Something old to something newish

tap28

Hi,

I have an old Dell Dimension DM051, pentium 4 cpu 3.00 ghz with 1 gb of ram. Running XP Media Centre Edition.

I'm thinking of upgrading it and using is as a HTPC and running windows 7.
To be able to watch both Freeview TV, FreeSat TV and the new DTT service.

Here is a list of what I think I need.

Western Digital Caviar GreenPower 2TB SATA II
ready for dispatch
99,63 €

Club 3D HD 4350 Noiseless Edition 512MB PCI
ready for dispatch
49,14 €

2GB Corsair DDR3 PC1333 C9 ValueSelect
ready for dispatch
37,46 €

BGT3595 Premium multi-tuner PCI express X1 dual digital satellite DVB-S/S2, dual digital terrestrial DVB-T.
€130.00

Tatal €330

Will they work on my old Dell Dimension DM051 or can I get by with spending less.

Thanks

Tap

Solitaire

The HDD is probably overkill - most Sky boxes get by with a PVR partition of just ~40GB Look out for cheap 1TB Samsung F2s and F3s doing the rounds for around €50. The F3 is better but the EcoGreens run cooler.

That RAM will not work in your Dell. Your system runs on DDR2, and old, slow modules at that, although hopefully newer, faster modules will simply underclock themselves and run at 533MHz in your old system.

€50 is an absurd amount for that graphics card, even with the current ultra-high GPU prices at the low end. Look out for cheap G210/HD3450/HD4350s under €40, or cheap HD4650s under €50 - I've seen HD4350s for under €30 on Pixmania, and G210s for under €40.

As for the TV card(s)... I'm no expert, but maybe there's a way to use two decent-ish but much cheaper DVB-S cards in tandem?

tap28

Thanks for the reply.

The reason I'm going for 2TB is I'm looking to consolidate all my audio and video in one place, about 1.5tb in external hard drives at the moment with tonnes more DVD to be ripped.


2GB DDR2 TakeMS PC4200/533 CL 4
No information. A delivery time of more than 1 week is possible.
34,26 €

Seagate Barracuda LP 5900.12 2TB, 32MB, SATA II
ready for dispatch
96,86 €

Sapphire HD4650 512M DDR2 64-BIT PCI-E HDMI / DVI-I / VGA
ready for dispatch from 2010-09-21
40,56 €

I think this card would do the job but can't find one to purchase. http://www.adverts.ie/191695/hardware/pinnacle-7010ix-dual-dvb-s-and-dual-dvb-t-tuner-card/

Total approx €260

What do you think?

Thanks

Tap

Solitaire

Do you have any spare DIMM slots? If not, just get a couple of these and stick them in. If you do you can probably keep your original memory too for 3GB

If you could get by on 1.5TB you could get the Samsung F2 EcoGreen and save a good €30

Bear in mind if you're shopping on HWVS you have some lovely budget options (unlike the Irish etailers right now! ) - you can get old HD3450s and 8400GS north of a mere €25 and the HD4550 just above €30, with G210s and even HD5450s starting just north of €35! It does make the HD4650 a bit pointless unless you also want to encode HD content or play some older games at 720p on the same system.

The only DVB-S tuner on HWVS that can handle multiple inputs is this but its very expensive overkill for you unless you fancy playing with four LNBs at once There is a significant problem though - your PC wouldn't even be able to handle it :eek: And this is what I'm worrying about - looking at the minimum requirements of just a single-LNB DVB-S tuner card I'm not sure whether your old P4 can even physically keep up with either two such cards or a single dual-LNB card

tap28

thanks for getting back to me.

Regards the TV card, even with my limited knowledge I can see it a slighlty significant problem if the PC wouldn't be able to handle it.:eek:

I wonder would I be better off upgrading to a new cheap pc?

How about this?

AMD Athlon II X3 440 "Boxed" 95W, Sockel AM3

Product Description: AMD Athlon II X3 440 / 3 GHz processor
Product Type: Processor
Processor Type: AMD Athlon II X3 440
Verfügbarkeit: Art-Nr.: HV20X344DE
67,37 €
incl. VAT and excl. shipping costs

ASRock N68C-S UCC, Sockel AM2+, mATX

Product Description: ASRock N68C-S UCC - motherboard - micro ATX - GeForce 7025
Product Type: Motherboard
Form Factor: Micro ATX
Verfügbarkeit: Art-Nr.: HV1128RCDE
35,63 €
incl. VAT and excl. shipping costs

4GB-Kit OCZ DDR3 PC3-10666 Gold Low Voltage

Product Description: OCZ Gold Dual Channel Kit - memory - 4 GB : 2 x 2 GB - DIMM 240-pin - DDR3
Storage Capacity: 4 GB : 2 x 2 GB
Upgrade Type: Generic
Verfügbarkeit: Art-Nr.: HV20OZ16DE
66,70 €
incl. VAT and excl. shipping costs

HKC Case 4673GD, mATX, 420Watt

Product Description: HKC 4673GD - tower - micro ATX
Form Factor: Tower
Dimensions (WxDxH): 17 cm x 40 cm x 37 cm
Verfügbarkeit: Art-Nr.: HV203H07DE
34,98 €
incl. VAT and excl. shipping costs

