Getting parents a new multimedia pc

airbornflght

So my parents are looking for a new computer and have told me what they want it to handle productivity (office, internet, etc.) and multimedia.

Here are my thoughts thus far:

• Dual Digital TV tuner for use with Windows Media Center 7
• One of those swank new ATI video cards for HDMI+Audio output to our receiver.
• 4 GB of ram or so
• Plenty of hard drive space. Thinking 1TB storage drive and either a small SSD or raptor for the boot drive.
  

The budget is $1000 ± $200

My main issue is picking a Motherboard/Processor combo as I'm a bit out of the loop.

I really don't think it will take $1000 to do what I want. Because if there is money left over I'd like to fit in a new widescreen monitor as their old 19" lcd is 6 years old.

Also, a decent power supply recomendation would be good as I know the better brands are constantly changing. I have a corsair 520 modular and it is beastly with a nice and heave transformer on the inside.

//EDIT
On second thought, after looking at the SSD prices they are still crazy expensive.

_k

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.303840 Roughly 200$ gets you something slightly slower than a e8400 and a good atx board, since you were talking about buying a vid card. 4GB of DDR3 is going to cost you just under 100$. Stick with the same PSU, its still really good, 90$. 90$ currently for a seagate 1T, 3 year warranty.

Thats short of 400$ right there.

Cliff_Forster

airbornflght wrote:

So my parents are looking for a new computer and have told me what they want it to handle productivity (office, internet, etc.) and multimedia.

Here are my thoughts thus far:

• Dual Digital TV tuner for use with Windows Media Center 7
• One of those swank new ATI video cards for HDMI+Audio output to our receiver.
• 4 GB of ram or so
• Plenty of hard drive space. Thinking 1TB storage drive and either a small SSD or raptor for the boot drive.
  

The budget is $1000 ± $200

My main issue is picking a Motherboard/Processor combo as I'm a bit out of the loop.

I really don't think it will take $1000 to do what I want. Because if there is money left over I'd like to fit in a new widescreen monitor as their old 19" lcd is 6 years old.

Also, a decent power supply recomendation would be good as I know the better brands are constantly changing. I have a corsair 520 modular and it is beastly with a nice and heave transformer on the inside.

//EDIT
On second thought, after looking at the SSD prices they are still crazy expensive.

Gonna be 3D gaming on it at all? If not the AMD 785G motherboards have a decent on board graphics solution to accelerate HD video and many have the HDMI output built onto the board.

mas0n

I would go with:

Gigabyte GA-MA785GM-US2H (on-board HD4200 with HDMI out)
Athlon II X2 240 (plenty fast for a HTPC and only 65W)
4GB OCZ something or another
Western Digital WD20EADS (very quiet 2TB drive)

Then just find yourself a nice quiet PSU and an attractive case and you're good to go. Maybe a Blu-ray player if they're interested.

I can't really offer advice on a tuner card.

The hard drive is only 5900 RPM, but it's nearly silent. Create a small partition for the OS and when the prices on SSDs come down you could clone that partition to one and have a damn near perfect HTPC.

primesuspect

Did you see our ultimate HTPC?