Qui-Gon Glenn Posted May 23, 2010 Share Posted May 23, 2010 Hello tech forum... cannot believe I have never found this place. Oh well. I built my first rig a couple weeks ago, and have been thrilled with the experience and will never let anyone in the family buy a pre-built again. I found it absurdly simple, so much easier than I feared and than it looked when everything was in boxes. Anywho, I had installed an upgrade license of Win 7 as my operating system, using the old install then upgrade install trick. Worked great... until it didn't. Genuine Activation was balking because I had no prior version of windows installed, and rejected my key. Fair enough, M$'s safeguard actually works?! My beef: I only bought Win 7 upgrade because at the time I was having major woes with my Dell XPS desktop. I felt that it was time to upgrade, checked M$'s upgrade advisor and it gave me the thumbs up, so I bought and installed it. A couple weeks later (with too little sleep and lots of hair-tearing) I had to reinstall XP on the Dell, because of MoBo compatibility. So, I was stuck with a useless (to me) upgrade license of Win 7. Called M$, explained the situation, was given a system builder license key (same $$$ in the store as upgrade version) and am once again Genuinely Validated by Billy Gates. No problems, no raised voices.... easy. Still a little shocked. I was prepared to talk all sorts of Apple smack. Oh, BTW, the new rig: (gotta brag a little, right?) Gigabyte P55a-UD4P Mobo i7 860 CPU 4GB Crucial 1333mhz ram 2x500GB WD Caviar Black HDD's GT250 1GB DDR3 GPU Lian Li PC-C33 Case BFG Modular 550W PSU LG BD-RE 10XBD Burner Super Multi Gotta replace the stock fans, a little noisy, but the Lian-Li case is outstanding. Overall, very pleased, although I was surprised how low a score the Windows Experience gave my HDD setup - 5.9?!? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Astrotoy7 Posted May 23, 2010 Share Posted May 23, 2010 welcome to techforum glen Finding it is as easy at clicking my sig! The WEI has been tweaked to include SSDs, so even if you have DDDR3 and corei7, if you have plain old fashioned spindly hard drive, you wont get the highest score That case is a HTPC chassis - is it a home theatre pc rig or do you just like that case?? mtfbwya Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Qui-Gon Glenn Posted May 23, 2010 Author Share Posted May 23, 2010 The WEI has been tweaked to include SSDs, so even if you have DDDR3 and corei7, if you have plain old fashioned spindly hard drive, you wont get the highest score Aha! I thought about that... SSD is not happening for me anytime soon, my god the prices... That case is a HTPC chassis - is it a home theatre pc rig or do you just like that case?? It is an HTPC, although right now it is not complete. It is a bit of a gaming PC as well, or it would be incredible overkill as an HTPC (still is, but I wanted a little bit of future-proof, this bought me maybe 10 seconds ). The case was the best I could find in terms of offering 2X5.25 optical slots + full ATX capacity + pretty face. It was a bit of blind flight, as I had been looking at cases recommended at avsforums for most of my build. Lian-Li just got great reviews consistently, and I see why... high build quality. The one consistent and minor complaint is the brightness of the case LED's... I have a light technician's solution - just a little N6 gel set in between lights and case works lovely! Others have used a sharpie, which seems a decent solution as well, just sloppy. Still need a tuner/capture device, and to figure out my IR solution. I have an old MCE 2005 IR kit with controllers, but I am not sure if it is Win 7x64 compatible... plus it is a little bulky. I will control the PC via my Harmony remote or my MX5000 desktop. Right now I am using my PS3 Mediaboard as a mouse/keyboard, and it works fair... not capable of gaming, at all. