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frith
God

Registered: 10/27/09
Posts: 7,512
Loc: Philadelphia, PA
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Re: Is building your own PC worth it? ... [Re: mark2112]
#14519821 - 05/27/11 08:33 AM (12 years, 9 months ago) |
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Quote:
mark2112 said: Pre built machines are Turds more often than not. Lower end CPU's, 4gb of RAM
if you need that much horsepower for an HTPC you are doing it wrong.
my HTPC is an old Atom 330 with 2gb of ram. it plays any kind of media i can throw at it.
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Dimi
The Mindful One


Registered: 05/09/11
Posts: 190
Last seen: 7 years, 1 month
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Re: Is building your own PC worth it? ... [Re: mark2112]
#14520572 - 05/27/11 12:31 PM (12 years, 9 months ago) |
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Quote:
Agreed. I built a computer a year ago and it cost me $600 AUD. I have since upgraded from Socket 775 to 1155 to step the CPU up from an E6500 to an I5-2400. It is hooked straight to my TV via HDMI through an ATI HD5670.
The ATI HD 5670 is a damn nice card, although now the 6670 is out now.
I have the Sapphire HD 5670 1GB and I can overclock both the RAM and Core by 16% if anyone's into that stuff. It's a perfect HTPC card, imo.
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Society
Mmmm... pizza



Registered: 07/03/04
Posts: 14,300
Loc:
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Re: Is building your own PC worth it? ... [Re: Dimi]
#14520643 - 05/27/11 12:52 PM (12 years, 9 months ago) |
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Quote:
You really should look at replacing Motherboard and CPU in one hit...so much cleaner (if you can afford it).
That's the general idea at this point. Next time my PC collapses on itself, I will get a motherboard, CPU, HD, OS, etc.
First a new mouse or figure out what's wrong with my mouse drivers or buy a usb mouse. Stupid thing won't stop jumping around the screen.
-------------------- Delicious Pizza
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CosmicJoke
happy mutant



Registered: 04/05/00
Posts: 10,848
Loc: Portland, OR
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Re: Is building your own PC worth it? ... [Re: frith]
#14521918 - 05/27/11 04:10 PM (12 years, 9 months ago) |
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Quote:
if you need that much horsepower for an HTPC you are doing it wrong.
Depends, you might want to use your HTPC as a DVR.... some of the cards like the Ceton InfiniTV 4, which can record 4 HD shows simultaneously, is gonna have steeper requirements.
-------------------- Everything is better than it was the last time. I'm good. If we could look into each others hearts, and understand the unique challenges each of us faces, I think we would treat each other much more gently, with more love, patience, tolerance, and care. It takes a lot of courage to go out there and radiate your essence. I know you scared, you should ask us if we scared too. If you was there, and we just knew you cared too.
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mark2112



Registered: 04/17/10
Posts: 137
Loc: Here
Last seen: 10 years, 10 months
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Re: Is building your own PC worth it? ... [Re: Dimi]
#14521979 - 05/27/11 04:19 PM (12 years, 9 months ago) |
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Quote:
frith said:
Pre built machines are Turds more often than not. Lower end CPU's, 4gb of RAM
if you need that much horsepower for an HTPC you are doing it wrong.
my HTPC is an old Atom 330 with 2gb of ram. it plays any kind of media i can throw at it.
I've heard you say that a few times in different posts and I totally disagree. I run four hard drives (tired of external hard drives, even at ESata speed), drag files back and forth and having that power helps. The E6500 was actually starting to lag with Media Browser as my front end which is image heavy but looks the best. I tried XBMC and Media Portal which are lighter but they are limited and confusing to use and don't look nearly as cool. I also like the way Media Browser incorporates itself into MCE and I can use a remote....although I usually use keyboard and mouse so I can flick between watching and surfing. Also retreiving batches of metadata is far more efficient with more power.
The clarity in picture is far superior with a better rig, but thats just IMO. IMO, you're doing it wrong but what do you do?
P.S. - 2gb of RAM is fine. I was pointing out that OEM's use 4gb of RAM with a 32bit system. Why bother?
Quote:
Dimi said:
The ATI HD 5670 is a damn nice card, although now the 6670 is out now.
I have the Sapphire HD 5670 1GB and I can overclock both the RAM and Core by 16% if anyone's into that stuff. It's a perfect HTPC card, imo.
Agreed, Awesome card but I can only sneak through a purchase here and there!!!
-------------------- There is no spoon...
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frith
God

