Advice on Home Media System

War Machine 539

Hi all, I would like some advice on a good quality, reasonably priced media system!
I am on a really tight budget and I will be honest, I am clueless about them, however have wanted one for a while!

Forgive my ignorance!

M00lers

That's a bit vague, are you after a media player? What exactly do you want the "system" to do?

War Machine 539

Apologies! I'm looking for something with Internet browsing capability, internal memory and something small!

Hope this helps!

M00lers

We're getting there!! :DHave you a budget?

War Machine 539

Jesus make me feel like a pleb! :P Cheap! 200 is the top end!

M00lers

Not my intention to make you feel like a pleb!! You're just being a bit tight with the info that's needed to give you proper advise.

thenightrider

Your going to find it hard to build a media centre on 200 on less you buy second hand parts or a second hand machine.

An.Duine.Eile

Have a look at the boxee box. It will do browsing, local media and much more.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/D-Link-Boxee-Digital-Media-Player/dp/B0043EV3MS/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1310670182&sr=8-1

banquo

I've had a Boxee Box for a couple months now and I just can't recommend it enough. It doesn't have internal storage, but it streams everything from the internet. You can also plug in local storage (2xusb ports, SD port), or share a drive/folder from the home network with remarkable ease.

It's the bee's flippin' knees. About 200 quid.

Vic Vinegar

You could build a fairly sweet mini PC for around €200. I'm looking at one for about €250 that has 4gb of ram and a dual core CPU. All in a small case (smaller than a blu-ray player) and it'll run very close to silent. You have the added benefit of of full browsing capabilites with a proper keyboard too and you wouldn't be restricted OS wise.

Stoner

Bombleswizzum wrote: »

You could build a fairly sweet mini PC for around €200. I'm looking at one for about €250 that has 4gb of ram and a dual core CPU. All in a small case (smaller than a blu-ray player) and it'll run very close to silent. You have the added benefit of of full browsing capabilites with a proper keyboard too and you wouldn't be restricted OS wise.

hi can you list the parts you are using and where you are buying them please? 250 is a good price, I'm up to closer to 400 for mine, but might get a different case

Vic Vinegar

Stoner wrote: »

hi can you list the parts you are using and where you are buying them please? 250 is a good price, I'm up to closer to 400 for mine, but might get a different case

Sure thing

Mobo + CPU €132

Ram €24

Case €54

Hard Drive €29

€239 + postage charges.

I'm also going to add a Blu-ray combi drive futher down the line

Here for €58

tipperary

Hi

Like the look of this case too. One question - Can you acces the 3.5" bay from the outside? Would be interested in fitting a card reader if possible.

techfeen

I would recommend ac Ryan, but I don't think u can browse the net

Stoner

Bombleswizzum wrote: »

Sure thing

Mobo + CPU €132

Ram €24

Case €54

Hard Drive €29

€239 + postage charges.

I'm also going to add a Blu-ray combi drive futher down the line

Here for €58

Looks great, love the case, the PSU might struggle with that HD though? what do you think? also for the sake of it the 8GB of ram would be tasty, plus it's missing an OS unless you run a linux type freebe well sourced better value than i got

dsrckiyisvddht

Sorry to hijack but I have two questions.

1. Would the 60W power supply included with that case be enough juice?

2. Would this not get ridiculously hot without a fan?

Alun

See other thread here ... http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056319407