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10-28-2008, 04:01 PM
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#1 |
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Member (11 bit)
Join Date: May 2004
Posts: 1,149
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2 new builds, 1 home server, the other htpc
Hi everyone,
In january i will be building my home media server and then mybe in march my htpc. I wanted to know how these builds look to yall Home server Os- windows server 03 buisness or standard (which is better i have both) case- nMEDIAPC 3000B cpu- Intel Pentium E2180 Allendale 2.0GHz LGA 775 65W mobo- ASUS P5E-VM HDMI LGA 775 psu- SeaSonic S12 Energy Plus SS-650HT 650W hd- Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 ST31500341AS 1.5TB ram- G.SKILL 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 total- 631.94 or hd kit- Lian Li EX-34B Expansion Hard Drive Kit (2x) $69.90 sata multiplier- Addonics AD5SAPM 5X1 Internal SATA Port Multiplier $79.95 HDD- WD800JD $38.99 esata- KINGWIN 15" eSATA PCI Bracket cable Model ESAC-02 $7.99 case- AeroCool Masstige Silver $101.99 mobo- ECS A780GM-A $79.99 psu- Antec Basiq BP500UB 500W 29.99 ram- CORSAIR XMS2 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 36.99 psu- AMD Athlon 64 X2 5000+ Brisbane 2.6GHz $59.99 Raid controller- HighPoint RocketRAID 2314 PCI-e x4 (x8 and x16) $179.99 total- $685.77 and for my htpc hd- Seagate Barracuda 1TB vid- HIS Radeon HD 4670 IceQ or better sound card- AuzenTech Auzen X-Fi Prelude 7.1 ram- A-DATA 2GB (2 x 1GB) mobo- GIGABYTE GA-EP45-UD3P LGA 775 or ASUS P5E-VM HDMI LGA 775 Intel Core 2 Duo E7300 Moneual LAB Black Aluminum 972B or SILVERSTONE cw03 LG Black 6X Blu-ray or other recommendations for a good 1080p hd tv (that doesnt cost over 2k) the first system once hooked up will have nothing connected to it except a cord from it to my main rig, the second, will only be connected to the server. I will do some light gaming on the htpc like nba 2k9, madden, basically games i can use a controller for. Most gaming will be done on the rig in my sig. I'm open to all options, I want to keep everything cost effective but dont mind spending more on the parts for the htpc or a better tv, the budget for the server is 900(adding more drives as needed). The tv and htpc we'll say 4k. Last edited by Prometheus; 10-28-2008 at 05:47 PM. Reason: added another build |
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10-28-2008, 06:29 PM
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#2 |
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Staff
Premium Member
Join Date: May 2005
Location: Doncaster, UK
Posts: 3,563
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Having recently put together an HTPC for myself, I have a few thoughts on the subject. My most important consideration was noise. The case is obviously important (could you link to the ones you're considering?), I went for an Antec that is compartmentalised to reduce heat and has 2 low speed fans. Even then, to get the noise down to what I'd consider acceptable for something under the TV, I had to use the fan control on the processor, and choose a passively-cooled video card. Now the noisiest things are the hard drives, and even that is borderline-acceptable. Having a video card up to playing games is another question entirely - video card fans tend to be the loudest components in standard computers. I guess it depends on what you'd consider okay for noise in the living room. I'd personally go for the most powerful passively cooled card available.
In more general terms, with the price of RAM at the moment, I'd be putting 4GB in both machines, particularly if you're planning to use Vista for either. I like Windows Media Centre on my HTPC very much, it just *works*, which is more than can be said with any of the free solutions I've tried, particularly with a remote control rather than keyboard/mouse. Are you planning on a TV tuner card for the HTPC? As for the TV itself, I'm not going to pass comment on the LCD/Plasma debate, except that for a screen that's going to be used for gaming, as well as potentially web browsing from the PC, I think an LCD would be a good choice. Panasonic are up there with the best, I personally went for a Samsung 46" as a balance between price and performance, and think it's great. Oh, and looking at your two server options, the first looks superior from a quality point of view, I wouldn't buy an ECS motherboard. I actually use my HTPC for BOTH media and 'serving' tasks, in the sense that it has shared hard drives and all my data on it, in addition to running a free FTP server. It copes with both of these just fine, the main limitation being the number of hard drives you can physically install in most media cases (my Antec limits me to two). There's always external enclosures, though. EDIT: With this being a build appraisal thread, I can move it to the general BYOPC forum where more users will be able to view it, if you'd like me to.
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-FK- "Take up our quarrel with the foe: To you from failing hands we throw, The torch; be yours to hold it high. If ye break faith with us who die, We shall not sleep, though poppies grow, In Flanders fields." - John McCrae, May 1915 Last edited by freakitchen; 10-28-2008 at 06:31 PM. |
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10-28-2008, 06:56 PM
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#3 |
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Member (11 bit)
Join Date: May 2004
Posts: 1,149
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sure thing thanks, here are the links to the cases being considered
moneul lab http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811280005 silverstone http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811163107 OrigenAE X15e V2 http://www.origenae.com/en/htpc_x15e.htm Zalman HD160XT Plus http://www.zalman.co.kr/ENG/product/...ad.asp?idx=193 for tuners Silicondust HDHomeRun http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...st%20HDHomeRun or whats a high end internal hd tuner? I want the ATI TV Wonder™ Digital Cable Tuner http://ati.amd.com/products/tvwonderdigital/index.html |
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