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[PeterS]

I'm having a go at building my own PC. One that I can use as a home theater / multimedia PC, but will also be my main work-at-home/goof off machine. I have most of the components I want (with a few left to get), but I'm curious as to what other MJ/MC users have or recommend.

This is what I have:

CASE: TTGI Black Aluminum Case
MOTHERBOARD: Intel D845EPT2
CPU: Intel PENTIUM 4 (2.53 GHz)
RAM: 512MB DDR SDRAM
SOUND CARD: Soundblaster 16
GRAPHICS CARD: None yet
POWER SUPPLY: Antec True Power 430 watts
HARD DRIVE: Western Digital 200GB 7200RPM
OS: XP Pro
MODEM: None
FLOPPY DISK: Sony
CD ROM / DVD ROM: None yet
PC SPEAKERS: None yet
MONITOR: HITACHI SUPER SCAN 811U 21" SVGA

[xen-uno]

Pete,

Your probably not getting many responses cause your driving a Ferrari F40 while many are still in a Pinto (like me ).

My Dell is only a 700,000,000 Hz PIII....but it's driving a few things (SCSI scanner, SCSI 160 10K HD, HP DXL plotter, sweeter than hell ext Yam F1 RW USB drive, vanilla CD-ROM, W2k, and 2 baby grapefruit trees)

In about 6 months though...watch out!
Sony 24" WS monitor, 1 GB+ of RAM, Sony ext DVD drive, ATI AIW video, SCSI (or maybe serial ATA) RAID array, 3GHz P4 (or dual Athlons), and maybe a 3-1/2" floppy drive (though I could go for the 5-1/4" which would hold costs down). This machine will be cherry. But until then....can I borrow yours?

10^-27

PS: Since you don't have a video card, I could lend you one of the ISA Tridents that are laying around here.

[RemyJ]

Pretty good setup (except for the sound card   ).  I've got the same motherboard with a 2.4ghz processor.

CASE: Lian Li PC6002
MOTHERBOARD: Intel D845EPT2
CPU: Intel PENTIUM 4 (2.4 GHz)
RAM: 512MB DDR SDRAM
SOUND CARD: SoundBlaster Audigy 2 Platinum
GRAPHICS CARD: nVidia GeoForce4 MX 440 (overkill for me but I had a spare one)
POWER SUPPLY: (forgot)
HARD DRIVE: Western Digital 120GB 7200RPM 8mb cache
OS: Windows 2000 Server
MODEM: (yeah right)
FLOPPY DISK: (forgot)
CD ROM / DVD ROM: TDK 4800B CD-RW
PC SPEAKERS: Boston Acoustics
MONITOR: Envision 15" LCD  (i don't watch video on it)

I have a separate TV, DVD player and DSS receiver and while the video goes direct, the digital outputs of the DVD and DSS go to the inputs of the Audigy card and I switch between them and MC on this PC.   MC does run on this machine but the music library is actually on a heavy duty file server (in my spare bathroom, no less) connected via gigabit ethernet.  Girder and a Slink-e control everything.

[KingSparta]

A New Mouse Port

[JimH]

He was incompatible with the bus?

Looks very ergonomic, however.

[PeterS]

Xen,
Thanks much for the offer of the video card, but I think I'll hold out til I figure out what I really need--so many decisions!!
For all of you out there who have dog-slow, prehistoric setups, I'd still like to know what you are running.

King,
I like your biocomputing component. It's the way of the future, right?

PeterS

[KingSparta]

>> I'd still like to know what you are running.
I will let you know next month

But i am looking at a 2-each 18 inch flat screen computer, with 1000megs ram, 3.x Ghz

It will need to be the best Nvida Or ATI Video Card

The sound card can be a replacement for that mouse above and a small mouse bongo (for all the non Island People it's Called A "MoBongo")

I already am braking Sue in for the price shock for Operation Code Name "My New Computer"

Asked her for A Tivo Today since i was driving past Best Buy, but she nixed that idea she said i needed to wait a week or so. So thats when I need to ask her again (New Handle: KingPWhipedSparta)

[grahamk]

I am running a shuttle ss51G  with a celeron 1.8 Ghz CPU. I'm not too happy with the CPU to be honest. I really like the shuttle case, it is very small and it is also very quiet.

Question regarding soundcards - do the expensive ones like audigy platinum and the like get rid of the annoying interference noise from other components? I have a soundblaster live PCI card and onboard AC97 sound modules, both of them produce some noise, but the Soundblaster (to my suprise) is far noisier that the onboard. It also produces a lot more hiss.

Both of them produce noise that is inaudible unless you really turn up the volume, but any noise at all bothers me. Will a better  soundcard reduce electrical noise, or is it more a combination of the motherboard and internal devices?


Graham

[RemyJ]

The motherboard and other devices can play a part in sound card noise (especially if the sound card is sharing an interrupt with something else) but the card itself is probably the biggest contributor.  My Audigy 2 is quieter than any stereo setup I've ever owned including the top-of-the-line home theater setup I had a few years ago.   With the master and headphone volumes cranked there's a barely perceptable hiss and nothing that happens on the computer leaks through.   With the volumes just slightly off their maxes, I can plug the headphones in and out and not hear a difference at all.

[grahamk]

My computer has spdif outputs - so out of curiosity I took the computer to a relatives house that has a preamp with spdif inputs. The sound was perfect with no noise whatsoever. Problem is that my preamp doesn't have any spdif inputs and buying a new one is out of the question.

Does anyone know of an inexpensive spdif (optical) -> analog converter?

Graham

[xen-uno]

Do a google search on DAC's (Digital to Analog Converters). They can get REAL expensive but surely there's something affordable out there.

I'm interested to know how many far you can go (in linear cable feet) with coaxial (RG-6) SP/DIF before needing a line amp of some type. Anybody?

10^-27