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tystar
24-08-10, 10:57
Just picked up a Dell Optiplex SX270, P4 2.26, 512mb 20GB HDD, for £30 to turn into a basic media centre and to allow me to watch online football without the need to wire the laptop upto my plasma as I have been doing.

I have a 1.5TB ext HDD with all my movies and music on.

Looking to create a linux media centre for the first time as I wanna do this for as cheap as possible.

All suggestions welcome.

Thanks in advance peeps
wonderlust
24-08-10, 11:01
Check the caps the optiplex GX and Sx270s have major issues with bad caps!

I cannot remember exactly, the GX270s had a sata port the SX may not....
Spaceboy
24-08-10, 11:15
Use VLC as the media player :thumb:
cjac05
24-08-10, 12:42
XBMC (http://xbmc.org/download/)?
tystar
24-08-10, 13:07
Yeah been thinking of XBMC.. Was curious to see if anyone else would recommend anything else.

Gonna have the external drive accessible from my laptop too, so must be able to share the drive on the network too.
cjac05
24-08-10, 13:12
Why not try the live CD of XBMC? I've just downloaded it to give it a try.
tystar
24-08-10, 13:50
Will do. Thanks
Lorem-Ipsum
24-08-10, 14:35
There is always the option of a MythTV based setup. I recommend Mythbuntu. (http://www.mythbuntu.org/)
tystar
24-08-10, 14:37
Cheers will have a look. Thanks
Sniperdude
24-08-10, 14:53
is it not noisy ?

not much ventilation in them things and the almost always use p4 cpu hot hot hot
tentimes
24-08-10, 20:15
Just download XBMC. Works well with remotes too.
sibeer
25-08-10, 13:31
Is it easy to add live streaming services to XBMC? I am running a near stock setup on an Ion machine for playing HD films and TV on the projector but would love to add some streaming stuff.
tystar
25-08-10, 16:48
is it not noisy ?

NO this thing is silent :D

Not had chance to try the xbmc and myth yet will try later and let you know how i get on.

Cheers guys.
Mr. Grapes
25-08-10, 16:55
XBMC has a free android remote too :)

but the new version (Dharma) is going to be released sooooooooon. (and the builds I've played with ( www.xbmcfreak.nl/en ) are niiiice :D :thumb:

myth is quite painful to work with tho. if you absolutely have to run it (for live OTA TV with a capture card) then you're best sticking with Myth as the backend for the broadcast, using XBMC as the frontend and handling all your stored/streaming media
tystar
25-08-10, 16:56
XBMC has a free android remote too :)

but the new version (Dharma) is going to be released sooooooooon. (and the builds I've played with ( www.xbmcfreak.nl/en ) are niiiice :D :thumb:

In which case I'll have a look at installing that first. Running it off my phone then is a BIG advantage.
jbromley
25-08-10, 16:57
Xtra vote for Myth ... Especially if you're networking it.
Mr. Grapes
25-08-10, 17:01
here ya go:
http://xbmc.org/freezy3k/2010/07/13/official-xbmc-remote-for-android/
tystar
25-08-10, 17:05
ok cool.
sibeer
25-08-10, 17:18
NO this thing is silent :D

Not had chance to try the xbmc and myth yet will try later and let you know how i get on.

Cheers guys.

One of the best things about most the Dell and HP systems is they are really quiet. The difference having a matching case, cooling system and motherboard make is immense.
Mr. Grapes
25-08-10, 17:21
just too bad they couldn't pick quality components to put in them.... :p

but yeah, every dell box I've had to use for work (usually Precision workstations) have been ultra quiet.