Multimedia barebones PC (HTPC) at Maplin

podge3 · 04-09-2009 5:24pm #1

I reckon this is a bit of a bargain @ £120 plus carriage.

All you need is a hard drive, DVD drive and OS to have a functioning HTPC.

OK - its an oldish spec at this stage but still capable of reasonable performance for the price.

If you add a BD/HDDVD drive like this, change the graphics card and probably add more RAM, you could have a HD multimedia PC.

Rsaeire · 04-09-2009 7:04pm

podge3 wrote: »

I reckon this is a bit of a bargain @ £120 plus carriage.

All you need is a hard drive, DVD drive and OS to have a functioning HTPC.

OK - its an oldish spec at this stage but still capable of reasonable performance for the price.

If you add a BD/HDDVD drive like this, change the graphics card and probably add more RAM, you could have a HD multimedia PC.

I understand you have good intentions with this bargain alert, however, after reading the comments on the link you posted, there doesn't appear to be any fan on the CPU heatsink. Considering this, and the fact that there have been more recent bargains that came with a lot more components, I'd have to say this isn't a system I would consider buying; for any reason.

podge3 · 04-09-2009 7:25pm

Rsaeire wrote: »

I understand you have good intentions with this bargain alert, however, after reading the comments on the link you posted, there doesn't appear to be any fan on the CPU heatsink. Considering this, and the fact that there have been more recent bargains that came with a lot more components, I'd have to say this isn't a system I would consider buying; for any reason.

Everyone is entitled to their opinion

Just a little more on this - its a clone of a Fujitsu Siemens Scaleo E multimedia PC. Its getting on a bit now but was very well received when released a couple of years ago. There are a few clones of this available including Elonex and I believe the Maplin version is branded CNM.

Most reviews seem quite favourable, although there are obvious limitations of this unit. Here are a few examples:

http://forums.ebuyer.com/showthread.php?t=665

http://www.digital-kaos.co.uk/forums/f8/htpc-barebones-scaleo-e-10531/

http://www.avforums.com/forums/home-cinema-pcs/180892-how-good-elonex-artisan.html

http://www.avforums.com/forums/home-cinema-pcs/944207-barebone-media-entertainment-pc-maplins.html

The last link above outlines what can be done with the addition of a BD/HDDVD drive, more memory and a new video card.

Each to his own, but I reckon @ less than €150 inclusive of carriage its a bit of a bargain. Most of us have a DVD drive lying around so a cheap SATA drive and OS will have you up and running with a basic HTPC.

bluemachaveli · 04-09-2009 8:22pm

I have one of these, picked one up in the Limerick store a couple of months ago. Makes an ok media center. It's only got a 3.0ghz Celeron.

I ended up changing the board and putting in a low profile graphics card. It cost me more than i was planning.

Don't buy if you wanna play any HD stuff. Runs Windows 7 ok at stock. But defiantly lacks Horse Power.

Do-more · 04-09-2009 8:43pm

Ebuyer also have a barebones multimedia PC for £120 + p&p don't know how it compares...

Problem with all these things is by the time you have spec'ed them all up they end up costing €600 or €700!

Might be worth watching out for something like this coming up again.

podge3 · 04-09-2009 8:54pm

bluemachavel wrote: »

I ended up changing the board and putting in a low profile graphics card. It cost me more than i was planning.

Yep, like most PC projects the cost will probably be double what you initially thought

What did you pay for the system in Limerick?

bluemachaveli · 04-09-2009 9:00pm

podge3 wrote: »

Yep, like most PC projects the cost will probably be double what you initially thought

What did you pay for the system in Limerick?

Bout €160 i think. Not much more anyway. I offloaded it to my brother a couple of weeks ago. Replaced it with a WD TV. Much better buy IMO!

syboit · 04-09-2009 9:36pm

one of these, makes more sense as a htpc, and nice small footprint for under the tv aswell.

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=FS-000-AK

podge3 · 04-09-2009 10:07pm

sugarman wrote: »

-No OS. Will run linux so no cost there
-Terrible processor and onboard GFX (Not a chance will it handle HD content)Agreed. A suitable GFX card would cost about £30
-Max HDD size is 250gb which is pretty poor. You can use at least 1 Tb drives according to many users
-Ram can only be upgraded to 2gb.Again, many users have installed 4 Gb

One of my main attractions to this unit is the case. I think it looks better than the square boxes that most PCs look like.

bluemachaveli · 04-09-2009 10:12pm

podge3 wrote: »

One of my main attractions to this unit is the case. I think it looks better than the square boxes that most PCs look like.

