I'm building a new computer - !CONFUSED!

[Steve]

I am experienced in building computers - well, i was 3 years ago when i built this machine, but i have completely lost track of new developments. However, that aside, i have found the perfect base for a new computer.

http://www.antec.com/uk/productDetails.php?ProdID=08739#

its a case, it retails at about £120, it is for the base for a home theatre / entertainment system. I really really want this - it is perfect, but i have lost track of the new technology of the bits to put in it! Any opinions of the case itself? Reckon its worth it? I have heard Antec have V good customer service.

So, new technology - theres new hard drive connectors (SATA?), this case takes a micro ATX board - is this a trade-off? - lower features compared to normal ATX?, what processors are available? graphic cards? I have heard about windows media centre, i would think this PC would be ideally suited to it. What does media centre incorporate? what are the differences with windows XP? Is it more expensive? Does Bill Gates use windows media centre in his front room?

If i do get this, i want to really max it out. 200GB hard drives (2 of), so i can record my tv shows, maximum processor speed, (what's 64 bit all about? is it worth the extra cost? does it mean i have to get 64 bit programes / hardware?), loads of memory (2GB), and remote controlling. What is the best way of remote controlling a system like this? microsoft remote? remote keyboard? (I was thinking of hooking it to a projector and screen, so reading the small text isn't an issue).

What about HD DVD players? I haven't seen any about for computers, do they exist? And which is going to be better to get, blu-ray or HD DVD, i have heard these are 2 competing formats, AGAIN, like DVD+ or - RW. Why does this always happen? (worth noting this case i want only has one 5.25" slot for an optical drive.) Computer Shopper had a review of a blu-ray WRITER this month, but it retails at about £600 - so i'm not going there just yet.

Any experienced people out there, advice is appreciated on new technology, particularly the bits in bold. Out of interest, i'm running a Sempron 2400+ with 512MB Ram and 80GB internal hard drive. Cant remember what graphics now. I will be upgrading my broadband to 8Mb in due course - its just become available - so i can stream movies and music to my entertainment centre, and stream from this PC.

I have a budget of about £600-800, for the Base PC, maybe a bit more if something screams "i have to have it" . Yes, I am going to chain it up securely and / or hide it.

 

[Igorian]

A bit of a task to answer everything in one post.

Try here. It answers just about all your questions.

 

[Steve]

anyone got any recommendations?

 

[eggplant]

ok

That case, looks cool enough but limist as to what you can put in it as you already commented on

SATA - bit faster than IDE but not as fast as people would have you believe - still no where near as fast as scsi. Has advantage over IDE of being (or can be) hot swappable

Never used media centre so cant comment, graphics cards - basically choose between ATI and Nvida, then check out specs/prices, if you are into games look at SLI - Cant say if any micro atx boards have SLI tho - be prepared to spend if you go down this road.... £200 will get you a decent card - if you arnt into gaming then dont waste your money.
2gig of ram is fine if you are likely to use it, high performance ram does make a big diffrence but also cost several times as much as cheapo stuff.
Projector and screen, our parent company installs these, double the price of your pc then add some....
cant comment on blue ray as I havnt used one myself - if it were me I'd wait for prices to drop.
You can buy remotes, either alone or often with tv cards etc, I got an ATI one for a jukebox project I did and whilst not the best looking one in the world it did the job, no other experience with them.
Personally I prefer AMD, but whatever you go for, dont waste money by buying the fastest cpu you can get then sticking it in a £25 board....
I just reread and see you want it purely for a media centre, in that case, forget high end vga cards and buckets of ram, spend the money on the fancy case and a decent sound card.

I will be upgrading my broadband to 8Mb in due course - its just become available - so i can stream movies and music to my entertainment centre, and stream from this PC. icon_wink.gif

Stream what from where?

 

[Steve]

Cheers for the comments. I've been thinking, i dont really have any great need for a media centre pc lol, i only really watch sky! And i've got a surround sound set! But i wouldnt mind a projector and screen, that would be cooool.

Maybe when i get my own flat, next year (i hope, living with parents sucks).

 

[2scoops0406]

living with parents sucks

I'd imagine with your surround sound, they'd tend to agree

Media centre is just another version of XP. It is 32 bit AFAIR. Don't bother with the 64 bit version of XP, you need special hardware (well a 64 bit CPU anyhow) and you really don't need it.

WRT to HDD's, why not go for 320 GB drives instead of 200 GB theres only about a tenners difference.

Always add loads of memory, I've got 1.25 GB and it's still not enough. Consider buying a small HDD solely for the use of the swap file. Other than that there are loads of geeky sites that help with what works with what.

 

[eggplant]

Always add loads of memory, I've got 1.25 GB and it's still not enough. Consider buying a small HDD solely for the use of the swap file. Other than that there are loads of geeky sites that help with what works with what.

Depends on what you are doing, lesser fast ram is often beter than lots of slow ram (there are extents of course) I could put about 4 gig of cheap ram in the machine im on now - would cost about the same as the 1 gig of hi performance stuff I have in, for the use this machine gets, 1 gig is now pushing it so when I have a couple of hundred quid spare I'll put another gig in.
Having your page file on another drive can help - again its relative to the rest of the machine spec, if I put in a new IDE drive here just for the swap file, I'd most likely see a drop in performance.
You need to decide what you want the pc for, at the moment it seems you just want a new pc - in which case pop down to pcworld with £500 and come back with some change.

 

[Builder.Bird]

This is a nice case. Depends on your budget though. Is a bit pricey

http://www.zalman.co.kr/eng/product/view.asp?idx=182&code=029

Do away with the projector and screen and get this.

http://www.currys.co.uk/martprd/sto...0&tm=undefined&sku=835543&category_oid=-25961

My mate has just got one and watches sky and uses it as a pc monitor too. The picture quality and refresh rate is amazing even when connected to the pc for gaming.