Is it possible to build/buy a Media Center PC for under £250?

-TangleFoot-

How about one of these?

martin8_2

or how about one from ASRock called the Nettop ION 330?

It has the slightly more powerful DualCore Atom with nVidia 9400m graphics which can easily do 1080p video playback via HDMI. It measures a tiny 195w x 70h x 186d mm but because it is so small it only has room for one 320gb 2.5" HDD. It doesn't have wifi but a usb wifi dongle should be adequate and has plenty of usb ports if you wanna add extra storage. Here's a review of it on TweakTown (remember to read up on its "Instant Boot feature"):-

TweakTown Review - ASRock ION 330-BD Nettop - Affordable, Overclockable and 1080p HD

I've had one for a few months now running XP+mediaportal hooked up to a 1080p HDTV mainly streaming via LAN and it's been absolutely great for me!

Typical retailer has it for around 230 GBP...

Scan - Asrock NetTop ION 330 System, Black @228.84 GBP

magic_crayon

martin, I am very interested in the ASRock myself. Can you confirm from your experience whether or not there is any noticeable fan noise from the machine? I have read a lot of mixed reviews about this.