[JasonI]

Howdy,

I've got 4 store locations with flat screen TV's at the front of each store front. Right now I'm using a DVD player to play educational and promotional videos for the products we carry. I'm planning to build a media center for each location to play the videos so I don't have to set a single DVD on repeat. I've already ripped all of the DVD's using handbrake, and downloaded other HD videos from the company's websites. I'm going to start by building one that has all the storage built into the main box. I'll be adding a NAS to my server at my main warehouse location in a few months but I want to start by building one of the mcpc that has all of the storage on board and testing it at my main location until I get my Iomega NAS. Then I'll move that unit to one of my other stores and build two more just like it and build one that only has the XBMC software on a SSD.

So here is a list of what I need the stand alone units to do.

• I need to store all of the files on the media center. I planned on using a 2TB WD green drive for this.
  
• I'd like to us 3.5" HDD to save cost
  
• I do not want to run Windows or Apple so I'm assuming OpenElec is my best bet.
  
• I'm looking for something that is relatively small so I doesn't take up to much space behind our register.
  
• I want to be able to control it with a remote
  
• I'd like to keep the cost under $300 for the stand alone units
  
• It needs to use HDMI
  

I've been reading through the forums and other sites and I think a build similar to this one would work for me.
http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid...pid1431495
The only thing that I would have to change is the case since this one only supports 2.5" drives. Is this over kill for what I plan on doing? I only plan on playing videos and music stored on the drives and wont need to stream anything or play any games.

Is there any issues I should watch out for setting up the hardware or the software? Currently the videos take up less than 500GB but I want to be able to add more as new ones come out so 2TB should be more than enough since I will be deleting some as they become obsolete. Once it's set up is it user friendly enough for my non-tech savvy employees to use? Do I need to worry about any compatibility issues with the Iomega NAS when I build the unit that pulls all the videos from it, it's main purpose will be as a back up for our linux/unix server and to store some commonly used word, PDF, and excel files (this will take around 25GB).

Thanks for any help. I think the build in the link should work for what I want to do but I'd love any feed back or help setting this up. I'm trying to keep the expense low on building and testing the first unit so I can convince my fellow owners that this is worth the money.

[Dougie Fresh]

I recently built a media PC for a customer who manages an electronics store. His intent was to cart it around with a flat-panel TV to display product demo videos and play music. He used a small SSD for the OS (Windows for him) and a 1TB 2.5" HDD. For the rest of the hardware he went with:

E-i7 case with ODD slot
Intel i3-3220T
ASRock B75M-ITX

with 4GB and a DVD slot-drive.

I don't think you need a i3-3220T, a G1610 would be fine or even the Celeron 847 as you've indicated. The Gigabyte Celeron 847 motherboard is a very good one with a larger quieter fan than the other Celeron 847 motherboards. If you don't need the optical you can go with a smaller case too like the E-i5.

I think the biggest sticking point is going to be the need for the 3.5" HDD. If you can live with a 1TB or 2TB 2.5" HDD even though it would be a little more expensive you can go much smaller.

[JasonI]

I've been shopping ITX cases and if it needs to be a little larger I can live with it. I really don't need an optical drive but it seems like most of the cases that support 3.5" HDD's come with a external slot for an optical drive.

Thanks for the help. My main fear was that I was going to run into hardware issues using a non-windows or apple OS. Or that the mcpc was going to be a tech support nightmare when I install it in one of our storefronts that doesn't have a tech savvy staff (most of them). We sell professional beauty supplies so most of my staff doesn't have a ton of tech knowledge other than turning the computer on and running our POS software or using their own computers for facebook.

What's a good remote that won't be a pain to install in a non-windows machine?

[JasonI]

Is OpenElec my best option for this build? Is there another option I'm missing?