Any one own Windows Media center PC and it's required Hardware recommendations?

I am planning to build a new PC with Windows Media center OS, and use the desktop as my entertainment PVR/DVR and many more uses.

I am searching for good harware, and I want to hear your recommendations...

You only need so so CPU, graphic card and ram, what is VERY important is that you get
a TV tuner that has hardware encoder, otherwise MCE won't recognize the TV tuner,
and also a big harddrive would be a good idea too.
I will be working on same project in November or over Xmas, I am planning to use
my current AMD 1700+ and buy faster CPU for my main system.
PC Magazine had a good article on making a MCE computer yourself, I don't know
if they have it online, do you want me to scan it for you and post it here?

I got the PC Mag, however they talked about the systems that are prebuilt, but you gave me the good information about TV tuner ahrdware encoder, I missed that in my list.

I am also working on the MCE project to built this Xmas. Why does Faster CPU is not req for MCE? any comments?

I am planning to have SATA 200 GB Hard drive and the list that I have so far is:

1)ICE Cube type Tower (Still searching for the nice one)
2)400 W power supply
3)FIREWIRE/USB2 PCI slots
4)7.1 Channel output and Optical output Audio Card (Any recommendations?)
5)TV Tuner and DVI integrated Vedio Card, I have a plsma TV and I want to connect to TV directly with DVI
6) SATA 200 GB Hard disk
7) Intel P4 hyper Thread 64 bit CPU
8) Microsoft MCE Remote
9) 7-in-1 Memory card reader front panel outputs
10) Wireless Keyboard and mouse
11) 1GB DDR ECC RAM
12) WIRELESS Desktop Card (Pref G or Pre-N)

Budget is arround ~600, not sure I can get it done under 600$


any recommendations on hardware selctions or deals to save money?
I really appreciate your feedback or posts or PM's

It's actually in Fall 2004, page 66 titled Do It Yourself DVR, you can just follow the same steps
and install MCE 2005 instead and you will have the same thing from top of the shelf in store.
In PC Mag it says:


So unless you are making it super high quality or planning to play games on it,
I do not think you need all that P4 HT and stuff, you might wanna get a budget
AMD Sempron 2400+ Boxed Processor with Motherboard for $70
and save yourself $200 comparning to getting a P4 HT.
I think you can make the whole thing for under $500.

Also as faster CPU not required for MCE, it's because you will have a hardware encoder TV tuner card,
you know how some PCs share the system and video RAM?
But, if you get a seperate video card your game and whole system becomes much faster?
It's exact same thing here.
By having hardware encoder TV tuner, most of the encoding of raw data to encoded video
is done in the TV tuner card, not CPU, so you could be literally burning CDs at 52x and
recording a live TV program with time shifting. (no promises there, but I've seen it done)

Also I will STRONGLY urge you to stay away from all in one model video card,
those are just simple waste of money because when you want to upgrade your video
card in future you will have to pay yet another $100 extra for the TV tuner function.
Get video and TV tuner cards seperately, that way you can upgrade them at different time.
That is just IMHO though.

Check out http://www.xpmce.com/forum/forum2.html

When are you planing to build this thing?
I will be waiting until Black Friday to get some great deals.

Frequently Asked Questions About Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005

Couple of Usenet Groups:
microsoft.public.windows.mediacenter
microsoft.public.windows.mediacenter.hometheaterpc

Cool , very good information, very useful, saved me good money on the paper now before building it.

Let me hunt for deals on Video Card, and CPU's, please post if you find any good deals.

I second getting separate video and tuner cards - in fact, I don't think there ARE any all in one cards w/ hardware encoders. For MCE you HAVE to have the hardware encoder. I'm currently using a 9800AIW in my HTPC - I'm not running MCE, so the hardware encoder wasn't required. The TV quality is lower and it runs the proc harder.

Anyone has a good advice on SHELF type CPU Case? I want it to look like a Receiver or a DVD player on the entertainment section

Also any reviews or experiances on this dash board?
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detai...d=35MKAMHUMYAQ7

I ran across this one in my searches and am in the process of doing the same thing. Take a look and if anyone has any additional input it would be much appreciated. http://www.newegg.com or this one newegg.com_second_case

IMO, the thing to be concerned about the Antec Minuet case is that it will only suport low profile AGP or PCI cards...unless they changed the design since I last looked at it.

Linky no worky on second case.

Alan is correct, Expansion Slots: 4 Half height

Also, your second link for the "second case" is incorrectly linked