Intrigued by the idea of using a computer to enjoy movies, music, and television, but unimpressed with the Media Center PCs from big-box vendors like Dell and Hewlett-Packard? Build your own.
True, Microsoft won't sell you its Windows XP Media Center Edition operating system, which combines all of the features you want--TV (live and recorded), movies, music, and photos--with a single, slick interface (it ships only with complete systems). But you can tailor a media-savvy PC to your own specific requirements by using hand-picked components.
You might even save some money, but don't count on it. Just as few do-it-yourselfers can build a standard desktop PC for less money than a computer maker's entry-level offering would cost, you'll find it hard to beat the big players' bottom lines on a media machine. Building your own system is more about the enjoyment you'll get creating a custom rig--picking your own parts, from CPU to graphics card to hard drive, assembling them, and seeing them work--than about saving a buck.
The key to success is deciding up front how and where you'll use your new PC and how much money you'll spend on it. Will this primarily be a serious desktop PC--for number crunching, video editing, and 3D gaming--that occasionally doubles as a TV and stereo? Or will it be a living-room device that handles only light desktop computing duties? Do you require the higher-quality audio a stand-alone sound card can provide, or is integrated audio enough for you? Is a remote control a must-have or just more gear destined to gather dust?
Before you start, take stock of the peripherals you already have. Examine your monitor or television (the bigger the better), your speakers (either the PC variety or a set connected to a typical audio receiver), and your home network (for Internet connectivity and for sharing files with your other PCs). Is each up to the task of supporting your slick new entertainment PC?
I built two systems for this story: an unobtrusive, ultrasmall, living room-friendly computer with midrange to low-end components that balance performance and price (total cost: $1120 street); and a high-performance PC packed with first-rate parts and a case well suited to a home office or family room (total cost: $2650 street). See the chart below for individual component prices. If you would rather upgrade your current PC than start from scratch, see "Turn a PC Into the King of All Media." And finally, read our July 2003 Step-By-Step for more-detailed instructions on putting together a custom PC.
The Big ShooterFor the high-powered PC, I started with Antec's classy-looking (albeit fingerprint-prone) piano-black Overture case, which includes a quiet 380-watt power supply. Inside it I installed an Intel Desktop Board D875PBZ, which tested well for our March
To process a TV signal, your PC needs a TV-tuner card. For the fancy system, I also wanted a top-notch graphics board capable of handling typical work-related PC chores (you know, like playing the upcoming Half-Life 2), so I chose ATI's top-of-the-line All-In-Wonder 9800 Pro card. ATI's premium cards have scored well on our Top 10 Graphics Boards chart, and the All-In-Wonder 9800 Pro bundle includes an impressive array of multimedia features, plus a remote control that works via radio frequency instead of infrared (so you needn't point the remote directly at the PC).
To achieve the best-possible audio, I selected the Creative Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS Platinum sound card. In addition to 7.1-speaker surround sound, the Audigy provides an unusually high level of audio quality, and it comes with a drive-bay module that puts all of your controls on the front of the PC. It was our top pick in the February issue's
Another necessity for any media-savvy PC is a hard drive big enough to hold plenty of MP3s and hours of television (high-quality MPEG-2 video recording requires as much as 3GB of disk space per hour). For ample storage and high-speed performance, I selected the 200GB, Serial ATA Seagate Barracuda ST3200822AS with 8MB of cache; it's the big sibling of the highly ranked 160GB drive in our January Top 10 Hard Drives chart.
I picked TDK's Internal Indi DVD 8x+/8x- Multiformat Burner 880N drive for DVD viewing as well as for speedy DVD and CD burning. The drive's solid performance and good software package landed it on this month's Top 10 DVD Drives chart.
Finally, no PC--whether headed for the living room or not--is complete without a keyboard and mouse, but that doesn't mean you have to be tethered to the computer. My pick here was Gyration's Ultra GT Compact Keyboard Suite. The petite size of the keyboard makes it perfect for lap use (although it's too cramped for long bouts of typing), and the accompanying wireless rechargeable mouse performs smartly on a flat surface or even in midair thanks to a nifty internal gyroscope.
The Little Guy
For the relatively modestly priced living-room PC, I chose Shuttle's XPC SN41G2 bare-bones PC kit, in part for its diminutive size and in part for the integrated surround sound on the included motherboard. This was my first attempt at putting together a small-form-factor PC, and I was instantly impressed with the Shuttle's fine engineering, its high-quality construction, and the well-conceived heat-pipe cooling for the CPU (which eliminated the need for a processor fan). Looking to keep costs low, I selected an affordable AMD Athlon XP 2500+ CPU and only 256MB of DDR333 memory. Notwithstanding its modest processor and memory allotment, the Shuttle posted a respectable score of 122 on our
For this machine, I picked the ATI All-In-Wonder 9200 graphics board. It's substantially cheaper than the All-In-Wonder 9800 Pro, and while it doesn't offer the same graphics processing power, it includes most of the same multimedia features (however, it lacks the Remote Wonder, a $25 upgrade). I opted for the ATI card over a slightly pricier but equally robust NVidia Personal Cinema GeForce FX 5200 card from EVGA (which ships with a remote). Either should serve you well.
For storage, I went with the slightly more cost-effective 160GB Seagate Barracuda ST3160023A Ultra ATA hard drive. I cut the optical drive back a notch as well, to the older, less-expensive 4X standard, picking TDK's IndiDVD 440N 4X DVDA?RW drive.
