Anyone see any conflicts with this build? Ok, My plan is to transplant some of my old hardware into my new pc build. My goal is too build it and install the O.S. without any issues. Lofty goal but one can only hope for the best. Can anyone find any reason why this build would not work? My transplant is Sony AW-Q170A 18X DVD Burner. Later I will replace it with Blueray burner. I plan on adding my atsc tuner too record tv and edit video. Scenario is watching cable tv while editing video with music playing through my hometheater. I will be using my hd tv as my monitor. My parameters are DTS,HDMI, S/PDIF Out OPTICAL. Will I have enough cpu and psu to cover my desired operations? 1.GIGABYTE GA-MA790GP-UD4H AM2+/AM2 AMD 790GX HDMI ATX AMD Motherboard 2.AMD Athlon II X2 250 Regor 3.0GHz Socket AM3 65W Dual-Core Processor Model ADX250OCGQBOX - Retail 3.OCZ Blade Series 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500) Low Voltage Desktop Memory Model OCZ2B1066LV4GK - Retail 4.SeaSonic SS-650JT 650W ATX12V / EPS12V SLI Certified CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC Power Supply - OEM 5.Rosewill R230-P-BK Black 0.5mm SECC Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - Retail 6.HITACHI Deskstar P7K500 HDP725050GLA360 (0A35415) 500GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive - OEM 7.Microsoft Windows Vista Home Basic SP1 64-bit for System Builders - OEM 8.Logitech Cordless Desktop EX 100 Black USB RF Wireless Standard Keyboard and Mouse - Retail Subtotal: $555.93
If your buliding a mediapc, the part's you have will easily handle or exceed your requirements. When I built mine, I got a motherboard (Foxconn Core 2 Quad/ Intel G31/ DDR2/ A&V&GbE/ ATX G31AXK) that had the most PCI slots available (5 slots). A single tv tuner card will eventually limit what you can do with cable tv (I have 4 PVR150 tuner cards installed, planning on adding 1 more). I can record 4 different channels at one time. Your power supply is "overkill" unless you have a power hungry video card. I have a 450 watt PS and it has no problem powering my 4x tuners/4x hard drives/intel e2140 dualcore cpu. It runs 24/7 with no problems. Make sure you have TV tuner card that has the built-in hardware encoders (the tuner cards will do all the video compressing not cpu), that will allow you to record tv programs in the background and watch dvd movies or listen to your music at the same time. I would get a larger hard drive at least 1 TB, better yet have a boot drive and a video storage drive. Make sure the video drive is formatted NTFS 64kb sectors. That will give smoother playback of videos. What you have is a start, a mediapc is a work in progress. I'm always adding more parts (tuner cards/hard drives). I'm still using windows xp pro/2gb ram it gets the job done for me.
perfeect a reply from someone that has traveled the path I take. i have a 250 maxtor sata that I will transfer over to the new pc and then format it and probably use it as the primary running Ubuntu. i'll transfer all the data off of it first though to the 500gb. I've heard it is a very stable platform. sick of windows headaches. its hard to gauge when others tell you that the psu is to small. cool you can record 4 programs at once. that means i get to save a little dough thanks. one dude was telling me that. quote AM3 mobo's use DDR3, AM2 mobo's use DDR2. AMD was nice to its customers and put a DDR2 controller in its new P2 chips, that doesn't make the mobos AM3 though. there is some real marketing BS going on right now where mobo companies are taking the boards they have had on the market for over a year and trying to say its all of a sudden an "AM3" board, simply because Phenom 2 chips will work on it. not sure if I want to go intel just because amd is cheap and quality is good. so far i read anyways.
i don't know why i just didnt download the pdf manual to begin with for this mobo. the requirement for the psu have to be above 500w. thanks for giving me the idea.
