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Rate My HTPC

Comments

  • #2
    Sqaull20
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,044 ✭✭✭Sqaull20


    Playing games on it?

    Alot of over priced things imo, like the cpu ( €64 E5200 being much better value ), ott ram, mobo and tiny hard drive.

    Intel E5200 Pentium Dual Core S775 2MB 2.5GHz 800FSB €64

    http://www.dabs.ie/productview.aspx?Quicklinx=57Y4&SearchType=1&SearchTerms=E5200&PageMode=3&SearchKey=All&SearchMode=All&NavigationKey=0

    OCZ Technology 2X2GBKIT 240PIN PC2-6400 DDR2 800MHZ €65

    http://www.dabs.ie/productview.aspx?Quicklinx=4RPH&CategorySelectedId=11150&PageMode=1&NavigationKey=11150,405050000,4294953829

    Samsung 1TB 7200RPM 32MB S300 3.5" €95 ( Media pc hardly needs ssd? )

    http://www.dabs.ie/productview.aspx?Quicklinx=4ZTT&CategorySelectedId=11154&PageMode=1&NavigationKey=11154,50429

    Gigabyte S775 Intel G31 DDR2 MATX Audio Lan VGA €49

    http://www.dabs.ie/productview.aspx?Quicklinx=4YGV&CategorySelectedId=11143&PageMode=1&NavigationKey=11143,371570000,48760000,50509

    Non Gaming card Radeon HD 3450 256MB DDR2 PCI L-Retail Low Profile €32

    http://www.dabs.ie/productview.aspx?Quicklinx=56H7&CategorySelectedId=11137&PageMode=1&NavigationKey=11137,11,4294954775

    Quiet Gaming card Sparkle GeForce 9600 GT "Cool Pipe 3" 512MB GDDR3 £70

    http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-014-SK


  • #3
    jetski
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 820 ✭✭✭jetski


    Not for games!

    your Cpu and ram and mainboard are all running the slower 800mhz fsb and just 2 meg of cache on ur cpu. but the 800fsb is the main difference. given my memory is 1066mhz mobo fsb 1066mhz and cpu 1066mhz the main processing of the system is running nicly in sync.

    The ssd is vital for a top end htpc! ill be using a NAS for storage.

    ur second gfx card aint bad but its out of stock and mine has a direct hdmi output!


  • #4
    Sqaull20
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,044 ✭✭✭Sqaull20


    jetski wrote: »
    Not for games!

    your Cpu and ram and mainboard are all running the slower 800mhz fsb and just 2 meg of cache on ur cpu. but the 800fsb is the main difference. given my memory is 1066mhz mobo fsb 1066mhz and cpu 1066mhz the main processing of the system is running nicly in sync.

    Only your wallet with notice the difference.

    The ssd is vital for a top end htpc! ill be using a NAS for storage.

    Maybe.

    ur second gfx card aint bad but its out of stock and mine has a direct hdmi output!

    You can get an adaptor for €5 and most of those cards dont come up with a direct hdmi output just the adaptor.Ati are much better than Nvidia at the moment too for hd playback.


  • #5
    jetski
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 820 ✭✭✭jetski


    i want the pc to be as fast as possible. there is a huge difference between a 800fsb system and a 1066mhz one.

    i did hear ati are better but would i really notice the difference?


  • #6
    Sqaull20
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,044 ✭✭✭Sqaull20


    jetski wrote: »
    there is a huge difference between a 800fsb system and a 1066mhz one.

    What exactly are you using the pc for?

    I cant possibly see you noticing the difference between 1mb of cache and 100 odd mhz for a media based pc.


    i did hear ati are better but would i really notice the difference?

    Picture quality is better, they use the cpu much less and can play 1080p with no juders at all.

    The 9400gt is basically a 8400gs with a few extras and that card struggled with 1080p playback.


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  • #7
    jetski
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 820 ✭✭✭jetski


    the difference is 266mhz

    i might play a game the odd time. watching movies and listening to music and general use.

    what ati card would u choose for top performance bare in mind im looking for passive cooling

    the 9400gt aint the best i know but aint bad


  • #8
    SouperComputer
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 6,949 ✭✭✭SouperComputer


    TBH, the money is being spent in the wrong areas for a good HTPC IMO.

    Vista Ultimate: waste of money for your application as a HTPC, Home Preimum is sufficient.
    64bit, much better than before but still, IMO disadvantages outweigh the advantages in a HTPC
    2GB is cutting it thin if this is going to be doing any kind of work, which for the money you are spending, I hope it is.

    Im guess you wont be working with TV at all, otherwise the NAS will only be semi-useful. Unless you have a decent amount of stuff (2TB+)

    Peformance advantages of SSD's are still verymuch debateable, personally id hold off until things stabilise. Sure, the latency is low but overall throughput is not great and write speeds are fairly pathetic.

    As far as the FSB/CPU is concerned, the most cpu intensive task your HTPC is likely to be doing is encoding and transcoding. The acid test is to benchmark one chip against another in this regard. Personally, ive always gone lower-end and overclocked. Whan you say "as fast as possible"

    ATI cards are "better" insofar that their onboard hardware decoding for video (especially HD video). This leaves your CPU cores free to take care of transcoding for other client machines and or ad removal.

    Personally, id scale back on some of the stuff and make sure the rest of you setup is up to scratch, amp, speakers, display etc

    Id rather put my money into some cool automation stuff than waste it on a HDMI sound card or line MS's pockets.

    "The ssd is vital for a top end htpc! ill be using a NAS for storage."

    I hope you can see the irony in this statement, unless you're using iSCSI or SAS for NAS!

    When you say "i want the pc to be as fast as possible" what are you judging your speed by?


  • #9
    jetski
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 820 ✭✭✭jetski


    The 2Gb should be fine given the speed of that ram, if i need more ill upgrade to the 4.

    no interest in tv at the moment!

    when you say write speeds are pathetic? the SSD i have is touching 98Mb write and 170 on read sure thats quicker than the new velociraptor! and all in all the ssd would way out perform that drive in general.

    CPU....i dont mind paying an extra few pound specially when im getting the faster bus and L2 cache. they will really make a nice difference.

    when you say make sure the rest of my setup is upto scrach... im going for a philips ambilight 42" 1080p and the creative megaworks s750!

    "Id rather put my money into some cool automation stuff than waste it on a HDMI sound card or line MS's pockets" we dont share the same interests i think

    The SSD + gigabyte NAS will be fine, if i find i have any issues reading directly from the nas ill just copy to a temp folder and that solves that problem.

    I just want the pc to be generally very quick and handle everything i throw at it with ease as i will be useing it often enough.

    The only thing i think im lacking in is the video card really.


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