Shuttle Media Centre?

supergrip

Has anyone built a Media Centre PC with any of the shuttles? If so, what did you put into it (Proc/Mem/Tuners/HDs etc), what software (eg Knopmyth/MythTV/MS XP MCE), and are you happy with it.

What did it set you back all in (approx)?
Thinking of building one myself, some advice would be handy.
Thanks

8T8

My HTPC is a "near Shuttle" basically a case that is slightly bigger but allows off the shelf parts.

Powering mine is;
Athlon 64 3200+
2GB RAM
Integrated video/audio/ethernet
2x HD's for video/movies/music
1 DVDRW
PCI Tuner
Tagan 430W PSU with removable cables
2GB USB stick for Vista ReadyBoost

Currently running Vista MCE was XP MCE & it runs great does everything I need it to, plus it is quiet in operation. You could get away with even lower hardware it just I tend to have spare parts lying around which is why it has so much RAM.


With a Shuttle it is fairly straight forward pick on either aesthetic looks or pick on CPU choice.

When it comes to a CPU you can really use any Athlon 64, Athlon 64 X2 or Core 2 Duo, I would stay clear of Pentium D's as while they are sufficient & cheap they are toasty CPU's that put out a fair amount of heat and not the best choice for a HTPC environment.

Is a dual core CPU necessary not really unless you have plans on using HD-DVD or Blu-ray though their are newer & cheaper dual core parts out that so unless you are getting a single core CPU for nothing you may as well get the dual core.

Take the new Core 2 Duo E4300 CPU's for instance.

RAM wise you will be getting DDR-2 get capacity over speed so 1GB of the cheapest you can find will do the job just fine e.g 1GB of DDR-2 533 or 667.

HD wise Samsung tend to make the quietest HD's so getting one of those would be a good idea if noise matters.

As for tuners it depends on your TV source e.g over the air, set top box etc. and what media centre software supports your tuner. MCE is the most restrictive in this area as it requires MCE certified tuners but they are readily available just not a whole lot to chose from.

Third party media centres like GB-PVR & Media Portal tend to work with most tuners that have a Windows driver.

The linux ones I cannot comment on but their websites will surely have a list of compatible hardware.

Also I recommend getting a quiet DVD drive like one from Plextor as the noise from PC DVD' drives can be annoying when watching a DVD as not all of them slow down properly or quickly.

Most Shuttles come with integrated graphics but there are some that do not but provide a PCI-e x16 slot for graphics cards if getting a graphics card get a basic one fan less and an ATI X1300 for MCE because you get the AVIVO DVD decoder free (NVIDIA make you pay for Purevideo) but if using Linux get any NVIDIA GeForce 6 or 7 because they are much better supported than ATI cards.

RuggieBear

i've a shuttle running XP mce

supergrip

thanks for the advice 8t8

Krusty_Clown

I'm using an ePox Barebones. If I had a 'do-over' I'd go with a shuttle. Power supply isn't quite up to the job, space is at a premium, and heat/noise is occasionally a problem. But I got it cheap and you get what you pay for!