Building an Affordable MC PC - Part 1 The Basic Box
For a while now I have wanted to add a media center PC to my entertainment center rack in the living room. As more and more content has become available online that desire has grown - Netflix on-demand, Hulu, etc. Not to mention a few years ago I ripped all of our 600+ CD’s to an external hard drive and I really wanted to have that easy digital access with my Yamaha A/V Receiver and speakers.
Recently I made up my mind to finally take the plunge with an affordable DIY version of the Media Center.
I began by scanning Ebay for an existing, working box with the one criteria being the shape - a desktop instead of a tower. This would make it much easier to fit into the rack since it has the basic stereo component shape.
I ended up bidding on, and winning, a Compaq Pentium 4 with a fresh install of XP Pro. It has 512mb of RAM and a 40GB hard drive. On-board sound and video round out this basic package.
Like I said, the important thing here was the form, so now the real work begins…
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