Good Morning,
I will be purchasing a PC for myself this afternoon, if not sooner, and would appreciate any criticisms as always.
MOBO/CASE: Shuttle XPC for Athlon 64 CPU with the nvidia nforce3 150 chipset, SN85G4V2 [SFF] 292.00
CPU: AMD Athlon 64 3000+$175.00
RAM: Mushkin 184 Pin 512MB DDR PC-3500 Level One$153.00
Video Card: ATI RADEON 9800 PRO Video Card, 256MB DDR$266.00
Harddrive: Western Digital Raptor 74GB 10,000RPM SATA Hard Drive$178.00
DVD: NEC 8X Dual Layer DVD+/-RW Drive, Model ND-2510A BLK $76.99
Sound Card: Creative Labs Sound Blaster Audigy2 ZS GAMER$111.00
Monitor: NEC/MITSUBISHI FP2141SB-BK 22" SuperBright Diamondtron CRT$629.00
External 3.5 enclosure: Speeze 3.5" USB 2.0/ IEEE 1394 External Enclosure, Model "780U2FL"$49.99
Price @ newegg : $1930
As I have stated before in other posts, I am giving my current shuttle XPC 41gv1 to my parents for certain reasons, and will need a new PC plus a monitor. This PC will serve as my HTPC, gaming rig, and school work PC, so it must be fast, stable, and of considerable quality.
Points:
SFF/Case:
I have decided to go with the SFF XPC series again because I enjoyed my previous shuttle so much. I truly love the quiet and unobtrusive operation that it provides in addition to its aesthetic excellence.
Video:
I chose the 9800pro because for the price it seems to offer just what I require. First, I require a high quality card just to provide great image quality on the 22?? monitor. In addition, I am looking for something that will allow for at least 1280x1024 gaming in games such as Far Cry and Doom3 (iffy, I know) along with my old favorites. I want it to be quite enjoyable so that the short time that I will spend gaming will be worthwhile.
Audio:
This still remains a problem with my proposed setup. I am sort of an audio buff, and am looking for a card that will provide me with a very enjoyable and accurate experience. I chose the Audigy2zs gamer because it seems to do this, while adding the benefit of better gaming support. I am very interested in using its DVD-audio capabilities of192/24bit x2 and 96/24bit x5. Audio will be routed to my Onkyo tx-sr600 receiver and out using my Mirage frx-5 speakers. It is not audiophile grade by any stretch of the imagination, but it allows for me to point of flaws in reproduction, and even more so, allows me to fully enjoy accurate and high-quality source material. For reference, it has toslink, coax digital/analog and 5.1 analog inputs.
The problem I am having is in imagining the setup. Previously, I was using an Nvidia Soundstorm setup via optical/toslink with great results for both DD/DTS pass through and PCM. The Creative card does not provide DD encoding, however, complicating the configuration. As I see it, I will need to
A) Run a minijack to single mono RCA adapter into the receiver for digital pass-through
B) Run 3 sets of stereo minijack to stereo RCA, of which 2 cables are monaural adapters for the center and sub, into the 5.1 analog inputs on the receiver. To make matters worse, my stereo will be about 15 feet(including corners and such) from the PC so my S-video, digital toslink, and 3 sets of RCA cables will have to accommodate that length to reach my TV and Reciever.
My receiver supports 192/24 on the front stereo channels and 86/24 on the rest, so this setup would seem to be an effective, albeit complex-to-configure option.
I have considered Chaintech and Terratec options, but unless someone proves otherwise, their shortcomings in games and their lack of software to take advantage of thigns such as DVDA leaves something to be desired. EMU is out of the question as I stated that I am an audio ?buff? and not an audio ? nut/audiophile .?
Storage: The only things left behind from my old PC are a PVR250MCE which someone is buying from me and a 120GB WDJB. I plan to use the aforementioned external enclosure via firewire to use this as both a storage and PVR-repository drive.
