Build Your Own Media Center PC

We live in a rather confusing world. Not so long ago, anyone buying a desktop or a laptop would have just a few things to consider such as monitor screen size, CPU and HDD. There was just one fixed OS Windows and there was only so much you could do with a PC. Since then, PCs have become more powerful and today is a popular medium of entertainment for most people. Microsoft deciding to take advantage of the growing trend, released the Windows Media Center edition which took the whole concept of TV/PC convergence to a new level. Now not only did the PC act as your TV control center, it enabled you to enjoy movies in their proper aspects without bothering for region checks and also gave excellent audio playback. This new OS led to the emergence of what is now popularly called the HTPC market.

However like all other things in life, technology has not been stagnant. Since the time the Windows Media Center Edition has emerged, HD has found its way into the mainstream. HD is High Definition and is the term used to describe the next generation of video. HD takes video to the next quality as it is four times the size of SD which is the term used to refer to current generation video. HD is the result of higher resolution giving higher quality video.

Therefore it should come across as no surprise that Microsoft has decided to capitalize on this market. As we have already mentioned in our recent Windows Vista review, there have been a tremendous amount of changes that have taken place in the way Windows handles digital media. Windows Vista not only has support for next-generation HD technologies like Blu-Ray and HD DVD, it also has a re-designed media center interface that improves on its predecessors by leaps and bounds. It takes advantage of Vista’s new Aero interface and is far more intuitive.

Keeping all this in mind we decided to build a new HTPC on a budget of Rs 65,000 that would satisfy not just the Windows Vista Premium tag, but would also serve as a powerful media-center. Please note we have taken a different approach for building the HTPC. The unit we are building here is designed to be standalone and will not serve as a regular PC. It is strictly meant for multimedia entertainment therefore we are choosing to leave out a monitor from this feature. This is a PC meant to be hooked up to your HDTV.


CPU: AMD 3800+ X2 (Rs. 6,300)
Initially when we set out on our hunt, the first processors that naturally came to mind were Intel’s Core2Duo series. Not only are the C2D series quite fast for day-to-day work, these also make for great gaming processors. However there is a downside to the C2D platform after a while. Accessories such as motherboards for the C2D are not really affordable. Good quality motherboards for the C2D cost a lot of greenbacks, putting it out of the scope of our feature.

Hence we decided to go back to the AMD platform for our roundup. AMD may have fallen a step or two as compared to Intel, but it is no slouch. The X2 range of processors are quite powerful in their own right and make for great multimedia performers. The Intel onslaught has also led to the price of the processors and motherboards falling to value levels.

The X2 we have chosen brings the power of dual-core to the desktop and is clocked at 2GHz. It sports 512K of L2 cache per core and forms the perfect engine for all our HD decoding needs.


Motherboard: Asus M2NPV-VM (Rs. 5,100)
Our choice of motherboard was a no-brainer. This sterling effort from Asus has been the basis of our earlier HTPC effort and is still competitive even today. In case you are wondering what we are talking about, let us refresh your memory. The M2NPV-VM not only supports all current generation AMD X2 and FX series processors, it also comes with an on-board GeForce 6150 graphics unit that offers component HD output in both 720p and 1080i. To achieve these levels of output, Asus bundles a HDTV-out module that does the job admirably.

The GeForce 6150 is also rated as a Vista Premium ready chipset, which is really just the icing on the cake. It can take full advantage of Windows Vista’s Aero interface. For a more detailed specification chart on its features check out this link. The M2NPV-VM still remains the best budget motherboard to build an HTPC.


Memory: Transcend 1 GB DDR2 667 (Rs. 5,000)
We would recommend getting 2 GB of RAM for multi-tasking on a Windows Vista Home Premium. However for a HTPC that is overkill. One does not require that much RAM for decoding a video stream as that is more of a CPU intensive task. 1 GB more than suffices and with good quality RAM, Windows Vista runs smoothly.

We have chosen Transcend here as it is a well known and respected brand and offers great performance. We chose to put 2 sticks here as the motherboard is dual-channel capable. Dual-channel is used to double the memory speeds, bandwidth and performance at no extra cost hence it makes sense to utilize this free performance boost.