GigaTurtle Posted June 26, 2011 Report Share Posted June 26, 2011 I'm wanting to know how to make a cheap as possible "tower" that can play HD anime. as far as I'm condenser it can be a motherboard, processer, ram, and video card in a box, just as long as it can play HD videos and is cheap.Oh, and did i mention the CHEAP part? lol. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
† L4ugh Posted June 26, 2011 Report Share Posted June 26, 2011 If you want cheap then I would skip the tower all together and get a book sized mini-computer. You'll want Nvidia Ion for graphics and the fastest processor you can find while staying with a company you can trust. The book size computers mostly come with intel atoms so I wouldn't go below the 330. I would try to get one that others DDR3 ram as well. It will probably have to be bought as a barebone, because I don't know many places that sell them completed without tacking on a lot to the price. Barebone, if you don't already know, means it will most likey only be the case, board, and maybe power supply. Since the board will most likely be an ITX format it will have the processor and graphics chip on it already. The only way it won't come with a processor/graphics chip is if it's designed to take one from a regular sized motherboard.These computers are very small and don't consume a lot of power, but they're also not as powerful as a regular PC would be. They're basically a netbook on your desktop. This means you'll want to do your homework before buying and make sure the one you pick will be able to play HD Video.It should also be noted that the smallest/cheapest version will not come with a rom drive because they will be to small for one to fit. If a built in rom drive is an absolute must. Then a HTPC designed barebone system would be the better choice, but I'm not sure how cheap that option will be. It could be you'll get to the point were it would just be easier to buy a low end HP with an upgrade-able graphics slot. Once you get away from the onboard graphics chips you'll want to make sure that the graphics card supports cuda, if it's Nvidia. I haven't owned an ATI card since the merge so I'm not sure about them.After you get something picked out I would install an HTPC friendly OS like XBMC linux. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Remotay Posted June 27, 2011 Report Share Posted June 27, 2011 You can build a 300 dollar rig pretty easily. Amd x4 840 cpu will play hd anime perfectly fine. Plus you get a free mobo if you buy it at micro center Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
belgarionau Posted June 30, 2011 Report Share Posted June 30, 2011 If you are looking for something that does HD video you can't go past some of the foxconn barebones unit that are based on the nvidia ion chipset, I have a re-branded unit now (a Viewsonic) running XBMC with an installation from the live cd (as a USB install) and its played everything I can through at it.I also added a Hauppauge Media Center remote and as it supports HDMI its just in my TV setup and works quite well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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