Another Media Center PC

Or so it started out.

I've tried to build a media center PC before (see one of my previous posts) with mixed succes.

This time I decided to go all the way and build a new, dedicated PC just for that.
So I got an HTPC case, motherboard with HDTV outputs, AMD CPU, 1Gb of memory and two 320 Gb hard drives, configured in JBOD (Just a Bunch Of Disks). That gives me approx. 600 Gb of disk space for all my media files.

Built the entire thing and installed XP Media Center Edition. Guess what....
- No Internet Explorer
- No network devices
- No.. (lots of other stuff that should REALLY be there!)

It's working now... with Vista Ultimate Edition.
Installed it, started it, working!

And it's as quiet as a whisper...

Get Windows Vista a bit cheaper

Vista has just been released for the larger public.

If you are interested in buying Vista, you will find that, not only are there a number of different versions to choose from (6 to be exact), but there is also a big price difference between the "Upgrade" version and a "Clean Install".
Normally, Microsoft requires you to have a previous version of Windows (XP in this case) before you can use the cheaper Upgrade version.
But if time is not an option, and you dont mind installing Vista twice, then look here for a workaround.

Could save you a few bucks.