Sans Media Center
Posted at May 31, 2006 09:37 PM - Category: Compooters
On Monday, I was sitting at my desk when I smelt that wonderfully disgusting odor we all know and loath: burning silicon. Since both my PC and Macbook Pro were working OK, I had to hunt around for the source. I looked for a bit and then noticed that the power light on my media center PC wasn't lit. I pressed the power button: nothing. Alas, my media center is now dead.
Upon opening up the case, I found out the power supply is to blame, but the exact cause is rather scary: dust. I have an Antec Overture II for the case. The side has a vent with a cleanable dust filter as either input (or output) for the PS. That had become so clogged with dust, it wasn't letting air in (or out). That overloaded the PS and caused it to blow. Luckily, it doesn't appear much else is destroyed, but I figure it's time to overhaul things.
In particular, I want to move to MicroATX for size and embedded video reasons. I picked up an Asus A8N-VM mobo. This has an onboard nVidia 6150, which happen to do HD content with PureVideo. Based on how well it went with my Athlon 1600+ in the old media center, we should be good to go with this (it'll actually be a step up!). I'm also getting a new case to go along with it, the Antec NSK2400. It's a little smaller than my current one and clearly designed for media center uses. I've got some left over memory available, so it's only going to cost about $300 shipped. Should be a pretty sweet machine for a relatively cheap price.
