Mini media centre and DAW

[bendhill]

I'm looking for PC with a relatively small form factor that can be used as a media centre and a Digital Audio Workstation.

Looking for suggestions!

It must be quiet and quick. I'm not particularly concerned about graphics performance. My budget is around £500

Looking at Intel NUC but am worried that processor speed won't be adequate. I'm planning to kit it out with a large SSD 400GB and 8GB RAM, buy an external Blu Ray disk and TV Tuner.

I'm currently running a 4 year old Sony Laptop with http://ark.intel.com/products/50179/Intel-Core-i5-460M-Processor-3M-Cache-2_53-GHz

The latest NUC D54250WYK seems to run slower:
http://ark.intel.com/products/75028/Intel-Core-i5-4250U-Processor-3M-Cache-up-to-2_60-GHz

 

[Karsten75]

Not sure if you want to build or buy, but this might work?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16856164008

 

[Rapajez]

Not sure about the requirements for the Digital Audio Workstation part...what specific software are you using?

If you're up for a challenge, you could check out the Corsair 250D, and a quality mini mobo like the ASUS Z97I-PLUS Mini ITX: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813132122&cm_re=ASUS_Z97I-PLUS_Mini_ITX-_-13-132-122-_-Product Includes HDMI/Display Port out for video, optical for Audio.

A cheap Haswell like the i3-4130 should get the job done, and the on-board graphics should sufficient as long as you're not gaming.