Cheap Tele' Build

Thanks so much guys!
I think I will extend my budget to around £500 as the benefits seem to rocket up with only spending another £100 or so.

If I use the HIS ATI 4850 what would be the best way to connect that to a HDMI? Should I just use a cable converter for PCI-HDMI and plug it straight in or is there a better way?

Sorry if the question seems a little degrading but I'm used to simple plug-and-play Mac's, but I would like to have the experience of building + installing a PC somewhere in my house, so I thought it would be nice to have one as a HTPC.
 
xJcBx said:
If I use the HIS ATI 4850 what would be the best way to connect that to a HDMI? Should I just use a cable converter for PCI-HDMI and plug it straight in or is there a better way?
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Since it's going to a TV, you'll need a DVI-HDMI adapter or cable. Are the speakers separate or are you using the TV speakers? Either way, you should just be able to take a cable from the motherboard onboard sound to the TV or speakers.
 
Would I get much benefit out of spending an extra £20 for an HIS 4870, it looks like it gives a lot better in GPU and memory speeds, but that would be expected as it is the model up, would this improvement give much greater benefits for only £20?
Cheers :)
 
I use all of my HDMI/AV cables for video and sound to go into the TV, then I use a Headphone - White/Red sound cable converter cable and that goes into my stereo system. this gives way better sound quality using a few cables I already had lying about.
I am hoping that the HTPC can somehow output the sound to the TV so that it can be output through the headphone port as all other sound does.
I was thinking that using the same kind of printable from the HTPC using the headphone socket to break that up into 2 sound cables then plug that in next the the HDMI cables that will be converted from the DVI adapter, if you can understand what I mean :)

Unless there is a way of avoiding lots of this with one single cable from the GPU to the TV that includes sound?
 
Your GPU *may* support audio through HDMI, by way of a cable on the GPU that connects to your motherboard, then the sound goes through a DVI-HDMI adapter and it works with HDMI. However I'm not sure of that, it didn't work that well for me.

If you could wait a bit, you could wait for the Sapphire 4850 to come back in stock, as that has HDMI out straight off, it's the same price, the only reason I didn't choose it is because it was out of stock right now.

Also, a question I probably should have asked earlier, do you know the resolution of the TV? How big is it? You could use a 4730, because the Sapphire 4730 for £70 is £10 cheaper and almost the same performance (while also using less power), and it also has HDMI out.

Looking at some benchmarks, it seems a 4730 will handle both WoW and CS:S at 60+ FPS with max settings at 1920*1080, which is the highest res you'll get from a TV.

I'd go for the 4730.

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-200-SP&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=1434
 
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xJcBx said:
Would I get much benefit out of spending an extra £20 for an HIS 4870, it looks like it gives a lot better in GPU and memory speeds, but that would be expected as it is the model up, would this improvement give much greater benefits for only £20?
Cheers :)
Click to expand...

the 4870 is a substantial step up from the 4850, it's def worth the extra £20 in my opinion
 
jamesgoss said:
the 4870 is a substantial step up from the 4850, it's def worth the extra £20 in my opinion
Click to expand...

I'm not sure whether he'd see the benefit from it though. WoW and CS:S aren't that demanding, as long as he's getting 60FPS, he shouldn't need more, I don't think. And it definitely isn't required for blu-rays, the onboard can handle that.
 
I was just thinking as its only a £20 difference and the spec' difference looks much much better for only £20 it might be worth getting for future developments, future-proof it to an extent; if you will.
Thanks for the info on the 4730 Danneh, I also looked at the Asus ATI Radeon HD 4870
I know am being awfully bad to myself by looking at way over-budget pieces but I think I would like put a little cheap show-piece in it, and for only a few quid difference between the 4730 and 4870, but I was just looking ahead into the future, and even though the specs are no where near needed I think it would be nice to have a little piece of a decent quality hardware in there.
Unless you think that I will not need over the specs of the 4730 for a long time, in which case I would be more than happy to get that and keep a few pennies, as it doesn't look too shabby either, and I can see the benefits of not over-complicating the wiring by just using the sapphire card which should just give a tidy output straight to the TV.
Thanks for all your help all of you :)
 
If you intend to stick with WoW and CS:S, a 4730 should be fine. However, should you ever decide to play another game (and no doubt you will in the future at some point), a 4870 would really help there.

Oh, and what size is your TV? If it's a smallish one (32" or smaller) it most likely has a resolution of 1366*768, which would make it easier to play games. A 4730 can supposedly handle CS:S and WoW at near max settings at 60+ FPS at 1920*1200. 1366*768 has less than half the number of pixels, meaning it may even handle some more intensive games.

It all depends if you can splash the cash. If the extra £30 doesn't mean that much, then go for the 4870 :D
 
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Can i also point out that thon Lian Li case only supports low profile cards so most of your GPU choices will not fit on that basis. In fact, you're stuck with the 4300 range, tops, for low profile GPUs AFAIK [or more to the point, as far as I have been bothered to look ;) ]

This is the problem of going with fancy HTPC cases - you need to double check everything, twice, and then once again, to make sure everythign will fit.

If you aren't going for that Lian Li case [or any other low-profile-only case], it's not a problem.

If you are, then you need to stop and rethink your choice of GPU, and other add-ins.
 
Why not go for a 4550? It's low profile, so it will help with the airflow and the actual space inside the case, can be had passive, is a fairly decent performer and has HDMI out.
 
Sorry for the slow reply I had to go out.
The TV is a Toshiba 19AV505DB
Description:
Size (on stand): 460(w) x 392(h) x 207(d)mm
Weight: 6.7kg
Resolution: 1440x900
Native aspect ratio: 1.6:1
Claimed max contrast ratio: 8500:1
Quoted brightness: 300cd/m2
Connections: One HDMI input; One Scart (RGB); component video input; composite video input; Stereo audio input; headphone jack; CAM slot; RF input
If it would be more practical, meaning I can expand it more in the future I will probably for the the Antec cases (900 or 902), partly because it looks sweet, and partly because I can easily expand and upgrade it.
 
Out of stock at the moment, but looks like a solid card for the money.

Might be worth checking though - does it have native HDMI or do you need a dongle, and is that dongle the 'special' ATI HDMI dongle with different pinouts - is that supplied with it?
 
Perhaps I better stop posting here before I forget something else :p

Just found an Asus 4550 online for £22, with HDMI out and a low profile bracket, seems perfect. Not sure how reliable the retailer is. Google shopping gives it good reviews though.
 
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