Hardware Good prebuild computer for 4K playback of offline video?

[Wombo Combo]

I was looking for a computer it can be a small or bigger but just looking to sit it in my living room and play local 4K files off of it onto tv with HDMI cable? What is the cheapest way of doing this? If not prebuild what would be a good bare bones machine and components?

 

[RedBlueGreen]

Just look for the best thing within your budget and build it. There are sites that tell you what components are compatible so follow those guidelines and buy the parts.

 

[Song of storms]

If you want 4K playback and nothing else, I think that the Nvidia Shield TV is enough.

 

[Jayenkai]

I'd recommend buying an NAS drive, where you can store all your media for easy access. This will connect to your network, and let you access the video files from all around the home.

Once you have a competent media-file setup, you needn't store all the data directly under your telly! The next step would then be to add something small to your TV that can access it. I'm fairly sure there's a ton of Android boxes which will do that, but I'm not sure which would output 4K. You'll have to look into that.
In fact, your TV (if it's a "Smart TV") might already be able to natively access a "DLNA" media server. (Most NAS drives contain DLNA support, and will happily stream videos to whatever asks for the files)

There's also the Apple TV 4K, but you're looking at just under £200 for that alone. I recommend it due to it's ability to access all the tons of apps, be they games or media, but .. yeah, not exactly the cheapest method!! (Oh, and the remote's a bit pants)

But definitely look into getting an NAS media setup working, first. It'll help you a ton in the future, you can use it for backups, and you'll free up all that space on your computer, too!!

 

[TotalInsanity4]

A NAS is a nicety (hell I just finished building one for myself, might even post a build log here once I finish a PCPP writeup), but really not necessary for this. To answer the OP's question directly, though; anything with MODERN components inside will serve you flawlessly (Intel 6th, 7th, or 8th gen Core series processors or AMD Ryzen processors), as even integrated graphics nowadays can handle 4K media playback. However, if you find a good deal on a used system (eBay, Craigslist, etc), just drop a GT 1030 into it and you should be good to set sail as well

 

[Wombo Combo]

Thanks for the suggestions everyone I think I will go with a NAS and use a streaming box.