My life on these tech forums is a lie.

[Adul]

Yeah, I know what you mean. I haven't had a desktop PC upgrade since 2006. Not planning on it until Starcraft II comes out either.

I been playing the beta, runs really well with an 8800GTX and phenon II 940

 

[mjrpes3]

The prices are from when I built it a few years ago.

The secret to getting HD (including BluRay) playback is the 780G chip on the motherboard. I could have saved $30-40 if I got a cheaper motherboard, but I wanted HD video abilities.

Case/PSU: Athenatech MicroATX Case w/ 400W PSU - $42
CPU: AMD Athlon X2 4850e 2.5GHz Socket AM2 Dual-Core - $54
Mobo: ASUS M3A78-EM 780G HDMI Micro ATX AMD Motherboard - $79
RAM: Kingston HyperX 2GB 240-Pin DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500) - $24

Thats $199.

I already had a HDD and DVD drive. A HD would be $50 for a smaller one and a DVD drive would be $20-25.

I ended up spending $70 later for a combo BluRay/HD-DVD drive.

don't forget the $100 for a valid license for Windows 7

 

[Leros]

don't forget the $100 for a valid license for Windows 7

I have multiple legal ways to get Microsoft licenses for free. Excluding a few games, I haven't paid for or pirated software in 4+ years.

 

[gaidensensei]

Ah, thanks.

They're still using ATX then? I thought there was some other form factor coming out, or is there something else also out there?

ATX is still the standard for enthusiasts.

They basically have been shrinking boards for small form factor PC's (SFF) or HTPC's etc, people who don't really care for extra functions from PCI slots or crossfire/sli and so on.
mini-atx / micro-atx / itx / mini-itx/ pico-atx are some of them to name.

 

[Jeff7]

I have no idea about the ATX thing.

I did not include a TV tuner. This does video playback, audio playback, hulu, netflix, bluray, and hd-dvd.

I've used s-video out to get video on my old 19" CRT about 6-7 years ago. The image was pretty crummy. Even with all the settings tweaked, the image was somewhat distorted and didn't fill up the whole screen.

Well I know when they're going to get a new TV: When the one they have now dies of old age.
Their cable is standard analog cable, same thing they've had for quite a few years now. All that digital conversion who-knows-what, I guess that only mattered to people using rabbit ears. They don't seem to have any interest in HDTV. I guess Blu-Ray will be a necessity though, as I'd imagine the industry will drop standard DVD sometime in the not too terribly distant future.
The newest tech on their entertainment center is a DVD player from Walmart, bought about...oh, that must have been 6-7 years ago.

For this TV computer, I'd need it to be energy efficient, and just terribly easy to use.

 

[Leros]

Well I know when they're going to get a new TV: When the one they have now dies of old age.
Their cable is standard analog cable, same thing they've had for quite a few years now. All that digital conversion who-knows-what, I guess that only mattered to people using rabbit ears. They don't seem to have any interest in HDTV. I guess Blu-Ray will be a necessity though, as I'd imagine the industry will drop standard DVD sometime in the not too terribly distant future.
The newest tech on their entertainment center is a DVD player from Walmart, bought about...oh, that must have been 6-7 years ago.

For this TV computer, I'd need it to be energy efficient, and just terribly easy to use.

My dad was forced to start using a cable box a few years ago. He still calls me every now and then and can't figure out how to turn the TV on. Having two remotes confuses him.

Hmm... that gets me thinking.... I should get him one of those all-in-one remotes that magically turns on the right stuff.

 

[mjrpes3]

I have multiple legal ways to get Microsoft licenses for free.

Lucky. One big reason why I haven't done a DIY system lately is while components are overall cheaper DIY, when you add in the license for Windows I am better off grabbing a Core 2 Duo from the Dell Outlet for $250-70.

Windows is overpriced at $95 for OEM.

 

[Leros]

Lucky. One big reason why I haven't done a DIY system lately is while components are overall cheaper DIY, when you add in the license for Windows I am better off grabbing a Core 2 Duo from the Dell Outlet for $250-70.

Windows is overpriced at $95 for OEM.

I don't think $95 is too bad, but I do think it should be the retail price. The retail price being $200-400 is ridiculous.

 

[gaidensensei]

get a small form motherboard then, I was running some tests between ATX vs micro atx power consumption with the kill-a-watt. It was about a ~5 watt difference from just board alone, but once you factor in onboard video, that's like a -50% difference.

 

[Kalmah]

any reasons related to performance not to get a micro atx?

 

[zoiks]

The cake is a lie and so are you.

 

[FoBoT]

i need a working 5.25" floopy drive

 

[mjrpes3]

any reasons related to performance not to get a micro atx?

Micro ATX is better because the electrons don't have to travel as far

 

[Leros]

Micro ATX is better because the electrons don't have to travel as far

The only thing that is farther away on a ATX board are the lower PCI slots, which run at a slow clock anyway.

 

[gaidensensei]

any reasons related to performance not to get a micro atx?

Depends on what you are doin i guess.
Usually 2 memory banks, 1 pcie, a pci slot or two or maybe none. That's a con for wifi dependent folks. But some boards have built on wifi, Zotac has some. http://www.newegg.com/product/product.aspx?Item=N82E16813500022

Not ideal for someone doing heavy encoding or memory intensive programs.
May be OK for a decent gamer - no difference gaming on mATX anyways, wattage from vidcard goes up super high on something like a GTX260 or 9800 GTX etc

Great for kids / non-computer people pc. Or file server.

I was able to get a c2d rig with 4gigs running as low as 35watts idle, 40-45watts browsing net. But that's with onboard video.