So after about 4 years my PC finally kicked the bucket. It's not a huge worry considering the only thing I really use it for any more is watching HD movies on a monitor. I would buy a new one but I'm strapped for cash right now. Anyone know the cheapest solution?

I'm considering just buying a cheap second hand desktop but not sure of the specs I'd need. What do you guys think?

 

Viooz.be is a good site for movies, the quality depends on how recently it came out or try the 1 month free trial with Netflix

 

Most computers built in the last 5 years will play HD movies no problem. Remember, HD tvs are usually 1080p resolution, and computer monitors are usually quite a lot better than that.

 

My cheapo $400 laptop (AMD quad core with integrated graphics) can stream HD video no problem. Any computer you can buy these days will do just fine. Most monitors aren't higher than 1080p resolution though - that's pretty much the standard these days for everything but small laptops/netbooks, which are usually lower. Ultrabooks and enthusiast-grade PCs often have higher res screens, but the average is still 1080p.

 

You don't specify how you obtain your HD movies, but if they're stored on portable hard drives or streamed, then I'd recommend one of the many varieties of mini-PCs designed for HD TVs.

In particular, these two categories:

Intel NUC
Chromebox

Chromebox's have many manufacturers [Asus, Samsung, Google, Dell, etc.] and there are many varieties. There are also many different kinds of Intel NUC.

Read reviews and especially user comments before purchase. Not all mini-PCs are equal. Some will output 4k video comfortably [eg. Asus M075U] and others will not [eg. Asus M004U]. Some come with a wireless keyboard and mouse included, which will save you from using up USB ports if you only have wired ones from your old computer.

I believe that the Intel NUCs don't come with hard drives, requiring you to supply them. I might be wrong about that - do your research. The Chromebox's mostly seem to come with 16GB SSDs.

OSes: I'm not sure what the NUCs have. Maybe Win 8. The Chromeboxes all run Chrome OS.

This comment is relevant:

Good luck.

 

I would be a little wary of getting a chromebox right now. I was considering getting a chromecast for sending video to my tv until I realized that I would not be able to play everything I'm interested in. Chomecast doesn't handle sound well for every type of file I have. I have some x264 files on my pc that chrome can play video for but not sound. So I would personally stick with windows.

 

Chromecast is very different from Chromebox.

Chromecast is a tiny little hdmi dongle that hangs off your TV designed to stream internet content. While Google introduced it as running a cut down ChromeOS, in reality it's more Android than ChromeOS. It's crippled by its limitations.

Chromeboxes are desktop computers. Very small ones, to be sure, but still Intel desktop PCs with all of the flexibility inherent in that setup [I'm assuming here, I haven't played around with one or extensively read up on them]. There are ways to add codecs to them, as we do in Windows, other ways to get VLC running, and even to replace the OS entirely.

You can also turn your Chromebox into an XBMC box which will take care of your video playing needs and has an excellent community of people ready to help you out. http://wiki.xbmc.org/index.php?title=ASUS_Chromebox

It depends on what suits OP best for price and content.

Edit: It appears that Intel NUCs come with no OS at all. They're a barebones system. Your first step would be putting on an OS if you go that route.