Building a new pc

[jerry]

I am going to build a new pc for my wife and I have some questions
about some of the newer technology.

I am planning on using thses parts (at least for the present)

MB: MSI p35 neo2-fr
cpu: intel core2 quad q6600
memory patriot 4 gb ddr2/800
Video card: HIS radeon hd 2600xt isilence
or
asus radeon hd 3870

This rig is not for gaming but photos, videos, dvds, and the usual
stuff.

From what i can make out from the literature the mb has pci express
16x 1.0, not 2.0. Does that control what kind of video card I install?
Will a 1.0 or 2.0 PCIe video card work equally well?

Thanks for any info.

Jerry

 

[Paul]

I am going to build a new pc for my wife and I have some questions
about some of the newer technology.

I am planning on using thses parts (at least for the present)

MB: MSI p35 neo2-fr
cpu: intel core2 quad q6600
memory patriot 4 gb ddr2/800
Video card: HIS radeon hd 2600xt isilence
or
asus radeon hd 3870

This rig is not for gaming but photos, videos, dvds, and the usual
stuff.

From what i can make out from the literature the mb has pci express
16x 1.0, not 2.0. Does that control what kind of video card I install?
Will a 1.0 or 2.0 PCIe video card work equally well?

Thanks for any info.

Jerry

The difference between PCI Express 1.0 and PCI Express 2.0, in
a non-gaming scenario, would be invisible. Even in a gaming
case, I haven't seen any articles comparing the performance.
We're talking about the difference between 4GB/sec and 8GB/sec
bidirectional. And it is unclear to me, whether in all
cases, the memory subsystem, could actually handle 8GB/sec
from the PCI Express slot, without some throttling
of the peak PCI Express performance.

The two standards are supposed to be backward compatible.
So a PCI Express 2 component, has to be able to operate
at PCI Express 1 rates. (In the same way you can mix SATA 300
and SATA 150 stuff, with about the same number of exceptions.)
There was a tiny initial problem, with a PCI Express 2 card
like the 8800GT, which was fixed by using a video card BIOS
flash load that forced the GPU to operate its interface at
PCI Express 1 rates. That should be fixed for other cards
now on the market.

For "photos, videos, dvds, and the usual stuff", perhaps a
video card with a video processor feature would be something
to look for. Some of the highest end gaming cards, have that
disabled, and when a video is played back, it uses a brute
force (CPU based) method. Since you're going with a
quad processor, perhaps that is a non issue. What I'd be
searching for, is a video card that does the job, but doesn't
suck a lot of power while doing it. You have enough horsepower
in the box, that the decision isn't quite as critical as someone
building an HTPC with a wimpy CPU choice.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unified_Video_Decoder
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NVIDIA_PureVideo

http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3047&p=6&cp=5

The lower CPU utilization shown in that article and similar
ones, relies on media playback software that supports the
hardware. The drivers provided with the card, don't arbitrarily
speed up all video playback. The playback program has to
know about the hardware feature, to gain an advantage. The
review articles will rely on a couple major software products,
for evaluation of the video card based acceleration of video
playback. So that might represent an extra cost.

Other than that, going up the gaming card curve would probably
not buy you anything. If you were running Vista Aero, then
perhaps a bit of 3D performance wouldn't hurt, but buying a
GTX280 for your wife would be rather pointless.

For power consumption numbers, you can get them from Xbitlabs.com .

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/video/display/radeon-hd2600xt-gddr4_5.html

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/video/display/gigabyte-radeonhd3870-3850_5.html

Paul

 

[John Doe]

I am going to build a new pc for my wife and I have some questions
about some of the newer technology.

I am planning on using thses parts (at least for the present)

MB: MSI p35 neo2-fr

Be prepared for an eight pin CPU power connector.

cpu: intel core2 quad q6600
memory patriot 4 gb ddr2/800

Sounds good to me.
Stick with Windows XP unless you have a special need for Vista,
especially if you already have a copy of XP.

Video card: HIS radeon hd 2600xt isilence or asus radeon hd 3870

Remember to plug the video card directly to the power supply, if it
has that auxiliary power plug.

