<br><br><br>> <br>> <br>> Alternatively, you could scale back on the computer components and get an HD box + a small HD monitor for the same $1100 you have budgeted right now. <br>> <br>> I'll be back shortly with my suggestions....
<br><br><br>***CASE / POWER SUPPLY****<br><br>You picked: Silverstone SST-LC17-B, $120 ,XCLIO STABLEPOWER 500W ATX 500W Power Supply, $70 <br>I suggest: Foxconn TLM041-CN300C-01 Black Steel MicroATX Mini Tower Computer Case 300W Power Supply, $40
<br><a href="http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811153080" target="_blank" onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)">http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811153080</a><br>
<br>reasoning: I'll be damned if I could figure out what made the Silverstone worth all that money, and I'm trying to go cheap to squeeze in extra features.<br><br>saved/total saved: $150 / $150<br><br> ******MOTHERBOARD********
<br><br>You picked: ASUS M2N-SLI Deluxe AM2 NVIDIA nForce 570 SLI MCP ATX AMD, $140 <br>I suggest: Open Box: BIOSTAR TForce TF7025-M2 AM2 NVIDIA GeForce 7025 Micro ATX AMD Motherboard , $40<br> <a href="http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131172" target="_blank" onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)">
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813138074R</a><br><br>reasoning: SLI?, 4 x PCIe slots? 8GB memory supported? what are you going to do with that?
<br>Go with something cheaper and smaller that has integrated nvidia video and a DVI port. <br><br>saved / total saved: $100 / $250<br><br>*****VIDEO CAPTURE*****<br><br> You picked: Hauppauge WinTV-PVR 500 MCE, $140
<br> I suggest: good choice, add an HDHomerun, too $310, total
<br><a href="http://www.silicondust.com/wiki/products/hdhomerun" target="_blank" onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)">http://www.silicondust.com/wiki/products/hdhomerun</a> <br> <br> reasoning: You may not know it yet, but you really do want HD.
<br><br>saved / total saved: - $170 / $80<br><br><br>******PROCESSOR*******<br><br>You picked: AMD Athlon 64 X2 5600+ Windsor 2.8GHz 2 x 1MB L2 Cache, $150<br> I suggest: AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200+ Windsor 2.2GHz 2 x 512KB L2 Cache, $74
<br> <br> reasoning: it's cheaper and it will get the job done.
<br><br>saved / total saved: $76 / $156<br><br>*****RAM******<br><br> You picked: Kingston ValueRAM 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800, $120 <br> I suggest: 1GB (2 x 512MB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400), $40
<br> <a href="http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820161067" target="_blank" onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)">http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820161067</a><br>
<br> <br> reasoning: 1GB is plenty for a myth system, $80 in your pocket is nice.
<br><br>saved / total saved: $80 / $236<br><br>***STORAGE****<br><br> You picked: Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 ST3500630AS 500GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive x 3, $360 <br> I suggest: same thing, but 2 of them, $240
<br> <br> reasoning: RAID 5 is not worth the hassle. Using a JBOD setup allows you to add additional disks of any size easily. For data security, just create backups. BY the time you have your system up and running and have filled a TB worth of disk, 750 GB disks should have come down in price significantly.
<br><br>saved / total saved: $120 / $356<br><br>***** Video card ****<br><br>You picked: You didn't! Oops!<br>I suggest: Gigabyte GV-NX72G512P1 GeForce 7200GS $30<br> <br>reasoning: You're TV viewing experience will be much improved if you can actually get video out of the computer :) This is a nice and cheap card that should work well.
<br><br>saved / total saved: -$30 / $326<br><br>***** High def monitor ****<br><br>You picked: Oops! Forgot this too!<br>I suggest: Westinghouse L2410NM Glossy Black 24" 8ms Widescreen LCD Monitor 500 cd/m2 1000:1
<br><a href="http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824255001">http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824255001</a><br><br>reasoning: Some people are of the opinion that high definition TV isn't that big of a deal. Those people are wrong.
<br><br>saved / total saved: -$450 / -$124<br><br><br><br>There you have it - for $124 more than your current shopping list, you can have a 4 tuner HD beast of a backend AND a shiny new 1200p monitor.<br><br><br>-chris<br>
<br> <br><br>TV/IT Engineer<br>WCJB-TV Gainesville, FL<br>(352) 377 2020 x248<br><a href="mailto:cribe@wcjb.com" target="_blank" onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)">cribe@wcjb.com</a>