How to choose the ideal Media Center PC

[spiffy1001]

After buying my last Media Center PC 3.5 years ago for $75 at a garage sale (I did upgrade the video card to HD, and added a 2 TB HD) I figured it was time to upgrade. It was making noises that were not solved by opening it up and blowing canned air on the fans.

I went to Fry's with the impression that you did not need power to run a Media Center, and just wanted a small, quiet, cheap PC with a good brand name that I could leave on for months at a time and not worry about. A built in DVD drive was a huge plus. The salesman reccomended, and I purchased the Lenovo 505s http://www.amazon.com/Lenovo-IdeaCentre ... enovo+505s, and it was a mistake.

The machine makes a constant hum, it stutters on Netflix video, and does not stream well to my XBox 360, sound plays flawlessly, video begins stuttering after a few seconds. The problem with the XBox is NOT the network connection, it is hard wired in. Also, I was excited for Windows 8, but it was a mistake for my needs.

I am probably going to return it and take the 15% restocking fee hit and return the darn thing, because it just doesn't meet my needs. What PC do you guys recomend? What is working well for you? What minimum specs should I look for?

[barnabas1969]

That depends on how many extenders you plan to run simultaneously. If you only need 1-2 extenders, any new PC with an Intel i3 with integrated Intel HD graphics will do fine. If you want more extenders, you might be able to use an i3, but it would be safer to go with an i5. Also, 4GB of RAM is fine for 1-2 extenders. If you want to run more extenders, get 8GB of RAM.

[foxwood]

After buying my last Media Center PC 3.5 years ago for $75 at a garage sale (I did upgrade the video card to HD, and added a 2 TB HD) I figured it was time to upgrade. It was making noises that were not solved by opening it up and blowing canned air on the fans.

I went to Fry's with the impression that you did not need power to run a Media Center, and just wanted a small, quiet, cheap PC with a good brand name that I could leave on for months at a time and not worry about. A built in DVD drive was a huge plus. The salesman reccomended, and I purchased the Lenovo 505s http://www.amazon.com/Lenovo-IdeaCentre ... enovo+505s, and it was a mistake.

The machine makes a constant hum, it stutters on Netflix video, and does not stream well to my XBox 360, sound plays flawlessly, video begins stuttering after a few seconds. The problem with the XBox is NOT the network connection, it is hard wired in. Also, I was excited for Windows 8, but it was a mistake for my needs.

You shouldn't assume that the problem is not network related, just because everything is hard wired. The problem might be caused by the new system having Gigabit ethernet, and the XBox only having 100MB ethernet. Try setting the ethernet card on the PC to 100MB mode, and see if it makes a difference.

The E2-1800 isn't a particularly fast CPU, but the graphics part of the APU is supposed to be pretty good. But a quick google suggests that a combination of AMD APUs, Netflix and Silverlight don't get along, with some triangular finger pointing going on.

What does Task Manager say about CPU utilization when you're watching a Netflix stream? Have you tried the Windows 8 Netflix Client?

Then there's the annoying hum. Check the BIOS settings, and see if there's a "quiet mode" for the fans.

[Shackleford]

I would also check to see what bloatware might be using up RAM. Honestly the AMD E series is equivalent to the Intel Atom line but with better graphics and many have reported issues with the low end chips and HD video. Personally I run an Intel NUC with 2 extenders and have no problems with video.

[spiffy1001]

After buying my last Media Center PC 3.5 years ago for $75 at a garage sale (I did upgrade the video card to HD, and added a 2 TB HD) I figured it was time to upgrade. It was making noises that were not solved by opening it up and blowing canned air on the fans.

I went to Fry's with the impression that you did not need power to run a Media Center, and just wanted a small, quiet, cheap PC with a good brand name that I could leave on for months at a time and not worry about. A built in DVD drive was a huge plus. The salesman reccomended, and I purchased the Lenovo 505s http://www.amazon.com/Lenovo-IdeaCentre ... enovo+505s, and it was a mistake.

The machine makes a constant hum, it stutters on Netflix video, and does not stream well to my XBox 360, sound plays flawlessly, video begins stuttering after a few seconds. The problem with the XBox is NOT the network connection, it is hard wired in. Also, I was excited for Windows 8, but it was a mistake for my needs.

You shouldn't assume that the problem is not network related, just because everything is hard wired. The problem might be caused by the new system having Gigabit ethernet, and the XBox only having 100MB ethernet. Try setting the ethernet card on the PC to 100MB mode, and see if it makes a difference.

The E2-1800 isn't a particularly fast CPU, but the graphics part of the APU is supposed to be pretty good. But a quick google suggests that a combination of AMD APUs, Netflix and Silverlight don't get along, with some triangular finger pointing going on.

What does Task Manager say about CPU utilization when you're watching a Netflix stream? Have you tried the Windows 8 Netflix Client?

