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Media PC

J

James.

User Not Found
I'm looking for a barebones OS that will be acting as a media centre for the living room, probably just music though (Buying a 1TB hdd to put all the cds my family has ever owned)

I'm guessing I'll need a linux os, any ideas?

EDIT:
Shopping List.png


How's that?
I think it's ok, but does it matter if its OEM?

Alright, now I need to build the pc :)
 
Colm

Colm

New Member
I think you're looking for Mythbuntu.
EDIT: Wait, that's more for TV then music. I don't know what you'd need, sorry.
 
Hardrive

Hardrive

Contributor
James. said:
I'm looking for a barebones OS that will be acting as a media centre for the living room, probably just music though (Buying a 1TB hdd to put all the cds my family has ever owned)

I'm guessing I'll need a linux os, any ideas?
Click to expand...

If you're going for easy setup and then leaving it, I'd just download the latest Debian release, setup Samba, and call it a day.

If you'll be hooking it up to a TV, however, I'd suggest looking at MythTV or xbmc in addition to a stable, tested distro like Debian.
 
J

James.

User Not Found
I've been looking at Mythbuntu/MythTV and it looks pretty good, I just need to see more on how it works with music (The mythbuntu website doesnt have any screenshots for the latest version)

And yeah, I'll be hooking it up to my home TV, but not recording (I've got Sky+ for that)


EDIT: Cause I'm an absolute idiot when it comes to these things, I'm thinking about buying this and just installing the program that I will need.

[FIELDSET="Specs"]Case: HEC 8K
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-GC230D
Processor: Intel Atom 230
Graphics: Intel GMA 950 (VGA Output)
Audio: 5.1 Channel High Definition Audio
Network: 100 Mbps Ethernet/Lan
Memory: Crucial 1GB DDR800
Backing Storage: Seagate 80GB 7200RPM
Optical: DVDRW Black 8x
Operating System: Ubuntu 9.04 (Gnome) (Might Change)
Monitor: None
USB2: 6 ports
eSATA: 1 port
Extras: Wireless Logitech keyboard and mouse
[/FIELDSET]
 
Seth

Seth

MD Party Room
A Atom is not going to be good for HD video playblack....
 
Colm

Colm

New Member
Still, mainly music isn't only music. If he wants to make use of the 5.1 sound, and if he has a HDTV that supports VGA, he'll need a better processor.
 
Hardrive

Hardrive

Contributor
I'd build it yourself. Find a cheap, midsized case. Throw in a Core 2 Duo with 4 GB of RAM. Find an 8600 or 8800 for cheap and snap it in, this will give you much better responsiveness on the CPU while decoding HD video.
 
J

James.

User Not Found
Alright. I've decided to go with what Hardrive said (+Rep) and I'm going to build a pc.
HD playback is actually a good idea - makes it future proof (Well for a year or two)
So I plan on getting a small internal HDD (60Gbs) and a large external HDD (1TB/1.5TB).
For for the internal HDD I'm going with SATA. But the external drive, I've been told that eSATA is good, but I don't know what that is.

I have no clue where I'm going and I'm not sure if I'll be able to get the parts, let alone assemble it....
 
J

James.

User Not Found
Alright:
New Specs
Motherboard - Asus P5KPL-AM/PS MicroATX Motherboard
RAM - Team Elite 2Gb DDRII Silver Alu PC6400 (Might Upgrade to 4Gb)
CPU - Intel Pentium Dual Core E2180 (2 x 2.0Ghz)
Case - Antec NSK2480
Graphics - Sapphire Radeon HD4550 512Mb PCI-E

Around
 
J

James.

User Not Found
Shopping List.png


How's that?
I think it's ok, but does it matter if its OEM?
------------------
Shit double post. Sorry
 
Hardrive

Hardrive

Contributor
OEM hard/disk drives are fine, this just means that you get the drive wrapped in bubble wrap (you don't typically get the box, manual, or cords). I am not sure about OEM CPUs. You should check the site's policy to be sure that it comes with a heat sink. If it does not, you need to order one separately.

