I have a mind to put together a media centre pc to watch my films videos and the like on my 422 plasma TV. So looking from you good folks a list of components to put a reasonable machine together, I have a Iwin Dragon slayer case and a psu kicking about, so advice on mATX mobo,CPU,RAM and whether it is necessary to put a decent GPU in it and any other advice you feel would help.
What's your budget? Would it literally be just for AV stuff? Would you be ripping a massive AV collection to it? And I know it's all personal taste and stuff but would you really want that case in your lounge :|?
The case is not important and will be fine, and yes it would just be for AV stuff. As for budget,as cheaply as possible.
Well then you could pretty much go for absolutely anything from the last three generations. The M1 Hudson's will do the job if you're super energy conscious but to be honest, anything will do. You could go for X2 250 with super cheapo board and the cheapest 2gb of ram you can find (£15 ish) with a HD5450 or something for £25. That will deal with your AV needs without issue. You could also do the in built Zacate chips like thus. Benefit being it already has a HDMI socket on the back panel (which is presumably how you'll be connecting?) and USB3 ports since it's all very new. Llano is also out very soon (AMD's latest APU) which would be absolutely perfect for your needs... Should be cheap ish but will have to wait and see over the next few weeks. Personally I'd just keep my eye out on the market place and find some bits as cheap as possible. I had my X2 255, 2gb of ram and Asus uATX board on for £70 the other week which will play blue ray without issue. Any Athlon X2 or E5*** with any mother board and a £30 gpu 2gb of ram would do absolutely fine. Very easy to build a machine for ~£100 if you dip into second hand. So, what I'm saying is... anything will do pretty much.
I am actually having this lot, http://forums.bit-tech.net/showthread.php?t=211522 delivered today so maybe I can knock something together.
