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[Chris P Duck]

Just wondering if anyone uses either of the above platforms and what their experiences are...
I use an Xbox (not 360) networked into my system and use the media centre to stream movies/music etc from my PC upstairs. Im just starting to build a new HTPC based around the Antec Fusion case.
Anyone here doing similar or planning to?

Antec Fusion case

[Pwiggler]

hi chris

a year last feb i built a pc out of old bits and bobs i had lying around and bodged it into an old desktop case, then installed MCE2005, wireless nic and a nova-t tuner card.  i stuck it in the video cassette draw in my tv cabinet and  attached it to my hdtv via a vga cable.

i was up and running with freeview channels, recording and scheduling recordings and playback was really good quality.  hooked upto the network/net no problem.  dragged all my digi cam pics and mp3s onto it, installed torrent client, p2p and other odds and sods.

it does all my downloading 24/7, any tv shows/films d/l straight to my video folder so i can hit play on the mce remote to watch em (if they dont need un-rarin).  same with music and pics.  the kids play all their games on it and school work and i happily play UT and trackmania on my lovely big tv. 

the one time it was down was when i tried to update the chipset drivers - bsod on boot    ended up having to xcopy everything from winre manually onto another drive coz i didnt have space to put an os and all the data on it.  it was absolute panic - i couldnt do without my mce for a night !  didnt take that long to get it all installed again (didnt take a drive image! doh) and managed to watch a couple of episodes of '24' before bed time!

all in all my mce is absolutely brilliant and is used on a daily basis by all the family.  the next thing i wanna do is connect to it from my pda phone to schedule tv show recordings etc ......  usa has this already (microsofts remote access to mce) but we aint 

paul

[Chris P Duck]

Good to see its geting well used
Only using the "modified" xbox atm so cant comment on MCE yet. While the Xbox is great, Im looking forward to dowloading some hidef content and timeshifting the TV.
So far I have my Fusion (v2) case and Abit mobo with HDMI. In my sights for the rest of the build (shopping around this weekend) is 2gb of ddr2, Samsung spinpoint sata 500gb, samsung dvdr drive. Not sure on the OS yet, probably XP in the short term with a third party media center, but eventually Vista.

[Pwiggler]

wots with the 3rd party media center?

i'm not bothering with vista mc coz some of the kids stuff wont run on it and mce2005 is doin me proud atm.

[Chris P Duck]

wots with the 3rd party media center?

i'm not bothering with vista mc coz some of the kids stuff wont run on it and mce2005 is doin me proud atm.

http://www.team-mediaportal.com/
or summat similar

[Chris P Duck]

I have actually started the build now (could take a while as this is my first) I have done the easy bits- Mobo is in with the CPU and fan, hard drives and DVD drive are in.
I just need to suss out how to wire it all in now    Ive only managed to connect the power / data cables for the HDD and DVD and the CPU fan control to the mobo... This is a steep learning curve Im on!

[kitz]

Good luck with it all... theres nothing like the feeling of having built your own PC. 
My last few have been bought packages and theyve never really felt "mine" like the ones I used to build were.

[Pwiggler]

go on chris .... connect the front panel blocks and hit the power button 

[Chris P Duck]

My OS arrived today (vista OEM premium) so hopefully when I get a chance over the next day or two I will light the touch paper

[Chris P Duck]

Well, its all built and fired up first time! The only thing that didnt work was the HDD light. Just swithed the polarity and its fine All hooked up to the telly and playing music / movies etc. Definatley can recommend the HTPC route...Will post a pic if anyone is interested?

[Pwiggler]

yeah go 4 it chris ... i'd like 2 c it in action 

[kitz]

>> its all built and fired up first time

Well done you 

>> Will post a pic if anyone is interested

Yep post away

[roseway]

Great job Chris!

[Chris P Duck]

[Chris P Duck]