Dear Esteemed contributors,
Looks like I might change course AGAIN, in my pc build direction, having read Tom's review of AMD's New 780G Chipset and in particular the objective of building an HTPC.
This may be all that I need for now.
But coz' I am not very astute when it comes to all this I need some help. Lead this horse to water !!
The review is here:
http://www.tomshardware.com/2008/03/..._780g_chipset/
I like the idea of low power consumption and the ability to slip this into a slim, quiet case.
I have some questions though, whose answer's were not obvious to me in his review. Tom talks about a "Basic configuration for an HTPC", but does not go on to suggest a "Best or optimum" setup.
The setup seems to suggest:
MOBO
Gigabyte's GA-MA78GM-SH2
He says that this MOBO cannot drive two monitors. And goes on to say that
to do this you need to get ATI's HD3450 as an add-in. With this you can drive 4 monitors (not that I really want to - but who knows !).
Question: He goes on to talk a lot about the add-on HD3450 - is this desirable as an extra, should I be getting this from the get-go (or would I go for the "basic" then add-on later).
On the same subject, I see that there is a 512MB version of this card and a 256MB version. Which would you get and why ?
CPU
He seems to suggest waiting for the Athlon X2 4850e to come out in the "next few weeks". Is this right ? - this has a feature called "quiet and cool" - which sounds like something I would like.
Is this the right way to go in terms of CPU ?
USB ports:
He says of the SB700
"The most important improvements present in the SB700 are the inclusion of S-ATA 300 as well as 14 USB ports. Of the USB ports, 12 support USB 2.0, while two are USB 1.0 compliant for use with mice or keyboards"
What does this mean, does this mean that you could have 12 USB 2.0 ports.? (How would you get these ? I don't see 12 on the MOBO. Sorry for being thick.)
Case:
He recommends Hiper. What would you recommend ? Sleek and quiet (colling suggestion ??).
RAM:
He seems to suggest 2GB RAM, but can this take more ? Is it not best to max out. Does this affect the temperature ?
TUNER
Tom mentions nothing about a Tuner. Does this thing take a Tuner ? Is so what tuner would you put in ?
So in summary we are talking :
MOBO
Gigabyte's GA-MA78GM-SH2 - $99
CPU
AMD Athlon X2 BE-2350 - $90
(but better to wait till 4850e is released ??)
RAM
G.SKILL 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) - $45
Blu-Ray rom
LITE-ON Black DH-4O1S-11 - $140
HDD
Seagate 7200.10 500GB - $110
Totals less than $500 without
a) additional Video card
b) tuner
c) case
I know there are lots of questions here in a random order. but I would be really grateful for some help.
Thanks.