New Computer

[ed^chigliak]

The Antec Solo is a decent case for a quiet build. Only changed mine when I found my graphics card upgrade to a GTX260 was too long to install.
http://www.morecomputers.co.uk/extra...761345-08500-7
The panels are a dual layer construction with a thick plastic laminated on the inside and the drives are suspended between elastic cords.

If you intend to rip and compress video to AVI then a quad is essential. Having said that this last year we have been seeing a shift towards video compression (trans-coding) being done faster by graphics cards. This is because the GPU on a modern graphics card has more cores than a CPU and the compression is an ideal workload for parallel processing on multiple cores.

One example of GPU video trans-coding software is Badaboom which I believe runs on Nvidia hardware.
http://www.badaboomit.com/

[lulu1484]

What sort of graphics card would i need to go with the things i selected so far?

[peackshelb]

On the hard drive issue, i was thinking that i didn't want to bring all my DVD's to uni so my friend suggested making them into AVI files so that i can just have them on my hard drive, so will need space for that.

You might want to consider backing up your DVDs to a 1.5TB storage drive like the Samsung F2 or Western Digital EADS. You can fit well over 150 DVDs on a drive that size. It's up to you whether the time and effort of compressing and converting to AVI is really worth it for the space saving. But the £75 cost (less than 50p per DVD backup) of one of those drives will save you lugging your DVD's around, and give you a backup of them should anything happen to the original media. I also find the noise of the DVD whirring in the drive really annoying while trying to watch a DVD.

[peackshelb]

What sort of graphics card would i need to go with the things i selected so far?

The MSI 785gm-e51 board listed by Pob255 has d-sub (vga), dvi and hdmi outputs and should be fine for desktop/web/office and even video viewing right up to and including HD (as long as you've got a media player that takes full advantage of the motherboard) from my brief skim of this review:
http://www.hardwarezone.com/articles...048&cid=6&pg=1

So you shouldn't need a seperate graphics card unless you plan on playing anything more than basic 3D games. In which case a cheaper motherboard without graphics, combined with a seperate graphics card might make more sense.

[lulu1484]

Will it work with that cuda thing? I'm planning on getting CoreAvc as my friend is going to make all my Blu Ray discs into video files for me!

[lulu1484]

And also, i'm thinking about adding a tv thing so i can watch tv through media centre.

My dad has a media centre that can do that and he's got it all setup so that he can watch BBC HD through it! What would i need to do that?

Thanks!

[Pob255]

No it'll not work with CUDA that's nvidia only

The onboard graphics on the AMD785g is a ati 4200, not great for games but should be more than enough for video playback, but at the same time you could also happly run it off the cpu without much problem.
You shouldn't really need a seperate graphics card for what you want to do with it.

If you mean BBC iplayer video then all you need is a network connection that can cope, if you mean watching freeview tv on your pc then you need a digital tuner card.
eg http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Compr...PCI-Tuner-Card
no idea if that's a good one, I cannot help you much on this point.

[lulu1484]

[IMG][/IMG]

I've been looking at everything and with everyone's help, i've come up with this list.

Please can you look over it and check that i've not messed it up!

Thanks

[M0nkeyb0Y]

not sure about the list (looks ok, but not checked it thoroughly) but in about three posts time you can get free scan delivery which will save you £9

[lulu1484]

Sorry, what do you mean 3 posts?

[M0nkeyb0Y]

Sorry, what do you mean 3 posts?

Hexalites get free Scan shipping. *here* and you need 20 posts to be eligible

[lulu1484]

Thanks for letting me know! I think that fate helped me out there!

[peackshelb]

Hexalites get free Scan shipping. *here* and you need 20 posts to be eligible

This thread explains the procedure in more detail:
http://forums.hexus.net/scan-care-he...tup-guide.html

[peackshelb]

FYI, the full list of *goodies* that post count opens up is found here:
http://forums.hexus.net/faq.php?faq=...aq_hex_rewards
Enjoy

[Pob255]

Another tip for you when ordering from scan, check the todayonly page first, you can often knock off a few quid
It changes daily, except over weekends

http://www.scan.co.uk/TodayOnly/Index.aspx

[lulu1484]

Thanks guys, i really like this forum, i've learned a lot about computer bits and i can get free delivery as well! To coin a phrase - Proper Bo!!