Re: OT: Motherboards

["Ian Lowe" <ian@xxxxxxx>]

My thoughts.... :)

> Trying to think about specifications, and I'd appreciate comments on
the
> following spec. This is _not_ someone's offered product, but what I
think
I
> need:
>
> - AMD Athlon 1.3Gz (or 1.5Gz???)
> - 256Mb RAM (or should I go for more???)

Hell yes. Win2K struggles on 128, and sings on 256. I somehow doubt that
Whistler is being designed to use less ;)

> - Abit motherboard with ATA-100 (NON RAID) on board (or should I wait
for
> the dual-Athlon boards to come out???)
> - 20Gb (ish) IBM 7200rpm HDD for the Operating System ONLY
> - 40Gb (ish) IBM 7200rpm HDD for applications (Bear in mind I'll be
running
> a separate server for MP3/DeCSS stuff)

Given the existance of a seperate Server, I would suggest geting a KT133A
board with RAID and buying two IBM Telesto GXP Deskstar 15s. We use these
drives, and they are mindblowingly fast. In a Stripe Set, I would be just
slavvering over them :)

> - 10/100 WOL "el cheapo" NIC

Get a "decent" card: the cost difference is not much: you can get
a Netgear
FA310TX for <£16

> - Region-free(!) DVD player (Any manufacturers I should go for or
avoid???)

I assume you mean drive? All drives are now RPC-2 locked. Have a look at
www.firmware.be to ake sure an RPC Patch is available for the drive you
get.
I have a RICOH 4-way combo which rocks. (12xWrite, 8 re-write, 40x CDR,
4xDVD) You missed any CDR capablity on your spec, which I would not want...

> - nVidia MX2-based 32Mb RAM video-card, with some kind of TV-out for
DVD
> replay (help????)

Nah, MX is the entry level product. it's totally outclassed by the rest of
the system.
As you want a Capture Card, I would go for one of the Asus V7700 Series
with
Vivo.
Thats a DDR Geforce2.

If you play Games Seriously (I run an Unreal Tournament Clan, and have been
ranked as high as 300th in the world, so I *do* mean seriously) you need a
card like this.

> - Creative soundcard, with SP/DIF and _front-panel_ connection plate!

Creative is getting a bad name these days. if you must, the Live 5.1
Platinum is the one to go for.

> - 300W PSU
> - Tower case
> - Some kind of TV capture card for "Tivo-like" things???
>
>
> And for the convergence requirements....
>
> - For local replay, ie games soundtracks, I'll be running the sound
out
> through my "study system" which is a Quad 406/44 pair
driving Rogers LS4a
> speakers
>
> - I'd probably want to run the set of DVD's that are ripped to the
_server_
> hard disk (all of which I own on DVD!!!!) to play through in the
bedroom
as
> follows.
>
> - Files ripped, de-CSSed, and stored on the server. Replayed on the
"new
> PC", using 10switched -BaseT for the data stream. IS THIS
VIABLE???

Its very difficult. If you are willing to invest the time learning to rip
DVDs properly (its not point and clikc just yet !) it is viable.

> - From the new PC, initially, it would be analogue and TV-out, passed
> through a KAT5 transmitter-receiver pair, into the telly/amp.
>
> - The main amplification for that system is a Shearne Phase 2
Integrated,
> bi-wired with a Shearne Phase 3 power amp, drivign Linn Keilidhs. The
telly
> is a Loewe Xelos.
>
> - MP3-wise, I'm on the "Graham list" for a DDAR, which would
sit in the
> bedroom, directly accessing the files off the server, over the
ethernet,
so
> the new PC wouldn't get involved except to play MP3's IN the study.
>
> - In the longer term, I'm after a Meridian 56x and a Chord DAC1500.
However,
> I've still not made up my mind about the order of purchase ;-) At that
> point, I'd loop the SP/DIF from the new PC over a _long_ cable into
the
> bedroom, and route the audio through the digital inputs on the
Meridian.
(By
> the way, those two would co-exist by all digital sources going into
the
> Meridian, and the front pair feed going from the Meridian as a PCM
stream
> into the Chord DAC.) Can I run a PCM stream over SP/DIF over 5 meters
or
> so???
>
> Regards,
>
> Mark
>
>




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