For memory I have ddr2-800 2gb on my current mediapc, that's all you need. On my older mediapc's I've ran it with as low as 512 mb of ram. I've used amd cpu's in my previous mediapc's (amd 2000 single core and semprom 2800 single cores) with no problems. I only went with the intel on this mediapc because I couldn't find an amd motherboard with 5 PCI slots. The motherboard cost me $58.00 the cpu another $60.00. For cable tv you don't need expensive tuners, you can find the pvr150 (built-in hardware encoders) for under $50.00 on the internet. Windows xp pro is very stable for a mediapc, on my system it runs 24/7 for 4 or 5 months non-stop, I only shutdown for upgrading parts or clean the case. You just need to have good media software I use sagetv, it cost $80.00 which is a one-time fee and I've been using the same software for 3 years it has an excellent tv-guide where you choose what to record. You only need a large power supply if you have a powerful cpu or top of the line video card. A 65 watt cpu will easily work with a 400 watt supply. I also have a seperate PC an amd phenom am2 quad 9750 95 watt/ 4 x hard drives integrated graphics and it's running on a 400 watt power supply.
Thanks for your input. I have this same post on 3 other forums and your's has been the most informative so far. you are right about the psu. I stayed up all night reading and researching and reconfigured my build 3 times at least. Now I'm using a asus M4A78T-E mobo and found a wattage calculator on site. Originally I was seeking some answers on whether or not I need to buy a Dolby Digital/DTS card because it has an onboard DTS Surround Sensation UltraPC. It does a little trick processing to turn 2 channels into 7.1 sound. The question was will the optical output produce dolby digital dts 5.1 sound if say a dvd has it. If I don't need to spend an extra $37.99 then good. SIIG LP-000022-S1 5.1 Channels 24-bit 96KHz PCI Interface Low Profile Sound Card The calculator with all the bells and whistles came up with. Your Recommended Minimum Power Supply is 450 Watts. So this will save me some more. Wonder if it has a memory config too? Thanks for the reply man! Ok! I found what I think I want and need at a cost efficient and educated search. 1. ASUS M4A78T-E AM3 AMD 790GX HDMI ATX AMD Motherboard 2. AMD Phenom II X2 550 Black Edition Callisto 3.1GHz Socket AM3 80W Dual-Core Processor Model HDZ550WFGIBOX 3. Crucial 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1066 (PC3 8500) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model CT2KIT25664BA1067 - Retail 4. TOPOWER XPT Series TOP-500XPT 500W ATX12V Power Supply - OEM 5. Rosewill R230-P-BK Black 0.5mm SECC Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - Retail 6. HITACHI Deskstar P7K500 HDP725050GLA360 (0A35415) 500GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive - OEM 7. Hauppauge WinTV-HVR 1800 MCE Kit 1128 PCI-Express x1 Interface - Retail 8. SIIG LP-000022-S1 5.1 Channels PCI Interface Low Profile Sound Card - Retail 9. Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium SP1 64-bit for System Builders - OEM 10. Logitech Cordless Desktop EX 100 Black USB RF Wireless Standard Keyboard and Mouse Subtotal:$619.91 Just got done building a Intel build just for giggles. Turns out my original configuration is intact with exception of the mobo and cpu. I found an Intel equivalent of the AMD that had my requirements. Not sure what the difference would be in speed and efficiency. The numbers tells me AMD is cheaper and faster so why would Intel be dominate in the industry. After this experience I made a model to follow to build a pc. 1. Find a motherboard with all the bells and whistles you need. 2. On the mobo website find cpu support list and chose the one needed. Or narrow down your options with newegg.com. Intel made it impossible to do reasonable research. 3. On the mobo website find power supply unit (PSU) calculator and provide all the needed information. May be on specifications page. If one is not found use http://tools.corsairmemory.com/retailer/psu_finder_default.aspx?rid=154907 4. Use http://www.crucial.com/index.aspx Memory Configurator. 5. Find Computer case that will hold all of the hardware by Motherboard Form Factors and slots. 6. Add whatever hardware and software you want. Hers the equivalent Intel build. Keep in mind all the other items go along with this build. 1. SUPERMICRO MBD-C2SEA-O LGA 775 Intel G45 HDMI ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail 2. Intel Core 2 Duo E7400 Wolfdale 2.8GHz LGA 775 65W Dual-Core Processor Model BX80571E7400 Subtotal:$676.90
Motherboard: 8/10 - Not a bad board. CPU: 9/10 - one of AMD's best CPUs RAM: 4/10 - Crucial PC8500 RAM is often unreliable. PSU: 2/10 - Cheap OEM PSUs are bad. Buy this instead: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139008 Case: 3/10 - Poorly made and poorly cooled, but you get what you pay for HDD: 5/10 - The cheapest option and also the least reliable. Once again, you get what you pay for TV Card: - I hear good things about Happauge but since TV cards are so rare, I can't give it a rating Sound card: Why a low-profile sound card with a full size case? It won't fit properly for a start, and secondly, why not just use onboard audio? Unless you're a gamer (onboard graphics, so you won't be) there's no real reason to buy a sound card unless you're a real audophile OS: Vista's fine enough, but you may be able to get a trial of windows 7 for a year or so for free, which is a much better OS KB/M: 5/10 - Logitech make good peripherals, but RF is a very poor wireless standard, very prone to interference Why such a terrible motherboard for the Intel build?
