[Daveymaclad]

My poor old laptops got to the stage in its life where it's really struggling to process 25gb bluray files onto my tv so it's time I incorporated a more stylish solution to my living room.

I have two options open to me. Buy a ready built media streamer with hard drive or build myself a more than capable pc to nestle in a micro atx case under the telly.

Has anyone here got or used a media streamer? My main concern is the processing power in them won't have enough power to process some of the bluray content I have. The one I've picked out is the AC Ryan HD2 2tb model @ £202. It says it's capable of playing full high def at 1080p but then again so does my asus eee transformer and that can't even store a blu ray let alone play it!
Advantages - Cheaper option; smaller unit; less power consumption; functions from remote.
Disadvantages - Strong concerns over ability to play full 1080p high def; very limited applications; poor interweb access; unable to perform downloads; 40mm fan means lots of noise when things heat up!

My other option is a self build @ £360 which would be a core i5 2500k with built in gpu, 8gb ram and one of my existing 1tb hard drives. Being a fully fledged pc it'll also allow me to web browse and download straight to my hard drive.
Advantages - Far more capable system, upgradeable, definitely can cope with 1080p content, quieter
Disadvantages - Would require keyboard/mouse, no remote, nearly twice the price, nearly twice the size.

Any thoughts or experiences people care to share?

Thanks in advance

Dave