Is the onboard graphic card (in combination with rest) sufficient for 1080p/7.1audio?
#16
hold on as i review everything,,, at first it seems too much $$$... gemme some time though
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#17
i added the prices i pay for the hardware- that might help Smile
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#18
[cpu] Athlon X2 3.0GHz AM3 65W (£42) http://fwd4.me/u2S
[ram] GeIL 2 x 2GB 240-Pin DDR3 1066 CL7 (£40) http://fwd4.me/u2O
[mobo] ASRock AM3 USB3 MicroATX (£52) http://fwd4.me/u2L
[gpu] ZOTAC GT430 1GB DDR3 128-bit (£59) http://fwd4.me/u2N
[ssd] OCZ Onyx 2.5" 32GB SATAII (£46) http://fwd4.me/u2Q
[psu] Corsair CMPSU-430CX 430W(£35) http://fwd4.me/u2T
[hdd] Western Digital Caviar 2TB SATAII 64MB 3.5" (£75) http://fwd4.me/u2U

£500 (including 3x2TB)

what do you think??

Smile
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#19
Wink 
hehe, i revised it:

Your suggestion is cheaper in:

CPU (-5£) , Mainboard(-12£), System Harddisk (-31£), Graphic Card (-5£), Power Supply (-80£)

But More Expensive in:
RAM (+8£), Storage HDDs (+31 £)

For Storage Harddisks, CPU and Graphic card (this one is ok?), we seem to agree and we only have small differences. However, for the RAM, you suggest GeIL rather than Kingston, is there a reason?

Mainboard: The mainboard you have chosen is cheaper, but lacks S-ATA III support, speaking of which you chose a OCZ Onyx (S-ATA II) as system drive, rather than the Crucial RealSSD (S-ATA III). Here, your version saves quite some money. However, the read/write speeds are quite different.
OCZ reads 135MB/s and writes: 70MB/s
Crucial RealSSD reads at 355MB/s, writes at 75MB/s

For the same price, hence still more expensive then the one you suggested, I could also buy the one of the following:

Corsair Force F40 SSD MLC, 2.5 Zoll, 40GB, SATA-II (280 MB/s read, 270MB/s write)

or

Kingston SSDnow V 100 Series 64GB, SATA-II, 2,5"(250MB/s reat / 145MB/s write)

What is your opinion on that? I chose the S-ATA III one primarily to boost the windows 7 startup - and i figured that with the 355MB/s this would be quite fast...

The largest difference in our suggestions comes from the power supply. You suggested a Corsair 430W, while i opted for an Enermax 525W. First, I wonder wether 430W is enough (and 525W is overpowered). Second, I wonder wether the Corsair one is reliable. I opted for a rather expensive power supply, because i want to be sure my components dont become a victim of a cheap power supply... and i heard the enermax one was good.

Moreover, the Corsair PSU has 4 S-ATA powerplugs, which is exactly sufficient. However, what happens if i want to extend my RAID-5 with one more disk?

Corsair PSU 500 CX - 500W would only cost slightly more (+8 £) but would have 5 S-ATA power connectors... I do not know about the noise of those power supplies... are they ok? Otherwise, the following PSU would play in the same price range:

be quiet! Pure Power L7-530W, 80 plus (52 £), which causes max. 24dB of noise.



lets see what u say about it Big Grin
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#20
SwissElite Wrote:Your suggestion is More Expensive in:
RAM (+8£), Storage HDDs (+31 £)

How?
your RAM costs £50 and mine £40!!
your 3 storage hard drives costs £300 and mines £225!!

Go with what i've selected (which is similar to yours)

The RAM i've selected is DUAL-CHANNEL (2x2GB),
yours i dont know (no links to verify) and costs £10 more,,,

Regarding SSD's, you buy what your wallet can afford and feel paying....
i think my suggestion is great because, you'll get blazing speeds
in comparison to conventional 7200RPM Hard Drives, and cost is really good!
if you feel like paying more for another model, its your choice....
i cant make that decision for you,,, i just know i wouldn't do so....

Corsair CMPSU-430CX 430W is a recommended model!!
its a great DeaL!!
it has ACTIVE PFC, a 120mm quiet Fan,
Extra long fully-sleeved cables support full tower chassis!!
with the system your building, you would only need --> 379W
check this online PSU calculator yourself --> http://educations.newegg.com/tool/psucalc/index.html

if you feel more comfortable with thew Corsair CMPSU-500CX 500W
then go with it! its only +8£ than my model,,,
i know for myself that the 430W model would be enough...
but everybody has their own situations... right?
overall, those Corsair PSU's have ultra-quiet 120mm fans...

thing is with custom HTPC's is that,
there's 3200 different companies offering 45000 different brands and models to choose from,,,,
meaning, you can easily change your mind every 2 seconds about what you want to buy...

thats why i try to keep it simple,,,
i try to buy the cheapest possible decent HTPC that meets my needs!
no point in paying more and not use the 'More' ...
or no point in paying more and not truly see the gain or difference....
thats how i work because otherwise, i'd jump off a bridge....
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#21
before reading your entire post.... did you post in british pound sterling, (£) or in USD?
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#22
british pound sterling, (£)
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#23
eskro Wrote:How?
your RAM costs £50 and mine £40!!
your 3 storage hard drives costs £300 and mines £225!!

