Posted December 5, 2007 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 ! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted December 5, 2007 Dell, Mesh, PC Specialist? (Or ... the ASUS EEE.) Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted December 5, 2007 ASUS EEEE? Utterly flummoxed there . Sure it's funny though . 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 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted December 5, 2007 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 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted December 5, 2007 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. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted December 5, 2007 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. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted December 5, 2007 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... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted December 5, 2007 £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 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted December 5, 2007 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! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted December 6, 2007 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) Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted December 6, 2007 http://compare.intel.com/pcc/showchart.aspx?mmID=890241,888212&familyID=1&culture=en-US Note: one is core duo and the other is core 2 duo Basically not only are you getting a faster chip but its of different design! I wish jordan would swing by and lay some smack down becuase i aint too clear on this Xd Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted December 6, 2007 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. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted December 6, 2007 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?! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted December 6, 2007 http://compare.intel.com/pcc/showchart.aspx?mmID=890241,888212&familyID=1&culture=en-USNote: one is core duo and the other is core 2 duo Basically not only are you getting a faster chip but its of different design! I wish jordan would swing by and lay some smack down becuase i aint too clear on this Xd Dude... best avatar this year =P Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted December 6, 2007 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? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted December 6, 2007 My friend built a pc inside of a shoebox. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted December 7, 2007 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 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted December 8, 2007 Cheers for the feedback guys. 've been looking at SHUTTLE PC's and they are pretty swizz Hopefully get one for under 200 notes. Woo! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted December 8, 2007 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. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted December 8, 2007 Somehow I knew you were going to come here jasper. 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 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted December 8, 2007 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:. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted December 9, 2007 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? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted December 9, 2007 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) Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted December 9, 2007 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. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted December 9, 2007 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... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
