Rate my new Media Centre PC I built :)

[geon106]

So basically you mean by buying 2 cards, instead of 1, i can have 1 for watching and 1 for recording? hmm. Thats certainly put it into a different perspective lol. I'm gonna consider that. Thanks

 

[alvino]

It should be okay. Personally, I think you should use a dual-core for Media Center, but it's your HTPC. The video card is fine, as media doesn't rely too heavily on the GPU.

EDIT>>> Unless you have an external HDD or a NAS drive, you should get a bigger hard drive.

 

[geon106]

It should be okay. Personally, I think you should use a dual-core for Media Center, but it's your HTPC. The video card is fine, as media doesn't rely too heavily on the GPU.

EDIT>>> Unless you have an external HDD or a NAS drive, you should get a bigger hard drive.

Well I technically don't use Media Center lol I'm just using XP Pro which i've customised lol.

I will certainly upgrade my hard drive at some point. I do have another hard drive which is 120GB but i can't be bothered to restore my system as i've got it how i want it. but I was gonna try and piggy-back the drives but then realised that that would mean dual booting. So i'd rather just leave the 80GB drive in for now and have some of my larger media files and my large MP3 collection on my other computer.

 

[drumthrasher]

ok the only thing i hate, is the cpu. SEMPRONS ARE THE WORST THINGS IVE EVER SEEN!!!!! how much did u pay? my gateway is better and it was only $739 w/ a 19" lcd & AIO printer/scanner etc.

 

[geon106]

I built mine for just under £400 a year ago, altho back then I was using it as a LAN computer rather than a HTPC.

I quite like Semprons, as far as budget CPU's go they're very reliable and nice, not to mention they're the old Athlon XP processors. And compared to Intel's budget CPU, the shitty Celeron, the Semprons are a clear lead. Celerons struggle doing any minor task. My Sempron runs games like NFS: Most Wanted/Quake 4/F.E.A.R/Toca Race Driver 2 with no problems


If I had the money i'd go 64Bit but i'm completely skint

 

[drumthrasher]

semprons are crap! celerons are WAY better. my friend has a compaq with a higher class sempron, but with only 256mb of ram, and integrated ati x300se video, and its CRAP! i don't know if its cause the lack of ram, but its CRAP!!!! loading times are VERY Long, you can't even minimize a game without restarting the computer or waiting all day; they are just something i would have. celerons are pretty good i think, but whatever.
whats £400 in us $$. and whats this 'LAN computer' and 'HTPC' stuff...not too sure what that is...

 

[alvino]

My mom uses a Sempron for her work computer and it works fine. You can't really expect a computer with a budget-class CPU, barely enough RAM, and integrated video to do very well with gaming.

 

[drumthrasher]

i know, but still. he plays a lot of pc games, kind of (bf1942, cod2, civIII, & more). it takes forever to turn on, oh well. he only paid 200 or something for it.

 

[alvino]

Haha, yeah. My mom's work computer was one of those $150 Best Quality computers (Fry's Electronics' own brand). Came with a Sempron, 256MB of RAM and VIA integrated video. She could care less because she just uses it for billing and so forth.

 

[geon106]

LAN Computer = A computer used for being taken to LAN gaming partys and events
HTPC = Home Theater Personal Computer, sometimes called MCPC, Media Center PC
£400 in $ is about $600-$700 i think.

That computer spec you said would be crap at gaming, 256Ram is not enough for games and the OS to run(hence why you can't minimise some games) Intergrated graphics and graphics by VIA/Intel/IBM etc are all crap, best to stick with dedicated ATi/nVidia.

AMD Sempron = The old AMD Athlon
Intel Celeron = Budget shitty CPU
Intel Celeron D = The old Pentium III's