Last week I picked up an old Dell PC from my Parents place. Now don’t get me wrong, normally I hate Dells but I had a higher purpose for this one…
My new home theatre PC!! I have no idea why it has taken me so long to get this up and running. I guess a lack of free PC carcasses!!
The original bits (ex Dell Dimension 8400)…
- 1GB(2×512) NECC Dual Channel DDR2 533MHz SDRAM Memory
- 256MB PCIe(TM) x16 nVidia(R) GeForce(TM) 6800 w/TV-Out and DVI
- Intel Pentium 4 530 (3 GHz)
- Sound Blaster(R) Live!(TM) 24-bit Sound Card 5.1
- One rather ugly but opens nicely Dell Clamshell case
The bits I’m adding:
- 500GB Western Digital HDD SATA2 7200RPM 16MB ($172)
- Hauppauge PVR-150 TV tuner card with IR blaster and media remote ($132)
- 54Mbps Wireless Network Card 802.11g (free with new wireless purchase for parents!)
- Lite-on LH-20A1P 20X ATA Dual DVDRW ($37.23)
And a new addition to our little home network will be my folks old wireless router. Im buying them a Linksys WRT150N Wireless-N Router which has some good reviews and hopefully the wireless wont drop out like it did on the old Belkin one all the time.
So thats $341 all up, pretty sweet deal (thanks ma and pa) for a 500GB dvd recorder/new pc!! Im very stoked about it cant wait to get it up and running on our TV. To compare to local prices, a 160GB DVD recorder with no extra features (ie not upgradable, no PC functions, not networkable etc etc) is $549 at DSE at the moment.
I am very, very tempted to splurge out on this sexy, sexy keyboard…
Its rechargeable and would look so good on our coffee table. I also love the fact it has a touch pad thing on the bottom right which mostly eliminates the need for a wireless mouse… browsing the internet from the comfort of the couch has a huge appeal to me, hehe especially after work. Ahh I’m such a nerd.
