Advice for Home Entertainment Centre PC project..look in if u know the PC parts!!!

[DjSwift]

Hello all

Basically I need to make a PC for a project.

Last year I used a shuttle using the best parts available.

This PC system will have to be good on graphics etc.
The budget last year came to like £2500 but was worth it.

Can Someone recommend me all the parts (best on the market) that i need for making this super computer.

DJ

[Elaine]

Does it have to be able to do anything in particular, or just be top of the line? The more information you give us, the better we can advise you.

[smokafatty]

I think the best memory available (at least till ddr2 comes out) would be:

Corsair XMS4400 or if you are also going for looks the XMS4000pro series has led's built in.

I would go with nothing less that 2 gigs for a super computer ;)

[Mr Snatcher]

Best processor = AMD 64 FX-53
Mobo = Asus SK8N
Memory = Corsair XMS
Video card = ATI Radeon 9800XT
Hard Drive = Western Digital Raptor SATA 10,000rpm (I think they have 72gb)

Hope I am not missing anything

[xdeity]

i would go with a amd 64 fx 53 with an asus sk8n or sk8v. couple this with a gig or two of decent ddr, an nvidia 5950, and a couple of maxtor or w/d or if you want the best hitachi or samsung hard drives, and you would have a most excellent system

[DjSwift]

Keep it coming people :)

I will post more info as i am going to read what is needed for the project :)

This is great. If u could give an explantion of why particular parts are necessary then it would help further:)

Ill will post back with more details, then We will pick the best to form one nice computer.

Any nice stuff like shuttle casings around ?

DJ

[Littlejack]

Well for a supercomputer i'd say you can save some cash, as it obviously won't require any M$ products :)

[Neo]

I'd ditch the AMD based CPU and go for the P4 3.4 Extreme Edition with 2 MB cache. It beats out the AMD.

[smokafatty]

This may be one of the best pc cases at the moment but its $1400 :eek:

http://www4.tomshardware.com/howto/20040115/

[marts3072]

best cpu isnt the athlon 64 look here on toms hardware, they review everything against each other. I just got a radeon 9800xt and they certainly are the best out there!

gfx cards http://www6.tomshardware.com/graphic/20031229/vga-charts-03.html

cpus http://www6.tomshardware.com/cpu/20031223/cpu-guide-14.html

mobos http://www6.tomshardware.com/motherboard/index.html

:wavey: :wavey: :wavey:

[celtic_druid]

Surely for a super computer you would want more than one CPU?

[Littlejack]

Good ponit celtic, this whole topic is dependant on how a super computer is rated, whats the capabilities of the system, a fast cpu and great graphics do not make for a super computer, if all it does is play games.
One of the best computers around is used by millions of people everyday, has poor graphics and is used everywhere - even in the design stages of other computers, but the life of a calculator is a whole other story. :)

[Mr Snatcher]

Can someone, please tell me how the Athlon 64 fx-53 isnt the best for a single cpu? Considering the P4EE was made for gamers, The 64fx sure beats it in the test results that I've seen. Likes the P4EE beats it in video encoding and thats about it.

[celtic_druid]

I'm thinking something more like this: http://www.amdboard.com/tyan_s4880_opteron_board.html

Four CPU's... Now we are getting close.

[Mr Snatcher]

Are you kidding!!! that isnt any faster than the 2 cyrix processors welded together that Freemer suggested to do :laugh:

Anyway, damn try slowing that down! I would like to see the cost of that.

[celtic_druid]

I'm thinking that someone would have to disable the word filter so that I could describe accuratly just how much it would cost.

[Virgin San]

I'm wondering how a $1400 case will help the performance of the machine :eek:

I bet Bill Gates uses one of these ... actually, he's probably a Mac user :laugh:

[Mr Snatcher]

I bet Bill Gates uses one of these ... actually, he's probably a Mac user :laugh:
:laugh: :t_up:

[smokafatty]

I'm wondering how a $1400 case will help the performance of the machine :eek:

I bet Bill Gates uses one of these ... actually, he's probably a Mac user :laugh:Nice contribution to the topic San http://instagiber.net/smiliesdotcom/cwm/cwm/puke.gif

Of course nobody is going to buy that I was just trying to give him some ideas, you should try it sometime.

[Nuttapper]

most peeps here are restricting themselves to current standards and surroundings
ie the case, if it were a "super computor" why not think outside of the box, why couldn't you have a case "designed" that would hold multiple MoBos P4 and AMD's running side by side, a dual graphics card running two monitors, one for gaming and one for serious stuff via a switching box, internal networking for file sharing and storage..

Food for thought

[DjSwift]

wow im pretty lost at this one...lol.

Here is an update.

It should be a "Home Entertainment Centre" The main applications may include watching TV, playback of DVDs and CD's, storage and playback of pictures, Audio or Video Files, Games Playing. The system should be designed for a living room rather than an Office or Bedroom.

There are so many responses from what i read above!! of course thats good, but im a little lost.

Umm in order to find the best how will i do this..lol

Anyways i will properly analyze it tonight and try to post something constructive of what i make out of the thread and maybe people can guide me into buying the specific parts etc.

