Media P.C.

squibs

I want to build a media P.C. to hook up to a 32" LCD for tv/hdd recording/music/DVD/games/surfing. Must be silent, or almost silent, and look good. Can anybody suggest a good resource for speccing parts and understanding the special challenges for building a media PC? Last time I built a PC, the PCI bus was cutting edge.

8T8

There are a variety of ways of building a media PC from very small systems to ones that can be built from off the shelf parts and even allow upgrading. It all depends on what you want and how much you’re willing to pay of course.

As an example you have so many options from HTPC cases to SFF cases to even pre-built systems.

As a further example I built a system using this case from off the shelf parts and it works a treat because it accepts a standard mATX motherboard and all the normal PC components. With an Athlon 64 and Cool & Quiet enabled the CPU cooler only spins up to audible levels only when doing CPU intensive tasks but even then the sound tends to drown that out somewhat. It also allows a full range of graphics cards so your options are not limited.

While not the absolute quietest system it is good enough in my books and is hidden away in a corner of the room and looks fairly decent. It does everything in your list hooked up to a HDTV as well, I even stuck a 400GB HD inside it and used the My Movies plugin for MCE and have all my DVDs stored on in it like a DVD changer it is a great system.

Some useful links;
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HTPC
http://www.byopvr.com/
http://www.firingsquad.com/guides/building_home_theater_pc/default.asp
http://www.htpcnews.com/

squibs

Great reply - thanks!