MegaSack DRAW - This year's winner is user - rgwb
We will be in touch
Need a pc for the house for general duties including itunes to put mp3 on to iPad and kids mp3 player. Will also do spotify.
Low on space so thinking of using tv as monitor.
What do I need? What do you suggest?
Laptop, easy to get out and easy to put away plus takes up no space.
Shuttle xpc. Low powered chipset laptop psu and silent. Runs on 2.5" drive with dvi hdmi and vga optical surround sound etc. Pair it up with xbmc for general media duties and your away.
Very happy with the setup.
Would like to see b r's laptop which takes up no space at all....
Mac Mini connected to the TV with a HDMI lead. Use wireless keyboard and mouse / trackpad.
It's what I've got and can really recommend it.
cheap self build
Mac mini would be my choice as well. Especially for use with the iPads etc so you can do airplay.
Mac Mini connected to the TV with a HDMI lead. Use wireless keyboard and mouse / trackpad.It's what I've got and can really recommend it.
+1 here too.
If the TV is in use, you can set it up for access from a macbook or similar as well, so you can carry on iTuning
Wonder if there's an extra slim desktop pc case with front mounted usb's and a dvd that would fit nicely into the dvd shelf on most tv stands.. more usb and hdmi on the back.. now that would be ideal.
I actually have a wireless mini keyboard with built in trackball that I use for the ps3 and find it ideal for the living room. PS3 isnt the ideal media center though 🙁
27" iMac 🙂
Rachel
Acer Revo (can be bolted to the VESA mount)
Wonder if there's an extra slim desktop pc case with front mounted usb's and a dvd that would fit nicely into the dvd shelf on most tv stands.. more usb and hdmi on the back.. now that would be ideal.
er this
mikewsmith - Member
Shuttle xpc. Low powered chipset laptop psu and silent. Runs on 2.5" drive with dvi hdmi and vga optical surround sound etc. Pair it up with xbmc for general media duties and your away.
27" iMacRachel
Tiny Telly?
mac mini + projector FTW 🙂
Dave
er this
mikewsmith - Member
Shuttle xpc. Low powered chipset laptop psu and silent. Runs on 2.5" drive with dvi hdmi and vga optical surround sound etc. Pair it up with xbmc for general media duties and your away.
As I said.. [i]Wonder if there's an extra slim desktop pc case with front mounted usb's and a dvd that would fit nicely into the dvd shelf on most tv stands[/i]
as in the same shape as a home dvd player. The shuttle isnt.
No front USB, and not cheap, but it is the same shape as a dvd player and would look very nice 🙂
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(I'd still go for a mac mini though; I have the previous generation with an optical drive)
Dave
Really about the shuttle it's sat next to the DVD player on ours about 10mm taller similar depth and half the width.
Really about the shuttle it's sat next to the DVD player on ours about 10mm taller similar depth and half the width.
Do you mean this??
[img] 
[/img]
Thats about three times the height of a typical dvd player? and would never fit in the shelve of mine.
Nope the small one
http://au.shuttle.com/products/productsGallery?productId=1628
Mac Mini connected to the TV with a HDMI lead. Use wireless keyboard and mouse / trackpad.
It's what I've got and can really recommend it.
I have the same setup, mine's the 2010 model, and I had the optical drive taken out and a 750Gb HDD put in its place, and I have an optical external drive sat on top of the sky box underneath. The Mac sits just under one corner of my Sony Bravia. Works beautifully with Remote controlling iTunes.
Mac + apple tv? Little expensive but works really well.
[img] 
[/img]as I wasnt able to upload earlier
Great approach to discreet hifi - glue it all to the underside of your table.
Currently sat in the living room with the aftermath of installing ours downstairs this evening so we can use it in pretty much the same way that you're suggesting.
We have:
A regular cheap and cheerful Tower PC stashed down the side of the sofa. I plan to put a shalf above it at the weekend to subdue the fan noise a little and to provide some protection from the kids wanting to climb into the space it's in and wreck it.
We have found that a VGA (normal monitor cable connection) will not produce a HDTV friendly screen shape so you need to kit up for HD cable to TV.
We needed to add a wireless card to connect to our router which is upstairs where (inexplicably) the Virgin Media connection seems to have been installed by the previous occupant!
The motherboard mounted graphics card was completely incapable of dealing with the TV. Partly due to no HD socket I suspect, newer ones may have this on board and work out of the box so worth looking for or budgeting for a graphics card (see below).
I installed a £35 Asus / NVidia graphics card today with DVI-D and HDMI connections on it. This fitted with a minor bit of 'adjustment' to the back of the case where the cables didn't quite go in flush and it is now working.
For the graphics card to detect the the TV/HD signal it needed the VGA (monitor) cable to be disconnected on boot (with the HD cable in). THIS WAS NOT IN THE INSTRUCTIONS! 🙄 but was helpfully in the FAQ's on Asus' website (after 45minutes of cable swapping first).
The only other nuisance is spending 15 minutes trialling the various HD resolutions to get something that is the right balance of size and shape to work on your TV. If your HDTV has overscan adjustment (mine doesn't) it might be a bit easier according to the helpful instructions I eventually found.
Please excuse the long post and probable unnecessary detail but havinvg literally just finished doing the install I thought it might help.
Yep sounds about right!
VGA isn't up to the job and onboard vs graphics card outputs need the boxes ticking and cables pulling in the right order 🙂
Make sure the PSU is much higher than the box spec to keep that noise down and consider swapping for a massive head sink to reduce cpu & case fan (also clean the case and check for good airflow) sooner or latter you will probably get told it's just too noisy hence where I ended up with 🙂
Got the Mac mini........cheap older one.....what now? Not even sure if it has hdmi. Pick up Monday
Josh, even if your older Mini only has the DVI output, there are plenty of DVI > HDMI adaptors available, from around £13 or so.