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<blockquote data-quote="Jowl" data-source="post: 19916" data-attributes="member: 14576">Hi all.I'm building a media centre PC from some bits I had lying around (I'm a self employed IT bod) - but I now need to purchase some bits - and as I'm buying my first house, I'm now on a tiny budget!!So media centre stage 1 has to:Display digital TV preferably with timeshifting etcRecord TV to HDDPlay DVD Video'splay Internet radio / 'freeview' radio stationsPlay all my cd / mp3 collection/My Specs (and currently owned components) areAthlon Xp2700 (with cheapish heatsink / fan)Abit Socket A motherboard - inc Audio and SATA512mb DDR400 Curical RAM160gb Seagate SATA HDDCDRW/DVD combo driveWindows XP ProI intend to run Mediaportal and purchase a Viewsonic 30&quot; LCD TV (N3000W)So I need recommendations for:A digital TV card - needs BDA drivers to work with mediaportal / MS MCEA decentish Grafix card - looking at geforce 6200/6600. Doesn't have to be brilliant as it won't be used much as a games machine. It does have to support a 30&quot; LCD TV using DVI though. Oh and passivly cooled.A Case (with PSU) - at the moment I have a cheaper silver tower and a smaller but higher quality black case with window. Ideally I'd like a small (but full height) desktop-type case but I might not be able to stretch to this straight away.Finally, any advice on running a media centre through a CRT TV. I've already saved/allocated funds for a LCD TV with DVI/VGA inputs. But if I can get a decent picture though a normal TV this would obviously save money!Oh, and any decent 5.1 PC speaker systems about - more of a Christmas pressie this one though!</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Jowl, post: 19916, member: 14576"] Hi all. I'm building a media centre PC from some bits I had lying around (I'm a self employed IT bod) - but I now need to purchase some bits - and as I'm buying my first house, I'm now on a tiny budget!! So media centre stage 1 has to: Display digital TV preferably with timeshifting etc Record TV to HDD Play DVD Video's play Internet radio / 'freeview' radio stations Play all my cd / mp3 collection/ My Specs (and currently owned components) are Athlon Xp2700 (with cheapish heatsink / fan) Abit Socket A motherboard - inc Audio and SATA 512mb DDR400 Curical RAM 160gb Seagate SATA HDD CDRW/DVD combo drive Windows XP Pro I intend to run Mediaportal and purchase a Viewsonic 30" LCD TV (N3000W) So I need recommendations for: A digital TV card - needs BDA drivers to work with mediaportal / MS MCE A decentish Grafix card - looking at geforce 6200/6600. Doesn't have to be brilliant as it won't be used much as a games machine. It does have to support a 30" LCD TV using DVI though. Oh and passivly cooled. A Case (with PSU) - at the moment I have a cheaper silver tower and a smaller but higher quality black case with window. Ideally I'd like a small (but full height) desktop-type case but I might not be able to stretch to this straight away. Finally, any advice on running a media centre through a CRT TV. I've already saved/allocated funds for a LCD TV with DVI/VGA inputs. But if I can get a decent picture though a normal TV this would obviously save money! Oh, and any decent 5.1 PC speaker systems about - more of a Christmas pressie this one though! [/QUOTE]

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