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Objective - build a Media Centre PC that out put HD sound and video utilising the HDMI digital format. Must be able to record 2 channels simultaneously (the Olympics is coming up!)

Budget - there wasn’t one – though there's only so much you can spend doing this.

Parts

• Zalman HD160XT Plus Home Theatre Case Black
• Zalman 500W Noiseless Power Supply with Heatpipe
• Zalman CNPS9500 LED CPU Heatsink
• Intel S775 Core 2 Duo E8500 3.16GHz CPU
• ASUS S775 P5Q Core 2 Motherboard
• Integrated HD Sound Card
• Integrated Gigabit Network Connection
• DDR2 4GB Geil 800MHz Dual Channel DDR2 Kit
• 1TB Seagate 7200rpm 32M Serial ATA HDD
• 1TB Seagate 7200rpm 32M Serial ATA HDD
• Pioneer BDC-S02BK Blu-Ray Reader/DVD Writer Combo
• ASUS ATI 3850 256M PCIe HDMI Video Card
• Hauppauge HVR-2200 Dual HDTV + Analog Tuner PCIe
• Microsoft Media Centre Keyboard and Remote
• Logitech Cordless Mouse
• Powerware 5110/500VA Line Interactive UPS
• Vista Ultimate 32 bit

Construction

Here’s the specs of my next PC

• Intel S775 Core 2 Extreme QX9770 3.2GHz Quad-Core CPU
• Zalman CNPS9700 LED CPU Heatsink
• ASUS S775 P5N-T Deluxe Core 2 Motherboard
• Integrated Sound Card
• Integrated Gigabit Network Connection
• DDR2 8GB Geil 800MHz EVO ONE Quad DDR2 Kit
• 300GB Western Digital VelociRaptor 10000rpm Serial ATA HDD
• 1TB Seagate 7200rpm 32M Serial ATA HDD 24x7
• Seagate 750GB Freeagent Desktop External USB 2.0 HDD
• Internal All-in-1 Memory Card Reader Black
• Pioneer 4x BDR-202BK Blu-Ray DVD-RW Writer
• ASUS 9800GX2 1GB PCIe Overclocked Video Card
• ASUS 9800GX2 1GB PCIe Overclocked Video Card
• ASUS 9800GX2 1GB PCIe Overclocked Video Card
• 22" (55cm) Samsung 2243BW Widescreen LCD Monitor
• 22" (55cm) Samsung 2243BW Widescreen LCD Monitor
• 22" (55cm) Samsung 2243BW Widescreen LCD Monitor
• 22" (55cm) Samsung 2243BW Widescreen LCD Monitor
• 22" (55cm) Samsung 2243BW Widescreen LCD Monitor
• 22" (55cm) Samsung 2243BW Widescreen LCD Monitor
• Antec Twelve Hundred Black Case (No PS)
• Tagan 1300 Watt Power Supply
• Logitech G15 Gaming Keyboard
• Logitech MX Revolution Cordless Laser Mouse
• Logitech G25 Racing Wheel
• Powerware 5110/1000VA Line Interactive UPS

Total Price $11,065

Saturday I went climbing with a bunch of young folk. We headed up Mt Beerwah, one of the local volcanic plugs making up the Glasshouse mountains, so called because when Captain Cook anchored off the coast he could see the distinctive plugs sticking up in the distance like glass houses.

The full story and pictures can be found at www.krostech.biz.

Church on Sunday was a good time of reflection and teaching in Ephesians. Jude and Erin stayed home with the chunder bug that has hit this house in the last week - with all the kids succumbing to it in succession. Jude and I haven't chundered, but both had some queasiness last week. Hopefully it is all gone now.

The Vista team at Microsoft have built a website called UltimatePC beta. Unfortunately its a flash site so while it looks sexy its hard to get around it and even harder to find the links leading out of it. So we have done that for you here.

They are promoting the New HP Blackbird Gaming PC as the ultimate PC. I had a rig like this 2 years ago and my current rig is almost exactly the same. I think of it now as pretty ordinary and am waiting for the next step up in system performance, but I suppose for most people its pretty good - and dang expensive. Basic specs, Quad core extreme CPU, 2 GB RAM (not enough!), 2 8800GTX video cards, Raptor hard drive, sexy case with some excellent thermal cooling solutions and Vista ultimate. starts from around USD$5K, though with the USD fallen in a hole lately that's good for the rest of the world.