For several years now you've been hearing the term "Digital Home". Microsoft has finally decided to move this concept into the mainstream by bringing Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 into the distribution channel. 

No longer do you need to sacrifice peripheral choice or price considerations by being forced to buy your Media Center PC from a few select vendors. Your Media Center PC can now be built to your specifications once the minimal system requirements are met.

Media Center Basic Components

Windows Media Center Edition 2005 has five basic components.

1) First of all you will need to purchase the MCE 2005 operating system. Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 which only comes in one flavor. There is not a professional or home version of this operating system (although it is built upon Windows XP Home). You can purchase the operating system in single packs (SKU# 32672) or in 3pc multi-packs (SKU#32671) if you are building more than one system.

2) The second piece of the puzzle is the DVD decoder software. NVIDIA NVTV software (SKU#31493) is recommended by Microsoft to act as the CODEC (Coder/DECoder) in Windows XP Media Center. The decoder software translates the signals passed from your tuner card into signals that can be passed onto your video card for display on your CRT, LCD, or TV screen.

3) The next thing you'll be needing for your home media setup is a remote control. The Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 Remote Control (SKU# 31207 - single, SKU# 31206 - 3pk) is specifically made to meet your Media Center needs. From the remote you can start the Media Center, switch the PC from Media Center to PC mode, access your computer, video, audio, control panels, shortcuts to My Documents, Music folders all in a few buttons. You also have controls for video, audio, picture slide show and most of the media pc at your fingertips.

4) To bring in your TV signal you will also need to include a TV Tuner card. Currently ASI is recommending four different cards from two vendors:

• EVGA Single Input Tuner - ASI SKU 31483
• EVGA Dual Input Tuner -    ASI SKU 31484
• ATI Hi-Def HDTV Wonder - ASI SKU 30910
• ATI E-Home Wonder -       ASI SKU 27131

The EVGA cards already include the NVIDIA NVTV Decoder software, so by purchasing these you will even save a few bucks for yourself or for your customer. While no tuner is actually required to build a Media Center PC, we highly recommend adding one or else you will not have any way to run the TV signal through your Media Center (which would defeat half of the purpose of building one). Multi input tuners allow you the flexibility of being able to watch one program and at the same time record a second program on a different channel. This can turn out to be a relationship saving feature if you have a modern TV family.

5) The final piece of the Media Center puzzle is your graphics card. There are literally hundreds of graphics cards on the market today, and the majority of them are going to be relying on a very small group of chipsets. In your quest to build your Media Center PC you need to make sure that you are aware of all of the things that the unit is going to be called on to perform. If you are building the PC to simply be a box to be a PVR unit and show some pictures, you can go with a video chipset that may have been cutting edge a year or so ago, but now has been surpassed by the next generation of cards. You can save some money by buying last years technology in order to match your needs. At the same time you may be building a unit that will act as a PVR, and a high end gaming machine. This will necessitate using a modern, higher powered card that will come with both a higher price and also higher power and cooling requirements. This all needs to be taken into consideration before selecting your components and chassis that you will be using for your build. We have put together a list of Microsoft Certified VGA cards to use for your Media Center PC, You will find it here.

Media Center Features

What can Media Center do for you? When it comes to home entertainment, there's not much that it can't do. As you can see below, virtually all of your media needs are now placed directly at your fingertips:

 Click for detail view

	Online Spotlight
	My Videos
	My Pictures
	My TV
	My Music
	Play DVD
	Radio

 

Online Spotlight: Highlights Microsoft partner company offerings such as music, movies, software, and much, much more. Content available in both streaming and download packages.	My TV: The main draw of Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005. All the functions of a PVR including a free viewers guide. Record programs on multiple channels at the same time. Pause, rewind, repeat.
My Videos: House. manage, and share all of your personal digital video files.	My Music: View and manage your digital music collection from this easy to use interface. Sort selections by album, artist, playlist, song, or genre.
My Pictures: Display thumbnails of your digital pictures and create slideshows to show your friends and family. Sort pictures by name or date. Touch up your photos within the MCE interface.	Radio: By using the radio tuner built into TV Tuner cards you can listen to, and pause and rewind live radio broadcasts.
Play DVD: Multi-featured DVD player. Additional plug-ins allow you to index your on-line and off-line collection.	More Programs: Custom plug-ins created for Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 allow you to do everything from indexing your DVD collection to controlling the appliances in your house.

Media Center Extenders

Microsoft has worked hard to allow you to utilize your Media Center content in multiple areas of the house. Using up to five separate Media Center Extenders, you can leave your PC in your office, or in a closet somewhere and still be able to access all of the great features of your Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 PC. Media Center Extenders primarily come in the form of set-top boxes, but Microsoft has also released an XBOX version of the Media Center Extender which loads an application onto your XBOX game console and allows you access through your home network.

Media Extenders are popular because you no longer have to figure out how to camouflage your PC to fit into your living room (although some Media Center PC's now nicely fit into your entertainment system). The set-top box can be placed anywhere in your house, connected to your network and the attached TV gets all the benefits of the Media Center. This may also provide some comfort for those parents who wish to give Media Center access to watch videos, view photographs, or play music, to their children without allowing them direct access to the rest of the computer.