My OH informed me it looked like an oversized VCR

I quite liked it, the front display driver can be patchy at times. No prob under Vista but no chance under 7!

podge3 · 04-09-2009 11:12pm

bluemachavel wrote: »

My OH informed me it looked like an oversized VCR

It does look a bit like an old fashioned VCR TBH.

But at least it looks like something that should be under a TV and not on top of an office desk or in a rack

.

podge3 · 05-09-2009 3:38pm

sugarman wrote: »

From doing a bit of research on this it does'nt seem too bad, but when you factor in the price of

-A 400-500GB(Max size) IDE hardrive(€90'ish)
-DVD drive(€20'ish) or Bluray(€80'is)
-2GB ram (€40'ish)
-GFX card (€50'ish)

...the price rockets right up and your still stuck with a slug of a CPU.

So say €170 delivered for the pc + €200 on upgrades, your looking at €370 for a pc that is'nt all that great.

You'd easily make a much better one from scratch for alot less.

I think your figures are a little wrong, Sugarman i.e.

- A 500 gb drive is £50/€60 from Maplin. Also its SATA, not IDE and 500GB is not the max size.
- you should be able to pick up a 1Gb stick of RAM for about £10 each on eBay
- a suitable 500Mb GFX card is about £30 (plus carriage), say €40

So the PC plus the 500gb drive is £170 from Maplin, thats about €210. The RAM and GFX card would be another €70ish. Thats about €280 plus a drive if you need to buy one.

If you don't plan to use HD stuff, then you don't really need the extra RAM or GFX card.

Plus you get a PC that looks like a media centre and not a PC

bluemachaveli · 05-09-2009 9:51pm

I had a 1TB drive working fine in my one! Worked fine!

podge3 · 07-09-2009 7:39pm

sugarman wrote: »

My bad, i read the HDD to be PATA(IDE), max size being 500GB with IDE. That was the optical drive thats IDE. They're priced as £69.99 on Maplins but they can be had for alot cheaper. €69 on Komplett for the cheapest 1TB.

Only noticed it says it takes DDR ram there, thats atleast €30 for 1GB. Pitty it does'nt do DDR2.

Was looking on Komplett and they have a good range of low profile cards in the €30-60 range which is grand.

So €150(For the PC itself) + €170(For 1TB HDD, 1GB RAM, GFX Card + Del.) brings it to around €320'ish and if you want a DVD drive on top of that is another €20. So i was'nt too far off;)

I'll just outline what I have bought so far, Sugarman.

The PC, 1Tb drive and Blu-Ray/HD drive cost about £280 inclusive of carriage from Maplin. I just got a HD4550 GFX card on eBay for £26 and I would hope to pick up another 2Gb of RAM for no more than £25, so a total spend of about £330/€380.

I don't think thats too bad for a HTPC with 1Tb storage that plays BDs and HD DVDs.

Granted the motherboard is getting on a bit now but if it does the job then its age doesn't bother me.

And if you just want to plays DVDs, then you could probably get it working with a 500Tb drive for less than €200.

We will probably have to agree to disagree on this. There is nothing like a computer related Bargain Alert to set off a good debate

.

Zilog · 07-09-2009 10:17pm

podge3 wrote: »

Granted the motherboard is getting on a bit now but if it does the job then its age doesn't bother me

Probably showing my age now, but there's something satisfying about 'nursing' an almost obsolete PC back to working order!
Got one of the Maplin Media Centre chassis myself, added low profile 4350 card, cheapo eBay 4-port SATA PCI card, 500Gb drive (bolted under the expansion slots), HD-DVD/BluRay combo drive.
Not the fastest machine in the world, but plays all media, incl. BluRay, well.

TerrorFirmer · 08-09-2009 12:18am

Just OK really. The CPU would be OK with a card suitable for HD Decoding; the problem being you'd have to buy a PCI card, which aren't as common, powerful or as good value as their regular pci-e counterparts as the board has no dedicated graphics lane according to the website.

podge3 · 21-11-2009 9:58pm

A belated update on this. The system is no longer available at Maplin but you may still be able to pick it up somewhere.

Anywho, its a fantastic piece of kit

. I fitted the following to my barebones system:

3.2 Ghz P4 2 Gb of extra RAM - total now 3 Gb 1 Tb SATA drive HD DVD/Blu-ray sata drive HD4550 PCI-e gfx card Cheapo SATA PCI card from eBay
I installed Windows & on it and it works a dream. In addition to playing all my HD DVDs and Blu-rays I have filled most of the 1 Tb drive with movies also.

My only remaining job is to add a satellite PCI card instead of the analogue tuner.

Multimedia barebones PC (HTPC) at Maplin

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