Media PC's...

[Groove]

Right, with my old job i had a nice shiney laptop with huge hard drive and HDMI output so when i downloaded (legally... ) it was easy enough to play them on the TV.

I sold my netbook which i orginally used for downloads as it became redundant.

I now have a new job which have supplied me with a laptop which has no HDMI and a tiny hard drive so no good for my movie purposes.

So im looking for a pc that i will use with my TV (when i get it, see other thread). It will be used for browsing, downloading and playing back 1080p content through HDMI to the TV.

I can build Pc's easy but im a little out of touch with the new technology and im on a tight budget. £2-300 if possible.

I dont need anything special, my laptop which i was perfectly happy with was a intel i3 with 2gb ddr ram.

How much would it cost to build a suitable machine in a nice slimline case? Would onboard graphics be up to the job of outputting 1080p movies?

Or as it wouldnt be a huge spec pc would it be just easier to get a prebuilt one?

Many thanks guys
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[The Artist]

Just get a NAS box.

[Groove]

[el_oso]

could always try a raspberry pi or a cubieboard.
Or something like this

Otherwise I'd be looking at one of the new fusion APU's from AMD. Processors start from around $30 and come with regular stuff such as SATA and gigabit Ethernet. Either way I'd be looking at a linux OS such as linux mint/ubuntu etc with XBMC or openELEC
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[Seb]

AMDs APU stuff is pretty solid for a HTPC, you get a modest GPU with hardware decoding meaning less heat, noise and power consumption.
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2010 Triumph 1050 Sprint ST

[ScaredyCat]

ASRock do prebuilt boxes.... might be worth checking them out..



Andy
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