Advertisement
If you have a new account but are having problems posting or verifying your account, please email us on hello@boards.ie for help. Thanks :)
Hello all! Please ensure that you are posting a new thread or question in the appropriate forum. The Feedback forum is overwhelmed with questions that are having to be moved elsewhere. If you need help to verify your account contact hello@boards.ie
Hi there,
There is an issue with role permissions that is being worked on at the moment.
If you are having trouble with access or permissions on regional forums please post here to get access: https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058365403/you-do-not-have-permission-for-that#latest
There is an issue with role permissions that is being worked on at the moment.
If you are having trouble with access or permissions on regional forums please post here to get access: https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058365403/you-do-not-have-permission-for-that#latest
Building a computer... wanna help?
-
15-06-2005 12:43PM#1
Comments
-
-
-
-
-
-
Advertisement
-
-
-
-
-
-
Advertisement
-
-
-
As most people have suggested, you'll probably end up getting a good sized case (standard space in a mid ATX now caters for at least 4 HDs) and a decent PSU so you could save a bit on the HD, by getting two 200GBs (which are very good value now) instead of one 400GB. You'll always have enough space in the case to add to it and even if not, I think you'll easily be able to sell your 200GBs in some time for a good price and then upgrade.
Another thing though to consider will be your monitor setup. You mentioned 3D modelling in particular - I dab in 3DS Max and Maya myself and trust me, 17" LCDs with a 1280 x 1024 resolution just don't cut it.
I now have a DELL 24" 2405FPW (bought here on boards a while back
) which runs at 1920 x 1200 and will blow you away in things like 3DS Max plus, it's the ultimate HTPC screen (if you end up using your PC like that). Of course, DELL now sell them for something around the 1700 Euro mark and there's a long wait. However, they are doing the 20" inch 2005FPW for 566 at the moment:
http://accessories.euro.dell.com/sna/productdetail.aspx?c=ie&l=en&s=dhs&cs=iedhs1&sku=29082&category_id=4058
And 1680 x 1050 it's still one nice monitor - Wizzard has one so he may be able to comment if he spots this thread....
Your monitor will probably last you a lot longer than most other components.
OhPinchy - if you go for a Shuttle that only has one PCI and one AGP slot, you may want to consider getting the Hauppauge Win TV PVR 500. This is a dual tuner (on one card) and is designed for XP MCE 2005 (you need the XP remote though - there is none with the card). If it is anything near the quality of the single tuner Hauppauge PVR 250 that I have, then it will blow you away, as far as TV tuners go...0 -
-
-
Got mine for €1000 - worth every penny
.
DELL themselves are pushing it though with the 1700 price tag (was 1270 up to a few weeks back). Still, if you can get a good deal... There's not much in the PC monitor world to touch this - well, except maybe for the Apple Cinema 30" but this is not the "fantasy land PC" thread so better not even go there...0 -
-
Well, first of all, most of the fancier P4s are 64bit nowadays.
P4 is a dead architecture (tho Socket 939 is also on its way out, so not much diff there from uprgradability point of view). Dual core is of course of little use to most home users; no point unless you do something that will benefit.
Programming AND development? Coding, as well?
Do they really still make zip drives?!
NOT all PSUs are inside the case It was in the MONITOR on some Amstrads! But yep, nearly all. 0 -
-
ShevY wrote:no its not
It's dead in a year, obsolete in 6 months : http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/05/09/amd_socket_m2_desktops/ 0 -
Advertisement
-
the reason for the amount of ram is simple, I multitask the hell out of my computers, I run webservers, debuggers, compilers, games, radio and every other program you can think of at the same time; I'll probably settle for 1gb at first and upgrade later :cool:
Why do I need 400gb? well, if you consider the volume of the data used in 3D modeling, computer programming, website development, playing games etc. - the hdd gets used up pretty soon; I'm currently using an 80gb HDD and its full to the brim and hasnt got half the stuff I need. Many of the programs I install are over 1gb each. Good idea on the raid, though I have a more complex plan for that...