Then there's the annoying hum. Check the BIOS settings, and see if there's a "quiet mode" for the fans.

Foxwood, as a 10 year IT professional, I hang my head in shame and bow to your superior intellect. I immediately assumed the machine was not powerful enough, after reading your post I did more research. I uninstalled Silverlight and loaded the latest version, Netflix now works great.

I thought your Ethernet speed setting suggestion made no sense whatever, but it worked.

I played with the power settings to quiet the fan, the dishwasher and the dryer were running at the time so I don't know if it worked or not, but that complaint was the least of my worries. Thank you so much!

[foxwood]

Glad I could help!

[spiffy1001]

Any ideas on how to make Windows 8 not suck?

[leroys1000]

You might web search for some of the UI mods out there.
I personally use a start in desktop mode file and a shortcut for media center set fo live TV.
So my computer boots straight to live TV.
There are also programs out there that restore the menu button and so on.
So some customization can be done.
CPU magazine has been running a series on windows 8 hacks and customizations.
You should be able to read their magazine online for free.

[volfan6415]

Any ideas on how to make Windows 8 not suck?

Install windows 7.

[spiffy1001]

I kept having problems with the Lenovo. I was getting frustrated and yesterday was the last day to take it back, so I did. (American Express is going to cover the restock fee. Thanks AmEx!) Ordered the ASUS eeebox 1503. It cost $50 more, but factor in it runs Windows 7 and I don't have to pay $100 for a pro license and I came out ahead.

I love this machine! It is smaller than my backup hard drive by volume, has a 2.5 ghz dual core processor, 4 gb of ram, and comes with a nice wireless keyboard/mouse/remote out of the box. very quiet too. It is handling the job well, and I am glad I made the exchange.

[barnabas1969]

For that price, you could have bought an Intel NUC with a much more powerful processor. You would have had to buy your own RAM, SSD, and O/S, but you still would have come out cheaper and have a more powerful PC to boot!

[spiffy1001]

No USB 3, no eSATA, only 3 USB ports, no DVD drive, plus all the things you mentioned above. It would have been a lot more work while spending more.

[barnabas1969]

USB 2.0 will give you 24 simultaneous HD TV streams, which is 60MBps (if your HDD can handle that, and most external drives can't... even if they're USB 3.0).

eSATA - Will you actually use it? I haven't yet, even though both of my PC's have it.

DVD drive - that depends on whether or not you want to use the PC as a DVD player.

It wouldn't have been very much work. Plug in an mSATA drive, plug in a memory module, install Windows 7. Done.

[Shackleford]

Built my NUC in about 10 mins for about $430.00 with a 128Gb ssd , 8Gb RAM, USB hub and the power cord (had a spare Win 7 license and external hard drive). Have no need for USB 3.0, eSata or using a dvd drive. Runs fine recording to a USB 2.0 portable drive.

[spiffy1001]

My PC was $420, and I didn't have a spare license. I came out ahead, but I grant your is more powerful. I need the DVD drive, I still enjoy renting $1 movies at Redbox, and buying physical movies is usually cheaper than soft copies (WHY?), so it is nice to copy them over to the hard drive.

[barnabas1969]

Prices from NewEgg:

Intel NUC BOXDC3217IYE - $279.99
Plextor M5M PX-64M5M mSATA 64GB - $74.99
CORSAIR 4GB (2 x 2GB) 204-Pin DDR3 SO-DIMM DDR3 1333 - $36.99
Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-bit - OEM - $99.99

Total: $491.96 and free shipping. If you already have a copy of Win7, then it would be $391.97.

That's a very nice little box for a Media Center PC. But, I guess if the DVD player was important to you...

Or... upgrade to the Crucial M4 CT064M4SSD3 mSATA 64GB for $10.00 more.

[barnabas1969]

Another option would be the Acer Aspire V5-571-6119 Notebook for $460.99 + 15.37 shipping. That gives you a pre-built Intel i3 PC with a DVD drive for $476.36.

[HARRINGT0N]

I'm looking into building a NUC right now. Thanks for the info on it.

[rabbit1543]

If you are looking into the NUC i would also check out the gigabyte brix. They come in a variety of flavors up to a dual core i7. I just replaced my old q6600 systems with the i7 brix model. I loaded it with a 120GB intel msata drive and maxed out the ram to 16GB. I have also added a toshiba canvio slim 500gb USB3 drive for all my recordings (moved to a synology NAS nightly). I know this might be a little overkill for an htpc but i wanted it to last. I run up to 4 extenders on it and it seems to work just fine. I love how tiny it is and the fact that it comes with a VESA mount and power cord. I mounted the VESA bracket to the wall with some simple drywall anchors and hid this little guy behind my wall mounted LCD, it makes for a nice clean look. I've had the unit for a couple of weeks now and i am quite pleased with it. I did run into the 29/59 bug but disabling the dynamic contrast seems to have addressed the issue.