LLD101

Makaveli · Posted: Mon May 30, 2005 5:19 pm Post subject: Media Center PCs

how do media center pcs work? can they do everything a normal pc can do in addition to the home theatre stuff? or just the home theatre stuff?

anyway, heres my situation:

i want to buy a new pc (for gaming / photo editing / everyday use)... and i also want to buy a pretty nice 7.1 (or 5.1 if i cant get the 7.1) surround sound system... and i already have an hdtv and pretty nice pc monitor... would it be a good idea to just buy a media center pc?

would i be able to use the computer like a normal pc while the tv is on?

for the pc, i want to be able to run pretty much any game and run photoshop well.... i know that for the pc i want 3+ ghz processor (how good is hyper-threading? what exactly does it allow me to do), around 1gig ram (i was thinking 2x 512 sticks... not too expensive)... 256 mb video card... any other suggestions for things i should look for?

and finally... who makes good media center pcs? what specifications should i look for? do i need any additional parts to make the tv features work?