I will have a file server that will make weekly backups of my computer while I'm asleep. It will hold all the music, video etc. and work as a website server, so I'll be set there. The hardware on such a system is pretty simple, so thats set.
I dont know what I was thinking about Zip drives, I've just wanted one since 1999, guess I never got around to it and now their out of date, so theres no point
0 -
-
I have a 250mb zip drive with disc for sale. Handy for quick backups! Check the FS forums! Also a sexy case to fit everything in!
</pimping>
The 2005FPW is a fantastic monitor, you should get two for the price they are now, instead of the 2405FPW (crazy price but I want!)
That's €1100.
Go for Dual Core AMD64, out tomorrow. better for multitasking etc, especially in multi-threaded graphics apps.
Check out this cart
Slightly over €3k with 2x 2005FPW's
(And you can buy the case from me)0 -
-
-
-
-
-
-
Advertisement
-
OhPinchy - The list is not a bad spec, though I'd question a couple of things...
1. Why are you looking to get a Fatal1ty motherboard? You're basically paying extra money for getting Jonathan's mug on the box, not much else... Plus, with the crazy amount of fans on it, it's going to be noisy as hell. Because you are interested in a Media Center PC as well, the extra noise will be a factor for you...
The NForce4 is a solid chipset to build a PC on, but do you really need the Fatal1ty one?
2. As for your CPU question, you'll find endless debates on boards on which is the "best". It depends on what you do. I have an Athlon 64 (Socket 754) 3200+ desktop and a Pentium 4 3.2Ghz (Socket 478 "Northwood") desktop, that I use for different things. At the end of the day, the Athlon has the edge in games at the moment, but when it comes to things like video encoding to DivX or other formats (which you may end up doing with the Media Center), the Pentium 4 is always faster. However, we are not talking collosal differences here. I could probably just as well end up using the P4 for games and the Athlon 64 for video encoding, but since I have both... BTW, Ghz speeds meaning absolutely nothing these days - my Athlon is rated as 3.2+ but it is nowhere near that in "real" life. Still, it does beat my 3.2 P4 which does actually "do" the full 3.2Ghz...
3. Graphics card - an X700 for games? It's a bit of a waste of time really. However, your monitor and graphics card go hand in hand. If you get the BenQ (or almost every other 17" LCD out there), its' native resolution is 1280 x 1024 and this is what you'll end up playing the majority of your games on. An Nvidia GeForce 6600GT would be fine for this resolution with a good load of "eye candy" on in most games. I think you'll need an ATI X800 of some flavor to match the 6600GT....
But... if for example you got an LCD monitor that does a higher native res, (e.g that DELL 2005FPW I mentioned before - BTW, Wizzard, have you gone and ordered a second one or broken down and ordered the 2405 ?), you may be playing games at 1600 x 1200 instead (well, not with the 2005FPW but most 20" non-widescreen LCDs). At this resolution, the 6600GT would simply not cut the mustard with most details on and you'd find yourself needing a 6800GT or better.
Bottom line, buy a graphics card that can easily play most games today with high detail at the resolution you'll use the most. With a 17" LCD, that's gonna be the 1280 x 1024 setting.
Another point to notice in graphics is that more memory, does not mean more power. If the card's GPU processor cannot use the memory, it's pointless to have it but both Nvidia and ATI do this... I remember when the GeForce FX5200 128MB came out, Peats staff where telling people that it was more powerful than the previous generation, GeForce 4 Ti 4600 128MB, which of course, was a load of sh**e. The low end FX5200 GPU had no use really for more than 64MB of RAM anyway...
Hmmm, re-read your previous posts so....
If you take games out of the picture completely (and I do mean completely), you can get the cheapest possible card in your Media Center PC and you'll be fine. I use an ancient (by today's standards) GeForce 4 Ti 4200 128MB in my Media Center PC with no problems - and this is driving my monitor at 1920 x 1200, not 1280 x 1024 as it will be with your BenQ...
You can by an ATI X300 of some flavor for around €60 and you'll still be fine - if you play NO GAMES at all...
Ok, rant off....
To answer your question though: "As the motherboard is SATA can I only use SATA DVD drives"?
