/

[bootneck02]

OOPS see you are in US perhaps the site could give you a US site address

[bootneck02]

Just checked and they have a US site check the top right corner of page

[muckshifter]

Originally Posted by Quadophile

I came across the name of G. Skill memory first time! Is it that good? What happened to good old Corsair and like?

Nothing wrong with Corsair / Crucial, and you know from past I've always said, to hell with who makes it, look at the chips they use.

You can be sure GSkill have done thier homework for you.

You don't "see" it here often.


I like the way that website uses a popup to confirm your country, it recognised I live in the UK (English) ... shame othere websites, Amazon/Microsoft/Google, the list is endless, shame they don't know how to do that ...