As for the main system drive, as I mentioned, it will be a beefy 74GB WD 10k S-ATA drive. I was more interested in the 36GB until I read that the 74GB is marginally faster.
RAM: Honestly, I haven?t kept up with the ?RAM SCENE? much lately so I chose the Muskin based on reviews and prices. Feel free to critique it.
DVD/Burner: As a HTPC this pc will undoubtedly feature a DVD drive. Since I will no longer have my trusty Toshiba 16x rom drive, I figured that @ $79, there is no reason NOT to get this drive I guess I can find a use for it?it WILL be in a PVR, right?
Processor:I chose the 754 pin Athlon 64 3000+ because of the pin count that I am restricted to by the XPC, and secondly, because from what I read, it is overclockable if need be while still providing stellar performance. Looks like I will finally be able to play a wmvHD clip on my pc :beer:
monitor/display:Finally, I chose the NEC/MITSUBISHI FP2141SB-BK 22? because I feel that it will provide for the most satisfying experience. It is more than have the price of the ideal 21? LCD that I had in mind, and without the worry of refresh times, I should get a stellar gaming experience regardless. As this specific monitor, the super bright settings seem to work wonders on video content such as DVD?s, and when configured correctly, the monitor?s text-quality is supposedly superb, and only second to the $180024? SONY GDM.
TV CARD/OPTION Currently I am selling my pvr250mce to a friend who really needs it. I was considering the audigy2zs sound card in this one-pci-slot system when I stared researching the WinTV PVR2 USB2 external hardware encoder that is also supported by the popular PVR software, BeyondTV. Basically, at $140, it is on par with what I will pay for an internal solution, and according to reviews, performs almost identically to the internal version in terms of resource requirements, even over the USB2 bus.
In terms of overclicking, I am open to it, however, if this system by default performs well in games, I see no reason to stress it and create more heat and noise.
Basically this is the system I am planning to buy today so have fun critiquing it.
As always, thanks.
EDIT: I spilled some ink all over the paper
I will be purchasing a PC for myself this afternoon, if not sooner, and would appreciate any criticisms as always.
MOBO/CASE: Shuttle XPC for Athlon 64 CPU with the nvidia nforce3 150 chipset, SN85G4V2 [SFF] 292.00
CPU: AMD Athlon 64 3000+$175.00
RAM: Mushkin 184 Pin 512MB DDR PC-3500 Level One$153.00
Video Card: ATI RADEON 9800 PRO Video Card, 256MB DDR$266.00
Harddrive: Western Digital Raptor 74GB 10,000RPM SATA Hard Drive$178.00
DVD: NEC 8X Dual Layer DVD+/-RW Drive, Model ND-2510A BLK $76.99
Sound Card: Creative Labs Sound Blaster Audigy2 ZS GAMER$111.00
Monitor: NEC/MITSUBISHI FP2141SB-BK 22" SuperBright Diamondtron CRT$629.00
External 3.5 enclosure: Speeze 3.5" USB 2.0/ IEEE 1394 External Enclosure, Model "780U2FL"$49.99
Price @ newegg : $1930
As I have stated before in other posts, I am giving my current shuttle XPC 41gv1 to my parents for certain reasons, and will need a new PC plus a monitor. This PC will serve as my HTPC, gaming rig, and school work PC, so it must be fast, stable, and of considerable quality.
Points:
SFF/Case:
I have decided to go with the SFF XPC series again because I enjoyed my previous shuttle so much. I truly love the quiet and unobtrusive operation that it provides in addition to its aesthetic excellence.
Video:
I chose the 9800pro because for the price it seems to offer just what I require. First, I require a high quality card just to provide great image quality on the 22?? monitor. In addition, I am looking for something that will allow for at least 1280x1024 gaming in games such as Far Cry and Doom3 (iffy, I know) along with my old favorites. I want it to be quite enjoyable so that the short time that I will spend gaming will be worthwhile.
