Technically the first item hauled this month is really from the very end of July, when Overclockers dropped the Bitfenix Prodigy back down to below £60. I snagged it for my upcoming Hackintosh build in artic white and can’t wait to use it in my build in the coming months!
After payday on the 31st, I jumped to snag a pair of D-Link Powerline Adapters in the first part of phase ‘Server becomes HTPC/Server’. The server on its own is awesome, doing its job well, but alas streaming media, particularly to a PS3 connected to the TV in our livingroom is getting to be problematic. Sometimes the PS3 sees the media server, sometimes not. More frequently it’ll see two of the three files you’ve just made available for sharing and only pick up the other seemingly at random. Opening the file in media player first used to work, but then it stopped after another PS3 update.
Much as I hate to say it, but we generally have a good run with no buffering, share discovery issues until just after another PS3 update hits, then we go back to annoying little hiccups that interrupt your viewing plans or just prevent them altogether. There’ll be more details in a dedicated post, but for now the powerline adapters will give the server a wired con downstairs when it’s moved away from the router.
And that brings me to my last item; the Sapphire Radeon HD 5450 1GB GDDR3 graphics card. Again, without going into too much detail, the idea in general is to get the server downstairs & hooked up to the TV to double-up its function as a HTPC/Server connecting to the network wired via new powerline adapters. This all-important addition brings us HD video & audio via a single HDMI connection to our big screen. An upgrade post will follow shortly!
Thanks! Lol, when my budget allows me to get more parts for it, I’ll be lucky to have time to build my own. Will see how it goes though, you never know, if I manage to pull it off without breaking stuff in the process maybe it’ll prove you can do the build too! (And prob much better than me!)