Building a media pc, need advice

So after the holidays I finally want to build a custom media pc for burning movies and whatnot. I know how to put it all together but I am clueless as to where would be the best place to get everything I need. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Or any suggestions or tips from someone that has done this themselves would be just great.

Well I just recently built my PC, I got all my stuff from TigerDirect, and I'm gonna buy a cpu fan from Newegg (Overclocking Clocking my cpu this thanksgiving). I know you want to do movies and stuff....but are you wanting to make it a gaming pc?

Tell me everything you want it to do and I can help you figure out what is best.

Here are my specs (mines a gaming pc):
Motherboard: XFX 750i SLI
CPU: Intel Core 2 Quad Q9400 (2.66GHz)
GFX Card: EVGA GTX275 SC
RAM: 8GB Kingston Hyper-X DDR2 1066Mhz
HDD: WD Caviar Black 1TB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5"
PSU: XION Power real 1000W PSU
Optical Drive 1: Lite-On Blu-ray Drive
Optical Drive 2: Lite-On DVD Writer
Case: NZXT Beta Case
OS: Windows Vista Home Premium 64-Bit (I have Windows 7 Pro 64-Bit, but its crap...wait until Service Pack 1)

impressive rig man.

not much of a pc gamer im afraid. basically i want a very powerful pc with a bd reader/burner as well. i go through a lot of songs and movies and the pc i have now is a few years old and i pretty much max it out. i looked at some alienware stuff and although they are gaming pc's, i dont see why i couldnt just use one as a media pc. but im not looking to spend quite that much if i dont have to. in the end, if building my own custom will cost as much as their standard area 51 pc, i would just get that. but the experience from a personal build would be much more gratifying to me.

Mine cost about $1,200 to build. So if you just wanted one to do media stuff you could build a pc for about 700 or less depending on the hardware you put in it, especially since you would not be putting all the high powered stuff in it.

A BD player/write is gonna cost quite a bit. Mines a player/dvd burner...but not bd burner and I got it for $99.

If you want the ability to play BD movies, you are gonna need a somewhat beefy gfx card if you want to get the full 1080p. I would recommend a card from NVIDIA's GeForce GTX200 series. But a NVIDIA 9800GT would suffice for your needs. You can get a ATI card as they are cheaper graphics cards, but you won't be getting your moneys worth.....I would recommend sticking with NVIDIA.

As for a Power Supply you are gonna want at least a 750w, but don't go lower than 600w.

You at least want a Intel Core 2 Duo for your cpu. You can get a AMD processor as it is cheaper, but you won't get the power of a Intel chip.

Motherboard is dependent upon what cpu you want. So when you find a cpu that you want I can help you find a good mobo.

RAM is also dependent upon what mobo you get as some are DDR2 or DDR3. I would recommend RAM by: Kingston or Corsair.

You can find whatever optical drive you want...just make sure it has good reviews.

And as for your HDD I would recommend a Western Digital Hard Drive.....I have never had a problem with their drives before.

Then we need to find a case that will fit all this stuff in it.

okay so after researching for quite some time i have put together this potential rig:

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=3911521&Sku=A406-1101

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/searchtools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=4633206&csid=_21


http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=5252754&CatId=3669

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=4240166&Sku=CP1-I7-920

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/searchtools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=4426054&csid=_21

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=3276567&Sku=ULT-LSP750


http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=4282847&CatId=4093

http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=5267687&csid=ITD&body=MAIN#detailspecs


http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=5279699&CatId=3636


so what do yas think? did i miss anything? the hd monitor i'll pick up at bestbuy.

flewid wrote:okay so after researching for quite some time i have put together this potential rig:

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=3911521&Sku=A406-1101

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/searchtools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=4633206&csid=_21


http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=5252754&CatId=3669

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=4240166&Sku=CP1-I7-920

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/searchtools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=4426054&csid=_21

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=3276567&Sku=ULT-LSP750


http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=4282847&CatId=4093

http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=5267687&csid=ITD&body=MAIN#detailspecs


http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=5279699&CatId=3636

so what do yas think? did i miss anything? the hd monitor i'll pick up at bestbuy.

Damn man thats a nice rig. This is a fucking gaming rig, not just some media pc hahaha wish i had the dough to build that pc haha, but what i got is pretty badass for a college student.

The only thing I am concerned with is psu power. The HD5870 requires 600w min system power, you have a 750w psu picked out. While that will work you have no room for expansion at a later date. You have to remember that the cpu, and all the other peripherails require a certain chunck of that too. But it will work just fine!!

My only thought that concerns me is just if you ever wanted to like get a second gfx card and put it in crossfire with the current one I don't think your system power would be stable.


Anyways Kick-ass rig man!

sweet, thanks for the feedback. and based off that, i'm gonna spring for this: http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=4558889&CatId=2535