Building a computer to replace cable tv

[angelsneverdie]

Hello all, inspired by this article from the New York Times, i wanted to make an ubuntu computer that would sit in my living room and hook to my LCD hd tv and be able to handle hulu desktop and boxee and whatnot.

While I know enough about computers to get by most of the time, I'm still a relative noob and don't trust myself to do this without help. Here is a list of components i was thinking of buying. Three things i'm looking to find out from you helpful people: 1)is everything compatible with ubuntu 2)is everything compatible with each other, and 3) does anyone have any suggestions about how to get the price down and still have it do what i need it to do?

Component/Item/store/price/shipping/link

1. case & psu 10-Bay ATX Computer Case with 550w PSU & 9.84-inch Blue LED Fan amazon $37.87 $14.60 http://www.amazon.com/10-Bay-Compute...0560540&sr=8-1
2. motherboard ASRock A780GXH/ 128M AM2+ /AM2 AMD 780G HDMI ATX AMD motherboard newegg $69.99 $0.00 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813157157
3. cpu AMD Athlon 64 x2 5400+ 2.8GHz Socket AM2 65W Dual-Core Processor Model ADO5400IAA5dO - OEM newegg $53.99 $0.00 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819103242
4. video ZOTAC ZT-20201-10L GeForce GT 220 1GB 128-bit DDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready Video Card - Retail newegg $78.99 $0.00 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814500128
5. ram A-DATA 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model ADQVE1B16K - Retail newegg $82.99 $0.00 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820211188
6. hard disk Western Digital Caviar Green WD5000AADS 500GB 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Hard Drive -Bare Drive newegg $54.99 $0.00 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822136358
7. optical drive Sony Optiarc 24X DVD/CD Rewritable Drive Black SATA Model AD-7240S-0B - OEM newegg $26.99 $0.00 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16827118030
8. cpu fan SILVERSTONE NT07-AM2 80mm CPU Cooler - Retail newegg $19.98 $0.00 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16835220030

total cost without shipping: $425.79

any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

[angelsneverdie]

Also, does the onboard sound card seem sufficient? thanks.

[scar1]

One of the benefits I think with uBuntu (or most Linux distros) is that you should not need to build a specific, high spec machine to have this operate sufficiently.

For example I managed to get an older machine from work it is a;

ThinkCentre M58e (7306-A9G)
Intel® Core 2 Duo Processor E7500, 3GB, 250GB 7200RPM S-ATA HDD, no diskette drive, PCI/PCIe Small Form Factor (2x3), Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 4500, DVD Recordable, Gigabit Ethernet.

However I did purchase an HD graphics card

I purchased ATI HD 4250 graphics card, however in hind site this was not the recommended graphics card to get. This configuration for me ti totally sufficient, yes I have a few issues which I need to investigate to resolve but other than that I am totally happy!

My suggestion would be to try and get a cheaper reasonable spec machine add a good graphics card and you should be sorted.

Good luck!
Scar1