T
they call me doogie
Guest
...budget (USD$3300 to 4000)? I live in London and I am buying a PC that will go into the lounge room on the floor next to the TV. I've only bought laptops for the last 8 years and haven't built a PC for 10 years so although I'm confident enough to build one I'm not informed enough to know what parts aren't compatible with what, what has a good reputation and what is quiet and so I'd love some specific advice as to what to buy (biased is fine!). I'm happy to buy a pre-built system or build but I find most of the online options don't have enough storage and or the TV/media centre components and I have no idea what's quiet.
We're already got laptops so all this PC needs to do is:
1) Provide network attachable storage with some resiliancy. I want at least 2TB of usable storage and would prefer the drives to be in a RAID array in case of the failure of one drive.
2) Be able to play .avi (DivX) movies (at minimum) and TV shows straight to my TV (preferably via HDMI - it's not a fancy TV so I'm not after home theatre enthusiast wizz bang quality) with a remote control and nice easy to use (for the wife) graphical interface - probably meaning it needs to run Vista and act as a media centre?
3) It needs to hold my iTunes library and be able to handle easy syncing of the various iPods and iPhone in the house.
4) It needs to run my slim server (a.k.a. squeeze center) process to also server the same library of MP3's to our Squeezebox
5) It needs to be able to store and display our photo's to the TV easily - and be able to download the photo's from our camera's.
6) It needs to be able to backup several hundred GB of files (photo's, misc documents and mp3's) with minimal (not none - just minimal) human interaction - I'm thinking the ability to burn dual layer blueray discs would possibly be the easiest here because although I'd like to use online backup (Mazy/Carbonite etc) internet in my area is slow and not likely to improve soon (140-150kbps upload maximum)
7) It needs to be quiet enough to sit in the lounge room and be turned on 24x7 without being annoying - doesn't need to be totally silent but "quiet" is a goal. Also important that when we have a hot day (it happens occassionally in London) the fans don't suddenly go mental and get loud.
8) It would be nice if I could also feed the TV and cable through the PC (although that's a nice to have only) and being able to record stuff occassionally.
I don't mind the case being big (ie; a tower).
I don't really care how it looks (it doesn't need to be pretty).
I don't need a monitor (I have laptops).
I will need a wireless keyboard.
Is anyone able to help / advise?
Thanks everyone
We're already got laptops so all this PC needs to do is:
1) Provide network attachable storage with some resiliancy. I want at least 2TB of usable storage and would prefer the drives to be in a RAID array in case of the failure of one drive.
2) Be able to play .avi (DivX) movies (at minimum) and TV shows straight to my TV (preferably via HDMI - it's not a fancy TV so I'm not after home theatre enthusiast wizz bang quality) with a remote control and nice easy to use (for the wife) graphical interface - probably meaning it needs to run Vista and act as a media centre?
3) It needs to hold my iTunes library and be able to handle easy syncing of the various iPods and iPhone in the house.
4) It needs to run my slim server (a.k.a. squeeze center) process to also server the same library of MP3's to our Squeezebox
5) It needs to be able to store and display our photo's to the TV easily - and be able to download the photo's from our camera's.
6) It needs to be able to backup several hundred GB of files (photo's, misc documents and mp3's) with minimal (not none - just minimal) human interaction - I'm thinking the ability to burn dual layer blueray discs would possibly be the easiest here because although I'd like to use online backup (Mazy/Carbonite etc) internet in my area is slow and not likely to improve soon (140-150kbps upload maximum)
7) It needs to be quiet enough to sit in the lounge room and be turned on 24x7 without being annoying - doesn't need to be totally silent but "quiet" is a goal. Also important that when we have a hot day (it happens occassionally in London) the fans don't suddenly go mental and get loud.
8) It would be nice if I could also feed the TV and cable through the PC (although that's a nice to have only) and being able to record stuff occassionally.
I don't mind the case being big (ie; a tower).
I don't really care how it looks (it doesn't need to be pretty).
I don't need a monitor (I have laptops).
I will need a wireless keyboard.
Is anyone able to help / advise?
Thanks everyone