Part two of this two part article is based on the Software required to get your Media Center PC up and running.  If you remember from part 1, we have a $600 budget but only spent about $400.

Operating System:

Really the most expensive component of this PC is the operating system.  What you’re looking for is a copy of  Vista that has Media Center in it.  There are two options: Windows Vista Home Premium and Vista Ultimate.

If you have an existing copy of XP (that is not installed on another computer) you can upgrade to Vista cheaper than buying it.  If you don’t have an extra copy then you can buy a legit version off ebay for $128.  The upgrades go for half the price at around $65 dollars.  You might ask, “Well why don’t I just go with XP Media Center 2005?”.  Well you can, but with Windows 7 coming out towards the end of this year XP is going to start really getting phased out this year.

If you’re really adventurous you can go with Windows 7 Beta Ultimate which has Media Center built into it – but remember its a beta, and it expires in August ‘09.  But the download is free for a couple more weeks.  I’m sure though someone will have a copy – but you want to make sure you get your legitimate key before hand.  I’ve tested Windows 7 on my Macbook and it runs pretty well.  You can read up on that experience here.

Anyway,  the one thing to take out of this is that you do want to ensure that you are purchasing a 64 bit version of Vista – or if you’re downloading Windows 7, make sure you get the 64bit version as you want to take advantage of the 4GB of RAM, and the 64bit dual core processor.

General Purpose Video Player:

One great video player that has all of the codecs you would ever need built into it is VLC Media Player.  Downloaded a 1080p H.264 MKV file no problem VLC has the codec to play this built in.

It’s free, open source, and works on any operating system.  Now the drawback is that when you go to play that 1080p MKV file with a 2.0 GHZ dual core processor it is going to choke on the video file and die and you’ll notice your CPU is through the roof.  Again this is something I pointed out – few tools are optimized to utilize multi-core CPUs and VLC.  This is where specialized codecs come in handy.

Codecs:

The thing about codecs is if you load too many of them you’ll screw up your system.  For the most part you’re going to need 4 things.  FFDshow, Hali Media Splitter, and the MKV codec, and divx.  The first 3 can all be installed by getting the Combined Community Codec Pack.

They have a free player as well, try it if you like, but all you need is the actual codec pack.  Divx can be found by going to divx.com. You’ll notice that this is, in many cases, the default encoder for videos that you would upload to youtube etc.   There is a player that they offer as well, but all you really need is to ensure you have the updated codec from them.

Now you might say “But there are other codec packs like the Vista Codec Pack out there.”  This is true, but generally you only need a couple codecs and heck, you may not even need these, it depends on the format of the HD content you’re viewing.

CoreAVC:

So now you’ve pulled down all of the above free tools and codecs and you’re still having problems running a smooth 720p or 1080p h.264 MKV file.  There is only one option when it comes to codecs that has any twinkle of multi-core support (even if its not great).  CoreAVC. 

This codec is not free, and rightly so – it allows you to buy a slower dual-core processor and utilize it, as opposed to going out and buying a more expensive piece of hardware.   You do not want to buy the standard edition you want to spring for the professional edition as it does offer support of SMP (mult-core CPU).  The great news is there is a free trial so you can download, install and test it out to verify.   Not only that you’ll notice that if you compare video quality of VLC with a higher-powered processor vs. CoreAVC the picture quality is better with fewer dropped frames.   At $15 bucks, its a small investment to have high quality decoding.

Zoom Player:

Now, when installing codecs, where do they go? They install to windows but not all players allow you to easily choose which codec to use in which scenario.  There are work arounds to allow Windows Media Center to take advantage of all codecs but if you’d like to have more control and ease of use/choice there is one last Media player that you should take a peak at.  Zoom Player.  You can change codecs on the fly and I find that it plays MKV files with CoreAVC very well as it seems to use less overhead than launching Media Center.  The drawback of course is that you can’t use your Media Center Remote with it.

BlueRay/HDDVD Player:
When it comes to playing actual HDDVD’s or BlueRays – or maybe you have the actual files on your computer – if its real BlueRay files the answer is simple.  PowerDVD.