Registered: 10/27/09
Posts: 7,512
Loc: Philadelphia, PA
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Re: Is building your own PC worth it? ... [Re: mark2112]
#14526928 - 05/28/11 04:31 PM (12 years, 9 months ago) |
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Quote:
CosmicJoke said:
Quote:
if you need that much horsepower for an HTPC you are doing it wrong.
Depends, you might want to use your HTPC as a DVR.... some of the cards like the Ceton InfiniTV 4, which can record 4 HD shows simultaneously, is gonna have steeper requirements.
true.. that wasnt mentioned though.
Quote:
mark2112 said: I run four hard drives (tired of external hard drives, even at ESata speed), drag files back and forth and having that power helps.
i have 6 drives in my server.. a few of them are 5400rpm too. that is running a Pentium D 820. that is more than enough for storage and data streaming. 
Quote:
mark2112 said: The E6500 was actually starting to lag
thats faster than my Atom.. uptime on my machine is about 6 months now (it would be almost a year if not for power outages). its been used daily for 2.5 years and has never stuttered or lagged.
Quote:
mark2112 said: Also retreiving batches of metadata is far more efficient with more power.
youre downloading what.. 20mb-30mb? thats being generous assuming you are doing a large metadata import.
any computer can download 30mb of data quickly. the bottleneck is either the efficiency of your front end (in which case my original statement stands) or your internet connection.
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CosmicJoke
happy mutant



Registered: 04/05/00
Posts: 10,848
Loc: Portland, OR
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Re: Is building your own PC worth it? ... [Re: mark2112]
#14527392 - 05/28/11 05:52 PM (12 years, 9 months ago) |
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Quote:
The clarity in picture is far superior with a better rig, but thats just IMO. IMO, you're doing it wrong but what do you do?
frith is the biggest film junky i know (virtually at least)... i'm pretty sure if there was anything inadequate about his hardware, he wouldn't use it.
Quote:
tried XBMC and Media Portal which are lighter but they are limited and confusing to use and don't look nearly as cool.
XBMC is only limited by your understanding of what it can do... As far as I know, it's the most versatile media center available. You can skin its appearance any way you want. You could always RTFM.
Quote:
although I usually use keyboard and mouse so I can flick between watching and surfing.
Sounds like a desktop you happen to watch movies on, not a HTPC.
-------------------- Everything is better than it was the last time. I'm good. If we could look into each others hearts, and understand the unique challenges each of us faces, I think we would treat each other much more gently, with more love, patience, tolerance, and care. It takes a lot of courage to go out there and radiate your essence. I know you scared, you should ask us if we scared too. If you was there, and we just knew you cared too.
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frith
God

Registered: 10/27/09
Posts: 7,512
Loc: Philadelphia, PA
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Re: Is building your own PC worth it? ... [Re: CosmicJoke]
#14527419 - 05/28/11 05:56 PM (12 years, 9 months ago) |
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Quote:
CosmicJoke said: frith is the biggest film junky i know (virtually at least)... i'm pretty sure if there was anything inadequate about his hardware, he wouldn't use it.
hahaha.. very VERY true.
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Melkor
Psychonaut



Registered: 03/11/11
Posts: 609
Last seen: 8 years, 9 days
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Re: Is building your own PC worth it? ... [Re: Society]
#14538204 - 05/30/11 10:01 PM (12 years, 8 months ago) |
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Yes. IMO, it will always be cheaper to build yourself a PC rather than buying a setup. Newegg all day
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frith
God

