Media Centre PC suggestions please

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lyonrouge

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#17258 19-Nov-2007 10:39

I'm currently using an old Cycone desktop running XP with a wireless keyboard & mouse plugged (VGA) to the plasma. The desktop is old (2.4) and when I loaded Vista I got a 1.0 user experience and I could not even play an WMV file. I've looked at the Gigabyte (too costly) and Asus (wrong case orientation) so thought I would try dipping into the geekzone experience pool before splashing out my hard earned cash.

Any recommendations for a media PC for the following requirements:

Playing MP3s for parties through home theatre
YouTube on the TV
movies off my camera on the TV
WebCam over MSN and Skype

I have Vista in my microsoft partner pack, so do not need O/S, but they seem to include it anyway.

garvani

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#95909 19-Nov-2007 12:36

How important is skype? I was about to suggest a modded xbox1 with XBMC.. i use this and does everything you want (apart from skype), and is fairly cheap to setup. XBMC has a very attractive interface and is very useable. My xbox currently has a full 300gb drive and gets used every weekend for music videos at partys and then movies for the day after recovery sessions lol.

lyonrouge

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#95923 19-Nov-2007 13:43

garvani: How important is skype? I was about to suggest a modded xbox1 with XBMC.. i use this and does everything you want (apart from skype), and is fairly cheap to setup. XBMC has a very attractive interface and is very useable. My xbox currently has a full 300gb drive and gets used every weekend for music videos at partys and then movies for the day after recovery sessions lol.

Thanks for the out of the square solution.

Skype is not so important, it is more the running of Vista Business that I want to do. The box I have does all I want from a requirements perspective, but under XP and I want to use my Vista license to get more exposure to it. I don't want to cripple one of my games machines and my Vaio didn't want anything to do with it, so my media centre was the best fix.

lyonrouge

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#99610 12-Dec-2007 13:33

Does anyone know if the Gigabyte MEC series will be available in NZ? http://www.giga-byte.com/Products/Barebone/Products_List.aspx?ProductSeries=MEC%20series