Media PC Suggestions

[Frankenchrist]

Hello, I'm assembling the following parts into a media pc. I'm thinking I'll end up adding at least 3 if not 4 hard drives and a dvd/blu-ray burner. I'm planning to use the integrated graphics on the h55 board (unless that's a horrible idea?). If anyone thinks these picks are crappy and there would be better ones, I'm up for suggestions as well.

ASUS P7H55-M PRO LGA 1156 Intel H55 HDMI Micro ATX Intel Motherboard
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131623

Intel Core i3-530 Clarkdale 2.93GHz 4MB L3 Cache LGA 1156 73W Dual-Core Desktop Processor
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115222

CORSAIR XMS3 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model CMX4GX3M2A1600C9
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145260

Suggestions?

[BigDK]

I would go with an amd/ati solution.
It would be cheaper and the performance for BD playback is perfect.
GA-MA785GMT-UD2H board mATX so will fit any case, uses 4200 onboard video, and passes HD audio over the HDMI.
AMD Athlon II X2 240e - low energy, less heat and lower fan speed.
Both these can be had for about £120. Uses DDR2 memory, so you may have some lying around.
If the system is just as a media PC, you don't need anything more powerful, as it will do it all.
I've built three media PCs for people with this setup, or with a similar CPU (not the e series), and they perform perfectly with DVD, HDDVD, and BD playback, obviously music is a taken.

[EniGmA1987]

Ya an Intel i3 is a bit overkill for media playback, as is DDR3 memory.

However, I still highly suggest what you already picked. If you get that an overclock it a bit, then you can play PS2, PS1, Dreamcast, N64, Wii, Super Nintendo, Game Boy Advance and DS emulators on your PC without any slowdown. Or at least not too much when plying PS2 games. You can turn your media PC into not only a great place to watch movies and TV shows from, but also play a ton of classic console games on it. You can even buy a USB controller and play the games on that. If you dont want to do any of the emulators (or if you just want the really old ones like Super Nintendo) then a super cheap AMD system like BigDK suggested will work plenty fine.

[ajaidev]

If you use a half decent receiver the i3/i5 is worthless. Try this instead this config will work quite well with the formats that use the gpu but also with ones that need brute force "software driven"

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103706&cm_re=620-_-19-103-706-_-Product

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130247&cm_re=785_msi-_-13-130-247-_-Product

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227479&cm_re=ddr3_4gb-_-20-227-479-_-Product

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231274&cm_re=ddr3_4gb-_-20-231-274-_-Product