Registered: 10/27/09
Posts: 7,512
Loc: Philadelphia, PA
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Re: Is building your own PC worth it? ... [Re: Melkor]
#14538232 - 05/30/11 10:07 PM (12 years, 8 months ago) |
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Quote:
Melkor said: IMO, it will always be cheaper to build yourself a PC rather than buying a setup.
your opinion is wrong.
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mark2112



Registered: 04/17/10
Posts: 137
Loc: Here
Last seen: 10 years, 10 months
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Re: Is building your own PC worth it? ... [Re: Melkor]
#14539311 - 05/31/11 05:26 AM (12 years, 8 months ago) |
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Quote:
Melkor said: Yes. IMO, it will always be cheaper to build yourself a PC rather than buying a setup. Newegg all day
Always is correct. By a very long way too..... if you know what you're doing. In Australia we have a co. called MSY who sell parts cheap! OEM computers are crap. Obviously if you cut out the middle man you're saving money.
-------------------- There is no spoon...
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koraks
Registered: 06/02/03
Posts: 26,691
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Re: Is building your own PC worth it? ... [Re: mark2112]
#14539927 - 05/31/11 09:37 AM (12 years, 8 months ago) |
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Quote:
mark2112 said: Obviously if you cut out the middle man you're saving money.
If you guys ()mark & melkor) had bothered to read the first few pages of this thread, you would have noticed that those arguments have been discussed extensively. The short of it is that DIY is cheaper as long as (a) you don't run into any unforeseen problems and (b) you don't count the costs of the time you invest yourself.
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imachavel
I loved and lost but I loved-ftw



Registered: 06/06/07
Posts: 31,414
Loc: You get banned for saying that
Last seen: 4 hours, 32 minutes
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Re: Is building your own PC worth it? ... [Re: Society]
#14541299 - 05/31/11 03:41 PM (12 years, 8 months ago) |
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Quote:
Society said:
Quote:
You really should look at replacing Motherboard and CPU in one hit...so much cleaner (if you can afford it).
That's the general idea at this point. Next time my PC collapses on itself, I will get a motherboard, CPU, HD, OS, etc.
First a new mouse or figure out what's wrong with my mouse drivers or buy a usb mouse. Stupid thing won't stop jumping around the screen.
it sounds like you had a problem installing windows if your mouse keeps jumping around the screen. or maybe it's the mouse. so you say when you put the same ram back in the same motherboard after trying the new psu and noticing it worked, then taking everything out and putting into a new case, it doesn't work now?
that's really weird, so it gets you to the boot menu, then tells you there is a memory error?
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I did not say to edit my signature soulidarity! Now forever I will never remember what I said about understanding the secrets of the universe by paying attention to subtleties!
I'm never giving you the password again. Jerk
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imachavel
I loved and lost but I loved-ftw



Registered: 06/06/07
Posts: 31,414
Loc: You get banned for saying that
Last seen: 4 hours, 32 minutes
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Re: Is building your own PC worth it? ... [Re: mark2112]
#14541317 - 05/31/11 03:45 PM (12 years, 8 months ago) |
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Quote:
mark2112 said:
Quote:
frith said:
Pre built machines are Turds more often than not. Lower end CPU's, 4gb of RAM
if you need that much horsepower for an HTPC you are doing it wrong.
my HTPC is an old Atom 330 with 2gb of ram. it plays any kind of media i can throw at it.
I've heard you say that a few times in different posts and I totally disagree. I run four hard drives (tired of external hard drives, even at ESata speed), drag files back and forth and having that power helps. The E6500 was actually starting to lag with Media Browser as my front end which is image heavy but looks the best. I tried XBMC and Media Portal which are lighter but they are limited and confusing to use and don't look nearly as cool. I also like the way Media Browser incorporates itself into MCE and I can use a remote....although I usually use keyboard and mouse so I can flick between watching and surfing. Also retreiving batches of metadata is far more efficient with more power.
The clarity in picture is far superior with a better rig, but thats just IMO. IMO, you're doing it wrong but what do you do?
P.S. - 2gb of RAM is fine. I was pointing out that OEM's use 4gb of RAM with a 32bit system. Why bother?
Quote:
Dimi said:
The ATI HD 5670 is a damn nice card, although now the 6670 is out now.
I have the Sapphire HD 5670 1GB and I can overclock both the RAM and Core by 16% if anyone's into that stuff. It's a perfect HTPC card, imo.
Agreed, Awesome card but I can only sneak through a purchase here and there!!!
2 gigs of ram? what is the socket, 448? 
well any type of media, but probably not any game, unless you have a really good graphics card in there.
but you wouldn't be able to run more than one or 2 virtual computer on that thing. great for movies and internet, 2 gig or ram is fine, don't get me wrong. but for games and more serious applications, this simply isn't going to work.
hey, 2 gigs of ram, 100 mbps network card, and dsl, beats 256 mb of ram, and dial up internet any day of the week.
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I did not say to edit my signature soulidarity! Now forever I will never remember what I said about understanding the secrets of the universe by paying attention to subtleties!
I'm never giving you the password again. Jerk
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Society
Mmmm... pizza