Logitech's extremely solid Cordless Desktop Express keyboard rounded out my setup, offering me reliable RF connectivity and optical mouse capabilities in a slightly bland but very affordable package.
Finishing Touches
The primary appeal of an off-the-shelf Media Center PC is its operating system, which provides an intuitive interface and remote-control compatibility for easy access to the multimedia options--even when you're not sitting directly in front of the PC. Without that operating system, you can't obtain the same one-program-does-all coherence, although some bundles do come pretty close (notable among them: CyberLink's $60 PowerCinema, InterVideo's $100 Home Theater, and SnapStream's upcoming Beyond Media).
Fortunately, ATI's Multimedia Center and NVidia's Personal Cinema, both of which ship with their respective TV-tuner cards, offer many of the same functions, including TV viewing and recording and movie and music playback (ATI recently introduced radio functionality to some of its packages, too). To keep costs down on the affordable PC, I used only the software that came with its video card (plus free downloadable apps); on the pricey system, I indulged in a few well-chosen extras.
SnapStream's Beyond TV 3 program was one such extra: For $80 you get a nicely integrated TV viewer and recording scheduler far better than the kludgy Guide+ software that ATI ships with its cards. Beyond TV 3 almost matches TiVo's easy-to-use interface, but it lacks that service's ability to predict shows you'd like recorded (it also lacks TiVo's service fee).
For music playback on both PCs, I selected Musicmatch's JukeBox 8, a free download that lets you easily organize and listen to MP3s; it offers access to free online radio and for-pay digital music downloads, too. For playing movies, I stuck with ATI's included software DVD player, which presents a clean interface and such functionality as a ThruView feature that shows movies without blocking access to the PC desktop. To handle photo viewing and slide-show organizing on the high-end system, I chose Adobe's $50 Photoshop Album 2.
And to top off my monster system, I added Streamzap's remote control. This $40 device includes basic software so you can use the remote to operate any one of your favorite apps (more than 100 in all).
After I spent weeks joyfully testing both systems (using a parade of different LCDs and Klipsch's $400 ProMedia Ultra 5.1 speakers), a clear favorite emerged--and it wasn't the one I expected. The Antec case was clearly a crowd pleaser (and the system packed the more powerful hardware configuration), but its stock P4 fan made it noisier than I had expected. Before I'd put that PC in my living room, I would need to spend more money to upgrade to a quiet CPU fan.
Meanwhile, the Shuttle was a quiet success out of the box. BIOS settings let me lower the unit's fan speeds without affecting the PC's performance. Factor in its attractive size and reasonable price tag, and the Shuttle makes a compelling argument for building your own. Throw in a few extras, like ATI's Remote Wonder and SnapStream's Beyond TV 3 software, and you'll find that this sleek little package is hard to beat, no matter where you decide to set it up.
Turn a PC Into the King of All Media
You don't need to start from scratch to fashion yourself a workable media-savvy PC. If you've recently retired a PC, a few strategic upgrades can have the old beige bomber making like a TiVo in no time. Just beware of creeping costs: If your upgrade estimate passes the $300 or $400 mark, consider starting over (and turning that old faithful into a footstool).
Digital video recording is likely the most intensive processing your updated PC will do, so plan your upgrade around handling this function. I recommend SnapStream's $80 Beyond TV 3 software for DVR duties, as it offers the slickest interface of the three packages I've tested, along with such useful features as the ability to skip easily through commercials. The app does have some strict system requirements, however. Among them: Windows XP or Windows 2000, 128MB of system memory, and a graphics card with a TV tuner.
Choosing the right graphics card is the most important--and most complicated--aspect of upgrading your PC to act like a DVR. Two criteria will affect your graphics card selection: the speed of your CPU, and whether your current card supports DirectX 9, the Microsoft graphics programming interface that Beyond TV 3 requires.
If your current graphics card doesn't support DX9 but your PC's processor runs faster than 1 GHz, choose a board with a TV tuner based on ATI's Radeon 9200 or NVidia's GeForce FX 5200; both support DX 9 (total price $150 to $200). If your current card supports DX9, but your PC has a CPU under 1 GHz, consider a PCI-based TV-tuner card like Hauppauge's WinTV-PVR-250 card ($150), which includes a hardware encoder to offload some processing. Finally, if your current card doesn't support DX9 and your processor runs slower than 1 GHz, you'll need both a new graphics card with DX9 support ($100) and a PCI-based TV-tuner card with hardware encoding.
Beyond TV 3's lowest MPEG-2 video quality setting uses 984MB of storage per hour of programming; its highest setting takes up 3.1GB per hour. Realistically, if your hard drive is smaller than 40GB, you'll find it necessary either to add a second drive or to swap out your existing drive for a larger one. These days, $140 nets a 160GB drive.
Of course, a media-savvy PC should be able to play DVD movies, and doing this requires, at minimum, a DVD drive ($30). If you're interested in creating your own movies, you'll need a drive with DVD burning capabilities, as well (a 4X DVD
Finally, older sound cards or integrated audio probably won't give you the high-quality sound you crave. PCI-based cards with multichannel capabilities can be inexpensive ($50) or pricey ($200); but with a good set of speakers, the right card can add immeasurably to your entertainment experience (see "Audio Nirvana: Cards to Speakers").
Tom Mainelli
