I am getting a new computer built and I am a little clueless about the tech side of things - I am looking a a Multi Media Centre system, to be set up in the lounge room to use for, internet (just signed up to 24000kbps adsl2+! whoo hoo!) dvd, HDTV, music etc.. and maybe some minimal gaming. Here are the specs of what has been suggested to me- 975X-PowerUp MSI 975X Platinum PowerUp Edition ATX M/board - Intel 975X Chipset, 1066/800/533MHz FSB, Dual DDR2 533/667/800, PCI-X16, GbE LAN, USB2.0, ATX DH-2CRS5-NXB 'DOUBLE H' BLACK Internal Multi-in-1 3.5" front bay Card Reader with 1x USB2.0 port E6300 Intel Core 2 Duo E6300 CPU, 1.86 GHz, FSB 1066MHz, 2MB L2 Cache, Socket LGA775 EV-X1550-E2 NEW! XpertVision ATI Radeon X1550 512MB 128-bit DDR2, DVI, VGA, TV Out, PCI Express X16 interface KBMRKMCE-ZV7 Microsoft Remote Keyboard Designed Windows XP MCE, OEM, 3-in-1 Keyboard - Integrated Mouse & Remote Control, up to 30m Wireless Range NeoHE-430 430W "Antec" Neo Highly Efficient 2.2 ATX Power Supply, Noise Level less 18dBA, PCI-E Graphics Card Connector, SATA Connectors, 5Yr warranty P180B Antec P180B "Performance One" BLACK ATX Mid Tower - NO PSU, 11 Drive Bays, up to 5 Configurable Fans, Front USB/IEEE1394/Audio RC-MCE-A9O Microsoft OEM Remote Control and Receiver for Media Center PC SH-S182F-BL NEW! Samsung SH-S182F Black Internal DOUBLE Layer 18x DVD?RW Drive, 12x DVD-RAM, 8x ?R DL, OEM with software included SP2504C 2x Samsung 250GB 'SP2504C' SATA II 3Gb/s NCQ HDD - 7200rpm, 8MB Cache, NoiseGuard, ImpacGuard, SilentSeek, 3-year warranty TWIN2X1024A-6400 Corsair TWIN2X1024A-6400 2GB (2x XMS2 512MB) Twin2X PC-6400 DDR2 RAM, 2x64Mx64non-ECC, 240-pin DIMMs, Unbuffered, 5-5-5-12 VHOME-PREMIUM NEW! MS Windows Vista Home Premium OEM DVD 32-bit Operating System 24FUS-DUAL2 Divco Fusion Dual 2 Dual Digital Hi Def tuners R4 Pic in pic The box is a nice loking unit to sit in the entertainment cabnet and will not look like a computer as such. I think it will be a nice little system and hopefully it will do what im after. All up it comes in at $1955.00. (no monitor as will run though a 42" plasma) Is it worth it? any parts worth upgrading further? or can i get better for the money buying pre built? Cheers for any advice. James
Well, depends what you want more, games or media center. If a proper media center, I'd be looking at changing a few bit. You'd be suprised how annoying a computer fan can be while trying to watch a DVD. You can now get all parts so they have no fans etc. Try to get a video card with only passive cooling. And other things such as under-clocking the CPU to make it run cooler are also a good idea. Plus there are some very nice cases out there to put it in if you want it to look pretty. I'd say build it yourself and save a few-hundred dollars. If you were in WA I'd do it for ya. Read this link for some more info: http://www.tomshardware.com/2006/10/16/building_a_low-power_home_theater_pc_system/index.html It's a few months old, so there's probably even better products out on the market, but the theory is excellent.
One thing I would be looking at is a motherboard with FSB of 800 not 533.. No wait Im confused.. 1066/800/533MHz FSB ??? which is it.. 2.2 ATX Power Supply NO PSU ... You got power or not..
I'm a tech and I'm no expert on multimedia systems but the Mobo, CPU and RAM sound like an odd match to me. I'm not sure of prices on some of the MPC specific parts but it seems a little exey too. One piece of advice, get as much storage as you can aim for a terabyte, but 2x350gb drives will do pretty well.
