Media Centre
Posted: Sat Nov 10, 2007 7:53 pm
After moving into my new place, I've finally got a living room I can call my own. The trouble is, I've got nothing to put in it, entertainment-wise. I need a media centre!
Not having any money spare as usual, I raided my box'o'bits and cobbled together a usable PC. Installing it and setting it up was a catalogue of disasters, what with a corrupted W2K install, a shagged motherboard, dead memory, a wifi setup that point-blank refused to play nicely, but now it's there.
As a bonus, I found a stereo sitting in the loft, which, despite being a Goodmans, seems to work OK. A bit of hacking cables later, and it's now plugged into the PC.
Behold:
<img src='http://s2.photobucket.com/albums/y39/redeyes_uk/th_DSCF1481.jpg' border='0' alt='user posted image'>
Isn't it great? <!--emo&:lol:--><img src='http://i2.ifrm.com/html/emoticons/laugh.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='laugh.gif' /><!--endemo-->
OK, for a free throwtogether, it's not bad - it does play music! Obviously, the screen is too woeful to watch films on, and besides, it has no DVD player.
The question is, what next? Obviously I need a new screen - would 22" widescreen do the job? A DVD drive will be coming shortly, and next year I plan to get a decent amp and speakers to run it all. The case, while being pretty knackered (bits keep falling off when you touch it <!--emo&:unsure:--><img src='http://i2.ifrm.com/html/emoticons/unsure.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='unsure.gif' /><!--endemo--> ), does the job, so it's just aesthetics.
The CPU is a Duron 750 with 256mb RAM (I've got some more memory somewhere, I just can't find it!), so should probably do the job for now - just!
Suggestions please - the cheaper the better! <!--emo&:lol:--><img src='http://i2.ifrm.com/html/emoticons/laugh.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='laugh.gif' /><!--endemo-->
Not having any money spare as usual, I raided my box'o'bits and cobbled together a usable PC. Installing it and setting it up was a catalogue of disasters, what with a corrupted W2K install, a shagged motherboard, dead memory, a wifi setup that point-blank refused to play nicely, but now it's there.
As a bonus, I found a stereo sitting in the loft, which, despite being a Goodmans, seems to work OK. A bit of hacking cables later, and it's now plugged into the PC.
Behold:
<img src='http://s2.photobucket.com/albums/y39/redeyes_uk/th_DSCF1481.jpg' border='0' alt='user posted image'>
Isn't it great? <!--emo&:lol:--><img src='http://i2.ifrm.com/html/emoticons/laugh.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='laugh.gif' /><!--endemo-->
OK, for a free throwtogether, it's not bad - it does play music! Obviously, the screen is too woeful to watch films on, and besides, it has no DVD player.
The question is, what next? Obviously I need a new screen - would 22" widescreen do the job? A DVD drive will be coming shortly, and next year I plan to get a decent amp and speakers to run it all. The case, while being pretty knackered (bits keep falling off when you touch it <!--emo&:unsure:--><img src='http://i2.ifrm.com/html/emoticons/unsure.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='unsure.gif' /><!--endemo--> ), does the job, so it's just aesthetics.
The CPU is a Duron 750 with 256mb RAM (I've got some more memory somewhere, I just can't find it!), so should probably do the job for now - just!
Suggestions please - the cheaper the better! <!--emo&:lol:--><img src='http://i2.ifrm.com/html/emoticons/laugh.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='laugh.gif' /><!--endemo-->