Registered: 07/03/04
Posts: 14,300
Loc:
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Re: Is building your own PC worth it? ... [Re: imachavel]
#14541466 - 05/31/11 04:15 PM (12 years, 8 months ago) |
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Quote:
imachavel said:
Quote:
Society said:
Quote:
You really should look at replacing Motherboard and CPU in one hit...so much cleaner (if you can afford it).
That's the general idea at this point. Next time my PC collapses on itself, I will get a motherboard, CPU, HD, OS, etc.
First a new mouse or figure out what's wrong with my mouse drivers or buy a usb mouse. Stupid thing won't stop jumping around the screen.
it sounds like you had a problem installing windows if your mouse keeps jumping around the screen. or maybe it's the mouse. so you say when you put the same ram back in the same motherboard after trying the new psu and noticing it worked, then taking everything out and putting into a new case, it doesn't work now?
that's really weird, so it gets you to the boot menu, then tells you there is a memory error?
The mouse problem is somewhat common- usually a driver problem. I reinstalled my drivers and it still is a problem. I think I just need to buy a USB mouse... the one I'm using is a rollerball PS/2.
As for the memory problem, I have no idea what happened. When both of the memory cards, which were in the motherboard to being with, are present the computer does not boot. It turns on and beeps loudly. That's it. No video.
-------------------- Delicious Pizza
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imachavel
I loved and lost but I loved-ftw



Registered: 06/06/07
Posts: 31,414
Loc: You get banned for saying that
Last seen: 4 hours, 32 minutes
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Re: Is building your own PC worth it? ... [Re: imachavel]
#14541469 - 05/31/11 04:16 PM (12 years, 8 months ago) |
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btw did you try reseating your memory in the old computer?
i don't know why switching the case would effect the ram in the motherboard. did you take the ram out of the slot it was in and put it in a different slot? sometimes the same ram stick doesn't like being shoved into a different slot. i don't know why. this is the best suggestion i could make, this one and the ones already stated.
try putting everything back in your old case. you definitely get a blue screen memory error? THANKS
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I did not say to edit my signature soulidarity! Now forever I will never remember what I said about understanding the secrets of the universe by paying attention to subtleties!
I'm never giving you the password again. Jerk
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Society
Mmmm... pizza



Registered: 07/03/04
Posts: 14,300
Loc:
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Re: Is building your own PC worth it? ... [Re: imachavel]
#14541491 - 05/31/11 04:20 PM (12 years, 8 months ago) |
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No blue screen. No screen at all.
I didn't manipulate the memory at all when transferring cases. I don't really have the time or patience to transfer everything back into that old HP case. I'm just running off of 1GB memory now and might do this until my cpu/motherboard craps out... or someone gives me free functional memory.
-------------------- Delicious Pizza
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imachavel
I loved and lost but I loved-ftw



