media center spec check

Ch3m1c4L

Ch3m1c4L

Ch3m1c4L

Soldato
Joined
11 Oct 2007
Posts
3,257
Location
London, UK
I am looking at the below. I already have a 520w Corsair PSU. There are currently no HDD's, I would like about 750gb-1TB of space, while being silent (so im guessing green drives) and was thinking of running RAID 0 because nothing on it will be important (game installs etc). But the samsungs are out of stock, and i dont know which WD drives are single platter.
It will be used for streaming 720p and 1080p content to my 1080p tv, as well as occasional gaming, it is replacing a p4 2gb ddr 7950gt system (so nice upgrade lol).

Should I get the sapphire Vortex card instead of the club 3d one? I would get the stock Club 3d one but its on pre order with no date :(
Is it worth me bumping up a little in the card, or even down a little? I am trying to keep the price around the £500 cost and as quiet as possible, so if there is a silent gpu/cpu cooler I could get instead it'd be a bonus. I will also be sticking a wireless N card in it, other than that and gpu, no add in cards.

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Maybe have to source elsewhere for the Samsung F2s. They are the quietest drives I have used even compared to the WD Green Series, though probably because they haven't brought out single platter ones yet as far as I know.

Might as well get the Vapor-X as its cheaper than the one you have atm. Also from reviews its supposed to be very quiet. Maybe look at the HIS one if you want to save a few quid.
 
thanks, ill go through and look for the samsungs elsewhere in the morning, getting a bit late to keep on this when ive got work in the morning lol
 
ok, so more complete spec. Have gone with an F3 drive with mountnig for it, since ive realised that the board doesnt support RAID :( Should be pretty quiet no?

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Doubt I will ever get a card in the second pci-e slot even if i want to go crossfire lol. Does anyone know if it uses the gpu in the cpu while in 2d and then switches over to the discrete card for video/3d, or did i imagine someone saying that before?
 
Would it be worth going AMD for a cheaper build? Or would i be sacrificing performance? Noticed that the mobos are similar/cheaper and could get a tri core. I dont tend to look at AMD stuff much though, so recomendations would be good.
 
A 5770 really necessary? Just use the onboard gfx on the i3?
Well a Athlon tricore is a good cpu and would run everything when paired with a 785g board...plus you could do some gaming on it and so save money/noise but not having a 5770.
 
gaming at 1920 with onboard graphics? You really think that would look very nice? Also, it would be worse than my current one thats down there.

What board would you recomend for a tri core? Or they all more or less teh same at this price range,and i should just go with brand/color i like?
 
Ch3m1c4L said:
gaming at 1920 with onboard graphics? You really think that would look very nice? Also, it would be worse than my current one thats down there.

What board would you recomend for a tri core? Or they all more or less teh same at this price range,and i should just go with brand/color i like?
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Ok well i just thought i would put it out there.
Well if your going for a 5770 i would just grab a 760g motherboard (cheapest on ocuk)
 
thanks for your help guys. I've got the spec sorted, now i just need to decide if i want to buy it or not. Will probably wait until mid april, or maybe when i get back from holiday at end of april, see if i buy too much beer lol.
 
Have you considered a 'Nettop'? eg Atom with ION gfx?
They make great media centres and are capable of playing games because they have a 9400 chipset.
They can do 1080p content as well.
 
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