 

[jerry]

Be prepared for an eight pin CPU power connector.


Sounds good to me.
Stick with Windows XP unless you have a special need for Vista,
especially if you already have a copy of XP.


Remember to plug the video card directly to the power supply, if it
has that auxiliary power plug.

Thanks for the response

 

[jaster]

I am going to build a new pc for my wife and I have some questions about
some of the newer technology.

I am planning on using thses parts (at least for the present)

MB: MSI p35 neo2-fr
cpu: intel core2 quad q6600
memory patriot 4 gb ddr2/800
Video card: HIS radeon hd 2600xt isilence
or
asus radeon hd 3870

This rig is not for gaming but photos, videos, dvds, and the usual
stuff.

From what i can make out from the literature the mb has pci express 16x
1.0, not 2.0. Does that control what kind of video card I install? Will
a 1.0 or 2.0 PCIe video card work equally well?

Thanks for any info.

Jerry

Sounds like a waste of cash when you could buy a complete PC with Vista
installed plus a warranty for about the cost of components.

What matters to your wife will be the software for videos, photos and
dvds. Unless she's going to use extensive Adobe CS3 photo editing with
graphics she will just need a PC that delivers smooth HD quality video.

 

[jerry]

Sounds like a waste of cash when you could buy a complete PC with Vista  
installed plus a warranty for about the cost of components.  

What matters to your wife will be the software for videos, photos and
dvds.  Unless she's going to use extensive Adobe CS3 photo editing with
graphics she will just need a PC that delivers smooth HD quality video.  

Jaster:
Thanks for your response but I have a different point of view.

I COULD spend less money for a crappy pc with an OS that has a lot of
problems, but I would prefer to spend the same or more on parts that I
can identify that are quality and that i can repair/upgrade with
little problem. She also uses it for a dvr so I have to be sure the tv
tuner card will fit. I have worked with the compaqs, dells, and hps,
and found them to be a royal pain in the ass to work with due to their
propietary parts, poor layout, and next to impossible to upgrade, or
even find replacement parts.

I mean no disrespect to you and I hope you are very happy with your
way of doing things.

Jerry

 

[Ed Medlin]

Sounds like a waste of cash when you could buy a complete PC with Vista

installed plus a warranty for about the cost of components.

What matters to your wife will be the software for videos, photos and
dvds. Unless she's going to use extensive Adobe CS3 photo editing with
graphics she will just need a PC that delivers smooth HD quality video.

Jaster:
Thanks for your response but I have a different point of view.

I COULD spend less money for a crappy pc with an OS that has a lot of
problems, but I would prefer to spend the same or more on parts that I
can identify that are quality and that i can repair/upgrade with
little problem. She also uses it for a dvr so I have to be sure the tv
tuner card will fit. I have worked with the compaqs, dells, and hps,
and found them to be a royal pain in the ass to work with due to their
propietary parts, poor layout, and next to impossible to upgrade, or
even find replacement parts.

I mean no disrespect to you and I hope you are very happy with your
way of doing things.

Jerry

I think jaster was just making a point that you 'could' do that. You build
your own for the same reasons I do. I like to customize my build to do what
I want it to do and not depend on a mass-manufactured machine. I also want
components to be the brands 'I' want not what they think I want. For what
you are building, it will only be a couple hundred bucks over what an
off-the-shelf system would cost and you get what you want.


Ed

 

[jerry]

Jaster:
Thanks for your response but I have a different point of view.

I COULD spend less money for a crappy pc with an OS that has a lot of
problems, but I would prefer to spend the same or more on parts that I
can identify that are quality and that i can repair/upgrade with
little problem. She also uses it for a dvr so I have to be sure the tv
tuner card will fit. I have worked with the compaqs, dells, and hps,
and found them to be a royal pain in the ass to work with due to their
propietary parts, poor layout, and next to impossible to upgrade, or
even find replacement parts.

I mean no disrespect to you and I hope you are very happy with your
way of doing things.

