Horrible. What do you expect to get out of a $30 processor? No optical drive in a media center? On-board graphics, do you expect to be able to play hi-def media? Where's your RAM?
Go to SlickDeals and Craigslist and look for some good prices. A friend of mine just built a system with a Q9400, 8800GTS, 4GB PC2 6400, 640GB HDD, and a nice Gigabyte board for about $400.
It's a media center!
All you'll need is a single-core processor because the onboard graphics can (and will, I've read the reviews) decode 1080p video. You'd be supprised how powerful a single-core really is.
The UVD video engine is able to decode HD videos (MPEG-2, H.264, and VC-1) in all stages and allows the fluent playback of HD videos (e.g. Blu-ray) with a relative low CPU utilization (called Avivo HD). The HD 3200 is the first onboard graphics card that allows the fluent playback of Blu-ray videos.
I don't need an optical drive right now, because I buy all of my digital content online.
I'm taking 2GB of RAM out of my Desktop PC and sacrificing it to the Media Center.
It's really just so I can run XBMC with my videos, play a few emulators (NES, SNES) and use it as a Server (for Files) for my Netbook and Desktop computers.
I know this is off-topic, but what is the point in hiding the prices on the parts when we can easily look up the item number on the site to see it? If you think it'd be an "inconvenience" you're sadly mistaken.
I bet that HDD is the most expensive part in that build ^-^ (I made this comment before looking up the actual prices).
I know this is off-topic, but what is the point in hiding the prices on the parts when we can easily look up the item number on the site to see it? If you think it'd be an "inconvenience" you're sadly mistaken.
He didn't hide the prices. It's called horizontal scrolling.
I bet that HDD is the most expensive part in that build ^-^ (I made this comment before looking up the actual prices).
Make sure the wifi card and the remote work with Ubuntu. Both of those have been issues with me in the past(never did get my RemoteWonderII working right).
I recommend moving away from Rosewill. Their products tend to be horrible quality. They mostly relabel no-name Chinese products of questionable quality.
I recommend getting an InWin case. They are inexpensive, but have really good build quality. Get one with a powersupply and save youself a buck there. You don't need a 400w powersupply for what you are building, and you likely don't want one for a box that will be on 24/7. They have many that fit right into your budget and a few that might go into a component rack better.
#12 May 28 2009, 10:44 am (Edited on May 28 2009, 10:50 am)
How's this then?
It lets me get an Antec 300 :)
EDIT: I know there's no remote, I'll just cheat a little bit and get it at Walmart or something, it's now offically not part of the build's price. :)
Antec is a really good brand(my main PC has been using an Antec case for about 5 years now, and it's handled all the work I've put unto it great, and still looks almost brand new), but the price is a bit high. If that isn't an issue for you, then have at it. In Win would be a little cheaper, but no doubt the build quality is as well.
People said they were having a ton of problems with the Inwin cases especially with airflow design.
I like the Antec 300 better, plus it fits snug into my budget.
I've never bought one of the smaller InWin cases, so I'll take the review's words for it. Besides that, assuming the onboard graphics chipset can handle the video stress, it looks good. Also make sure the graphics output is workable with your TV's inputs.
Well, my TV in my room can't support HDMI, but it's always very nice to have if I ever upgrade TVs.
I suppose I'll just use a VGA -> Red, Yellow, White converter cable.
Actually, it would just be yellow(composite video), red and white are sound, which you can convert very cheaply with a 3.5mm to composite cable converter(check monoprice.com, or your closet, I know I have a few rolling around here that have just built up over the years) assuming you want sound from the TV.
Go to SlickDeals and Craigslist and look for some good prices. A friend of mine just built a system with a Q9400, 8800GTS, 4GB PC2 6400, 640GB HDD, and a nice Gigabyte board for about $400.