Media Center Desktop Build

 

This is the process of building the new desktop for the Media Center.  This machine will store mpeg files of movies so we can easily play them without fooling with DVDs for each movie.  This will be a quad core machine with 8GB of RAM and a super-duper video card with 4 GB of video RAM.

To start, here are some pictures of the empty case.  This will be our skeleton:

MediaCenter Case 01
MediaCenter Case 02
MediaCenter Case 03

Here we will highlight some of the parts that will be included in this machine.

MediaCenter Parts
MediaCenter CPU
MediaCenter Video Card
MediaCenter Power Supply

Below we see the empty motherboard, we then add the CPU and cooler and finally the memory

MediaCenter Motherboard
MediaCenter Motherboard With CPU
MediaCenter Motherboard With Memory
First we add the power supply and the drives to the empty case, then the motherboard, and finally all the cables.  In the last picture below you can see the finished product.
MediaCenter With Drives
MediaCenter Motherboard In Case
MediaCenter Motherboard AlmostComplete
MediaCenter Complete
This wonderful machine was built in April of 2014 and I am sad to report that three years later the motherboard gave out.  This is the first time I have ever purchased a Gigabyte motherboard and I am not very impressed.  I have an ASUS motherboard that is eight years old and it is still going strong.  Look at my blog entries for April of 2017 for an article concerning my decision to give up on building these huge desktop machines.