Jerry

I think jaster was just making a point that you 'could' do that. You build
your own for the same reasons I do. I like to customize my build to do what
I want it to do and not depend on a mass-manufactured machine. I also want
components to be the brands 'I' want not what they think I want. For what
you are building, it will only be a couple hundred bucks over what an
off-the-shelf system would cost and you get what you want.

Ed

Exactly Ed. You said it better than I did.

Jerry

 

[jaster]

Jaster:
Thanks for your response but I have a different point of view.

I COULD spend less money for a crappy pc with an OS that has a lot of
problems, but I would prefer to spend the same or more on parts that I
can identify that are quality and that i can repair/upgrade with little
problem. She also uses it for a dvr so I have to be sure the tv tuner
card will fit. I have worked with the compaqs, dells, and hps, and found
them to be a royal pain in the ass to work with due to their propietary
parts, poor layout, and next to impossible to upgrade, or even find
replacement parts.

I mean no disrespect to you and I hope you are very happy with your way
of doing things.

Jerry

No disrespect felt. Ed is correct I was offering an alternative. In
20yrs I've bought 3 pre-builts, the last pre-built PC I bought was 12yrs
ago from a local. Since then I've done nothing but DIY upgrades, and
build lesser PCs from left-over parts.

You can certainly DIY, and without argument HP and Dell were (and may
still be) proprietary. However, my suggestion was rather than build a
new PC to just install a TV tuner there might be a pre-built that you can
buy and still install the TV tuner for a comparable price.

It doesn't need to be a Dell or HP but should be from good vendor. Years
ago, the company where I worked canceled a Dell purchase order to buy
from a West Coast vendor that delivered higher powered, fully loaded PCs
and monitors, earlier and much cheaper than Dell. We never had a problem
with those PCs.

The only argument I have in favor of Vista is that its Home Premium
Edition is designed for multimedia, and except that Vista is lame for
gamers I don't know why it wouldn't work in pre-built PCs that have 1yr
warranty.

 

[Ed Medlin]

No disrespect felt. Ed is correct I was offering an alternative. In

20yrs I've bought 3 pre-builts, the last pre-built PC I bought was 12yrs
ago from a local. Since then I've done nothing but DIY upgrades, and
build lesser PCs from left-over parts.

You can certainly DIY, and without argument HP and Dell were (and may
still be) proprietary. However, my suggestion was rather than build a
new PC to just install a TV tuner there might be a pre-built that you can
buy and still install the TV tuner for a comparable price.

It doesn't need to be a Dell or HP but should be from good vendor. Years
ago, the company where I worked canceled a Dell purchase order to buy
from a West Coast vendor that delivered higher powered, fully loaded PCs
and monitors, earlier and much cheaper than Dell. We never had a problem
with those PCs.

The only argument I have in favor of Vista is that its Home Premium
Edition is designed for multimedia, and except that Vista is lame for
gamers I don't know why it wouldn't work in pre-built PCs that have 1yr
warranty.

I have Vista Ultimate sitting on my shelf and am running XP Pro at the
moment. I just networked my Directv HR20 for Video-on-Demand and now would
like to serve my music and photos to the unit. I have had no luck in XP
getting it done. Supposedly, Vista and it's media center act as a server and
will do it easily.......at least that is what I have read in several forums.
I have already made a Vista partition and am still debating on dual booting.
I will have to keep XP because of several apps I really need do not play
well with Vista.


Ed

 

[jaster]

I have Vista Ultimate sitting on my shelf and am running XP Pro at the
moment. I just networked my Directv HR20 for Video-on-Demand and now
would like to serve my music and photos to the unit. I have had no luck
in XP getting it done. Supposedly, Vista and it's media center act as a
server and will do it easily.......at least that is what I have read in
several forums. I have already made a Vista partition and am still
debating on dual booting. I will have to keep XP because of several apps
I really need do not play well with Vista.


Ed

Yeah, Vista it's like a Win98ME release. IMHO, many of us are waiting for
something better than Vista.

Good for you Sounds great!
So, how did you network the DirecTV DVR? Will you be able save to PC
from DVR and/or serve from PC to DVR?