'puter upgrade time...

[OneSickPsycho]

Originally Posted by pauldun170

For what you will be doing with it, despite being far from top of the line on both mobo and processor, it looks good at a good price point (this is assuming that you will NEVER game with it).

HOWEVER YOU HAVE CHOSEN THE WRONG TYPE OF RAM FOR THE BOARD!!!
You need DDR2 for that board.
1066 or 800 will do. Crucial is good but gskill and oz or fine. Hunt for the lowest price + best rating on newegg.

A few things to consider....
You PSU would be fine in 450-550 area. I'd hunt around for the quietest (with fan...not the fanless variety)high quality unit you can find.
An example would be Antec EarthWatts 500W is very quiet and can be had for $60-$70 oem.

You may want to consider a sound card...

Consider grabbing an aftermarket cooler...once again something that will lower sound levels yet provide at least cooling comparable to the stock cooler.

Jesus fucking Christ... Good catch on the RAM... that would have blown...

I will NEVER be gaming with this system, besides some basic emulation...

As far as the PSU is concerned, my current rig sounds like a fucking freight train with 4 80mm fans (two PSU, two case), and a flailing CPU fan... With the TV on ever at a moderate level it's inaudible... Being 10 feet away from it helps too... Either way, fan volume is not much of a concern for me.

As far as sound is concerned, the sound through the HDMI should be solid enough for my use... plus if I run video through my HDMI, my TV won't allow an alternative audio input... I might be able to finagle something through the home theater rig, but that would probably require a lot of fucking around with the remote control to switch from watching a movie on my PC to watching TV through the cable box...

Originally Posted by Rider

Thanks, I guess a new case it is then.

Maybe not, but you can get cheapo cases with PSU's for pretty much nothing... I bought a HTPC case... SilverStone... super nice, for like $150... My case before that was $20 and came with a 500W power supply (that my system is currently using)... Unless you have a really nice case, it'll probably cost you about the same money for a new case w/ PSU, than it would to buy a new PSU...

Originally Posted by Amblyopic

Dunno if it's been posted yet.


but stay the fuck away from Seagates right now. They're brickin'.... they put out a firmware upgrade, and bricked some more....

With the latest firmware upgrades they are supposed to be rock solid... I have not read of any mechanical failures out of the oridinary, just the goofy freezing issue that is firmware fixable...

[OneSickPsycho]

Ok, I did it...

Replaced the RAM with some Patriot DDR2 stuff... 1066MHz... 4GB (2-2GB dual channel kit)... and added an Apevia or something 500W PSU that got good reviews and had the connectors I need.

I also bought a wireless trackball, a cheapo AIO printer, and went ahead on the HTIB with a Samsung HT-Z510T which is supposed to be pretty good...

It's always fun to drop a grand with a few clicks of the mouse...

[Lamnidae]

Originally Posted by OneSickPsycho

Ok, I did it...

Replaced the RAM with some Patriot DDR2 stuff... 1066MHz... 4GB (2-2GB dual channel kit)... and added an Apevia or something 500W PSU that got good reviews and had the connectors I need.

I also bought a wireless trackball, a cheapo AIO printer, and went ahead on the HTIB with a Samsung HT-Z510T which is supposed to be pretty good...

It's always fun to drop a grand with a few clicks of the mouse...

D00d!


Trackballs FTMFW!