Intel or AMD?

[ribbon13]

In your case I would put the 15000rpm SCSI drive as top priority, because the hard drive will be the biggiest 'snappiness' or 'responsiveness' factor.

 

[PlatinumGold]

Originally posted by: ribbon13
In your case I would put the 15000rpm SCSI drive as top priority, because the hard drive will be the biggiest 'snappiness' or 'responsiveness' factor.

i was actually thinking about getting a board with a 64 bit PCI slot. i have a Compaq SmartArray 64 bit SCSI Raid card and 6 36 gb 10k SCSI hd's.

not quite the 15k HD's but should be faster than most IDE HD's.

 

[Markfw]

Now your talkin ! See my sig PCI-X 64bit 100 or 133 mhz.

 

[ribbon13]

I don't know of any socket 939 with pci-x

Would an opteron be viable? When Denmark or Italy comes out, it will be fvcking awesome.

 

[PlatinumGold]

Originally posted by: ribbon13
I don't know of any socket 939 with pci-x

Would an opteron be viable? When Denmark or Italy comes out, it will be fvcking awesome.

i don't think there are any 939 mb with PCI-x. 🙁

like i said, i have 3 weeks to put this system together. so i'll go do my homework and figure out what i want.

 

[ribbon13]

Well, start your homework here: Tyan Thunder K8WE

If that's overkill go here: Tyan Opteron Solutions

I have a K8WE and couldn't be happier with it.

 

[Penth]

yeah, big loud scsi raids for a HTPC, sounds like a good idea. I've got an AMD 64 3000+ in my basement. I think if you're going to have it hooked up to a big tv and use it as a main entertainment device you will be happier spending the extra cash for cool and quiet features over performance. 3000+ and a gig of ram is plenty for anything non-gaming. You should try out MCE 2005 if you haven't already... Highly recommended.

 

[gwag]

9600 will never make it a top end system, and it 2005 so $670 for a cpu is not a good deal. unless it was a dual core athlon....

 

[ribbon13]

If you know anything about noise dampening, even the loudest of SCSI's wouldn't be of any concern if you have a receiver and speakers worth thier salt.

 

[Patrick Wolf]

AMD!! AMD!! AMD!!....Oh, sorry.

Go with an Athlon 64 3500+ Winchester or higher.

 

[So]

Originally posted by: Penth
yeah, big loud scsi raids for a HTPC, sounds like a good idea. I've got an AMD 64 3000+ in my basement. I think if you're going to have it hooked up to a big tv and use it as a main entertainment device you will be happier spending the extra cash for cool and quiet features over performance. 3000+ and a gig of ram is plenty for anything non-gaming. You should try out MCE 2005 if you haven't already... Highly recommended.

Agreed. You can't seriously be thinking of making this an HTPC box...the hardware will do to waste and the noise will ruin your experience. You'll end up keeping it off all the time, and have just thrown $4k down the drain.

 

[wisdomtooth]

to the OP:

If you do want an HTPC, will you be putting it in a home theater component rack environment?

If you do, then I have to agree with the other HTPC posters in this thread-- Quietness and cool-running is much more important than raw power. You don't want to have a noisy whine in the background while watching a DVD movie with surround sound or listening to music CDs.

If you want to splurge on an HTPC, then you want to get a Pentium-M setup-- A Dothan 2gHz CPU and a Pentium-M motherboard, and a nice sleek $300 HTPC case like an Ahanix or DIGN. Such a setup would run real cool and quiet, and it's expensive. :laugh:

 

[ribbon13]

Perhaps run the 6 SCSI in a fileserver and run it to gigabit switch with a HTPC 'terminal'

 

[mechBgon]

Originally posted by: ribbon13
Perhaps run the 6 SCSI in a fileserver and run it to gigabit switch with a HTPC 'terminal'

Or just plop 'em into an external enclosure on the far end of a 10-meter SCSI cable, somewhere out of earshot? 🙂

 

[ribbon13]

I set up a 19" rack for a friend's HT, 6U UPS/Power, HTPC in a 5U EN-8950, Lexicon Processor, Crown Amps, light controller, spectrum analyzer, and most of its fan cooled and somewhat loud. Close the door... silence!

Seriously... take a lesson from the 'Boom boom' cars... noise dampening!

 

[PlatinumGold]

Originally posted by: ribbon13
I set up a 19" rack for a friend's HT, 6U UPS/Power, HTPC in a 5U EN-8950, Lexicon Processor, Crown Amps, light controller, spectrum analyzer, and most of its fan cooled and somewhat loud. Close the door... silence!

Seriously... take a lesson from the 'Boom boom' cars... noise dampening!

HTPC is not exactly accurate either.

it will be my TOY system. one of it's functions will be DVR, Media management type stuff. but the other function will be another toy for me to test out the latest hardware.

anyway, i'm very early in the stages of putting this together.