building a media center PC on teh cheap

[wesl56 10+ year member]

ok so i wanna build a pc to have in my living room hooked up to my tv that i can store all my movies and music on, and use to watch youtube and browse the web.... and also to serve as an itunes server for my laptop...

i have an old collection of parts, an athlon 1.33gig, 512 ram, yamaha sound card, ethernet, hdd, ati agp video card... im gonna run linux on it since it is free and wont give me any relibility problems being up constantly... nothing fancy but should be fine to do what im lookin for...

few questions...

1.the video card only has a VGA output... im not looking for HD output or anything just yet, my tv only has a s-video input... would i be able to get an adapter to convert the VGA to s-video, or would i need a video card with an s-video out?

2. wireless keyboard/mouse... which of these would you go with?http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?qp=crootcategoryid%23%23-1%23%23-1~~q70726f63657373696e6774696d653a3e313930302d30312d3031~~cabcat0500000%23%230%23%2311a~~cabcat0513000%23%230%23%2324~~ncabcat0513005%23%230%23%23c&usc=abcat0500000&nrp=15&type=category&lcn=Keyboard+%26+Mouse+Combos&sp=%2Bcurrentprice+skuid&id=abcat0513005 i would like to go cheap as possible, but i also dont want something that is to crappy to use

3. since i dont have a dvd player, would it work well to get a cheap DVD drive for the comp and use that for playing and ripping movies that i rent? or would the video quality out **** compared to a standalone player?

thats all i can think of right now... any other suggestions or ideas welcomed... im trying to get this hooked up as cheap as possible, and i'd like to get any parts i need from best buy, since i have a gift card... thx

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[Grim 10+ year member]

Well If you plan on ripping them, your def better of using a DVD drive over a standalone...that way your ripping the actual data instead of capturing the video feed.

I have alot to say on this subject with very little time. I'll post again when i get a few seconds to sit down. I love my setup, although, it def wasnt cheap. I have bigger needs

 

[wesl56 10+ year member]

well i dont really "plan" to rip them, but if i had a drive then i could if i wanted to, but thats not really a necessity

would def be interested in hearing what u got on your setup

 

[wesl56 10+ year member]

boobies!

 

[wesl56 10+ year member]

o rly?

 

[Pl8er 5,000+ posts]

Your setup sounds plenty enough strong for a media center pc. I would recommend looking at an ATI all in wonder video card though. This will allow you to plug your cable into the computer and you would be able to record tv. Also, this card has svideo out and a few other nice features. I picked one up about a year ago for 80 dollars or so, I'm sure it is much cheaper by now. I am using the AIW 9600.

I would recommend a dvd rom just because the price is so cheap for them anymore (http://www.pricewatch.com or http://www.newegg.com)

I have not used linux for a media center (i'm currently running windows media center edition). It does the job. I have read some reviews on linux media center support and there is plenty there.

 

[wesl56 10+ year member]

i actually have an old *** wintv card around here somewhere... i never really used it that much cause it was a pain in the *** to get working, and the quality really wasnt that great tbh... plus i dont really have a big enough hdd yet for video recording