yes the reviews had a few with doa remarks. the one you suggested is a 20+4 pin the mobo requires 24. will a converter cable solve that? oh and the tv tuner is PCI-Express x1. doesnt the psu need to have a connector for it? as for the audio card i want to make sure i get the dolby digital 5.1 reproduction with my home theater when i play dvds of watching tv with it. ok after some research the 20+4 is 24 its just for older mobos. after another psu calculation I came up with this. Rosewill RP500-2 500W ATX12V v2.01 Power Supply - Retail I also changed the mem. G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL9D-4GBNQ - Retail i have stirred clear of the oems except for the os. SAMSUNG HD502HI 500GB 5400 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive - Retail i also up the ante on the keyboard combo. purportedly has a range of 49ft. i-rocks RF-6572-WH White USB 2.4GHz RF Wireless Standard Keyboard Mouse Combo I found a case for $10 more with dual fans. Rosewill Wind Ryder RZLS142A-P BK Dual 120mm Cooling Fans and Mesh Design Front Panel Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - Retail oh i should also mention I found out that open box is refurbished and so i changed the mobo too. ECS BLACK SERIES A790GXM-AD3 AM3 AMD 790GX HDMI ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail Subtotal:$685.90 it will take me forever to save for but at least I know it is done right! holy smoke I just found a psu calculator with a ton of parameters. I don't need that big of a psu. I inputed everything I could think of I might want to upgrade too and it only came up with 332w. looks like i get to save now that I increased the other items. here i go huntin again. http://extreme.outervision.com/psucalculatorlite.jsp this will be the last until i get some other good advice. Antec earthwatts EA380 380W Continuous Power ATX12V v2.0 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC Power Supply
PSU: 1/10 - Rosewill PSUs are absolutely damn terrible. Buy this instead: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139008 RAM: 9/10 - G-Skill is good memory HDD: 7/10 - Samsung F2 drives are as yet unproven, but so far receiving excellent reviews. Be advised they're designed for quietness, not high performance KBM: 3/10 - It's still RF, and it's now a worse brand than before. Stick with Logitech really. Case: 5/10 - Better coolig, still bottom of the barrel build and design quality though. MoBo: 1/10 - ECS are absolutely god awful. AVoid like the plague,. The PSU you changed to, the Antec is much better, in the past I would have given 10/10. The newer version sadly is not quite as awesome as the old one, but it's still a decent unit. Go with either that or the 400W Corsair I posted, either will do fine.
I really appreciate you saving me from any future headaches. Ok for $20 more that has all of my requirements and meets the already chosen cpu I have MSI 790GX-G65 AM3 AMD 790GX HDMI ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail. The website if anything is well designed and easy to navigate and has all the info for cpu and mem. I'm not sure the mem will work that I have because no recommendation on site for that brand. I checked g-skill but no way to link mobo with mem. Poor site design. I came to the conclusion no reason to overclock. Seems if you buy DDR3 1600 your intentions are to overclock and to make them work you have to overclock. so CORSAIR XMS3 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model TW3X4G1333C9 - Retail
