I’ve decided to build a Media Centre PC. Mainly because it just makes sense, if I watch a film in my bedroom on my PC, it’s a small 19″ monitor, and an office chair. The only good things are the speakers (Logitech Z-5500). However, if I watch a movie downstairs, I have a (soon to be, when dad buys it) 40″ 1080p LCD TV, proper surround sound system, and a beanbag to lie on. So, like I said, it makes sense.

The machine I’ve chosen to build is as cheap as I can get without compromising too much - it should play 1080p HD without a problem:

AMD Athlon 64 X2 4600+.
Abit AN-M2HD Motherboard.
OCZ 2GB 800MHz DDR2 Special Ops Edition (only 1GB at the moment).
Western Digital WD2500AAKS 250GB Hard Drive.
LiteOn LH-20A1H 20x Lightscribe DVD Burner (Retail).
Antec Fusion V2 MATX Media Center Case.
Windows Media Centre Remote (2005 version).
Windows Media Centre Keyboard (2005 version).

Total price? £400 excluding the keyboard and remote, which I’ve already ordered (remote came today, keyboard is coming tomorrow). It would be less without the case - that alone is £109, which is a lot for a case, however it’s the only case that I truly like the look of.

The motherboard has onboard HDMI, so there’s no need for a graphics card, and the case comes with a decent Antec PSU, so that’s sorted too. The only thing I might do is get a 500GB HDD insead of 250GB, and I might add a dedicated graphics card later. I haven’t chosen a TV tuner card either, as we have Sky HD, so I use that to watch all my TV on.

Update: All ordered. Soon to be built.