HTPC/ media centre

[Snaga]

I may well wait a while, save a bit extra cash and grab a slightly bigger case. thanks for all the advice guys.

[Snaga]

What do you guys think of this then? All priced from scan.

LN12214 Gigabyte GA-K8N51GMF-9 NF4, S939, PCI-E (x16), DDR 400, SATA II, SATA RAID, uATX, On Board VGA £40.24

LN8851 AMD Athlon 64 3500+ Socket939 , Venice Core, 2.2GHz , 512KB Cache, Retail £68.02

LN6622 1GB PC3200 (PC400) DDR Memory (Major) Retail £55.21

LN9707 80 Gb Samsung HD080HJ SpinPoint P80, SATA300, 7200 rpm, 8MB Cache, NCQ, 8.9 ms £30.42

LN13372 Pioneer DVR-111DBK Black 16x16 DVD±RW Dual Layer DVD Writer (Reduced Length) OEM £23.14

LN13808 CoolerMaster RC-250 Media Centre Silver WITH I-MODE SOFTWARE, REMOTE..ALL INCLUDED £99.82

Total £316.85

And for an extra £50 i could get an x2 3800

[scrandman]

Nice selection. Personally I'd spend the extra few quid to get the Corsair 1Gb - never tried Scan's value RAM but generally speaking I wouldn't trust generic stuff.

And the Gigabyte will do great as long as you don't plan on overclocking.

[Snaga]

HOpefully there will be some more amd price cuts this week.

[Snaga]

Anyone know when the new expected price cuts from AMD will be? And which chips they relate to?

[DanceswithUnix]

The price of an X2 3800 has already fallen from ~200 quid to ~117 quid (Scan have the AM2 3800 down as 111 inc Vat, but none in stock).

I'm sure there will be a slight settling down, but I don't see them dropping much in the short term.

[piranha]

Would recommend a bigger hard drive.

[Snaga]

I have 1Tb on the pc that this is streaming from!!

[MSIC]

I think the spec is good. You may not even need 1 GB RAM, 1/2 would actually suffice in most circumstances, but 1 Gig is good (especially considering minimal price difference).
The other main issue is if you want to use the HTPC to ENCODE stuff or is it simply to recieve data and display it? Truth be told, any A64 or even P4 is a decent enough CPU, but the more the merrier. If it is decoding only, then an A64 3500+ is probably overkill, but if you can afford it then fine. If you want to get into encoding / recording from TV etc, go a little further for dual core.
My only other observation is to consider a different CPU heatsink/fan, for two reasons - noise, and height. The standard one is good enough for heat dissapation, but spending £15-odd on something like one of these will reduce noise and cool the CPU well. In terms of height, I'm struggling to suggest anything specific as i'm not familiar with the case. Anyone else???

[Snaga]

I would basically just be receiving data from another source and displaying on my tv. My main concern was that the onboard Gfx would not be able to cope. Its been a while since i have owned a pc with on board Gfx.

[MSIC]

On-board nForce 4? Yeah, that'll be fine. I really like the case by the way, but remain concerned about it being a very low height to fit a CPU cooler in... Maybe you could buy that (and the other bits) first, and then measure the height you have available?

[frumpet]

If he's going for the RC-250 then there shouldn't be a problem with height as its 14cm tall. It's basically a desktop pc case so shouldn't pose any problems.

The LC11, however, would be a problem as its only 10cm tall. You're limited to only 3 expansion slots, which are usable with full size cards but only through the use of risers (PCIe one will cost you another £19).

The other issue with the LC11 is that, as far as I've seen, there isn't a compatible AM2 motherboard out there and, currently, no conroe mATX boards so you're a limited to 939, 754 or older 775 cpu's.

[Snaga]

Or the 939 version of this

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Produ...oductID=434327