LINKSYS Dual-Band Wireless A/G Media Center Extender WMCE54AG = ASI SKU # 32648

Benefits over other PVR's

When looking into purchasing a PVR for your home, which is almost a necessity these days with the vast array of programming available these days, Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition has some benefits that you won't find anywhere else. When comparing the Media Center to it's closest competitor, TiVo, you will find that Media Center comes out ahead. Unlike TiVo, Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition has no fee for programming. There is no one time fee, or monthly fees to find out what is going to be available to view and to program your PVR to manage it for you.

With TiVo you also have a limited amount of storage. The most popular TiVo units ship with 40 to 80 hours of TV viewing storage, these figures are based on your selecting the lowest possible quality of video to watch. Essentially, if you have a VCR and turn the tracking dial off by about 1/4 turn, you will achieve the same quality available at these levels. Most people tend to record and view at medium quality which looks like standard TV signal and yields about 50% of the hours stated by the manufacturer. For those choosing to record at high quality, they can expect to see 1/4 - 1/3 of the stated hours. With Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition, you choose your own configuration, therefore your own storage levels. You can literally have hundreds of hours of high quality recording on your system at any given time. In addition to storage, configuring your own Media Center also allows you to add multiple tuners. One user that I found has added 2 HDTV Tuners and 2 Analog Tuners allowing him to record 3 separate programs at the same time, while he watches another.

Is Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 right for you?

In a word? Yes. Every home needs a PC. Whether it's for work, study, or play, the vast majority of American homes contain at least one home computer. Using the computer to enhance your digital home experience is almost a no-brainer. Microsoft has put out a list of the top 10 reasons to buy a Media Center PC which I have posted below, but if what you have read so far hasn't convinced you, I don't think anything will.

Top 10 Reasons to Buy a Media Center PC
 

Reasons

1. The most complete Microsoft® Windows® experience designed for the home, with features not available anywhere else

2. Developed as the family room entertainment center.

3. Enjoy more of your entertainment all in one easy-to-use place

4. Easily transfer, touch up and share photo slide shows with music

5. Burn and back up music, photos, recorded TV and home movies onto CD or DVD

6. Discover, watch, pause, rewind and record live TV – all with no service fees

7. The first home computer OS designed for enjoying High Definition quality via TV, DVD or even the Web.

8. Enjoy it in any room in the house with Media Center Extender and compatible devices

9. Take more of your entertainment on the go with Portable Media Centers or a wide range of music players

10. Connect to movies and music in your living room on demand

  The Radeon Xpress 200 is a two-chip pair that includes a north bridge and south bridge. The north bridge is design around PCIe technology, given a generous 22 lanes.  Each lane is 250MB/s going one direction.  16 lanes are used by the discrete graphic card.  4 lanes are used for PCIe x1 I/O card and 2 lanes are used by north and south bridge links.  There are two flavors of the north bridge.  The 200 and 200P.  Both chips are pin-compatible for easy interchangeability and both are manufactured on a 130nm fabrication process at TSMC. The difference between the two chip is the 200P lacks the integrated graphic core and rely completely on a discrete PCIe x16 graphic card, which would cost less then the 200 chipset.  

  In addition, the 200 is more expensive than the 200P because of the integrated graphic core and PCIe x16 lane. The integrated graphics is essentially the same as the Radeon 9600 or X300 core, with two pixel pipelines instead of four, and two vertex processing engines, and completely DirectX 9 compliance.  On top of that both chips incorporate HyperMemory technology, which offers optional dedicated Local Frame Buffer configuration for a 32-bit or 64-bit interface and up to 128MB of memory.  With this option, performance will gain greatly vs the traditional UMA. To utilize this technology on a discrete graphic card, the graphic card must support HyperMemory or it's useless.  

   Furthermore, the 200 integrated Radeon X300 VPU core support dual independent displays via dual analog DB-15 VGA connectors or one using analog while the other on a DVI interface dependent board design and appropriate DVI-I connector on the rear ATX back panel of the motherboard. It offer SurroundView, which support  three separate displays when combining the integrated graphic with another Radeon graphic card installed on the PCIe slot.  The discrete graphic card will power the two display while the integrated graphic power the third display.  ATI Radeon Xpress 200 is the only chipset core where the integrated graphic working simultaneously with a discrete graphic card - a perfect solution for multi-display user with low budget.

