Reply With QuoteMedia pcs arnt made for gaming. You should get a gaming pc and use it the other way round. Alternarively use a ps3 ps3 is simple to use and can stream from any pc easily
Well I have approximately 2tb of movies since ripping my hddvd/DVD collection and selling the hard copies on in an attempt to de-clutter for my pending move into my first home and make some additional cash.
So now I have all these movies and my huge iTunes library I want to combine them into a htpc. (home theatre personal computer).
In a nut shell I want to fully embrace the digital age!
If I get one though I want it to be good enough to run current pc games and be future proof for a couple of years and run emulators( sega saturn, psx, gamecube) etc as well as be used for general use such as word processing and surfing the web for porn.
Can anyone envisage any reason why a htpc won't be a good option for gaming and general use via a pretty standard hd ready 32 inch samsung tv?
Does anyone have one? Know of any ultra cheap places for components? I'm pretty confident I could build it.
Media pcs arnt made for gaming. You should get a gaming pc and use it the other way round. Alternarively use a ps3 ps3 is simple to use and can stream from any pc easily
Indeed, if you buy a HTPC ready built then it isnt ideal for gaming. However i will be creating my own spec.Originally Posted by Mawbster
A PS3 cant do all that I want the HTPC to do. Thats a no go.
If your building it yourslef Then you need to look at the games your going to play and what sopecifications your going to want also look at the amount of money your going to spend.
Spend as much as you can on graphics and memory. a decent processor and decent motherboard.
Motherboards Dont go expensive "gigabyte" and others are expensive but good boards but have a habit of blowing capacitors under heavy load and warrenty repairs cost you money.
Asus and asrock although cheap have been the best motherboards i have had.
Memory I find kingston hyperx the best so far - With its integral heatsinks i havnt had any problems with
Choose weather you want ati or nvidia grapics and match the motherboard up according to the graphics you buy.
Forget about it being a media pc. Focus on the gaming. Media is a doddle really. Windows does media and all your buying in a media pc is a silly name with low spec.
Consider a HD Monitor not a tv. Connections are better giving a better overall quality.
However if do you want large then a tv will be the only way to go as large 30+ monitors cost in excess of 1000+
64 bit computers have some problems with some 32 bit programs. SOme emulators really are to slow for modern day computers.
Consider partitioning a drive and installing a duel operating system if you want to really run oldy games. Its better than trying to emulate windows xp in windows 7 it dosnt work all that well.
Agreed with mawbster completely, build a gaming pc. Personally i've used nearly every brand motherboard possible! Asus Asrock intel and gigabyte all do good motherboards. I'd stick to intel processors best overall functionality.
Dont scrape on processor or graphics card, research research research and look at reviews see whats best.
Memory get atleast 4GB minimum this is ample enough for a decent build.
Buy a powerful PSU dont stick to the **** one you might get in a case, look at the motherboard and gpu consumption and go about 20% usually 750watt+ should do the trick.
Keep it cool, get a well designed case lots of small fans dotted around everywhere, get a good quality processor fan and some good thermal compound dont stick with sticky pads there shite and dont work... i recommend arctic silver 5 its brilliant!
HDD you want to get fast rpm and read/write speeds again research this to determine what you'd want from it. Stay clear from cheap HDD u get what you pay for personally i wouldnt buy maxator hdd used to get alot of faulty ones in the past i find seagate to be the most reliable.
With regards to televisions and pc outputs a normal 720p hd tv will work best with regards to refresh rates with the computer and as well it saves a bit of cash as 720p are generally cheaper, but do your research i prefer samsung always will, due to superior build quality.
Dual boot windows 7 and x64 windows xp that should run everything you'd need however windows 7 has lots of backwards compatability options you should be fine
Personally when i do PC repairs i always go to www.ebuyer.com but for gaming components and high spec shite i always go overclockers its expensive but usually has the better stuff (find it on there and see if ebuyer has it) as there service is much better and standard eBay.
anything else bothering u mate gimme a pm
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