Decisions Decisions...

Youstolemyname

Youstolemyname

Youstolemyname

Soldato
Joined
7 Mar 2005
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The Voice Of Football
I currently have an aging, but quite capable, system. Specs as below:

4GB OCZ Rev2 Platinum Ram
Opteron 165 OCed to 2.9 Ghz :eek:
DFI Lanparty SLI-DR Socket 939
Audigy 2
Geforce 6800 Ultra
2x250 GB WD Sata 1 hard disks
1x 500gb Samsung Sata 2
Lian Li PC something or other case with 80mm fans (Noisey fans too!)
19 inch Hyundai L90D+

It's starting to creak along and latest games now have to be played at lower res. Not bad for four years of age though!

Now, I want a HTPC to go in my lounge and hook up to my Panny Plasma via HDMI. This machine will have Mediaportal on it and also be used as a download box overnight. I want to use it as a blu ray player and playing back other media such as iPlayer etc.

I also want an updated gaming rig. I am not a heavy gamer but would at least like to play Crysis on a decent setting along with Left 4 Dead and also be slightly future proof.

My plan is to port the rig above into a HTPC case and fit a silent gfx card along with a blu ray drive and then build another rig from scratch. But as you can see I am somewhat out of touch with systems so have no clue what is best to buy for future proofing etc.

I probably have about 700 quid tops. Is this a fair plan for that budget or would I be better investing 500 in the HTPC and get a cheap gfx card upgrade for my old rig for gaming? I don't even know if the DFI board supports the latest PCI express cards :confused:

Any advise and help is greatly appreciated :)
 
95thrifles said:
Yeah I think you'd be best using your existing set up as HTPC and building a new gaming PC, just buy a nice HTPC case and use rivatuner to turn down the fan speed on your 6800, I'll do a spec for 600 for a new gaming rig, that leaves you £100 for case and any other bits you might need for HTPC
Click to expand...

You're a legend, many many thanks. I have heard i7 is the way to go but I suspect that would be outside my budget? My lian li is mint but noisey and I forgot to add I have an enermax noisetaker psu in the rig as well.

/edit= the 6800 doesn't do HDMI out so I think I will need a new gfx card for the HTPC
 
I like my existing case but it is really cramped and the 80mm fans are noisey despite them supposedly being low noise. I also need to consider the power usage of the HTPC as it will be on almost 24/7
 
Thanks to everyone for taking the time to knock me up specs.

I have decided on using my existing system plus a new low end HD graphics card for my HTPC and to build a 600 quid gaming rig.

Out of curiosity though, how to the Phenom II tri-cores stack up against the i7s and quad cores and does the socket they are on have a dcent lifespan?

Thanks once again guys :)
 
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