DJ

[smokafatty]

If you are going to have it in a living room you'll want to make sure its quiet. For what you described it seems a supercomputer would be overkill. Heres just some suggestions to get you started.

CPU: P4 3.0, 3.2, or 3.4 which ever you can afford
Memory: Corsair xms 1024 pc4000 (512 x 2)
Motherboard: High end Asus or Abit
Hdd: I would suggest staying with IDE since you will probably want alot of storage
Video card: All In Wonder Radeon 9600 or 9800
Sound card: you might want to get an audigy or something nice.
Case: really hard to say, might want to go with watercooling to keep the noise down but if you aren't going to overclock then it would probably be overkill.
Monitor: Maybe a smaller 7" lcd? That way it wouldn't stand out in a living room and you'll still be able to use the tv for gaming.

I dunno, thats just what I would do but you really have alot of options it just comes down to how much you want to spend.

[Nuttapper]

Quote: "It should be a "Home Entertainment Centre" The main applications may include watching TV, playback of DVDs and CD's, storage and playback of pictures, Audio or Video Files, Games Playing. The system should be designed for a living room rather than an Office or Bedroom. "Un-quote"

Supa computer LOL

[DjSwift]

Quote: "It should be a "Home Entertainment Centre" The main applications may include watching TV, playback of DVDs and CD's, storage and playback of pictures, Audio or Video Files, Games Playing. The system should be designed for a living room rather than an Office or Bedroom. "Un-quote"

Supa computer LOL
Hmmm, Look im no expert at this, and me thinking its a great computer, so maybe it isnt a super computer, not for rocket science or anything!!

Im just asking for a little help mate :) so i can build this project. Of course it aint me to assemble, but i have to produce report plus find out the place where to buy etc:)

regards
DJ

[Nuttapper]

Take it easy DjSwift...., at first you said you needed to make a computor for a project, and now your saying you just need to compile the report on a fictional creation based upon parts, your initial title suggested you were about to build a high spec machine, I think others that posted may have thought the same thing? A standard off the shelf PC will do all your project is asking M8, just paint a nice pic on the case and hang it from a wall, should fit nicely into a living room environment :) only spoofin M8 good luck :beer:

[DjSwift]

Well i heard it had to be a high spec PC!!

So i thought it was gonna be a high tech one..
Im so sorry if i got it wrong!

But i did say i was gonna post more details about it further on.

Its not fictional and the cost doesnt really matter. even if reaches a few K

The last one with the shuttle came to £2.5k and it was the best thing thx to cdrom-guide.

Now i have been asked to redo another.

I do need to get the parts etc. I have no idea how to assemble so i have someone to do that for me!! And also i have to report what parts i have used etc and different benifits!

I appreciate different peoples ideas, but i want something custom not "standard off the shelf"

Isnt it a high spec machine that is going to be built??

Likewise i gave the wrong idea by saying supercomputer (which is something really powerful!!) but i made it clear.. and u r right nuttapper. But i have explained what i want :) Would u recommend any top spec parts? I heard that Radeon ATI would bethe best for graphics. I was wondering about an AMD processor. Sound card.. im not sure.

But someone suggested a small LCD which seems interesting :)

Another idea was to use the TV as the screen which is a very good idea especially for being in th living room.

If anyone else wants to help please do :)

A few grand worth of nice equipment would be nice :)
(not for me unfortunately)!!

DJ

p.s if any of u saw the cebit report on BBC yesterday, it was very intersting!!

[DjSwift]

Any nice casings around ? that could look good :D

DJ

[smokafatty]

Cases are pretty much all the same. If you want something really unique you could turn this (http://www.xoxide.com/ufo.html) case into an endtable. Or if you want something that isn't flashy but top quality you could check out this (http://www.xoxide.com/lianlipc6070.html).

A link for the small monitor I suggested is here (http://www.mp3playerstore.com/stuff_you_need/special/IN-777.htm)

[DjSwift]

Now thats funky!!

any mods think i should repost this thread with appropriate title ??

SInce the supercomputer thing kinda misled things :) (cheers nuttytapper)

DJ

[celtic_druid]

Title changed.

[DjSwift]

ANyone recommend me a graphics card with would be nice and have TV etc?

Hauppage i hear?

Or could it be ATI

[smokafatty]

I've always been a fan of ATI. If you get an all-in-wonder video card and an ati pci tv tuner you can get picture-in-picture which would be pretty cool.

[DjSwift]

well what would be great if i could actually play DVDs and out to big screen and also audio outputting to speakers placed around living room etc:)

Thats would be a great home entertainment system

Any good sound cards (sound processing dolby digital maybe ?)?

[marts3072]

go to tomshardware and search for each component in each category. They review everything and do benchmarks too

[Neo]

Can someone, please tell me how the Athlon 64 fx-53 isnt the best for a single cpu? Considering the P4EE was made for gamers, The 64fx sure beats it in the test results that I've seen. Likes the P4EE beats it in video encoding and thats about it.

The athlon 64 fx53 is also marketed for gamers.