Moneual HTPC?

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Nemo128

Nemo128

Audioholic Field Marshall
Fair price, nice piece, good foundation for media use and gaming @ 1920x1080.
 
Davemcc

Davemcc

Audioholic Spartan
I just found out why this one is less expensive than the other versions. This one doesn't include the BD drive or the TV tuner. With the BD drive, it's $999. With BD drive and tuner, it's $1199.

I've been a good boy. I haven't bought any audio gear since last August. Well, I got an iPod but it was just a shuffle so it doesn't really count. I feel like I need a treat, a new toy, something, anything.
 
A

alexwakelin

Full Audioholic
Nemo128 said:
Fair price, nice piece, good foundation for media use and gaming @ 1920x1080.
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For that price, and since they are marketing it as an HTPC I would expect a blu-ray drive. The e8400 is a great cpu, but I don't see why an HTPC would need 8gb of ram. I would rather see 4gb and a blu-ray drive, which I don't think would change the price at all. The Nvidia 9300 is fine for HD playback, but will be pretty limited for gaming, especially at 1920x1080.

Overall I guess it's a fair price, you're getting a nice case, an e8400 and a 1tb hard drive. I think it would be more attractive if they just dropped it to 4gb of ram and threw in a blu-ray drive. It's hard to tell from the pictures, but it looks like if you decide to upgrade the video card you will be limited to half height cards.
 
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alexwakelin

Full Audioholic
Davemcc said:
I just found out why this one is less expensive than the other versions. This one doesn't include the BD drive or the TV tuner. With the BD drive, it's $999. With BD drive and tuner, it's $1199.

I've been a good boy. I haven't bought any audio gear since last August. Well, I got an iPod but it was just a shuffle so it doesn't really count. I feel like I need a treat, a new toy, something, anything.
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A $400 premium for those options seems like a bit much, IMO, unless it's a BD burner. You can pick up a BD drive for under $100 and PowerDVD for another $50. A nice Happauge tuner card will set you back another $100.
 
Nemo128

Nemo128

Audioholic Field Marshall
alexwakelin said:
The Nvidia 9300 is fine for HD playback, but will be pretty limited for gaming, especially at 1920x1080.
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Have you actually used one for gaming, or are we just discussing what forums and tomshardware/anandtech say?...

Unless someone is trying to play Crysis, the 9300 coupled with a Core2Duo can game good @ 1920x1080 in every current game I've seen. From personal experience with one.
 
krzywica

krzywica

Audioholic Samurai
Nemo128 said:
Fair price, nice piece, good foundation for media use and gaming @ 1920x1080.
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Really Nemo? Maybe if he is playing tank wars....lol.....good luck trying to game at anything more than 200x600.

Also that looks to be a low profile design as it is only 2U. This will severely hamper any upgrades that you would want to do down the road. IE Video Cards, Audio Card for HD audio...ect.

The price isn't horrible but you could build a monster of a gaming/media PC for that price if you put it together yourself.
 
A

alexwakelin

Full Audioholic
Nemo128 said:
Have you actually used one for gaming, or are we just discussing what forums and tomshardware/anandtech say?...

Unless someone is trying to play Crysis, the 9300 coupled with a Core2Duo can game good @ 1920x1080 in every current game I've seen. From personal experience with one.
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I have a 9600 in my htpc, I really can't see anything lower offering good gaming performance. But that's just MHO.
 
krzywica

krzywica

Audioholic Samurai
Nemo128 said:
Have you actually used one for gaming, or are we just discussing what forums and tomshardware/anandtech say?...

Unless someone is trying to play Crysis, the 9300 coupled with a Core2Duo can game good @ 1920x1080 in every current game I've seen. From personal experience with one.
Click to expand...
What games, because my buddy has this mobo with the same onboard VGA chipset and it will only run semi-recent games on lowest settings at LOW framerates.
 
Nemo128

Nemo128

Audioholic Field Marshall
Fallout 3, CoD4, NFS:Undercover... I'm not the biggest PC gamer either, so maybe there are newer games I don't play. That's with a C2D E6400 and 4GB DDR2-1066. If he's got better than that, he should look at other underlying causes... Vista perhaps?

I also don't call "gaming" 60-200FPS. Some people demand paper-performance like that. Tank Wars, hehe, cute...
 
AcuDefTechGuy

AcuDefTechGuy

Audioholic Jedi
Looks pretty good, but...:D

The case is kind of small and everything is tightly packed in.

With the fast Intel Duo Core 3.0 GHz, things could get pretty hot in there.

Intel doesn't usually make QUIET fans for their hot CPUs, especially when they are going at 3,000 RPM.:D

Yeah, I would definitely want a BD-ROM these days.

Since it's mainly for Home Theater and not Games, the Video Card is fine. Besides, I doubt they could fit anything bigger than that in that tight space!

Can you guys imagine something like a huge ATI Radeon HD 4850-4890 in that small space? :)
 
Nemo128

Nemo128

Audioholic Field Marshall
Yeah, that thing won't take a full height card.

For a low profile CPU cooler, look at the Scythe Ninja Mini. It's pretty whoop @$$ in the HTPC I put together with a friend. Still running like a champ.
 
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