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little PC...

tapedeck

By tapedeck
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tapedeck Newbie

tapedeck

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Ok, I'm after a small small small PC. Something I can use in the living room and it can sit in my home entertainment setup. And the thing is I will only need it for movie playback, net use and possibly games. Ok, so maybe not games. But I'm only looking to spend around £200. And I don't need a monitor. That is what the telly will be for see?

 

I've googled etc but cant really find what I am after. If anyone could offer any tips/advice/websites etc that would be great ! :)

tapedeck Newbie

tapedeck

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ASUS EEEE? Utterly flummoxed there :confused: . Sure it's funny though :smile:.

 

Anyhoo, been to look at dell etc...I'm not fussed at all. Nothing found as of yet. But ANY make will do as it's just to make the home entertainment setup even better :)

AeroScap Newbie

AeroScap

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he means the "EeePc" which has a tv out but runs on linux though acer does encourage you to install xp on it AND people have managed to get leopard on it!

I'd for for one of the half sized dell pcs! most can run the majority of games around and they are tinyy!!! plus you can opt out of a monitor BUT they are cheap and turn it around on ebay for a bit of a profit!

 

Edit: I'm seriously thinking of getting one since my big ass 9200 dell cant be lugged around from uni and home and the library! :P

McPhee Newbie

McPhee

Posted
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If you wanted something truly small then theres a lot of people doing custom builds on the Hiper Media Centre cases. They're the same size/shape as a DVD player.

 

Alternatively, save some money by buying an Xbox and hacking it, should only set you back around £50 these days

 

Out of curiosity though, why not just use you're Wii? I has a web browser and you can stream media from you're computer through that.

Guest Jordan

Guest Jordan

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If you want a really good small PC.

 

You can get cube PC's that have a Micro ATX form factor which are stupidly small.

McPhee Newbie

McPhee

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Actually, after looking around an Archos TV+ would do the job. It's not a computer, but it'll play, record and stream media and you can get a web browser for it.

 

Not all that cheap though, a computer might be better value for money...

tapedeck Newbie

tapedeck

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£210 for this little pc...

 

Components

Intel® Pentium® Dual-Core E2140 Processor (1.6GHz,800MHz,1MB cache)

Genuine Windows® XP Professional - English

Base Warranty - 1 Year Business Hardware Support

No 19" Wide Monitor

1024MB 667MHz Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM [2x512]

250GB (7200rpm) Serial ATA Hard Drive with 8MB DataBurst™ cache

Integrated Intel® Graphic Media Accelerator X3100

16x DVD +/- RW Drive

Dell™ Entry Quietkey USB Keyboard - UK/Irish (QWERTY)

Dell 2 Button USB Optical Mouse

 

Any good?!

 

Wasn't sure if I needed a modem to connect to the net. I have a "wireless" dongle that came with my netgear router...is that enough or do I still need a modem. Tota noob :indeed:

AeroScap Newbie

AeroScap

Posted
Posted

ummm i mean dont expect to play like halflife 2 at any high spec or anything but its a decent pc. But with media i think it would be a good idea since you have taken away the monitor -90 you should put some of it back into a better processor since playing media depends more on that!

 

and yes as far as i know the dongle will work :) but dont dream of stream files from a network! tried that once it was slow as heck! from the internet maybe since eveyrthing has been scaled down for download!

tapedeck Newbie

tapedeck

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ummm i mean dont expect to play like halflife 2 at any high spec or anything but its a decent pc. But with media i think it would be a good idea since you have taken away the monitor -90 you should put some of it back into a better processor since playing media depends more on that!

 

Ok, for £229 I get this...

 

Intel® Core™ 2 Duo E4500 Processor (2.20GHz,800MHz,2MB cache)

Previous:

Intel® Pentium® Dual-Core E2140 Processor (1.6GHz,800MHz,1MB cache)

Guest Jordan

Guest Jordan

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If you want to stream media. Use ethernet or homeplug.

 

Wireless streaming is utter shit unless you have something like Windows Media Centre that buffers the video and stops stuttering on wireless networks.

tapedeck Newbie

tapedeck

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Nice one ppl :) Thanks for your help !!

 

Last query though..

 

THE GRAPHICS CARD: Integrated Intel® Graphic Media Accelerator X3100

 

Would this run ONE game?

