Cube case for Abit nV7M?
Posted: Tue Apr 30, 2002 6:33 pm
Hello all, I've been reading these forums for some time now and figure it's time I should post something. And what better way then to pick your brains for a second. Just hope I'm putting this in the right forum...
P.S. This is a little long...
I'm trying to build the wonder media center computer, or HTPC. As far as I can tell, the hardware and software are now getting to a point where this is feasible.
This machine must be able to meet these points...
1: Easy to use interface, accessible by remote.
2: Play games at high quality settings and high framerates (must be able to play DOOM3)
3: Have Tivo functionality, easy to schedule recordings, pause live TV, etc.
4: Have HUGE amounts of storage. (Most likely to be done by a seperate Linux file server over a wireless network).
5: Must run quiet and cool.
6: And finally, must be aesthetically pleasing to the eye.
For the CPU I'm waiting for the Tbred Athlon. With the die shrink it should run much cooler (hoping anyways) and not need such exotic cooling measures. Anything 2000+ would work fine.
The most difficult part of this is the video portion. The new AIW 8500 128MB looks like the killer solution for this. But, it kills the upgradeabilty of the video card for future games, (they just can't keep up with Nvidia)
I would like to put a GF4 4400 in there with a separate TV tuner card. I'm not sure which would be the best and offer some of the features of the AIW hardware and software package. Anyone have any info on the ATI TV Wonder card
http://http://www.ati.com/products/pc/tvwonder/index.html
with the Remote Wonder? I've heard of the classic ATI driver problems plauging the TV Wonder on XP.
Then I've seen this Hauppage WinTV PVR card
http://http://www.hauppauge.com/html/wintvpvr_datasheet.htm
But, I can't seem to find any reviews or information regarding it.
The rest of the hardware is mostly covered by the nForce, audio and NIC.
Hard drive would be the WD 120GB JB drive.
This would all be connected to either a Sony Cineza Home Theater projector, or a Sony WEGA TV. And a regular monitor for regular computer use. Wireless keyboard, mouse and remote would take care of the input devices.
DVD+RW burner would be a nice addition, but I'm holding off until the Big guys figure out what standard they want to follow.
RAM will be 1GB of DDR.
And the last thing, the case. The Pandora Plus cubes are extremely nice, but I don't think they'll hold the nForce board. Any suggestions? I'm even looking at some 1u server cases. Black or aluminum would be optimum, but I'm open for other ideas.
Sorry for being a long winded post, but I honestly can't think of another group of gerbils that can answer this intelligently and honestly
Plus if any of you guys have a media center box, I would love to hear your setup.
Thanks for any info!
-Bishop
P.S. This is a little long...
I'm trying to build the wonder media center computer, or HTPC. As far as I can tell, the hardware and software are now getting to a point where this is feasible.
This machine must be able to meet these points...
1: Easy to use interface, accessible by remote.
2: Play games at high quality settings and high framerates (must be able to play DOOM3)
3: Have Tivo functionality, easy to schedule recordings, pause live TV, etc.
4: Have HUGE amounts of storage. (Most likely to be done by a seperate Linux file server over a wireless network).
5: Must run quiet and cool.
6: And finally, must be aesthetically pleasing to the eye.
For the CPU I'm waiting for the Tbred Athlon. With the die shrink it should run much cooler (hoping anyways) and not need such exotic cooling measures. Anything 2000+ would work fine.
The most difficult part of this is the video portion. The new AIW 8500 128MB looks like the killer solution for this. But, it kills the upgradeabilty of the video card for future games, (they just can't keep up with Nvidia)
I would like to put a GF4 4400 in there with a separate TV tuner card. I'm not sure which would be the best and offer some of the features of the AIW hardware and software package. Anyone have any info on the ATI TV Wonder card
http://http://www.ati.com/products/pc/tvwonder/index.html
with the Remote Wonder? I've heard of the classic ATI driver problems plauging the TV Wonder on XP.
Then I've seen this Hauppage WinTV PVR card
http://http://www.hauppauge.com/html/wintvpvr_datasheet.htm
But, I can't seem to find any reviews or information regarding it.
The rest of the hardware is mostly covered by the nForce, audio and NIC.
Hard drive would be the WD 120GB JB drive.
This would all be connected to either a Sony Cineza Home Theater projector, or a Sony WEGA TV. And a regular monitor for regular computer use. Wireless keyboard, mouse and remote would take care of the input devices.
DVD+RW burner would be a nice addition, but I'm holding off until the Big guys figure out what standard they want to follow.
RAM will be 1GB of DDR.
And the last thing, the case. The Pandora Plus cubes are extremely nice, but I don't think they'll hold the nForce board. Any suggestions? I'm even looking at some 1u server cases. Black or aluminum would be optimum, but I'm open for other ideas.
Sorry for being a long winded post, but I honestly can't think of another group of gerbils that can answer this intelligently and honestly
Plus if any of you guys have a media center box, I would love to hear your setup.
Thanks for any info!
-Bishop