Forget about Codecs, if you’re watching real HDDVD or BlueRay content off a file or the disc itself PowerDVD offloads the processing power to your Video Card and unlocks the performance of the card to run a smooth viewing experience.   The unfortunate part of this is of course is that the cost is slightly higher the Ultra version of this is $99 bucks.  Remeber I said the main costs are software.  Here you go.  Sometimes you’ll get lucky and it will come with a DVD drive or with a video card but chances are you’ll need to buy this direct or upgrade from a previous version.  But if you are not watching Blue Rays/HDDVD’s then you don’t have to worry as you don’t need Power DVD to play a regular old DVD in your computer – Windows Media Center takes care of that.

Why don’t you use open source?
This is actually an easy question to answer.  It boils down to ease of use and availability of compatible software and devices.  To an average person trying to figure out installing codecs to Linux, trying to find a decent tool to capture and record TV and/or act like a Media center in Linux, finding good software that can play a movie – not only that how about trying to get COREAVC to work in Linux.   Can it be done? Yes.  But this is about the path of least resistance.   And I’m sure someone is going to chime in and say “oh but you could do this so easy in ubuntu with x program and x configuration all you have to do is recompile this, modify that”.

Stop that.  Seriously.  Soon as you talking about recompiling a kernel, yeah the novice user isn’t going to do that nor do they need to.  There is a lot to know as it is just to do it in windows – you jump the complexity bar WAAAY up there when you add in an open source OS solution.  That’s why Linux is still not mainstream.  And I’m a person who runs a flavor of Linux on one of my machines right now.

But, because you’re going to google it and find us – I’ve gone ahead and done the research for you because that’s the type of jackass I am.  Go here to check out Media Center type setup for Linux.

Summary of Cost:

Windows OS Upgrade $65
CoreAVC 14.95
PowerDVD 8 Ultra 99.00

Total Software $178.95

Summation:

You may or may not need all of the extra pieces of software but when you add it up – we’re still under $600, in some cases you might even come in under $500.  With todays economy piecing together a system like this can make things a bit easier.  Not only that you might find some really good deals on additional used or spare parts.

2008 was about crapping your pants because you lost 40% of your 401k, learning how to donate plasma to buy movie tickets, and finding out that you’re not getting a pay raise.  2009 is going to be totally about  buying used, saving money, and smart shopping, and the continued intricacies of selling bodily fluids for money.  Because of that, I thought I’d put together a quick guide on building a mostly budget media center PC.

Many people would like to have Tivo right? Tivo is pretty expensive, your cable provider may give you a DVR but they usually charge a monthly rate to it as well.  Not only that if you want to capture and/or record HDTV shows as they are broadcasted you also need to pay more for an HD TIVO etc.

How about have a machine that can play dvds, play downloaded videos, online content, play music, show your photos all on your tv?  How much?  Sub $600.

What to expect from this article

I’m going to get very in depth into each component, types of video format you might encounter, types of players to watch internet media on, types of processors, multiple cores.  I’m going to try to explain this as best as possible but if you need more clarification just post a comment.   For the most part you should expect that this will be very detailed and will cover just about every aspect.

How can you build a media center PC so cheap that can do all of that?

Simple.  You don’t need top of the line to watch tv and surf the web on your computer.  All you need is a decent video card, processor, and some storage space.  Not only that if you can acquire the parts used, all the better.

Where to start?

Tools of the trade:
Ebay
Craigslist
Goodwill
New Egg
Your Office

I’m personally building a media center PC for Mimzy and I’ve been collecting parts here and there for the past 2 months.  By taking my time, doing some research, I’ve been able to jump on some great deals on both used and new parts.   First things first, why not start with a case.

Computer Case

How much room do you have next to your tv? Are you putting it on the floor? In an entertainment center? Are you running a set of cables to it?  If you don’t care about looks and will take anything you can get – why not check craigslist to see if anyone is giving away an old computer- you know the kind that is 8 years old and runs windows 98 still.  The case is fine, heck you could even repaint that beige nightmare of an old case to black or silver with some spray paint.  Another place to look is the Goodwill store – people donate old computers and computer parts all the time.  Just make sure the case can hold an ATX size motherboard and you’re fine.

