fiestaturbo.com

[Philie*RST]

well after buyin a new pc less than a month ago and blowing it up thought id get a custom media set up built up, so contacted fellow member Percy to see if he could help and he has shown me some options and is building me my new computer

so far ive paid for the following items

case - http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll? ... 3DWatching

pad and reciver xbox elite

intel Core 2 Duo E8400 Socket 775 (3.0GHz) 1333FSB 6MB L2 Cache Retail Boxed Processor

LG Electronics Blu-Ray & HD-DVD-Rom Combo 16x DVDRW Black SATA - Retail Box With Software

Enlight Black 26-in-1 Internal 3.5" Card Reader - Retail Boxed

Arctic Cooling AC-FRZ-7P Freezer 7 Pro Socket 775 Processor Cooler

Gigabyte GA-EP31-DS3L iP31 Socket 775 8 channel audio ATX Motherboard

Seagate ST3500320AS 500GB Hard Drive SATA II 7200rpm *32MB Cache* - OEM

Pinnacle 3010iX PCTV Dual Hybrid Pro TV Tuner DVB-T

Plexus 4-Way Surge Protector Cable (Black) 1m

microsoft wnidows Vista ultimate

4gb DDR2 800mhz ram

Plexus Gold Plated HDMI To DVI-D Dual Link Cable

graphics ATI 3870 - dual slot cooler GDDR4

ive not bought the screen yet but ive chosen this one - http://www.amazon.co.uk/Samsung-LE32A55 ... 459&sr=8-5

stand - http://www.amazon.co.uk/Levv-Glass-Stan ... 3380860S79

and looking into this speaker set up http://www.amazon.co.uk/Logitech-X-540- ... 977&sr=1-1

wil have the screen next week cant wait till its up and running its going to used as a everyday computer but also as a gaming machine

what you think o the setup?

[dontpannic]

What a rubbish setup. Obviously Percy knows nothing

Jokes, looks like a nice setup. I wish I could afford to build myself a new machine. The one I did two years ago is not running too badly but need more graphics performance!!

[filtra]

RAM will be a bottleneck on the CPU. You want DDR3 - PC3-10666. Also, unless you are ocing heavily the AC freezer is a waste of money, retail cooler is fine unless your are buying OEM obviously. I've had my c2d Q6600 on stock cooler to 3ghz no problems.

The TV tuner you have chosen is good, i have a Hauppauge hybrid HVR 900, compatible with vista x64 which I really rate, DVB is good and analogue pick up if you use it is v.good too.

Edit - make sure you get vista x64, unless you want to faff about getting the x86 version to address all the RAM.

[Philie*RST]

RAM will be a bottleneck on the CPU. You want DDR3 - PC3-10666. Also, unless you are ocing heavily the AC freezer is a waste of money, retail cooler is fine unless your are buying OEM obviously. I've had my c2d Q6600 on stock cooler to 3ghz no problems.

The TV tuner you have chosen is good, i have a Hauppauge hybrid HVR 900, compatible with vista x64 which I really rate, DVB is good and analogue pick up if you use it is v.good too.

Edit - make sure you get vista x64, unless you want to faff about getting the x86 version to address all the RAM.

yep he chose the cooler he is overclockin it he give me a choice of the 2 versions of vista 32 or 64bit not sure what to go for ???

also will the board take ddr3? ive got 4gb ram already but i will upgrade it after ive bought the tv and sound system

[filtra]

From looking at Gigabytes website it doesn't seem that it does support DDR3.

Seems a shame that you've got a nice cpu, putting it on a P31 chipset motherboard with 800MHz ddr2 ram.

Personally for that spec I would have gone with the Gigabyte GA-EP45-DS3L (reasonably priced) and the Corsair 4GB DDR3 DHX 1333C9DHX Twin3X (2x2GB) memory.

I'm not into the whole OCing stuff any more tbh so I don't know how those components will perform but they will certainly be better at stock than your previous choice because the CPU will be able to make use of its 1333MHz FSB and the bandwidth of the DDR3 ram, really important for gaming and stuff!

HTH!

Edit- Regarding the OS, go for 64bit verion. It'll allow the 4gb to be properly addressed. I run it and have never had any software compatibility issues for normal day programs and games, the fact that more stuff is using the x64 addressing means that it would be silly to downgrade to a x86 architecture.

[Kittie]

You'll need more than 500gb hd

No amount of storage is enough when it comes to media center PCs, crap expands to fill the void!

[Percy!]

I will now try to dispel a myth about ram/processor speeds, I will say this comes more into play when overclocking.

Ram is dual speed so:
533 mhz is 266mhz FSB
667 mhz is 333mhz FSB
800 mhz is 400mhz FSB

Meanwhile processors are quad speed so:
800 mhz is 200hmz FSB
1066 mhz is 266hmz FSB
1333 mhz is 333hmz FSB

Now running your RAM and processors FSB at a 1:1 ratio can give great gains while saving money.

So the processor he is getting is:
333mhz x9 =3000mhz so it has a multiplier of 9

So if I can overclock the processor to 400mhz FSB (should be easily possible) the we get a 3.6GHz processor while running a 1:1 with the RAM.

Due to the overclock there will be more heat so a uprated cooler is being used.

