My own Media Center PC

[kizzeith]

I came home to my parent's house for xmas and I'm here all week. They recently shelled out a good amount of $ to get a 40" sony LCD TV with a crazy surround sound Sony "dream theater" system.

I have been here since saturday and tonight I finally realized that this thing is a monitor at heart, so I dragged out ther PC (which was not setup due to remodeling) and set this thing up and it is ridiculously awesome.

Anywyas, I got to thinking, they NEED to have a PC hooked up to this thing, no way around it. I would feel so guilty letting this thing serve only as a TV.

ANYWAYS, I was just reading about XP Media Center Edtion 2005 for the first time. It seems pretty sweet but No way could I actually have someone in my family BUY a pre assembled PC, which seems to be the only way you can get MCE (according to microsoft's website.)

So my question is, what could I add to this beast (other than MOBO/CPU) to make it a custom "Media Center" machine?

Current Specs:
Windows XP Pro SP 2
AMD something or another @ 1.8 ghz
Microstar 2 MOBO (my old one, dont remember exact specs)
512 MB DDR2
30 gb hdd
300 watt PSU
GE Force 2 MX (its my old card)
Wireless PCI card (House has wireless router)

OBviously a TV tuner is in line for recording purposes, along with a bigger HDD. I'm thinking wireless mouse/keyboard since the TV is mounted on the wall. Can you purchase a Remote Control for your PC?

Any other Suggestions? The main reason im so excited about this is because I am going to buy myself a similar setup in a few months.


Thanks In advance!

PS I wish I could play some Cstrike source here!

 

[Nukem]

I would think adding another stick of RAM would do good. Of course a bigger drive and TV Tuner... you could look into the keyboard by Adesso. I have it and it is very good.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16823166052

depending on what kind of resolution your card gets you might want to bumo up the video, or maybe get one of the X800/X1300/X1900 ATI All-in-Wonder cards...

 

[saltynay]

all in wonder cards are hard to find now as the newest ones have been discontinued i was going to try exactly the same thing as you using an all in wonder radeon 1900 but I couldnt find any.

Matt