Media Center Setup
I’ve been asked for my Media Center PC hardware configuration so here it is:
I run Windows XP MCE2005 NL Edition (update rollup 2) on a Asus P4B533 motherboard installed in a standard midi case inc. low noise power supply containing a 120mm fan having 1024 MB ram accompanied by an Intel P4 1.8GHz cooled by a Zalman CNSP9500LED running in passive mode. A wireless PCI connects with my home network. To store my music and movies it uses a Western Digital 160 GB hard disk (and content server sitting on the network). Next, sound on board with a Hauppauge WinTV PVR 150MCE tuner and ATI Radeon 9250 128 MB connects with my TV/stereo setup. No DVD/CD player installed, instead it streams content using daemon-tools emulation. MCE runs fine on this budget hardware and does its work quietly with just a single 120mm fan installed.
I hope this will be of any help for those planning to build a budget Media Center PC.