Wanting to build a Media PC. Advice please.

[NotFound]

Please move this thread if it fits somewhere else. I was confused on where to put it.

Wanting to build a media pc in a shuttle form factor. I have a couple of questions wanting to know what you would do if you were wanting the same.

1. AMD or Intel? Seems the kits for AMD are cheaper. I like cheaper.

2. Would you even use shuttle barebones at all?

3. What an affordable tv tuner that you would recommend?

 

[yg17]

Honestly? Don't bother. I ditched my Windows Media Center PC for a TiVo and haven't looked back. I'd much rather pay the monthly fee for the TiVo than put up with all of the bugs and quirks that are in Windows MCE. I've heard MythTV is better, but I could never actually sucessfully get it setup. Maybe someone who's more of a Linux expert than I am can.

 

[SnowLeopard2008]

Intel's definitely better, try a WinTV tuner, its a usb plugin sort of thing. For media servers, barebones is not recommended. If I were to build a media server, it would be intel, nvidia gpu, wireless N, an array of 1TB drives, and a uber tv tuner.

 

[NotFound]

Honestly? Don't bother. I ditched my Windows Media Center PC for a TiVo and haven't looked back. I'd much rather pay the monthly fee for the TiVo than put up with all of the bugs and quirks that are in Windows MCE. I've heard MythTV is better, but I could never actually sucessfully get it setup. Maybe someone who's more of a Linux expert than I am can.

Wow...thanks for the positive reinforcement.


I plan on using linux. Just wanting to get some information from people who have done this.

 

[yg17]

Wow...thanks for the positive reinforcement.

No problem

I have done it, and I'm just simply stating I don't recommend it. Maybe I just had bad luck with it, but based off my personal experiences, I wouldn't do it again.

 

[NotFound]

Well, I plan on doing it.

MythTV is fun, I've played with it before. I've liked Intel boards but I can't really say I hate AMD because, well, I've never had anything that uses AMD!

 

[yg17]

Well, I plan on doing it.

MythTV is fun, I've played with it before. I've liked Intel boards but I can't really say I hate AMD because, well, I've never had anything that uses AMD!

Well, if you've had luck with MythTV before, then you're probably already better off than I am.

I had an AMD in mine. I don't know if it's the case anymore, but the AMD Athlon I had ran hot which meant the fans would kick in at full speed all the time. This was a 4 or 5 year old processor, so things might've changed. But back in the day, AMDs were known for running hotter than Intels.

Mine was also in a shuttle case, which probably didn't help cooling at all. If you have room for it, at least get a mid-sized case. The shuttles usually only have room for one or two PCI cards and one hard drive. You never know when you want to expand. But if you must get a shuttle, get the biggest hard drive you can afford so you don't fill it up, especially if you're going to be recording HD. Those files get pretty big very quickly. An external USB 2.0 drive likely would not be fast enough for recording to.