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Astrotoy7 Posted May 24, 2010 Share Posted May 24, 2010 The MCE2K5 IR kit should work fine on 7MC, they are the same set of drivers under the hood. Have a look at this article I wrote for another place for some tidbits/links etc for your mce rig. I used to be heavily involve in HTPC-in but 7MC has been so stable I quit my gig at a HTPC forum and started writing about other interests My favourite hack, which isn't in that article, is one to increase the number of rows in the displayed EPG, I have it at 13 at the moment, which fits in all the meager channels I have access to (here in oz). What type of tuner are you thinking about ? Going for an integrated cable setup?? mtfbwya Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Qui-Gon Glenn Posted May 30, 2010 Author Share Posted May 30, 2010 I have thought about integrated cable setup, but have not spoken with the loathsome Comcast to find out the details on their end. As for tuner, I am not sure, as I may be going with a separate capture device or try to do it all-in-one... which looks unavailable at the time being. I will check out your article in greater detail in the near-future... I just skimmed it, and it is a well done piece from first glance. I do have a question you may be able to address - if I have a high quality AV Receiver/amp that I am pushing everything through, do I need a better sound solution than the TOSLINK out provided by my motherboard? It seems to me that my Onkyo would do any sound processing better than any consumer level sound card, but I certainly don't know about the mechanics of data transmission and coding. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Q Posted May 31, 2010 Share Posted May 31, 2010 Overall, very pleased, although I was surprised how low a score the Windows Experience gave my HDD setup - 5.9?!? Same here. The rest of my system, including my dual 9600GSOs that I got for a grand total of $80 () scores in the 7s, but my single Caviar Black can only manage a 5.9. Are those twin 500GB HDDs RAIDed together? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Qui-Gon Glenn Posted May 31, 2010 Author Share Posted May 31, 2010 Same here. The rest of my system, including my dual 9600GSOs that I got for a grand total of $80 () scores in the 7s, but my single Caviar Black can only manage a 5.9. Are those twin 500GB HDDs RAIDed together? Exact same score, 5.9, and that was with two Caviar Black 500GB's running RAID 0. I will re-test the score this evening at some point. Wow, dual 9600's for 80 clams? Good find Q! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Q Posted May 31, 2010 Share Posted May 31, 2010 Yeah, I got them a year ago when Fry's had them for $80 with a $40 rebate. Best part is that they're the older models with 96 stream processors instead of 48. Combined they're roughly the equivalent of a GTX 260 for $80. I guess that NVIDIA picked up on that little loophole, because the 9600GSO's replacement, the GT 240, is not SLI-capable. Looks like the only way to get a better that HDD score would be to get either a velociraptor or an SSD. Since SSDs of practical size (60GB or more) are finally becoming more affordable, and with the newer firmware in conjunction with Windows 7 making them far less maintenance-hungry, getting of those would probably be the best option in that area. You'd really only need one that's big enough to hold your OS and your most-used apps and games, and then use your platters for everything else. I do have a question you may be able to address - if I have a high quality AV Receiver/amp that I am pushing everything through, do I need a better sound solution than the TOSLINK out provided by my motherboard? It seems to me that my Onkyo would do any sound processing better than any consumer level sound card, but I certainly don't know about the mechanics of data transmission and coding. Hm, I missed this question. Yes, AFAIK your motherboard's Realtek on-board audio should be quite capable of delivering bit-perfect digital audio over TOSLINK for your Onkyo's DAC to process. There should be no need to get a discrete sound card. The only reason that I have an X-Fi is because my PC is hooked up to my beloved analog amp from the late 1980s, and the X-Fi's DAC is superior to on-board's. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Astrotoy7 Posted June 1, 2010 Share Posted June 1, 2010 I do have a question you may be able to address - if I have a high quality AV Receiver/amp that I am pushing everything through, do I need a better sound solution than the TOSLINK out provided by my motherboard? It seems to me that my Onkyo would do any sound processing better than any consumer level sound card, but I certainly don't know about the mechanics of data transmission and coding. It really depends on how much of an audiophile you are. In my old gig at a HTPC forum, I know some folks that wouldnt talk to you if you didnt pretend you were excited about Dolby TrueHD or DTS-HD Master Audio If that is your thing, the auzentech x-fi home