Registered: 06/06/07
Posts: 31,414
Loc: You get banned for saying that
Last seen: 4 hours, 32 minutes
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Re: Is building your own PC worth it? ... [Re: Society]
#14541612 - 05/31/11 04:41 PM (12 years, 8 months ago) |
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Quote:
Society said:
Quote:
imachavel said:
Quote:
Society said:
Quote:
You really should look at replacing Motherboard and CPU in one hit...so much cleaner (if you can afford it).
That's the general idea at this point. Next time my PC collapses on itself, I will get a motherboard, CPU, HD, OS, etc.
First a new mouse or figure out what's wrong with my mouse drivers or buy a usb mouse. Stupid thing won't stop jumping around the screen.
it sounds like you had a problem installing windows if your mouse keeps jumping around the screen. or maybe it's the mouse. so you say when you put the same ram back in the same motherboard after trying the new psu and noticing it worked, then taking everything out and putting into a new case, it doesn't work now?
that's really weird, so it gets you to the boot menu, then tells you there is a memory error?
The mouse problem is somewhat common- usually a driver problem. I reinstalled my drivers and it still is a problem. I think I just need to buy a USB mouse... the one I'm using is a rollerball PS/2.
As for the memory problem, I have no idea what happened. When both of the memory cards, which were in the motherboard to being with, are present the computer does not boot. It turns on and beeps loudly. That's it. No video. 
so there is no blue screen at all, no video what so ever? that is a video card problem then. and if your video card worked in your last computer, then it's probably a driver problem. try trouble shooting your video card driver. so it has no blue screen, just doesn't turn on?
also, remember your computer boots from the motherboard, it can get you to the boot menu without the hard drive, it just won't load windows. so it HAS to be either a memory problem, or a video card problem. like I was saying, try reseating the memory in different slots, it tends to fix these things
so your mouse problem is a driver problem, huh? yeah switch to usb instead of ps/2. remember though, that will probably deal with the driver you use for your ps/2 port or usb port then actually one for the mouse. mouse is supposed to be plug and play, considering that your port driver is functioning properly.
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I did not say to edit my signature soulidarity! Now forever I will never remember what I said about understanding the secrets of the universe by paying attention to subtleties!
I'm never giving you the password again. Jerk
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mark2112



Registered: 04/17/10
Posts: 137
Loc: Here
Last seen: 10 years, 10 months
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Re: Is building your own PC worth it? ... [Re: koraks]
#14541662 - 05/31/11 04:55 PM (12 years, 8 months ago) |
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Quote:
koraks said:
Quote:
mark2112 said: Obviously if you cut out the middle man you're saving money.
If you guys ()mark & melkor) had bothered to read the first few pages of this thread, you would have noticed that those arguments have been discussed extensively. The short of it is that DIY is cheaper as long as (a) you don't run into any unforeseen problems and (b) you don't count the costs of the time you invest yourself.
I did bother to read the first few pages and commented on a recent comment???
-------------------- There is no spoon...
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frith
God

Registered: 10/27/09
Posts: 7,512
Loc: Philadelphia, PA
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Re: Is building your own PC worth it? ... [Re: imachavel]
#14546393 - 06/01/11 03:35 PM (12 years, 8 months ago) |
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Quote:
imachavel said: 2 gigs of ram? what is the socket, 448? 
well any type of media, but probably not any game, unless you have a really good graphics card in there.
but you wouldn't be able to run more than one or 2 virtual computer on that thing. great for movies and internet, 2 gig or ram is fine, don't get me wrong. but for games and more serious applications, this simply isn't going to work.
hey, 2 gigs of ram, 100 mbps network card, and dsl, beats 256 mb of ram, and dial up internet any day of the week.
a HTPC is a home theater computer.. its not a gaming rig and its not a desktop. its sole purpose should be for serving media. if you are using a HTPC for gaming or as a desktop..Quote:
frith said: you are doing it wrong.
you dont need a lot of power for a HTPC.
low powered machines draw less power, create less heat, and most importantly for a HTPC, they are mostly silent. a humming computer in the corner is one of the most annoying things when trying to watch a movie.
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Edited by frith (06/01/11 03:36 PM)
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