Audio:
This still remains a problem with my proposed setup. I am sort of an audio buff, and am looking for a card that will provide me with a very enjoyable and accurate experience. I chose the Audigy2zs gamer because it seems to do this, while adding the benefit of better gaming support. I am very interested in using its DVD-audio capabilities of192/24bit x2 and 96/24bit x5. Audio will be routed to my Onkyo tx-sr600 receiver and out using my Mirage frx-5 speakers. It is not audiophile grade by any stretch of the imagination, but it allows for me to point of flaws in reproduction, and even more so, allows me to fully enjoy accurate and high-quality source material. For reference, it has toslink, coax digital/analog and 5.1 analog inputs.
The problem I am having is in imagining the setup. Previously, I was using an Nvidia Soundstorm setup via optical/toslink with great results for both DD/DTS pass through and PCM. The Creative card does not provide DD encoding, however, complicating the configuration. As I see it, I will need to
A) Run a minijack to single mono RCA adapter into the receiver for digital pass-through
B) Run 3 sets of stereo minijack to stereo RCA, of which 2 cables are monaural adapters for the center and sub, into the 5.1 analog inputs on the receiver. To make matters worse, my stereo will be about 15 feet(including corners and such) from the PC so my S-video, digital toslink, and 3 sets of RCA cables will have to accommodate that length to reach my TV and Reciever.
My receiver supports 192/24 on the front stereo channels and 86/24 on the rest, so this setup would seem to be an effective, albeit complex-to-configure option.
I have considered Chaintech and Terratec options, but unless someone proves otherwise, their shortcomings in games and their lack of software to take advantage of thigns such as DVDA leaves something to be desired. EMU is out of the question as I stated that I am an audio ?buff? and not an audio ? nut/audiophile .?
Storage: The only things left behind from my old PC are a PVR250MCE which someone is buying from me and a 120GB WDJB. I plan to use the aforementioned external enclosure via firewire to use this as both a storage and PVR-repository drive.
As for the main system drive, as I mentioned, it will be a beefy 74GB WD 10k S-ATA drive. I was more interested in the 36GB until I read that the 74GB is marginally faster.
RAM: Honestly, I haven?t kept up with the ?RAM SCENE? much lately so I chose the Muskin based on reviews and prices. Feel free to critique it.
DVD/Burner: As a HTPC this pc will undoubtedly feature a DVD drive. Since I will no longer have my trusty Toshiba 16x rom drive, I figured that @ $79, there is no reason NOT to get this drive
I guess I can find a use for it?it WILL be in a PVR, right? Processor:I chose the 754 pin Athlon 64 3000+ because of the pin count that I am restricted to by the XPC, and secondly, because from what I read, it is overclockable if need be while still providing stellar performance. Looks like I will finally be able to play a wmvHD clip on my pc :beer:
monitor/display:Finally, I chose the NEC/MITSUBISHI FP2141SB-BK 22? because I feel that it will provide for the most satisfying experience. It is more than have the price of the ideal 21? LCD that I had in mind, and without the worry of refresh times, I should get a stellar gaming experience regardless. As this specific monitor, the super bright settings seem to work wonders on video content such as DVD?s, and when configured correctly, the monitor?s text-quality is supposedly superb, and only second to the $180024? SONY GDM.
TV CARD/OPTION Currently I am selling my pvr250mce to a friend who really needs it. I was considering the audigy2zs sound card in this one-pci-slot system when I stared researching the WinTV PVR2 USB2 external hardware encoder that is also supported by the popular PVR software, BeyondTV. Basically, at $140, it is on par with what I will pay for an internal solution, and according to reviews, performs almost identically to the internal version in terms of resource requirements, even over the USB2 bus.
In terms of overclicking, I am open to it, however, if this system by default performs well in games, I see no reason to stress it and create more heat and noise.
Basically this is the system I am planning to buy today so have fun critiquing it.
As always, thanks.
EDIT: I spilled some ink all over the paper
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