The MCE I built my family
So what kind of Media Center PC would a someone who works on Media Center build for his family back home in Canada? Here is what I’ve built:
- Shuttle XPC Barebone System for Socket 478 at 533/800MHz FSB Intel CPU, Model SB65G2 $190
- Intel Celeron D 330 2.66 GHz, 533 MHz FSB, 256K L2 Cache Processor $88
Seagate 200GB 7200RPM IDE Hard Drive $116- NEC 16X Double Layer DVD±RW Drive, Black $65
- DDRAM PC-3200 512M KINGMAX $66
- Hauppauge WinTV-PVR
- NVIDIA 5700 graphics card w/128MB 8x AGP
- Microsoft IR receiver and remote
Total cost for you to build: ~$817
Notes:
- The Shuttle barebones kit was very easy to put together and came with all the necessary parts. If you buy this kit you don’t need to buy retail parts.
- Fan is a little bit noisy. update: I opened up the case and I had put the heat sink on incorrectly. So I fixed that I ran the cabling differently and it is a bit quieter.
- Newegg shipped me the wrong CPU socket type even though I ordered the correct one. I then had to go buy the CPU at my local computer store for $104+tax. Arghhh! I now have to fit with Newegg to return what the shipped me (which I opened because I didn’t realize it was the wrong CPU type until I tried to insert it).
- Photo without the case on
- I’m still trying to figure out how to enable s-video out… Turns out I needed to use the cable that came with the card, my other cables weren’t making a solid connection.
- I have this Shuttle MCE hooked up to my Samsung 46″ DLP via VGA and you can definitely tell a different in quality between it and my Gateway 901x with a Radeon 9800 Pro connected over DVI.
- Now I’m having problems with getting DVD playback working. Ugh. Update: I install the latest chipset drivers for my system as well as new video drivers and now DVD playback is working.