 

RECOMMENDED SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS:

NVIDIA GeForce 4 Ti, ATI Radeon 9600, or higher

SUPPORTED CHIPSETS:

 

NVIDIA - GeForce 6800, GeForce FX (5950, 5900, 5800, 5600, 5200), GeForce4 Ti, GeForce3

 

ATI - Radeon x800, 9800, 9700, 9600, 9500, 9200, 9000, 8500

 

Or is the integrated one crud?!

AeroScap Newbie

AeroScap

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Dude... best avatar this year =P

 

why thankyou :)

 

--- as to the game i am unsure but there is a site out there somethinglike "could i run this" or something which just l;ooks at your pc and see if it is able to run!

 

what game is it btw?

McPhee Newbie

McPhee

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Posted
Nice one ppl :) Thanks for your help !!

 

Last query though..

 

THE GRAPHICS CARD: Integrated Intel® Graphic Media Accelerator X3100

 

Would this run ONE game?

 

RECOMMENDED SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS:

NVIDIA GeForce 4 Ti, ATI Radeon 9600, or higher

SUPPORTED CHIPSETS:

 

NVIDIA - GeForce 6800, GeForce FX (5950, 5900, 5800, 5600, 5200), GeForce4 Ti, GeForce3

 

ATI - Radeon x800, 9800, 9700, 9600, 9500, 9200, 9000, 8500

 

Or is the integrated one crud?!

 

If it ain't good enough then you can easily upgrade it. ATi HD2400 and HD2600 graphics cards are pretty cheap, great for HD video and will manage to run most games

Jasper Newbie

Jasper

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I knopw I'm going to get flamed for this one, but... get an Apple TV? It's a great next-to-your tv solution, and people have managed to crack and run macos X on it, too, so that would be a possibility.

 

Apple TV is an example of a topsetbox that streams for you, so it's a

 

I know I'm gonna get flamed for this, but why not try Apple TV? It's a genuine solution for your media-center problems. The only downside is the lack of format support for Quicktime. But some even managed to get OSX ruunning on it, so maybe you should go for that?

 

Just saying, don't shoot me for this one.

AeroScap Newbie

AeroScap

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Somehow I knew you were going to come here jasper. :heh:

 

I'm after a small small small PC.

PC

 

movie playback, net use and possibly games.

Yes, No, No

 

I'm only looking to spend around £200

 

Yeah base model is around £199

 

What you are offering is basically a giant HD which has this catchphrase "if it is on itunes its on your tv".

I also like the fact how you are paying 200 pounds or thereabouts so you can start hacking the thing to do what most pcs can already do out the box.

 

-------------

 

Personally I'd rather not spend a similar amount of money on one product or another, where one requires hacking.

 

PS: though you are entitled to your opinion :)

Jasper Newbie

Jasper

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Just throwing it in there, I would personally never buy an Apple TV if only because of the lack of supported formats (wich I said). I was just mentioning it for now. But yeah, that's what to be expected from me :wink:.

tapedeck Newbie

tapedeck

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Ok, seen one on Ebay and was just...CONFUSED!

 

Ebay one:

 

Pentium 4 HT

Processor Speed: 3,200 MHz

Memory (RAM): 1,000 MB

Hard Drive Capacity: 160 GB

 

Existing Laptop:

 

Intel R CELERON

Processor Speed: 1.05Ghz

1.49Ghz 448mb Ram

hard Drive Capacity: 32GB

 

Is the pocessor speed better on my laptop?? Mhz/Ghz? Confusing when a noob! And iis a pentium 4 better than celeron or just...Different?

McPhee Newbie

McPhee

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It's better than you're laptop (although the specs you posted can't be right surely? 48MB RAM?!?!).

 

Pentium 4s are very crap though. Try finding an Athlon 64 or Celeron instead, or even better an Athlon X2 or Pentium Dual Core

 

I'd do some research, after having a look myself it seems that £200 can buy some very good kit on the 2nd hand market if you know what you're looking for. Will be difficult for anyone to tell you what to look for because the 2nd hand market is so varied, theres thousands of different parts around that are half decent.

 

Something like this would have been perfect: http://www.avforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=663737 I'd sign up to AVforums, PM the guy asking if he's still selling and offer him £150 (it's probably worth a bit more than that, but best to start low)

AshMat Newbie

AshMat

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What games exactly do you intend to play?

Might give a better idea how good the pc will need to be, before you start throwing dual cores in etc, and getting more expensive.

tapedeck Newbie

tapedeck

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I only really play pro evo on the PC. I only play pro evo 6 too. (Posted the specs above). Other than that it's just for the usual like word docs/internet etc...

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