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Benchmarking by ASI

Raw speed is not the only benefit of this feature rich chipset.  Here is a list of the integrated chipset technologies system builders and computer enthusiasts will appreciate in the quest for a high-performance system:

• 1066-MHz Front Side Bus (FSB) enables support for the latest Intel Pentium 4 Processor with HT Technology Extreme Edition at 3.46 GHz and above.
• 800-MHz FSB enables support for Intel Pentium 4 processors supporting HT Technology
• Optimized for Hyper-Threading Technology to enable improved system performance and responsiveness
• Enhanced performance architecture with support for 1066-and 800MHz FSB processors and DDR2 memory, optimizes data transfers between the processor and system memory
• Flexible memory support, with dual-channel DDR2 533/DDR2 400 memory, providing up to 8.53 GB/s memory bandwidth, in configurations up to a maximum of 4 GB of Random Access Memory (RAM).
• Support for PCI Express delivers up to 4 GB/s per direction for graphics bandwidth and up to 500 MB/s concurrent data transfers for I/O to support the most demanding applications

D925XEBC2LK = ASI SKU 32915. The D925XEBC2LK is a Micro ATX form factor board that features DUAL CHANNEL DDR2-533/400 memory, one PCI Express Graphics x16 slot and two PCI Express x1 slots, GB LAN, Intel® High Definition Audio, 1394A ports, and eight USB 2.0 ports, and Intel® Matrix Storage Technology (RAID 0/1).

D925XECV2LK = ASI SKU 32913. The D925XECV2LK features DUAL CHANNEL DDR2-533/400 memory, one PCI Express Graphics x16 slot and two PCI Express x1 slots, GB LAN, Intel® High Definition Audio, 1394A ports, and eight USB 2.0 ports, and Intel® Matrix Storage Technology (RAID 0/1).

Many other brands of motherboards will soon be issuing models based on the 925XE chipset.

New nVidia nForce4 Chipsets

 

Second the nForce4 Ultra chipset is for mainstream AMD Athlon 64 motherboards and includes fully support for 1000 Hyper- Transport unlocked, support for 3GB/s SATA drives and nVidia Secure Networking called 'Active Armor' (featuring the secure networking engine which enhances networking security while reducing CPU overhead).

Third is the nForce4 SLI chipset at the top of the range AMD Athlon 64 motherboard versions which will in addition to the Ultra support programmable PCI Express lanes for the use of single or dual graphics cards. A single 16X PCI-E slot can be reprogrammed to two X8 PCI-E slots.

2 UltraATA/133 Channels

• PCI Express Support
• NVIDIA nTune Performance Application
• NVIDIA Firewall
• NVIDIA RAID
• NVIDIA Native Gigabit Ethernet
• NVIDIA NVMixer Application
• 64-Bit Architecture
• Single-Chip Architecture
• Unified Driver Architecture (UDA)
• HyperTransport Technology
• Serial ATA
• NVIDIA nForce Networking
• NVIDIA ForceWare Unified Software Environment (USE)
• USB 2.0

• PCI Express Support
• NVIDIA ActiveArmor
• NVIDIA Firewall
• NVIDIA RAID
• SATA 3Gb/s
• NVIDIA Native Gigabit Ethernet
• NVIDIA nTune Performance Application
• NVIDIA NVMixer Application
• 64-Bit Architecture
• Single-Chip Architecture
• Unified Driver Architecture (UDA)
• HyperTransport Technology
• NVIDIA nForce Networking
• NVIDIA ForceWare Unified Software Environment (USE)
• USB 2.0

• NVIDIA SLI Support
• PCI Express Support
• NVIDIA ActiveArmor
• NVIDIA Firewall
• NVIDIA RAID
• SATA 3Gb/s
• NVIDIA Native Gigabit Ethernet
• NVIDIA nTune Performance Application
• NVIDIA NVMixer Application
• 64-Bit Architecture
• Single-Chip Architecture
• Unified Driver Architecture (UDA)
• HyperTransport Technology
• NVIDIA nForce Networking
• NVIDIA ForceWare Unified Software Environment (USE)
• USB 2.0

The first integrated hardware network firewall engine which reduces the loading on your Athlon 64 processor compared with full software protection by handling most of the steps needed to inspect your network packets.

nForce4 Active Armor with Firewall.

NVIDIA nTune™ application is to optimize your overall PC performance. You can easily select system profiles to maximize your PC’s performance or run quietly while watching DVDs. Faster than tuning by hand, get optimal settings for bus speeds, HyperTransport, memory timings, CPU registers, fans, and voltages in a safe, easy-to-use Microsoft® Windows® interface. nTune provides the ability to overclock system settings without entering the BIOS or changing hardware jumpers.

A8N-SLI Deluxe (ASI SKU # 34167)


EZ Plug – Direct and Reliable Power Supply
When the system is in SLI mode (dual PCI Express graphics operation), the supply of power for the graphics adaptors is crucial. The A8N-SLI Deluxe incorporated the patented EZ Plug, which provides dedicated support for the high power demands of graphics cards.

Specification summary:
- Socket 939 for AMD Athlon 64FX/Athlon 64 CPU
- Nvidia nForce4 SLI chipset
- FSB 2000/1600 MT/s
- Dual-channel DDR400/333/266
- 2*PCIex16/2*PCIex1/3*PCI slots
- 4*SATA 3Gb/s and 2*ATA133 support RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 0+1 and JBOD
- 4*SATA 1.5Gb/s support RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 0+1 and RAID 5
- 2*Gbit LAN
- 2*1394 ports