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Originally posted by mr_smidge Whatever the hell you do, don't do that. Spoils the whole fun of doing something yourself anyway I plan to do a similar project, so here we go with my recommendations: Ideal spec: * P3 800MHz or equivalent Athlon upwards. * 512MB RAM (video processing takes a lot of effort, and if you're running Windows and not Linux then you'd be better off with more - it's cheap anyway) * > 80GB HDD, try to get a serial ATA one if possible, the newest hdd technology. (you'll need a compliant motherboard) * Don't worry about a separate sound card.. integrated sound is quite respectable these days, and it'll even come with Line In * DVD-ROM drive, in case you plan on ever paying for movies Pioneer make some nifty slot-in 16x DVD drives. * Network card .. so you can use another machine in your house to download and transfer to your shuttle system easily. Graphics card gets its own section: I'd recommend either Geforce4 TiXXXX or Radeon 9500/9700..they're worth the money. Of course, make sure it has S-video out (you can also buy a S-video to SCART cable, which you can plug into the back of your tv). One cool thing you may also want to look out for is TV-In capabilities. You can opt for this feature on your graphics card, or splash out on a video capture card. This will let you record movies from TV directly, even trance music videos (should any channel ever play them). This method of recording also circumvents the copright protection on most digiboxes that stops you from recording copy-protected programs. And we all know it'll be much better to record to HDD rather than a medium like VHS, which has a significantly lower quality compared to the capabilities of video capture cards... Good luck mate P.S. Apologies if I'm duplicating information - I typed all that in a hurry

Finally I get the damn specs I was looking for . Thanks a bunch for the CPU and RAM specs which is exactly what I was looking for. I don't need that big of a HD since my movies are burned on CD's. I don't need a good graphics card because I'm buying a DivX card that will output the signal directly to the TV and defeats the purpose of having a good video card if I have the DivX card. It'll play almost any video format so it will kick ass to use . Apparantly the card quality is pretty good so it'll be nice to use and it comes with a remote as well . Thanks again for the help I appreciate it and any more specs or suggestions are welcome.

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Originally posted by trance_n_dance Thanks again for the help I appreciate it and any more specs or suggestions are welcome.

Important:
Avoid Duron / Celeron processors.. this isn't a budget machine you're building here, it's your home cinema

More importantly, I almost forgot: You absolutely must cut holes in it and fill them with plexiglass/acrylic windows, fit 'cold cathode' neon lights (in bright blue), attach at least 6 80mm Delta Screamer fans, paint the whole thing lime green, and overclock it by at least 2GHz, with the aid of a fluorescent water-cooling system running all around your lounge.

Just to be complete, of course.

Hope the project goes well

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Originally posted by trance_n_dance 1Ghz? I need that much to run a single program? 120GB for one program? I need a 2 gig hard drive or the lowest I can get pretty much. Video card can be shit and I don't need an output because I'm getting a card made specifically for DVD,DivX,etc and outputs to TV. Sound card is gonna probably be the integrated one in the motherboard or a nice soundblaster live.

oops.. i thougyht you were storing all of the divx movies on this computer youre making.. my bad.

-m

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Originally posted by SmellsExcellent oops.. i thougyht you were storing all of the divx movies on this computer youre making.. my bad. -m

If anything I'll get a USB hard drive, copy movies to it and then just hook that up to the computer. I like the USB hard drive idea for movie storage so that I can also use it on other people computers easily.

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