help me brainstorm/build a super cheap media center pc
 

elaborated on from the comething irrelevant thread:

I'm thinking of using junkparts from my attic to build a mediacenter PC for the living room. And I do mean junkparts. I'm going to try my damndest to not spend any extra money building this. I have an eMachines desktop in my attic from oh say 2006ish already. Ideally, I want something that:

1. plays DVD's (easy)
2. streams internet video (maybe less easy, as I'll be using a wifi card and most mediacenter frontends are based on linux builds, so compatibility with wifi cards is hit/miss)
3. has a harddrive full of movies (pretty easy -- we've got shelves and shelves and binders n binders full of DVD's to rip)
4. has a harddrive full of music (very easy. I've got the bulk of my music collection ripped to an external HDD)


more thoughts....


it won't be doing HD, but the LCD in our living room has VGA-in.

I do have a lot random computer parts in my attic, so we'll see how this goes...

I'm not 100%