Powercolor HD5750 512M GDDR5

Product Description: PowerColor HD5750 - graphics adapter - Radeon HD 5750 - 512 MB
Device Type: Graphics adapter
Enclosure Type: Plug-in card
Verfügbarkeit: Art-Nr.: HV1024TDDE
101,98 €
incl. VAT and excl. shipping costs

Samsung EcoGreen F2 1,5TB, SATA II (HD154UI)

Product Description: Samsung SpinPoint F2 EcoGreen Desktop Class HD154UI - hard drive - 1.5 TB - SATA-300
Type: Hard drive - internal
Form Factor: 3.5" x 1/3H
Verfügbarkeit: Art-Nr.: HV1315SGDE
67,71 €
incl. VAT and excl. shipping costs

ASUS BR-04B2T schwarz Retail Blu-ray Rom

Product Description: ASUS BR 04B2T - BD-ROM drive - Serial ATA
Device Type: BD-ROM drive
Enclosure Type: Internal
Verfügbarkeit: Art-Nr.: HV207ABRDE
62,38 €
incl. VAT and excl. shipping costs

Rechner - Zusammenbau

Verfügbarkeit: Art-Nr.: HVZPCDE
20,00 €
incl. VAT and excl. shipping costs
456,75 €

Does it look familiar?;) What do you think?

Tap

Solitaire

It looks like merry overkill if you won't be gaming with it HD5750 for the telly?!?

I was about to spec you a build only at the very end to find that the Antec MicroFusion has DOUBLED in price on HWVS!! :eek::mad::mad:

tap28

I do game but on my 6 month old Acer laptop, I could do it on this pc instead.

While the Antec MicroFusion is a very sleek case, I agree it is to dear for my budget.

Keep the ideas coming:D

Thanks

Tap

Bob_Harris

Since it is going to be a HTPC with TV tuner cards, de-interlacing is going to be an issue.

A HD5450 is the very minimum card you need for the best de-interlacing technique available (vector adaptive), for both SD and HD content, outputting at 720p or above. For a non gaming HTPC, the HD5450 is perfect.

It's a very power efficient card too, can be gotten for ~€50 on komplett or ~€35 on hardwareversand.de

Other passively cooled cards (low end hd3xxx and hd4xxx) just cannot handle that de-interlacing technique and any fast moving picture will look pretty bad.

Noise will be an issue if the HTPC is under the TV. Try get a fanless PSU. Minimize the amount of fans in the system.

Try get all components passively cooled (CPU, Mobo, GPU, PSU), then install a big, low noise fan right in the centre of the case. 140mm or 180mm. It will have to be a custom mount but it will be worth the effort.

Also the hard drive will be a big source of annoying humming / ticking / high pitched noise if you don't get the right one. Samsung are good for low noise. Maybe look into a hard drive silencing caddy for extra noise reduction.

Another option is to shove the HTPC into a press where the sound will be insulated. This means you don't need a fancy case, normal fans will be fine etc. A lot of money can be saved this way. Get a 2.4ghz wireless remote control so you don't need line of sight to a RF receiver, and a very long HDMI cable to reach the TV.

Solitaire

That case was heading south of €89 and then one day goes up to over €173?!?! :mad::(:(

[/grumble]

What graphics card does your laptop have? And what games are you playing on it?

tap28

Thanks for reply's

The cards is geforce g210m. I play Dragon Age and have just downloaded Mafia 2


@Bob_Harris
Another option is to shove the HTPC into a press where the sound will be insulated. This means you don't need a fancy case, normal fans will be fine etc. A lot of money can be saved this way. Get a 2.4ghz wireless remote control so you don't need line of sight to a RF receiver, and a very long HDMI cable to reach the TV.
I think I have the right place to do this.

Thanks

tap

tap28

With all the information out there, I'm really confused now.

I'm in two minds now:
1) to go with an all-in-one set up, part gaming rig, part NAS, part HTPC. As iI see it I will end up spending more money than I want without doing justice to any of my aims.

2) My order of need right now is:

More storage space for my ever growing Audio and video library. I think I can do this by adding another hard drive to my old Dell Dimension DM051

HTPC to be able to watch both Freeview TV, FreeSat TV and the new DTT service

Gaming rig

I wonder if I buy a hard drive, memory and graphics card that will work/improve my Dell, will I be able to cannibalize any of them for my HTPC or gaming rig later?

Or would they be no use for a modern set-up?

Thanks

tap

Solitaire

How the hell are you even playing DAO on a G210?!?! :eek:

In any case, if you use the Dell as a NAS there'd be no reason to take stuff back out of it as you can just use it as a NAS as-is (once you add storage, anyway! ) and the guts of the Dell (CPU/mobo/RAM/case/PSU...) is all either very old or old and BTX to boot, so its all bin-worthy if you don't keep it for NAS duties!

tap28

Honestly I had no problem at all with playing it on the laptop, I connect it via hdmi to the TV and away I go:o

Apart from the storage is the any point in the extra memory or new graphics card?

Thanks

Tap

Solitaire

Not in the Dell if you just use it as a NAS.