Media Center PCs.

[pam123]

Now that BenQ has that decent $1200 video projector I'm starting to get alot of questions about home theater PCs.
New video card in that old pc, run some cabel, and "voila!" a home theater.
Yeah, right.
I've been trying to work out some sensible rules for putting one of these low budget jobs together and, since I'm sure I'm not alone, I'll share them.
All suggestions greatly appreciated.
CPU : 2GHz ( will drop to 1.4 but I'm not happy about that ).
ram : 512mb ( no compromise ).
Sound : if you have decent on board fine and the old soudblaster ( the one that gives you the option of digital or analog ) will also do it, anything that will manage 4.1 speakers or better. Speakers are "Customer's choice" ( a point of contention ).
DVD-ROM : no compromise
DVD-R/RW+/- : if you want to burn TV shows.
HDD : the biggest that fits the budget
OS : XP home will do.
software : Either CyberPower or Win DVD ( people will fight over this, pick the one they want ). There is also software for ripping DVDs to a jukebox format, but you'll have to order that from a country in which it's legal and you don't do it on the HTPC. Which means that your other pc is up to the job.
Video card : a plain 9600 ( I know it will do the job and they're cheap ).
TV card : Pinnacle ( HDTV only makes sense if you can get HDTV ) or ATI HDTV (if you can get HDTV).
Keyboard and mouse : needed for intial set-up, after that use the remote and keep the rest away from the friends who think they know what they're doing.
It's possible to quiet a computer without too much effort so if you have a standard ATX case a "silent remake" can be yours for about $40.
Video : the projector and about 6' of blank white wall ( if you want a screen one of those ceiling pull downs, that isn't an eyesore otherwise, is about $300. )
This isn't going to play games but it should be able to turn your living room/family room into a home theater for less than $2500 ( maybe alot less, depending on what you already have in/with the old PC ).

I know Windows has a Media Center OS. It just doesn't seem to be working all that well.
When ATI puts an HDTV tuner on their AIW cards I'll recommend one ( after I read all the reviews ).

Okay guys; have at it.
This is information for all.

[Strider]

I know you said "no compromise" on the memory, but I'm currently running a HTPC in my family room and it has 512 mb of memory. It does the job, but I feel it would do much better if I had 1024 mb of memory for every once in a while if my computer is doing maintence chores (Such as defragging) at the same time as processing video, my video will hiccup where it gets annoying watching it. I now just do one process at a time (try too), but if I had more memory I think I wouldn't have that small problem at all. Just something to think about. Just my .02 cents.

[pam123]

512mb was the minimum.
I'm still dealing with folks who think 256mb should be enough ( And I don't know why. The number just seems to have stuck. )

[thefultonhow]

Originally Posted by pam123 TV card : Pinnacle ( HDTV only makes sense if you can get HDTV ) or ATI HDTV (if you can get HDTV).

I would say to go for a Hauppauge card, because they have hardware acceleration and compatibility with more media center packages.