Er.. no. All motherboards, this one included, still include at least one bog standard IDE controller, which will drive two IDE devices, be it CD/DVD drives or hard drives.0 -
I contemplated it, but then looked at my bank a/c and decided food is probably a better choice!J-blk wrote:(e.g that DELL 2005FPW I mentioned before - BTW, Wizzard, have you gone and ordered a second one or broken down and ordered the 2405 ?),0 -
-
Just took a quick look at Komplett - no stock at the moment, but look at the difference:
http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.asp?sku=307784&view=detailed
At €109, it's pretty cheap. You don't need an overclocker's board really - overclocking will give you benefits in games mostly, not Media Center use. And any serious overclocker, would spend a good portion of his/her budget on a graphics card. Look around, there may well be better deals - I only chose an NForce 4 based mobo as you seem keen on that. And it has 7.1 onboard anyway - however, you may still want to invest in a separate sound card. You should be able to pick up a Creative Audigy 2 or 2 ZS (PCI card only) for a good price these days (the Audigy 2 is 6.1 BTW).
As for the CPU, again, with no serious gaming, the benefits of a 3200+ over a 3000+ will not be that great, you could save a few quid there.
Graphics card - I'm sorry to dissapoint you but if there's one component that is not future proof, it's gotta be this. My own experience: I bought an ATI Radeon 9800XT 256MB when they where the hottest thing out there (a year ago?)... As I work for an IT company, I got it at the employee discount of €400 - it retailed for around 600 at that time! Now, consider that about a year later, my card is seriously outgunned by some of the new generation models, some of which are now considerably cheaper than what I paid then (damn early adopting!).
My advise is: when it comes to the graphics, buy what you need NOW. Spending extra money on a "better" graphics card will not help. If you find yourself becoming more of a gamer, then sell it down the line and buy a beefier one - which will have dropped in price anyway as Nvidia and ATI flood us with new models for the holiday season. As I said, I use a fairly antiqueated graphics card for my Media Center, driving a very high spec LCD and there are no problems.
And no, the BenQ monitor is not "muck". I'm not sure what I said to imply that. The specs are well within what I would expect (the vast majority of 17" panels run at that resolution anyway and 13ms response time sounds good - on paper at least. If anyone has this monitor, they can comment on what it behaves like in real life. The price is right anyway).
Sound: 7.1 is no dramatic improvement on 5.1 really... that said, I use the Creative Inspire T7700 7.1 speakers cause I like to surround myself with speakers. I guess next year it will be 8.1, 9.1 or who knows... You should note that most DVD movies still only have 5.1 or at best, 6.1 sound (DTS-ES). 7.1 does not exist in DVD movie soundtracks yet, so the extra channels simply "upmix" (that is mirror) the other signals.
As for the TV cards and extenders, you mean the cables right? Make sure you add a good cable booster to the loop. I use dual TV tuners in my Media Center and I have 2 TVs around the house - the booster is essential so that I get a decent signal.0 -
Muchos gratias for that J-blk.
That mobo looks a winner so its in.
Graphics card - you're right I'll go with a cheap enough card and splash out on one if I ever actually find myself thinking 'that gfx card aint good enough for what I'm trying to do'.
Glad to hear the monitor aint necessarily bad - wasnt sure if your points on its native resolution meant it was limited, second read makes it seem like the resolution is restricted by the size of the monitor rather than quality.
Think I'll get a 5.1 sound card - really wouldnt be on for having 7 speakers in the room.
I'll go with the 3000+ processor as itll be grand for what I need and I could in theory overclock it a bit if the need arises.
No - by 'two extenders' I mean two of these badboys running through a router on a CAT 5e network: http://www.linksys.com/extend/
Picking them up for $170 (B-stock) when in the US tomorrow so they should be sweet and removes the need for signal boosting. However, I do have VGA and JCT audio cable installed aswell (it was free off a mate and was before I thought of the network) over what distance from the source do I need to start boosting and how much is a booster?
Thanks to your help I reckon I'll be knocking a few hundred off my costs while still having a machine that is more than adequate for my needs so nice one 0 -
-
Advertisement
Advertisement