Please help me with my hardware selection

[bone]

When I'm spending 500-700 dollars I'd rather spend the extra 70 bucks or so and not have regret. I was considering the ASUS A8N-SLI Premium Socket 939 as the reviews at newegg were pretty good and my last board was an Asus A7NX deluxe and I have zero complaints about it. I just wonder if one day getting the Asrock is going to bite me. I noticed that the ethernet for one is not a gigabit connection. I'm going wifi, but still nice to see that I have all the capability.

I was thinking about getting this power supply that's about 25 bucks on sale right now Thermaltake TR2 W0070 ATX 430W Power Supply 115/230 V - Retail, seemed to have the best reviews. I do like antec, they have a Antec SmartPower 2.0 SP-500 500W Power Supply - 65 dollars.

When look at Asrock's board I don't know what the heck ULi M1695 chip is, but what do I know anyway. Everytime I keep looking at the boards, I'm thinking that I should probably go a head and spend the money and get the ASUS A8N-SLI Premium Socket 939. I've used Abit and Epox before and had no complaints, but I've been very happy with Asus.

I was looking at some 8x AGP cards instead of using the PCI Express video card and I see the Asus doesn't support AGP, but the Asrock supports both. This was the card I was looking at though **CHAINTECH SA5500T2 Geforce FX5500 256MB DDR AGP 4X/8X Video Card - Retail $52

Thanks again for all the input, really helping

[Chris.Day]

Well, the latest ASUS A8N boards don't seem to have the PCI issues that the first ones did, so you may be fine. I like the look of the one with the heatpipe.

As for the PSU, take a look at the Seasonic S12 series. The S12-430 would do quite nicely, and comes it at around US$100 (yes, expensive, but quiet and reliable). You could save a bit by going for an OEM PVR-150MCE to make up the price difference.

[bone]

OEM PVR-150MCE doesn't come with remote and IR blaster though right?

[bone]

I was looking at this ASUS board to lower the costs it's 85 bucks ASUS A8N5X Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 ATX AMD Motherboard. The only difference I can see is that it doesn't show 4 SATA 1.5 Gb/s. Do you think the data transfer speed will be almost the same with the HD that I selected. It's $52 dollars cheaper than the first one I posted.

Sorry for asking so many questions guys and thinks so much for all the help again.

[Chris.Day]

Do you want the system to be used as a general PC including games, or will it be just for HTPC usage? If the latter, then consider a motherboard with the GeForce 6150 IGP, as this will save you a bit of money by not having to buy a separate graphics card.

[rowle1jt]

When I'm spending 500-700 dollars I'd rather spend the extra 70 bucks or so and not have regret.

I was thinking about getting this power supply that's about 25 bucks on sale right now Thermaltake TR2 W0070 ATX 430W Power Supply 115/230 V - Retail, seemed to have the best reviews.

I agree, go Sata, why not use current technology instead of old school? I am running that exact Thermaltake psu in my regular system, I paid a lot more for it a year ago though! LoL

Chris,
Trying to keep this on topic for Bone so he can get his hardware picked out I'll leave the Sata -vs- IDE debate out of this. I'd rather keep this thread on topic for Bone then beat my self over the head. LoL

[stu8080]

Ive used the ASROCK Dual SATA2 board for about 6 months now, and ive never had a problem.

In fact ive been using an Opteron 146 (hard to get now) stock 2.0Ghz and overclocked to 2.6Ghz with no volt mods etc and on stock cooling - it still runs at ~35 deg C.

However the only reason it made sense was to allow for my 6800GT AGP, it has both AGP and PCIe, so i dont need to change mobo when i upgrade graphics.

Since you are looking at getting PCIe graphics any way, you'll find that extra AGP slot is taking up another PCI slot you could use for more tuners!

[rowle1jt]

Since you are looking at getting PCIe graphics any way, you'll find that extra AGP slot is taking up another PCI slot you could use for more tuners!

I'll second that!

My WIFE actually said last night, "why can't we watch something and record another show?" ... a discussion of multiple tuners ensued, and now I am fairly confident of what I am going to get for my birthday.

Its funny, in the beginning she laughed at me for building a PVR, 3 months later it has become part of lives for the little TV that we actually watch. I'm pretty sure now, if I took it out of the entertainment center, that there would be hell to pay! :eek: LoL

[bone]

Chris.Day I'm planning on using the computer for more than just HTPC. Even though I don't play games I'm planning on using the computer for everyday usage. I probably play a game once a year if that, so gaming isn't my first priority, but I don't want anything bottlenecking. Chis I'm not sure what "GeForce 6150 IGP" is, I tried to search in newegg and came accross everything from mobos to cases. If you had a link I'd appreciate it.

Here are the things I've changed and hopefully it's looking a little bit better. I was really busy today, but I just remembered I'm going to need to pick up an 802.11g card

**Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 (Perpendicular Recording) 320GB 3.5" SATA 3.0Gb/s $94

**AMD Athlon 64 3200+ Venice 2000MHz HT Socket 939 Processor Model ADA3200BPBOX - Retail -$76

** ASUS A8N5X Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail $85

**CORSAIR ValueSelect 1GB (2 x 512MB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM DDR 400 (PC 3200) Dual Channel Kit System Memory Model VS1GBKIT400 - Retail $100

**Leadtek PX6600TD-256 Geforce 6600 256MB 128-bit DDR PCI Express x16 Video Card - Retail $70

**Logitech MX3000 967553-0403 2-Tone 104 Normal Keys 30 Function Keys USB + PS/2 RF Wireless Standard Desktop Mouse Included - Retail $69

**ZALMAN CNPS7000B-ALCU 92mm 2 Ball Cooling Fan - Retail $30

**NEC 16X DVD±R DVD Burner Black IDE/ATAPI Model ND-3550A - OEM $29

**Hauppauge WINTV-PVR-150 PCI Interface Tuner Card - Retail $90

**Thermaltake TR2 W0070 ATX 430W Power Supply - Retail $25

Total:
$668

This Asus board is only about 20 bucks more than the Asrock. I'm just having second thoughs about the graphics card. Isn't the picture quality on my television mostly depended on my graphics card? I've actually never hooked up a PC to a television and when I was looking at the specs for the graphics card it said TV-Out - HDTV Out and when I'm looking the graphics card it looks as if it's S-video?
http://images10.newegg.com/NeweggImage/p...203-07.JPG

Thanks again for everybody's help and feedback

[stefan]

The white connector on the card is a DVI connector which can output HDTV if your card supports it. Some cards "only" output 720p and not 1080i, though, so if HDTV is important to you you might want to look into that.