I have selected these parts so far:

from mini-itx:
EPIA EX 15000G C7 Mini-ITX Board    £158.63
Morex Venus 669 Case - Black    £69.33
1GB PC4200 DDR2 533 DIMM    £69.33
Serial ATA Data and Power Cable        £5.88

from ebuyer:
Hitachi Deskstar 1TB SATAII     £225.36
NEC Optiarc AD-5170A-0B 18xDVD±RW DL Black - Bare Drive         £16.87
Microsoft Windows XP Media Center 2005    £67.00


Total: £612.40

The major cost seems to be the 1TB drive, 1TB may not be enough so i will need to fit another drive inside in the future, so hence the single 1TB drive.

I guess i want to hear peoples suggestions, before i put the orders through.

well you could easily take off £80.25

  a media pc without windows media center

yeah, now it has media center (its actually cheaper)...

This is going into my uni house so people must be able to use it etc, i have housemates that do humanities subjects and can barely use windows hence no linux...

Wtf, for the price of that (odd) motherboard you can get a C2D + A decent 775 motherboard.. What do you intend to connect the PC to? A television? A monitor?

Plus you could probably do better with the ram aswell for the same price.

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Originally posted by Phillip

Plus you could probably do better with the ram aswell for the same price.

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Its connecting to a tv, two 500Gb would be better but as there isn't much space inside the case, when i have have filled up the 1TB there wont be any more physical space to put more drives in.

I will look into the ram now...

Are you looking to connect the computer to the TV through composite video or is it an HD one? If so, you should get one of the unnexpensive new Ati HD 2600XT which feature HDMI output.

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Originally posted by Jhrono
You could setup a raid0 architecture with 2 x 500 Gb drives and it would be both cheaper and faster

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Originally posted by lizard.boy


For network storage, at least at 10/100 speeds, speed isn't quite that important, the problem with Raid 0 is you have twice the chance of failure.

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quote:

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Originally posted by Jhrono
Wtf, for the price of that (odd) motherboard you can get a C2D + A decent 775 motherboard..

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Originally posted by Verte
Passive cooling Besides, do you really need a C2D for a Media PC?

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quote:

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Originally posted by ShawnZ

quote:

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Originally posted by Verte
Passive cooling Besides, do you really need a C2D for a Media PC?

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for the same price, why not?

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quote:

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Originally posted by ShawnZ
for the same price, why not?

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quote:

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Originally posted by Verte
Um, passive cooling? plus the power usage and form factor bonuses, I guess.

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quote:

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Originally posted by Jhrono

quote:

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Originally posted by Verte
Um, passive cooling? plus the power usage and form factor bonuses, I guess.

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No, (I think) we meant why not a C2D system..

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Oh, sorry. I understand now.

Anyhow, I still believe that, if it was me, I'd invest in an ATX board and on a C2D. Well and if size is any issue you can always go mini-ATX. Imo, it would be disappointing to have a (largely) "weaker" system just for the sake of low power usage and size, but that's just me lol

I understand your arguments but still..

Oh, I agree, it kind of feels bad. If you were putting together a system for general use, or especially one for gaming or something, VIA are out. But, it seems Veggie is in share accommodation. Don't really know about their experiences, but if it's likely the server will end up near Veggie's room and always be on, I'd say fanless is looking pretty good. Bonus points if you have beancounting housemates.

Besides, does anyone actually consider VIA without knowing what they are doing? I always thought they were mostly an enthusiast brand.

Lame i know, but "buy" xp.... or can't you get it cheaper/free through your uni?