Micro ATX/Media Centre

[Jo3y]

Can anyone recommend me a decent setup for as cheap as possible - don't skimp on the case though as I don't want it to look hideous .

It wont be used for games, just for movies and the occasional bit of internet browsing. I don't need it to have a Blu Ray drive either as I'll use my PS3.

Quite happy to build my own if it works out better value for money butthis bundle from OC looks rediculously cheap. Not sure how cheap the case would seem in real life though...

Cheers,

Charlie

 

[sneeks]

The Asrock is OK but lots of reviews state it is fairly noisy. I bought a Acer Revo R3610 last week for £245 and it is working out great as a media player/streamer.

http://www.cliosport.net/forum/showthread.php?t=471101

 

[Krispwee]

http://www.hipergroup.com/products.php?lv=4&cate=2&type=12&pid=134&action=Picture thats a nice Chassis

Why not use your PS3 as the media centre? It will play pretty much all avi files streamed over the network or as an external HDD. Has web browser etc?

It is cool to have a media centre PC though

 

[Jo3y]

The Asrock is OK but lots of reviews state it is fairly noisy. I bought a Acer Revo R3610 last week for £245 and it is working out great as a media player/streamer.

http://www.cliosport.net/forum/showthread.php?t=471101

Fairly noisy I can deal with if it's no louder than my 360... The Acer looks a little strange to be sat underneath my TV and it looks the same spec as the AssRock but with a smaller HDD.

Krispwee... I do use my 360 and PS3 for streaming media but I want the pretty media centre pictures for my movies my media library is quite large now and is spread over a few laptops and USB drives. I want to put it all in one place, be able to do everything from one box (Browse the net, view iPlayer in HD and watch all the different movie formats) and for it to be easy to find what I want to watch.

 

[sneeks]

If you're not worried about noise then they are essentially the same with the exception of the Asrock does not come with a OS for the basic price.

 

[Revels]

Have a look for a cheap 2nd hand MacMini.

Perfect for what you need. I wanted exactly the same as you, pretty covers etc! lol.. Plex is what I used for OSX. Really great bit of software.

 

[David]

get a wd play hd live thing, 100£ but no net browsing but does youtube and a few othrs... for that money who cares. oh yeh and it's tiny tiny

http://www.wdc.com/en/products/Products.asp?DriveID=735

 

[sneeks]

XBMC is great for indexing all media files and automatically importing coverart and episode/film info.

 

[FiXX]

Fairly noisy I can deal with if it's no louder than my 360... The Acer looks a little strange to be sat underneath my TV and it looks the same spec as the AssRock but with a smaller HDD.

Krispwee... I do use my 360 and PS3 for streaming media but I want the pretty media centre pictures for my movies my media library is quite large now and is spread over a few laptops and USB drives. I want to put it all in one place, be able to do everything from one box (Browse the net, view iPlayer in HD and watch all the different movie formats) and for it to be easy to find what I want to watch.

the 360 does covers for all your movies in the movie library for all file types.. you just put the cover in the same folder and name it folder.jpg Also using xml files etc will automatically grab cover art, synopsis etc

heres mine on 360 for example:

 

[David]

meh mines better...

 

[FiXX]

mine does that too when you click on a film/episode etc


jo3y:I see, in that case wise purchase!

 

[Jo3y]

Fixx... that's running as a Media centre extender though. My PC is poo and is connected wirelessly so it never worked properly and I had to resort to using a USB drive in the front of the 360.

 

[Mike_182]

Only thing I'll add is to avoid Overclockers like teh bad aids.

 

[David]

Only thing I'll add is to avoid Overclockers like teh bad aids.

+ ∞

 

[Jo3y]

Never had any problems with OC and I used to use them a lot when I lived back near Stoke... maybe they've gone down hill. Cheers for the advice though, think I'll get it from Microdirect to be safe (plus it's a fiver cheaper from them )