I'd look at getting some Artic Silver 5 thermal paste. I know it sounds ridiculous to pay extra for paste, but it's a lot better than the standard Intel stuff, and will keep your CPU much cooler. It's worth the small addition in price, especially if you'll be leaving your computer in a hot environment or looking at overclocking in the future.

I am unfamiliar with ATI graphics cards. I do know that HD video processing can be offloaded to nvidia graphics cards, even with the Linux drivers. I do not know if this is the case with ATI. In the past, ATI's Linux support has been subpar. Before you purchase the parts, you should do a little research on this.
 
Seth

Seth

MD Party Room
You can probably go down to 2 gb if you wanna save as much as possible. You really dont need that much ram.


Other than that it should run Hd video and music just fine.

---------- Post added at 03:25 PM EST ---------- Previous post was at 03:22 PM EST ----------
James. said:
Alright. I've decided to go with what Hardrive said (+Rep) and I'm going to build a pc.
HD playback is actually a good idea - makes it future proof (Well for a year or two)
So I plan on getting a small internal HDD (60Gbs) and a large external HDD (1TB/1.5TB).
For for the internal HDD I'm going with SATA. But the external drive, [HIGHLIGHT]I've been told that eSATA is good, but I don't know what that is.[/HIGHLIGHT]

I have no clue where I'm going and I'm not sure if I'll be able to get the parts, let alone assemble it....
Click to expand...

Estata is just sata only it just a port on the outside of your mother board where you plug in your usb.

But why go esata you can just plug that HDD inside your new case.
 
J

James.

User Not Found
Seth said:
You can probably go down to 2 gb if you wanna save as much as possible. You really dont need that much ram.


Other than that it should run Hd video and music just fine.

---------- Post added at 03:25 PM EST ---------- Previous post was at 03:22 PM EST ----------



Estata is just sata only it just a port on the outside of your mother board where you plug in your usb.

But why go esata you can just plug that HDD inside your new case.
Click to expand...
I was planning on getting an external drive to switch between comps

---------- Post added at 08:32 PM EST ---------- Previous post was at 08:27 PM EST ----------
Hardrive said:
OEM hard/disk drives are fine, this just means that you get the drive wrapped in bubble wrap (you don't typically get the box, manual, or cords). I am not sure about OEM CPUs. [HIGHLIGHT]You should check the site's policy to be sure that it comes with a heat sink[/HIGHLIGHT]. If it does not, you need to order one separately.

I'd look at getting some Artic Silver 5 thermal paste. I know it sounds ridiculous to pay extra for paste, but it's a lot better than the standard Intel stuff, and will keep your CPU much cooler. It's worth the small addition in price, especially if you'll be leaving your computer in a hot environment or looking at overclocking in the future.

I am unfamiliar with ATI graphics cards. I do know that HD video processing can be offloaded to nvidia graphics cards, even with the Linux drivers. I do not know if this is the case with ATI. In the past, ATI's Linux support has been subpar. Before you purchase the parts, you should do a little research on this.
Click to expand...
Phew, thamks for saying.

OEM - Requires heatsink and fan
Click to expand...

And if I need to, I'll go to Windosw 7. Kinda defeating the point of a barebones OS
 
Seth

Seth

MD Party Room
James. said:
I was planning on getting an external drive to switch between comps

---------- Post added at 08:32 PM EST ---------- Previous post was at 08:27 PM EST ----------


Phew, thamks for saying.



And if I need to, I'll go to Windosw 7. Kinda defeating the point of a barebones OS
Click to expand...

Well in that case you will need to buy a External Enclosures with esata. You will also need to make sure your motherboard got a esata port on it. I would link you to one but I dont know any uk sites...
 
Y

yaustar

New Member
Hardrive

Hardrive

Contributor
You don't need an external hard drive to switch between computers. You can setup your media PC as a file server, and through samba, can access your files from any computer on your network.
 
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