theater card is the bees knees in the eyes of many... Personally, I'm not an audiophile, and barely get excited by 2.1, let alone 7.1 Displayjunkies like myself look at things differently....its all about color gamut and pixel count Im currently awaiting delivery of the Dell 3008WFP, after my Samsung 305T died and samsung kindly gave me a full refund, nearly three years after I bought it mtfbwya Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Qui-Gon Glenn Posted June 2, 2010 Author Share Posted June 2, 2010 It really depends on how much of an audiophile you are. In my old gig at a HTPC forum, I know some folks that wouldnt talk to you if you didnt pretend you were excited about Dolby TrueHD or DTS-HD Master Audio I am one of those nerds, but I do not need my PC to do those things, as I think Q is correct about my Onkyo - it has TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio, as well as being about as heavy as an anvil! TX-807NR, been pretty pleased with it overall. I've been an Onkyo fan for a long time which would let you know that I am not an uber-audiophile - I go integrated AVR, neither needing or wanting to afford a component system. Displayjunkies like myself look at things differently....its all about color gamut and pixel count Im currently awaiting delivery of the Dell 3008WFP, after my Samsung 305T died and samsung kindly gave me a full refund, nearly three years after I bought it mtfbwya Heh, I cannot tune my color properly or to my liking on my Samsung 2253BW... because I am not a photographer nor am I particularly color/light discerning (yes, I am a lighting tech )I was unhappy with the Adobe Gamma calibration I came up with, and Adobe rejects my monitors native profile as being defective :?: The news on a happy full return from Samsung on the monitor is fantastic though. Woke up on the right side of the bed, eh? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Q Posted June 2, 2010 Share Posted June 2, 2010 You may not be an audiophile, but that 807 is certainly no slouch. Just keep a quiet fan blowing on the back of it, as those Onkyos are known to get very hot. Im currently awaiting delivery of the Dell 3008WFP, after my Samsung 305T died and samsung kindly gave me a full refund, nearly three years after I bought it This is great news! I know you were heartbroken when your Sammy died. Hope that Dell is a worthy replacement. I just have a 2209WA, but it is hands down the best 22" panel on the market. I'd recommend it to anyone. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Astrotoy7 Posted June 2, 2010 Share Posted June 2, 2010 The news on a happy full return from Samsung on the monitor is fantastic though. This is great news! I know you were heartbroken when your Sammy died. Hope that Dell is a worthy replacement. I just have a 2209WA, but it is hands down the best 22" panel on the market. I'd recommend it to anyone. Thanks for the positive comments chaps I am very pleased about it indeed. Like Q said, I was quite attached to my 1600p display... and when it started mucking up (which you can watch in horror here ), I was anxious to not let the almost $2kAUD I paid for it go down the gurgler. Luckily these things come with a three year warranty out of the box - as does the dell. The 3008WFP seems perfectly suited to what I need it for, some non professional digital video editing and digital artwork, plus gaming - the scaler chip and hdmi support means I can finally plug a ps3 in there too It's been a long road...the 305T first started messing up in January - but its nearly over now, hopefully. I just received confirmation of my order and am expecting delivery by the 17th of June. Until then...I'm going to just keep staring at this mtfbwya Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jae Onasi Posted June 2, 2010 Share Posted June 2, 2010 There's no Orlando Bloom or Chris Pine there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Astrotoy7 Posted June 3, 2010 Share Posted June 3, 2010 There's no Orlando Bloom or Chris Pine there. cmon Jae. The tech marketing world has borrowed the booth babe concept from the motor car industry, largely due to its similar demographic. Considering the wildly disproportionate amount of females that would find a CAD grade screen worth almost $2k exciting, the likelihood of advertising materials becoming a sausage fest is extremely low mtfbwya Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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