1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing? etc Streaming internet (hulu, netflix, etc) and some light gaming (steam acct running left4dead and burnout). I plan on hooking this machine up to my home entertainment center and leaving it there.
2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included? Around $500, get all warm and fuzzy when I read "free shipping"
3) What exact parts do you need for that budget? CPU, RAM, case, etc. Please be very specific. Case, CPU, RAM, HD, Mobo, additional graphics card
4) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? Please be especially specific about the power supply. List make and model. Not reusing anything yet.
5) Will you be overclocking? No...I'm clueless in this department.
6) What features do you need in a motherboard? RAID? Firewire? Crossfire or SLI support? Nothing exceptional, at most firewire and preferrably SLI
Joined: Wed 09-16-2009 6:52AM Posts: 608 Location: in your 802.11g stealing your internetz
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if you're hooking it up to an entertainment center, you might want to check out this thread. it describes what i did when building my htpc. i game on it and watch movies.
One of these depends on your local storage needs (or whatever HDDs you have in mind) HDD: F3 Spinpoint 500GB $55 1TB Version $90
This setup will stream Blu-Ray content easily, as the onboard video chipest is designed to take the majority of the load. Also, the mobo has HDMI out, providing both audio and video.
However, I am unsure about its "maximum" gaming potential. Therefore, you could throw in one of ATi's new HD5000 series cards.
And for the case, just go online (newegg,amazon, etc..) and look for what you like, as this is mostly personal preference. Also, HERE are some cases that will appear more like your other components around your media center.
TOTAL: $370-$410 without a case before shipping
P.S. Don't forget an optical drive if you need one. You didn't mention you did, but just reminding.
Of course, that prebuilt is simple to purchase and setup, which has its benefits.
Joined: Wed 09-16-2009 6:52AM Posts: 608 Location: in your 802.11g stealing your internetz
Source: IT Dept
MirageX wrote:
GPU: HD5670 for $100.
Which would again provide the HDMI and would cover your "light gaming needs".
That asus motherboard has onboard nvidia graphics, and an nVidia chipset, with nvidia hybrid SLI and hybrid power options, so I would recommend against putting an ATi card in it.
My HTPC has an nVidia onboard 8200 and chipset, and it runs the HL2 engine at 60fps, and it will also play Modern Warfare 2. Definately not a beast, but I put a GTS 250 in it for awhile and the HybridPower feature is really cool. You plug your hdmi into the onboard vid card and enable hybrid power in BIOS, and it actually uses the PCIe card to do the 3d graphics and shuts it off when you're not using it.
The Hybrid SLI doesn't work with video cards outside its own series, so unless you have an 8xxx card it is useless, in which case the performance gains are not so great anyhow.
Good to know the onboard is capable of such things, and yea the hybridpower is pretty neat.
IMO, the ATi card would not cause any issues and is really geared towards low heat/excellent audio capabilities.
Therefore, you decide if you need more power OP.
BTW, I would stay away from any SLI/Crossfire config for this type of build, as there will always be a cooler, faster, and more flexible single GPU solution when you feel the need to upgrade.
my htpc uses that same mobo, but I use an nvidia 9400gt graphics card for my 720p and it runs without a hitch. I used the AMD Athlon 64 X2 5050e processor because it was cheap and low power, although it might be a little underpowered, it doesn't really bother me for a media pc. I may upgrade it this summer when i have more cash.
Joined: Wed 09-16-2009 6:52AM Posts: 608 Location: in your 802.11g stealing your internetz
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ShadowCat38 wrote:
integrated SLi?
performance gains are negligible, and it only works with nvidia cards, (of the same series) so in this case it would only work if you bought an 8xxx series card (which rules out radeon cards)
hybrid power mode is the only thing that i would consider using ( i have 2 boards with the 750a chipset ) but it doesn't work outside the 8xxx series either, so it won't work with the gts250 or the gtx 260 in each system.
Joined: Sun 08-14-2005 8:36PM Posts: 2174 Location: in a Google Fiberhood. Suck it bitches!
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zeroluck wrote:
ShadowCat38 wrote:
integrated SLi?
performance gains are negligible, and it only works with nvidia cards, (of the same series) so in this case it would only work if you bought an 8xxx series card (which rules out radeon cards)
hybrid power mode is the only thing that i would consider using ( i have 2 boards with the 750a chipset ) but it doesn't work outside the 8xxx series either, so it won't work with the gts250 or the gtx 260 in each system.
The newer series nVidia have a low power that works as good as the hybrid power mode and made the logistics 100x simpler. So nvidia dropped hybrid power like a sack of rocks...
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