I've been running an old AMD XP2000+ in a very ugly case for years as my Media Centre machine running MediaPortal. It's served it's purpose perfectly - until along came HD content and it's very system intensive processing. The poor AMD was no longer able to handle the jandle, so-to speak.
I thought that the new consoles would be a decent media playback device with their built in H.264 decoding - but alas that was nothing more than a smoke and mirrors promise.
The hoops that must be jumped through to get it to do as you want is rediculous.
Not to mention the lack of Blu-ray support on the 360 and the price tag of the PS3!
So I got to thinking - what is it that I want out of a Media machine?
My answer was simple, I want it to play everything - play it well and control it by just a remote.
MediaPortal does everything well, is so customisable and is completely controllable via the remote.
That made life easier by running under Windows so hardware support and setup wouldn't be an issue.
Next was the hardware.
I want something which is small, pleasing to the eye and quiet.
It's going to be in the lounge in plain view - while I ignored the old case, I'm not the only user or person living with it!
I want the machine to be able to play x264, H.264 and all the older codec formats - this would mean a high powered CPU or a hardware decoding video card which would mean a PCIe 16x slot.
Additionally I want to use my Hauppauge Nova-S-Plus from my previous machine to receive the NZ Freeview channels and record shows so a PCI slot is required.
Audio output needs to be 5 channel via S/PDIF into my receiver.
Video will need to be via DVI to allow for HDCP during playback.
Since I want Blu-ray and HD-DVD I need a single optical drive to handle this.
Storage isn't really required - other than space for 2 drives.
My main machine in another room has the storage, so wired network connectivity is a must.
OS wise, XP is the only option. Vista would just waste resources.
What I found to tick all these boxes is as follows:
Shuttle SD30G2 Plus BLACK
Intel Core 2 Duo E7200 2.53GHz 1066MHz FSB 45nm
Apacer 2GB Dual Kit (2x1GB) DDR-800 PC-6400 240pin CL5
LG GGC-H20L Blu-ray and HD DVD Reader + DVD Writer SATA
XFX PV-T86J-UAH3 Geforce 8500GT Silent Heatsink 256MB
I reused my HDD's from the previous machine and the Nova-S-Plus as stated above.
Everything installed without issue, there was no touching components - no rubbing.
It all just fit together and worked first time.
And here it is!
Complete and running.
Well almost. Still waiting for the S/PDIF optional extra and still tweaking and testing MediaPortal.
But at this stage everything works other than Blu-ray/HD-DVD playback.
I thought that the new consoles would be a decent media playback device with their built in H.264 decoding - but alas that was nothing more than a smoke and mirrors promise.
The hoops that must be jumped through to get it to do as you want is rediculous.
Not to mention the lack of Blu-ray support on the 360 and the price tag of the PS3!
So I got to thinking - what is it that I want out of a Media machine?
My answer was simple, I want it to play everything - play it well and control it by just a remote.
MediaPortal does everything well, is so customisable and is completely controllable via the remote.
That made life easier by running under Windows so hardware support and setup wouldn't be an issue.
Next was the hardware.
I want something which is small, pleasing to the eye and quiet.
It's going to be in the lounge in plain view - while I ignored the old case, I'm not the only user or person living with it!
I want the machine to be able to play x264, H.264 and all the older codec formats - this would mean a high powered CPU or a hardware decoding video card which would mean a PCIe 16x slot.
Additionally I want to use my Hauppauge Nova-S-Plus from my previous machine to receive the NZ Freeview channels and record shows so a PCI slot is required.
Audio output needs to be 5 channel via S/PDIF into my receiver.
Video will need to be via DVI to allow for HDCP during playback.
Since I want Blu-ray and HD-DVD I need a single optical drive to handle this.
Storage isn't really required - other than space for 2 drives.
My main machine in another room has the storage, so wired network connectivity is a must.
OS wise, XP is the only option. Vista would just waste resources.
What I found to tick all these boxes is as follows:
Shuttle SD30G2 Plus BLACK
Intel Core 2 Duo E7200 2.53GHz 1066MHz FSB 45nm
Apacer 2GB Dual Kit (2x1GB) DDR-800 PC-6400 240pin CL5
LG GGC-H20L Blu-ray and HD DVD Reader + DVD Writer SATA
XFX PV-T86J-UAH3 Geforce 8500GT Silent Heatsink 256MB
I reused my HDD's from the previous machine and the Nova-S-Plus as stated above.
Everything installed without issue, there was no touching components - no rubbing.
It all just fit together and worked first time.
And here it is!
Complete and running.
Well almost. Still waiting for the S/PDIF optional extra and still tweaking and testing MediaPortal.
But at this stage everything works other than Blu-ray/HD-DVD playback.