Hello. I'm a student in college and I thought it would be a good project to put together a computer for my house next year to simply hold my music and movies to watch on the shared tv. I'm planning on running linux and I'm trying to be as cheap as possible (I completely understand that sometimes it's not possible to go cheap on everything). I've been pricing some hard drives and cpus, etc, but what do I need to be aware of to make sure everything is compatible? Thanks in advance
Building a Media Computer
- Thread starter Soccer21x
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Hello, your best bet is to make a mini Home server, just get an old PC preferably windows, then copy all your music to that machine. Once you have done that share the hard drive on your network, then if you have any other PC's such as a laptop hook it up to your TV or Sound System and your away.
However if you want to use Linux you should look into samba, just the same as with windows it lets you share a hard drive basically.
Hope this helped
However if you want to use Linux you should look into samba, just the same as with windows it lets you share a hard drive basically.
Hope this helped
foothead
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What you are trying to do is referred to as a htpc (home theatre pc). I have one, and it is very nice.
The biggest thing to ask yourself is if you want it to be capable of HD video playback. If yes, you should go with something along the lines of a Sempron 140 or athlon II, with at least a HD 4350 (no IGP!!!). If no, then I am sure you could find an old P4 computer on eBay for less than $100, and that would work fine.
As far as compatibility, the main things you should know are the socket types and what they support. AM3 is the one you will most likely be using. With an AM3 socket, you have two choices of mobo: AM2+/AM3 or just AM3. The ones that support AM2+ as well will be compatible with only DDR2. The AM3 only board will be compatible with only DDR3. I sugget you go with AM3/DDR3 because of the futureproofing it will give you.
Hope this helped. Feel free to ask any more questions.
The biggest thing to ask yourself is if you want it to be capable of HD video playback. If yes, you should go with something along the lines of a Sempron 140 or athlon II, with at least a HD 4350 (no IGP!!!). If no, then I am sure you could find an old P4 computer on eBay for less than $100, and that would work fine.
As far as compatibility, the main things you should know are the socket types and what they support. AM3 is the one you will most likely be using. With an AM3 socket, you have two choices of mobo: AM2+/AM3 or just AM3. The ones that support AM2+ as well will be compatible with only DDR2. The AM3 only board will be compatible with only DDR3. I sugget you go with AM3/DDR3 because of the futureproofing it will give you.
Hope this helped. Feel free to ask any more questions.
