HCPC and Motherboards

Walter mitty

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Hi,

I`m about to build my very 1st PC for my home cinema, I feel I understand most of the stuff but I `m a bit confused when it comes to the motherboard and which one to go for.

Can any one give me any ideas what I should be looking for, I understand the slot type and ram type and ATX etc..etc.

Apart from the onboard ones they all seem the same to me.....

Thanks
 
Not sure what you're after really as you sound like you have it sussed, but apart from DDR/RAMBUS etc, then two things you didn't mention are USB 2.0 - which is a must IMO - and if you can find any motherboards that support AGPx8 then you're rocking, but AGPx4 great too as far as I'm concerned. Make sure the mobo supports lots of free slots too for upgradeability :)
 
Thank you my friend
 
It can also depend on what you're going to use it for - if it's just for dvd playback, then you don't need anything cutting edge or expensive.

£250 will build you a Radeon equipped pc which will give you excellent dvd playback and full digital surround.

Gary.
 
I bought a GIGABYTE with x8 AGP. Bought DDR ram. And it's fantastic.
Clear instructions for fitting as well :).

Cheers

C
 
For HTPC use it's very hard to beat the TUSL2/Tualatin combo, stable as a rock, low heat/noise. It still perfoms very well, using Zoomplayer and Sonic decoders and XP(DXVA) I average about 12% cpu usage (total).
 
what would something like descaler be like on a system like this jeff? in terms of cpu usage etc:D
 
Your fine unless you use tomsmocomp and addaptive noise filtering together. Although I'm not sure if this has been put down as an issue with Dscaler rather than hardware limitation.
 
I bought a GIGABYTE with x8 AGP. Bought DDR ram. And it's fantastic.

I can second that. I've built my pc, although it's now not HCPC, and the Gigabyte mobo is fantastic. You could do it with your eyes shut. I bought the GA-7VAXP at £91, AMD not Intel.

http://uk.giga-byte.com/
 
Thanks,

I didn`t realise how hard it would be to decide on a mother board, I`m only going to use it for HCPC and so long as it will fire up my flight simm 2000 I`ll be happy.

It`s a real headache coz I wouldnt mind putting the motherboard in this machine into my HCPC since it`s only a 1gig but think I may have to format my hard drive to do so is this true?

I really am a 1st time builder but I do have a friend close by who has a computer business on hand to help, I`m going to do my damdest not to call him though.

Also does anyone know if the onboard 5.1 is any good as a dealer today told me they were as 5.1 is 5.1? i`m not so sure?

I will be building it in the LMP case I have won so will post my progress if anyones interested.
 
I was a first timer too.

Purely from 'my' point of view, these are just some of the best sites I used to find things out or buy from -

www.dogpile.com - excellent tech. search engine
www.komplett.co.uk
www.computerprices.co.uk
www.overclockers.co.uk
www.kustompcs.co.uk
www.crucial.com/uk
www.motherboards.org - excellent site
www.bootdisk.com - handy to know about

You probably know of at least these sites, just thought I'd mention them.

Don't forget to immerse yourself in the monthly pc mags that litter the newsagents shelves. Great source of info.

Have fun.
 
For my HCPC I went the cheap route - AMD with an ECS K7S5A motherboard. However, it would seem that the Intel route is easier to cool and keep quiet, so that may be worth doing.

Re swapping motherboards out. I think that the problem (particularly with Win2000/NT) is that if you put your existing hard disc onto a new motherboard, then unless the chipset is the same as the old mobo, then the OS will grumble and not boot. You might be able to get around this by installing the drivers for the new mobo beforehand, but I'm not sure about that. As you say, a 1 Gig processor would be fine for HCPC, so it seems a good opportunity to upgrade your current PC. Would a reinstall of everything be such a bad idea? Grief, I know.

As far as other stuff is concerned, then go for quality memory - crucual memory (link posted above) is well regarded, and not much more expensive than the generic stuff.

5.1 - I would avoid the onboard stuff, really. See posts about the acoustic edge - looks a good bet.

Video - I'm sure you know that the smart money seems to be on the Radeons. If you're going to play games too, look around for recommendations on the best version for the job - the 7xxx series are pants in that regard, but I think the 9xxx are good - must admit to not having taken much notice on that aspect - I went cheap 7000, and it works a treat for DVD.
 
Walter,

You'll need to ensure your chosen motherboard's I/O panel (mouse, keyboard, USB, LAN ports etc.) is compatable with your new LMP case.

Currently available compatible full size ATX boards you may wish to consider include the Asus P4S533-E (Intel) or the latest nforce2 board from Leadtek K7NCR18D-Pro (AMD). If you don't need many PCI slots then I can recommend the Asus A7N266-VM (AMD) microATX board which is excellent value for money.

Regards, Phil
 
Like RichardH, I too have an ECS K7S5A and a Radeon VE (7000)but with a 950 Duron and a cheap 5.1 soundcard. It cost me about £45 to make it quiet.

It works fine for DVDs, and with DScaler 3.1 - I haven't yet properly tried 4 so I can't say if it's any more cpu hungry than before, but it never dropped any frames.

Gary.
 
Thanks to all of you, I think I`m ready to purchase now.....huh..

I`ve decided to transfer all this Pc`s components into my New LMP case.......which incidently is gorgous...and add a new 5.1 sound card with optical out, this way hopefully it will work when I fire it up...we`ll see?

Then this Pc will be bare so I`ll put all my new gear in this one mainly because I can upgrade it with a faster processer and ram, etc, etc.

I would have liked to have kept this hard drive in this Pc but I dont want to lose everything on it and so I`m going to transfer it over....pity but I `m not sure how to without going to great lengths of Ghosting, so it`ll just be harder to get my programs working on here again.

Any way see you all soon if I`m succesful thanks again
 
Have a look at the Sonic Fury range. They do a Audio DVD card with optical in/out.
Pretty cheap..Have yet to read a review though.

Ta
C
 

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