http://hd.engadget.com/2005/11/21/sub-grand-wmce-the-base-system/ Engadget HD Comments for Sub-grand WMCE 1: the base system http://hd.engadget.com/media/feedlogo.gif http://hd.engadget.com en-us Copyright 2009 Weblogs, Inc. The contents of this feed are available for non-commercial use only. Blogsmith http://www.blogsmith.com/http://hd.engadget.com/2005/11/21/sub-grand-wmce-the-base-system/http://hd.engadget.com/2005/11/21/sub-grand-wmce-the-base-system/Nov 21st 2005 5:56PMhttp://hd.engadget.com/2005/11/21/sub-grand-wmce-the-base-system/http://hd.engadget.com/2005/11/21/sub-grand-wmce-the-base-system/
I think you would have done better to build the PC from scratch, actually.

I have no doubt that you could build a Media PC for under $1000. I've done it.

AMD Athlon 64 3000+ $140
MSI K8N Neo Platinum $95
NVidia 6600GT video card $140
1GB RAM $90
2 160GB hard drives $60 ($30 each on Black Friday)
HDTV Wonder $100 (CompUSA right now)
BenQ 1640 DVD Writer $40
Windows XP Media Center Edition $115
Some case with a 400W power supply $80

That is $860. I used the Kram drivers so I didn't need an SD capture card. And, actually, I already had a power supply and case for it from a previous computer project. I've since added another 250GB hard drive for $90, and I plan on adding another 500GB soon, which should work out to around $120. So, over 1TB for $120 + $90 + $60 = $270 using 5 hard drives. ;) If I were to do it now, I'd probably just buy 3 300GB SATA hard drives for $90 each.]]>Nov 22nd 2005 9:04AMhttp://hd.engadget.com/2005/11/21/sub-grand-wmce-the-base-system/http://hd.engadget.com/2005/11/21/sub-grand-wmce-the-base-system/
What's up with the "Kram drivers", does that get past MCE's need for a separate analog tuner?

How does the HDTV wonder work with the non-ATI card? How does it work in general?

How does it perform with the 3000+? Feel any need for a hyperthreaded CPU? Feel any need for a higher performance CPU?]]>Nov 22nd 2005 9:56AMhttp://hd.engadget.com/2005/11/21/sub-grand-wmce-the-base-system/http://hd.engadget.com/2005/11/21/sub-grand-wmce-the-base-system/Nov 22nd 2005 11:48AMhttp://hd.engadget.com/2005/11/21/sub-grand-wmce-the-base-system/http://hd.engadget.com/2005/11/21/sub-grand-wmce-the-base-system/
The HDTV Wonder only serves to stream MPEG2 video from the antenna into the computer. Media Center then records the stream straight to the hard drive. There is no encoding involved. And playback is purely a function of the MPEG2 decoder and the video card. So, really, the ATI HDTV Wonder and the NVidia 6600GT don't even interact at all! There is no issue with compatibility at all.

The Socket 754 3000+ performed perfectly. However, I ended up with a good opportunity to build a 3.4GHz Pentium 4 system, and I did so. The AMD has been replaced. The ASUS P5LD2 motherboard/P4 that I have now seems to do a better job at going into and out of S3 sleep mode. The AMD took longer to resume and go to sleep. The nice thing about Media Center is that the recording task runs as a service. It will wake your PC up from S3 or hibernation mode about 5 minutes before a recording is set to start. After the recording is done, it will go right back to sleep!]]>Nov 22nd 2005 7:22PMhttp://hd.engadget.com/2005/11/21/sub-grand-wmce-the-base-system/http://hd.engadget.com/2005/11/21/sub-grand-wmce-the-base-system/
start from scratch. I did it. use an AMD Athlon 3200+ or higher ($145,- and $80,-)and one of those nvidia nforce 430 / 6150 based boards and you will spare yourself a videocard. put that into memory and storage and up go the specs of your little powerhouse.

I have build mine using
Asus A8N vm-CSM
athlon 64 3200+
1024 MB kingston
samsung 250Gb s-ata 300 (silent!!)
Firedtv DVB-T hdtv tuner
crystalfontz LCD in front of cabinet
silverstone passive PSU (silent again!!)
Plextor slot in DVD burner
and I converted an old Cyberhome DVD player case to match my stereo.
all this at a mere 870,-
and that's in europe guys, i'm sure this can be done in the us too as all goods need to be imported here.
]]>Dec 9th 2005 8:17AMhttp://hd.engadget.com/2005/11/21/sub-grand-wmce-the-base-system/http://hd.engadget.com/2005/11/21/sub-grand-wmce-the-base-system/Dec 9th 2005 9:02AM