If I get to the figures above easily then I will try pushing it further which will then involve overclcoking the RAM (up to that point its not even overclocked)

So don't worry people I do know what I am doing here. The ram is not a bottleneck on the processor, the processor is the bottleneck on the RAM (But I am sorting that out).

Building a good PC isn't just about getting the best parts, its about getting a balance between them and everything running together perfectly.

If no overclocking was planned then choices would be different, but why pay more when you can get cheaper parts and make them run as well (if not better).

As for the TV I am not sure if a 1080p screen at 32" is really worth it, 1080p is the way forward for the blu-ray etc but not sure if there is a huge advantage at that size.

As for the 64bit thing we are currently going through the advantages and disadvantages, I am running 64bit myself for the reasons mentioned above.

500Gb should be enough, its not a problem to add more later.

Speakers, creative or logitech always work well, those look good. Sometimes you can get bargains on the older ranges which they have stopped making and there isn't always a huge difference.

[andymac]

Edit- Regarding the OS, go for 64bit verion. It'll allow the 4gb to be properly addressed. I run it and have never had any software compatibility issues for normal day programs and games, the fact that more stuff is using the x64 addressing means that it would be silly to downgrade to a x86 architecture.

32 bit apps run in WOW32 which limits to them a 4gb memory space in a VM'd environment - reducing the performance dramatically. Printers are also a huge pain in the arse as the 64<->32 bit thunker breaks all the time.

As for the TV I am not sure if a 1080p screen at 32" is really worth it, 1080p is the way forward for the blu-ray etc but not sure if there is a huge advantage at that size.

There is, you get a usable resolution for general PC work (or at least, browsing the internet). I'd say 37" is where it starts to get funky with 1080p

100% on the memory though - the principle holds true on all systems (zero-wait-state is the term you'd use to describe such a setup). Getting the right match of memory makes a massive difference, especially on systems using FB-DIMMS. Just need another processor now to quad channel the memory up

[Philie*RST]

You'll need more than 500gb hd

No amount of storage is enough when it comes to media center PCs, crap expands to fill the void!

thats just the main drive i have nearly 2tb of storage in all to add later

[Philie*RST]

also any of you know wher the best deals are on lcd screens i want a samsung 32-40inch im willing to push my budget to 600ish if needs be any ideas?

[Percy!]

100% on the memory though - the principle holds true on all systems (zero-wait-state is the term you'd use to describe such a setup). Getting the right match of memory makes a massive difference, especially on systems using FB-DIMMS. Just need another processor now to quad channel the memory up

Been Overclocking for a while and learnt this one pretty quick, My own PC is running an older e4300 at 3ghz (333x9) and I have got 667 RAM and it has been known to perform better than others who ahve done a similar thing with 800Mhz RAM.

When it comes to the above machine If I can't reach the 400mhz FSB then I would rather underclock the ram than use a multiplier, in this case the very worse it will run is 333mhz/667mhz.

I always like running benches on 3d mark and such and then clicking similar systems, in most cases they have more expensive hardware and they aren't getting any better results.

Either way back to what Phil is asking for, speakers and TV's. The PC is good hands.

[andymac]

Speaker wise, I had a Logitech Z5500 setup - beautiful sound from it, plenty of low down oomph without sacrificing top end response. I can't comment on the lower end of the 5.1 spectrum, I've always tried to spend the money and get setups that are good for music AND movies, though sadly I'm relegated to a Z4 setup in the front room at the moment owing to space issues and frankly, it's OK for music but sucks for films (lack of discrete centre channel for voice) - it's loud and goes boom a lot, which is how most folks seem to rate their speakers

I'm looking at the Panasonic Viera range to replace the current viewsonic in the front room (will put that in spare room with the second xbox and a v. small pc or extender for accessing media on the pc. I'll probably buy from John Lewis tbh, just to get the 5yr "no matter what" warranty

Oh and as for TV cards, I'm relatively unimpressed with the hauppauge products of late - have had a series of them in the past and the twin tuner nova I have now... well... sucks... blowing up a heavily compressed terrestrial freeview signal to 1366x768 won't help of course. I'm interested in one of the new black gold tv tuner cards atm - has DVB-S, DVD-T & Analogue all in one - two tuners of each type too so you can watch and record.

[Percy!]

I found this on the TV front:
http://www.dabs.com/productview.aspx?Quicklinx=52WM&CategorySelectedId=11229&PageMode=1&NavigationKey=11229,4294952756

As mentioned the Viera range are very good too.

[Philie*RST]

well thats my new tv haha cheers for that link and its 40inch lol

parts recived today btw everythin i orderd from ebuyer also recieved tha case

parts im waiting on pad and reciver, tv card

so hopfully will pop up friday mate

[Percy!]

also go to quidco.com and £11 cashback on that too

[Percy!]

Just managed to install an unsigned driver in Vista 64bit, didn't think that worked? is it due to SP1?

Either way its looking more like 64bit is the way forward.

I will add for gaming it is a lot better, this may be down getting the full 4GB ram, I now have crysis warhead at 1080p with 2x AA and v-sync

[Ollie]

Have you rebooted it since?

I managed to install an unsigned driver in Vista 64 but then when I next rebooted it refused to let me into Windows until I removed the offending driver... wouldn't even let me into safe mode. I couldn't be bothered to remove it using the recovery console, just reformatted.