Want to splurge?  Check out New Egg for Media Center Case.

You might also check your company that you work for.  They tend to phase out older systems and donate them – if you’re buddy buddy with your CIO you can sometimes score a free to almost free case. Since I actually had an old case laying around I utilized it, but had I not there are plenty of old cases to be had for less than $20.

Processor

There are a ton of processors out there and lots of deals.  One thing to know is that while your graphics card can do dvd, blueray, hddvd processing on actual disks, it may not handle any processing on downloaded HD content  – ie from iTunes , Netflix, or Blockbuster, or other legitimate source (or illegetimate if you so choose but we aren’t going to talk about that).  So when it comes to playing downloaded content all of the processing power will fall to your CPU.

The reason I mention this is because in many cases to save on bandwidth, a company will compress HD quality stream or download size by using H.264 compression.  The current codecs that help process these larger files are not multi-core optimized so having more cores on a processor (Like a new Intel i7 or Amd Phenom)  does little to no good.  Not only that, going with a slower CPU speed per core (Ie 1.6GHZ x4 Cores) means that the Video player you most likely would use is going to only utilize one of those 1.6Ghz Cores.  So the other 3 Processor cores will be sitting idle.

One solution CORE AVC has been working on optimizing their codec to utilize multiple cores and have marketed towards it in their premium package.   Not to get into the uber technical but they all have issues with threading and handling decoding on which core can handle which portion and thus its not as efficient as you would hope.  But, I can say that without a doubt if you’re going to be watching any high def H.264 content that you download (- that is not on an actual disk) then Core AVC is the best codec out there to handle the load.

So what type of processor should you go with? I suggest Dual Core, there is no reason to go with a quad core due to the current limitations.  The good news also is that you can get higher GHz processors that are dual core at a bargin.  Anything 2.0GHz and above will work well.  I picked up an AMD Athlon 3800 x2 64 (2Ghz) for $20 bucks.  Intel has plenty of Dual Core processors as well – but really price for performance at this level I’ve found great deals on the AMD processors and I’m not looking for high-end speed, just the right amount.

The other thing to think about is heat and power consumption.  We’re trying to stay low budget here so you don’t want to have to purchase a 1000 Watt power supply to push your processor and/or video card.  So look for the lower Watt processors like the 3800, or 4800. Basically anything done on less than a 90nm processor die.

Video Card

The video card is a pretty integral part of this system in that it potentially can offload some of the processing power on real disks such as an actual DVD or BlueRay if you splurge and put a drive in your PC.  But the good news in budget shopping is that you’re not gaming on this system most likely you’re only watching videos, tv, etc so you don’t need a high-end video card.   Nvidia launched Hi-Def componants on some of their 7000 series and 8500 and above series video cards called PureVideoHD.

This feature is pretty important when building a media center and the cards that have this are now several years old so the price is way down.  Not only that you can find some pretty good deals on used video cards as gamers are constantly buying the faster video cards and are discarding their slower 1-2 year old cards.   I looked on ebay and found a Nvidia 8600 GTS 256MB for $35 bucks shipped.  Sure it was used, but it will do the job.

Power Supply

So now that we’ve taken care of the two power hungry parts in the computer, it’s now time to feed them.  Enter the power supply.  If you want to ever upgrade the processor in this case or the video card, you might think hard about spending enough to get something that can power future upgrades.  My 2 cents is to purchase nothing lower than 400 Watt power supply.

The other thing to look at when looking at power supplies is efficiancy.  Try to find something 80% efficient – but the more efficient you get the power supply the higher the cost will be.  I managed to hop on craigslist and find a RAIDMAX 450 Watt power supply for $20.   I know that the remaining parts that I would put in will not draw enough power to warrant needing anything else and even if I upgrade processor I’ll still be ok with this as long as I stick to the smaller die cores.

RAM

Ram (memory) is cheap.  If you plan on running Vista you might as well stick with 4GB of Ram.  And since you’re not overclocking ( I don’t suggest it). ..

