Obviously, when it comes to cramming a PC into as small a case as possible, I want the lowest power, coolest running minimum spec PC I can get away with.
So, basically, what do you need as a minimum for HD/Blueray playback?
I'll be doing it on a tight budget, I just cant justify spending very much... if it comes to hundred I'd be better off just buying another xbox and using it as a media extender from the 1st PC.
It'll literally be used for playing divxs in SD and HD, iPlayer and blueray.
Case with 200W PSU is looking like £30, I'm hoping to try and get a Athlon X2 4200 from a mate who's just upgraded, so I'm thinking mobo with built in graphics and a couple of GB of RAM. I have a spare IDE HDD which wont be the best but I'd have thought for this purpose it shouldn't make any difference as it's not really read/write intensive. I assume this will be ok? I've read in various places that people are running HD on built in graphics ok, just I'm not sure what spec. Seems to me integrated is better for low power and small case if I can get away with it.
I think I read any ATI 4000 series should be fine, but what about the 3000 series? What about the nVidia options, I have no idea how they fair.
Motherboards range from £40 upwards with HDMI out, the more recent and more expensive offerings having better omboard graphics.
The mate with the Athlon 4200 measured his power usage and his system peaked at about 150W, and that's with about 6 fans, two HDDs and a big graphics card, so I'm fairly sure the 200W psu can cope btw.
Views appreciated.
