2010-05-09, 19:58
Do these parts go together well, and am I missing anything? (Blu-ray drive)
I assume I will need to buy some sata cables for the hard drives (installing further 3 drives so 4 in total to begin 3. Taking them out of external drives and fitting them internally)
Any other cables and bits required? Thermal paste?
I've never built a pc. Plug it all in and it will just work...
My plan for this hardware set up is to use it as my media storage and XBMC front end. I will use this for downloading in the background, while still being able to run XBMC. No gaming. I want it to run like a normal 'set-top box'
I am undecided on whether to use Linux or Windows. I chose the NVidia card to use linux hw acceleration to take the load, but I wil need to be able to run background downloading app, and what about ember MM? Works in linux?
I have never used Linux, but will need to be able to exit XBMC, rename, move files between the internal drives & scrape them etc daily, so need it to be easy. I have ZERO linux experience
I need it to serve as a media server - I have 4.5TB and growing, and dont want a front end AND back end machine - if i have 5 hdds installed, will only the drives being accessed / used be spinning? For power saving I dont want all the drives spinning unless they are being read/written...
Other options are:
Dual boot, using XBMClive - but this wouldn't let me run the downloading apps etc.
Run it all in windows - easiest option for me. Will the setup run EVERYTHING in windows? My current windows machine cannot play 1080p, and struggles running background apps while playing 720p.
So, the hardware:
Intel Pentium Dual Core E5300 2.6GHz Socket 775 800FSB 2MB L2 Cache Retail Boxed Processor
Gigabyte GA-G31M-ES2L iG31 Socket 775 onboard VGA 7.1 channel audio mATX Motherboard
Crucial 2GB DDR2 800MHz/PC2-6400 Memory Non-ECC Unbuffered CL6
ASUS GT220 1GB GDDR2 DVI VGA HDMI Out PCI-E Graphics Card With Free PowerDirector 8HE Download While Stocks Last
Samsung EcoGreen F2 1.5TB Hard Drive SATAII 5400rpm 32MB Cache - OEM
Antec VSK 2000 Black Tower Case with 10 Drive Bays - No PSU
Antec 430W Basiq Power PSU - Dual 12V Rails PCI-E and SATA Connectors
This comes in at £299 from ebuyer (UK).
Any comments welcome. I've never built my own machine so not sure what works together too well, and this machine has to perform perfectly every time, on every file.
Thanks
I assume I will need to buy some sata cables for the hard drives (installing further 3 drives so 4 in total to begin 3. Taking them out of external drives and fitting them internally)
Any other cables and bits required? Thermal paste?
I've never built a pc. Plug it all in and it will just work...
My plan for this hardware set up is to use it as my media storage and XBMC front end. I will use this for downloading in the background, while still being able to run XBMC. No gaming. I want it to run like a normal 'set-top box'
I am undecided on whether to use Linux or Windows. I chose the NVidia card to use linux hw acceleration to take the load, but I wil need to be able to run background downloading app, and what about ember MM? Works in linux?
I have never used Linux, but will need to be able to exit XBMC, rename, move files between the internal drives & scrape them etc daily, so need it to be easy. I have ZERO linux experience
I need it to serve as a media server - I have 4.5TB and growing, and dont want a front end AND back end machine - if i have 5 hdds installed, will only the drives being accessed / used be spinning? For power saving I dont want all the drives spinning unless they are being read/written...
Other options are:
Dual boot, using XBMClive - but this wouldn't let me run the downloading apps etc.
Run it all in windows - easiest option for me. Will the setup run EVERYTHING in windows? My current windows machine cannot play 1080p, and struggles running background apps while playing 720p.
So, the hardware:
Intel Pentium Dual Core E5300 2.6GHz Socket 775 800FSB 2MB L2 Cache Retail Boxed Processor
Gigabyte GA-G31M-ES2L iG31 Socket 775 onboard VGA 7.1 channel audio mATX Motherboard
Crucial 2GB DDR2 800MHz/PC2-6400 Memory Non-ECC Unbuffered CL6
ASUS GT220 1GB GDDR2 DVI VGA HDMI Out PCI-E Graphics Card With Free PowerDirector 8HE Download While Stocks Last
Samsung EcoGreen F2 1.5TB Hard Drive SATAII 5400rpm 32MB Cache - OEM
Antec VSK 2000 Black Tower Case with 10 Drive Bays - No PSU
Antec 430W Basiq Power PSU - Dual 12V Rails PCI-E and SATA Connectors
This comes in at £299 from ebuyer (UK).
Any comments welcome. I've never built my own machine so not sure what works together too well, and this machine has to perform perfectly every time, on every file.
Thanks