You don’t need to buy gamer ram or overclocking ram so you can stick with the value memory.  I don’t suggest going ubercheap but there are great deals on 2×2GB stick kits.  There is also no real reason to jump on board for DDR3 at this point – stick with DDR2 800Mhz or 1066Mhz if you find a great deal.   I picked up 2×2GB (4GB total) sticks of RAM from New Egg for $33 bucks shipped.

Sound Card

You may have noticed tons of marketing on different Sound Blaster cards and special gamer cards etc. but the bottom line is that sound cards really haven’t changed drastically on quality in about 10 years.  I have a sound blaster LIVE that I bought in 99 that has gold connectors and supports 5.1 surround digitally for $200 bucks that still works great.

I think the biggest change now is that some companies are putting led lights in the ports in the back of the sound cards so you can see which port is the right one you need to plug into.  While its a cool feature, its not a selling point for a budget PC.   I would suggest the Sound Blaster Audigy 2.  They’ve been out for darn near 5 years and work like a champ.   I picked one up used on ebay for $25 bucks shipped.  The important part on these is to make sure that you have a digital out to go to an amplifier or if you’re hooking up to high-end computer speakers then you’re just fine since it has all the connections.

Motherboard

The thing with motherboards is that you can go with an older model for cheap but if you plan on doing any sort of update to your processor you might think of getting middle of the road or newer .  If you’re going AMD like I chose, there are some pretty good deals on socket AM2+ and AM3 motherboards.  I would suggest getting a motherboard that can handle more than 2 core processors.  Reason being is that you can expect in the next year or so that there will be continued updates to how software utilizes multiple core processors.  With these updates to software it will make much more sense in getting a quad core processor.

Gigabyte has a good motherboard for $84 bucks that supports all current and future Am3 from 45n and up to 140W processors.   This model GIGABYTE GA-MA78GM-S2HP is a Micro ATX motherboard so it allows you to build a smaller system.  It has a PCI Express slot for your video card a PCI Express x1 slot for a TV card and two PCI slots – one for your sound card with digital out and the other for whatever else.   The nice thing about this motherboard is that it has an onboard sound – which I’m not a fan of but you can save money by not buying an additional sound card.  Not only that it has a built on ATI video card – but it utilizes your system memory so it can cause a performance hit – I usually stear clear of built in video cards.  I picked this up for $80.

But if you decide to run with the on board video it does have an HDMI out which is very handy.

Another motherboard to look at if you’re not doing all of the on board goodies is the Asus ASUS M2N68-AM AM2+.  It has the same slots, slower on board video and less outputs for sound but its also $54.  The draw back is that it has less support for future processors.

Video Capture Card

This is an option.  You may or may not want to watch TV through your media center.   If you want to make your PC a TV then this is a must have.  I would suggest one that can record two shows at the same time just because I roll like that.  What you need to ensure is that you get one that does HDTV, cable TV, over the air, and if they throw in a remote, also a plus.

Hauppauge WinTV-HVR 1800 MCE Kit 1128 PCI-Express x1 Interface comes with a Media Center remote, 2 TV in and 1 Out.  It’s PCIEx1 so even if you picked up the smaller ATX motherboard there should be a PCIEx1 slot.   The card runs about $99 and is harder to find used.

DVD Drive
I picked up a Samsung 16x DVD+- RW DL lightscribe drive for $20 shipped.  You can pick up better deals on used DVD drives that don’t burn even cheaper – $10 used.

Hard Drive

Last but not least is the hard drive.  The storage unit of all of your tv shows etc.  If you plan on recording any HD content I suggest picking up a Terabyte drive.  Samsung has one that runs for $99 that is Sata 3.0Gb/s.  I wouldn’t suggest going with anything slower as you’re going to need to write to this drive.  32MB cache is pretty good idea as well.

Summary

So there you have it, all the parts you need (save mouse and keyboard).

Case $20
Processor $20
Video Card $35
Power Supply $20
RAM $33
Motherboard $80
TV Card $99
DVD RW $20
Hard Drive $99
Total $426

You might say, hey we’re way under $600 but remember this is Part 1 of 2 and Part 2 we cover the software – including Windows. The most expensive purchase.  You might ask why don’t we go with another option.  I’ll cover that in Part 2.