{....}

thats why i try to keep it simple,,,
i try to buy the cheapest possible decent HTPC that meets my needs!
no point in paying more and not use the 'More' ...
or no point in paying more and not truly see the gain or difference....
thats how i work because otherwise, i'd jump off a bridge....

i didnt mean to offend you, im very thankful for ur advice!

regarding the prices - i think we have a confusion here - i indicated the prices in my original post in USD, and you then in british pound. in my last post, where i answered to your suggestion, i converted my numbers to british pound sterling, too and then compared the two options. thus, for the objects where i wrote theyre cheaper or more expensive, it should be correct.

for the psu, i will take ur advice and opt for the corsair, the 500W one.

regarding the RAM: the one i chose is all on one block,

http://mediaserver.digitec.ch/jpg528x398/197506.jpg

Size: 4 GB
Speed: DDR3-1066 / PC3-8500
Buffer: unbuffered
Pin: 204-pin SODIMM

thats all information i have. Is it better to buy 2 modules with 2 GB rather than 1 big one? I thought this way i would occupy less slots in my pc...

for the mainboard, i would still go for the one i found, as it supports RAID 5 (urs doesnt, as far as ive seen it...)

regarding the SSD - all three disks are affordable to me.. however, i have no clue which one is best....

Crucial RealSSD 64GB reads at 355MB/s, writes at 75MB/s
Corsair Force 40GB reads at 280 MB/s, writes at 270MB/s
Kingston SSDnow 64GB reads at 250MB/s, writes at 145MB/s

i would almost say, crucial is the best one, as for startup "read" is most important, and 64GB is enough for Win7 system drive, whereas 40GB of corsair could be rather small... however again, please challenge me on that Wink


again, i hope i didnt offend you, i appreciate your input!
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#24
from the start you said your from Europe, i thought you were from the UK,,,
so the prices i posted are in Pound Sterling... anyways....

Having DUAL-CHANNEL memory is the way to go,,,
works faster then 1 single block...

go with a RAID-5 mobo if its what you need....

Since all three SSD's are affordable to you, the 40GB is enough....
Windows 7 64-bits takes 16GB...
leaves you plenty of room for XBMC and some games....
Again, if you feel like getting a 64GB SSD, your the boss,,,
i just know that even 32GB is enough for WIn7+XBMC+ some apps...

but overall, i like the balance the Corsair Force 40GB has,,,
reads at 280 MB/s, writes at 270MB/s...
fair enough
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#25
Thumbs Up 
check my name Wink switzerland Wink


so, 2*2 gb ram i agree, corsair i agree, too! for the raid-5... i thought it was the best way to keep my data "save", if i have 3 storage harddisks... any opinion on that?


thanks again Smile



ps. are you from the UK?
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#26
Not at all,,,
im from CANADA where everything is always more expensive for no reason....

you guys use switzerland franc (CHF) right?

anyways,
Yeah RAID-5 is great because,
if one of the 3 drives you have fail,
you can simply replace it and your data wont be lost...
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#27
eskro Wrote:Not at all,,, im from CANADA where everything is always more expensive....

trust me, u havent seen switzerland...


btw... the graphic card is fine?

yep, we use chf... but its 1:1 to USD now...
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#28
the ZOTAC GT430 is perfect!!!

Unus pro omnibus, omnes pro uno

by the way, im reading that RAID-10 is better than RAID-5...

RAID-10 = RAID-0 + RAID-1

why? looks like its faster because it doesnt have to parity check,,,,

but i suggest you open a new thread about RAID where maybe other users could help you better...

i myself need to know more on RAID...
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#29
Lightbulb 
i just read the same: http://www.buzzle.com/articles/raid5-vs-raid10.html
as my mainboard can do both, i will read into it before setting up the system! If i would decide for a Raid-10, i would have to buy an additional harddisk, as Raid 10 requires an even amount of raided harddisks (in the configuration above, i have only 3 storage devices)
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#30
wait, give me the link to the RAM you chose...
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Is the onboard graphic card (in combination with rest) sufficient for 1080p/7.1audio?0