I will hardly play games on it as i have a couple of consoles, the idea is just to build a 'All in one' unit, something that will do everything and hopefully do it well. What got me on the idea initaly was that my dvd player and my computer have both crashed and died. I fugured i would buy a new dvd player with a hard drive to record, and would get my computer refub'd. All up i was looking at nearly $1200 for the both. so i figured i would just go the all in one with a few little extras. As for fan noise, these run at sub 18db, so are ment to be very quiet, and if it is running non stop with the net it will want to stay cool. Plus i'll have the dvds up so loud i prob wouldnt hear them. lol. What i am concerned with is if i am getting good value for money with this system? And if i should change any components to other options, its alot of money to invest into a computer. Cheers for your replys guys.
The speed depends on the RAM you use. Diff sorts of RAM run at diff speeds. And the CPU from memory. The Antec thing is the PSU.
Hey James....... Contact Keen (Spacefrog)....from the tail lights day!!......he'll help you out with some sound advice!!......you should see what he can do to doctor an old XBOX for HDTV, hard disc recording etc etc!! ......he got me back on board with my pc!!! Catch up with ya soon! Russ
thats a shit computer for just under 2k, mine absolutely creams it and i only spent 1k, although i dont have that multimedia hardware.. james theres a shop in clayton you can goto, for the same parts you will spend about 500 less.. btw my FSB is 2ghz on my motherboard..
Bones took the words right out of my mouth Greg (Pexzed) (www.pexcom.com.au) will give you straight advice. Buy it all through him also as he is a significant contributor to the forums and he needs to feed his bling habit... He hasn't got enough underbody LEDs yet
I don't think the FSB on your computer is 2GhZ. else it would have melted down by now. You may find your CPU is running at 2 GhZ though. That's diff.
back to the future for you.. yes my FSB is 2ghz. my cpu is 2.1ghz (dual core amd) so 4.2ghz whilst mutlitasking.. FSB is 2ghz. if theres a proggy you can get a read out from name it and i'll be glad enough to print it out for ya.. as i said my mb is top of the range.. top $$.. mb's are more important an cpu's IMOH.
Pexzed, stole Caz's web template... href="templates/caz/stylesheet.css img src="templates/caz/images/logo.gif Thought I seen that page somewhere before... LOL
I think you mean 2Gb, you got 4x533mhz RAM sticks? FSB can be confusing but your not actually doubling the speed of the RAM is Dual or Quad mode it's the bandwidth which will be 2Gb. I may be proven wrong... Still... SiS Sandra should tell you.
The ram is pc6400 which = 800mhz 2x512 on each stick and two of them, so two 1 gig sticks in dual channel. Not sure how much your paying for that corsair stuff but the latency's arnt that great. msy sell ocz gold same 800mhz 2 gig kit for $355. which you can run at 850mhz with 4-4-4-12 (lower is better). It comes with a lifetime warranty which over volting/clocking does not void! Also for a good home pc/multimedia motherboard id recomend the asus p5wdh deluxe, it also has the 975X chipset and is a great board $332 msy. The best thing you can do is read a heap of reviews before you part with your money.
Wow, been a while since I've been on the computer scene, though still, what i've seen is they've bought out new terminology like MT's which you actually half to get your FSB speed. Try CPU-Z from http://www.cpuid.com/cpuz.php Will tell you your FSB. As far as I know, the fastest Bus speed out at the moment is the new AMD with 1 GHZ, though alot of marketing companies claim the 2 GHz rating due to the dual pumping you talk about. Regardless, hopefully the FSB will die off entirely soon as we have mainboards with multi-buses connecting everything with it's own path. And as for 4.2 GhZ while multi-tasking. I don't think it quite works like that.
PCI - Express is designated FSB (North Bridge) AGP was designated Bus as well, always worked better than a PCI Graphics
Gday mate. Just thought ide add in my 2 cents. Ive been sucessfully building computers for as long as i can remember. Just to note, for a media machine you could quite happily cut a 1k off that price and your wouldnt even be able to tell the slightest difference. Send me a pm if you need help or something built or recommended.. good luck dude.
hey james, i dunno if anyone has this website but its a good source of what you should get in a PC with 2 types of bugdets. I used this website to build my computer and it is still capable of most of the lastests software out 2day. From what ive been told a gaming PC is exactly wat u want, this systems have the most power and speed to allow u to play any kind of media and or games without fuss. check it out it has a $1000 bugdet gaming system and a $4000 high end gaming PC(Best of everything) High End System ($2500) http://www.sharkyextreme.com/guides/MHGSBG/article.php/3657561 Value System ($1000) http://www.sharkyextreme.com/guides/MVGSBG/article.php/3649521 Extreme System ($4000) http://www.sharkyextreme.com/guides/EGBG/article.php/3643091
