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Mediacenter PCs

post #1 of 16
10/3/06 at 9:42pm
Thread Starter 
Well Everyone here was so helpfull Picking out my Laptop i wanted an opinion on a Media Center i am going to be building here are the tentative Specs-

  • MotherBoard-ASUS P5B Deluxe/WiFi-AP Socket T (LGA 775) Intel P965 Express ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail $229.99
    Processor-Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 Conroe 2.4GHz LGA 775 Processor Model BX80557E6600 - Retail - $317.99
    Desktop Memory-CORSAIR ValueSelect 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 667 (PC2 5300) System Memory Model VS2GBKIT667D2 - Retail - $209.99Kingston 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 667 (PC2 5300) Dual Channel Kit System Memory - $214.99
    Sound Card-Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeMusic 7.1 Channels PCI Interface Sound Card - Retail - $121.99Looking into a cheaper alternative at least for the moment
    Video Card-MSI NX7600GT-VT2D256EHD Geforce 7600GT 256MB GDDR3 PCI Express x16 Video Card - Retail - $174.99
    TV Tuner-Hauppauge WinTV-PVR250MCE PCI Interface Video Recorder, TV/FM Tuner Card - Retail - $134.99
    Hard Drive-Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD5000KS 500GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM - $179.99
    Optical Drive-PLEXTOR Slot Load 16X DVD±R DVD Burner Black IDE Model PX-716AL/SW - $146.99ASUS Combo Drive Silver E-IDE/ATAPI Model CB-5216AG SV - $28.49
    Operating System-Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 w/SP2B - OEM - $109.99
    Case-Sky Hawk/Eagle Tech CA-EC1-S Silver Aluminum ATX Media Center Computer Case 450W Power Supply - $149.99

Grand Total - $1,632.90
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post #2 of 16
10/3/06 at 10:00pm
If you are ina U.S. city with good over tha air TV reception, Get a HDTV tuner card instead.
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post #3 of 16
10/4/06 at 9:25pm
and you can get better/faster RAM than that.. Corsair is great, but their value select is only OK..
unless of course you aren't in the US, then it's probably gonna be more expensive.
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post #4 of 16
10/4/06 at 10:01pm
Thread Starter 
Well price is a issue I know i can get better peices of eqiupment for each spec but for preformance/Price my budget is 2000 and all that up there doesnt include case/remote/power supply so i am close to hitting budget if you know of better prices or better items for not much more please let me know.
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post #5 of 16
10/4/06 at 11:50pm
Iwould drop the E6600 and get a E6300 and DDR2 800 RAM and overclock it to 2.8GHz
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post #6 of 16
10/5/06 at 1:24am
Quote:
Originally Posted by dman22
and you can get better/faster RAM than that.. Corsair is great, but their value select is only OK..
unless of course you aren't in the US, then it's probably gonna be more expensive.
i was actually gonna recomend 1 gig.....faster ram wont help "much" when making a HTPC, id honestly cut back on the video card too, and the ram, save more money towards a bigger hard drive or dual 500's

and yeah might as well get a HDTV tuner


thats just me

soulsaver
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post #7 of 16
10/5/06 at 1:27am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Wiz33
Iwould drop the E6600 and get a E6300 and DDR2 800 RAM and overclock it to 2.8GHz
QFT, aside from the overclocking part, you honestly dont need a high end proc for an HTPC once again :P

HTPC's can be built for 1k and be amazing, just remember they dont need much ram, they just need a decent to good proc, and tons of hard drive space (and a matching chipset/mobo to go with the proc) and a decent to good HDTV tuner

soulsaver
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post #8 of 16
10/5/06 at 3:25am
Thread Starter 
Well this media center will act as a second computer as well for web, gaming and other such items so that is why i felt the need to get a nicer video card and Proc.
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post #9 of 16
10/5/06 at 6:40am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Alnuts
Well this media center will act as a second computer as well for web, gaming and other such items so that is why i felt the need to get a nicer video card and Proc.
why not just get a x800xt AIW then? with an aftermarket cooler that is

soulsaver
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post #10 of 16
10/5/06 at 7:34am
Thread Starter 
Yea I was recommended to look into that as well from another source well the x1900 AIW though i wasnt sure as the quality of the tuner in these and the reviews i read about Hauppauge WinTV-PVR250MCE were great.
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post #11 of 16
10/5/06 at 11:27am
You can get the 6600 here for a couple pennies cheaper and it also includes a free copy of GRAW.

and I guess I was thinking wrong about RAM, the more premium RAM is well into the $200's.. so, maybe lower the CPU to a 6300/6400 and divert some of the money to higher quality, faster and lower CAS RAM??

as far as GPU's, I have a feeling they're gonna bottom out next month once NVidia starts releasing their DX10 cards. Not sure how long you're willing to wait to build this though and I know that no matter what, whatever you buy today willl be cheaper and better tomorrow.. ahhh, the joys of computer ownership

just noticed this one has a $50 rebate on it
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post #12 of 16
10/5/06 at 5:47pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by dman22
You can get the 6600 here for a couple pennies cheaper and it also includes a free copy of GRAW.

and I guess I was thinking wrong about RAM, the more premium RAM is well into the $200's.. so, maybe lower the CPU to a 6300/6400 and divert some of the money to higher quality, faster and lower CAS RAM??

as far as GPU's, I have a feeling they're gonna bottom out next month once NVidia starts releasing their DX10 cards. Not sure how long you're willing to wait to build this though and I know that no matter what, whatever you buy today willl be cheaper and better tomorrow.. ahhh, the joys of computer ownership

just noticed this one has a $50 rebate on it

he has an intel based riged, if the saying is still true for the core 2 duos as it was for the prescott/northwood era, then cas means nothing to it, bandwith however does, you wont see a diffrence in preformence between 2-2-2-6 and 3-3-3-8 on a intel platform

so if you can save money with lower cas and get 2 gigs, do it, but if the price isnt an option, dont bother

soulsaver
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post #13 of 16
10/5/06 at 6:39pm
I don't know where you got that CAS info from, but I've never heard of it..
anybody else ever heard that??
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post #14 of 16
10/6/06 at 12:06am
Thread Starter 
Well i know this isnt a real upgrade in memory but what do you guys think about

Kingston 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 667 (PC2 5300) Dual Channel Kit System Memory it is usually $239.99 at Newegg but has $25 off so the final price is $214.99

I also made a few other changes in my original post to cut the cost of the machine.
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post #15 of 16
10/6/06 at 8:06am
Quote:
Originally Posted by dman22
I don't know where you got that CAS info from, but I've never heard of it..
anybody else ever heard that??
amd has on die mem controler, it doesnt need bandwith to preform well, however intel needs it because of not having that, id find some documentation on it but i r teh lazy here check out [H] subforum tho

http://hardforum.com/forumdisplay.php?f=92

(cf)Eclipse is the man


soulsaver
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post #16 of 16
10/6/06 at 4:44pm
I'd stay with Corsair over Kingston
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