Making the switcheroo

Long story short.....I don't game at all, and competitive benchmarking is getting to expensive for me at this point in time.....so I'm "taking a break" from it. I'm selling everything in/out of my current system except for the memory and hard drive. I'm rebuilding the system as a kickass HTPC/multimedia rig in an SB83G5 XPC. I will eventually replace the hard drive, but to start with I will only be keeping those two parts, the drive and the ram. Specs will be as follows:

SB83G5 i915 /w DDR400 and PCI-E x16
P4 2.8E LGA775
2x512MB PC4000EL
ATI X600Pro AIW 256MB
M-Audio Revolution 5.1 /w Coax output
Pioneer DVR-108 16x Dual Layer DVDRW
Maxtor DiamondMax10 300GB 16MB cache SATA
Mitsumi 7-in-1 multidrive

As you can see, it is going to be a very fully functional, more practicle setup....as I wanted a lot of multimedia connectivity, and the M-Audio card and the X600 give me that, the X600 AIW being the first to offer a native DVI connection AND the tuner, allowing me to fill my 300GB drive with missed tvshows and play them back on a nice 19" LCD, before burning them to DVD.

Of course the shuttle will also be modded. I'm thinking of doing it the same as I am the Lian-Li.....powder coating the entire chasis, installing mesh windows on each panel...etc. As soon as I can get ahold of a temp AGP card and sell my XT-PE I'm gonna buy the Shuttle and the Pioneer drive....as I not only want to strip down the XPC to get it painted....I'm also thinking of powder coating the metal casing of both the DVDRW and the PSU.....so that when you look through the mesh windows you won't be "greeted" by an obtuse metal plate on two out of three sides. Other then the cuting/painting I plan on switching out the I.C.E. fan for a low or medium panaflo....to make the rig near silent, as the PSU already carries a SilenX fan.

All in all I'm really excited to get started on this, and I can't wait to have another shuttle...as I experimented with one before...and had a lot of fun. I know I've heard a lot of people talk down Maxtor drives, and to an extent I can side with their side of the arguement...but its not only the extra 50GB of storage, but the 16MB cache that's leading me to the newer DiamondMax10 over a 250GB WD...which was my original intent. I won't be buying the hard drive itself until sometime in the spring...so if WD answers back with a 250GB or 300GB 16MB drive I'll go with that, but for now my sights are set on that Maxtor. I was originally going to be building an A64 shuttle....but I quickly realised that I not only wanted to keep HT, but if I went A64 I'd be forced into an AGP video card, and no AGP AIW offers both the tuner AND native dual display...so that kinda sealed it for me.

Any suggestions are welcome...as this is going to be more of a permanent day to day rig...and I'm trying to cover as many bases as I can in terms of conectivity.

Next step (other then selling the XT-PE) is actually getting that M-Audio card so I can switch to the Coax cable for my Z-680's, after which I'll be switching out the factory speaker wire for some Monster.

See ya for now...let me know what you guys think, and people are also welcome to start calling dibs on my rig...as I'm peicing out (basically) the whole thing, and I'd like to have some buyers lined up ahead of time.

Wow I wanna see when you get it fully built.

markt435 said:

Wow I wanna see when you get it fully built.

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Me2, but at this point I'm contemplating putting it off a BIT......I've got a about 4 reptile tanks in my room and I REALLY want to finally do things up right for them....and I think that I might sell the XT-PE first and sell the water cooling to pay for what I have to do their....and then save as much as I have to so that for my birthday in June I can build the shuttle.

cornelious0_0 said:

Me2, but at this point I'm contemplating putting it off a BIT......I've got a about 4 reptile tanks in my room and I REALLY want to finally do things up right for them....and I think that I might sell the XT-PE first and sell the water cooling to pay for what I have to do their....and then save as much as I have to so that for my birthday in June I can build the shuttle.

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dude, if you sell everything in your sig youll have more than enough for the shuttle.

and if you arent gaming, you really dont need that much of a kickass rig at all, my p3 serves me great for websurfing.. and htis is a 933EB, mind you

edit: since the only options for LGA775 are presscots, you might want to look into the 2.8A or something. they would be cheap, are plenty fast for web browsing, and have great oc'ing potential as they are on the 133 (533 effective..) bus

save some money and get an NEC3500A. its a great drive

edit: i just read you are feeding all this into logitechs... and this is supposed to be a kick ass HTPC. well, im a stickler for audio, and i recommend getting a digital a/v reciver and some high quality speakers( like difinitive, thats what i have) to make this setup scream. this of course, might be a little out of budget ive spent about a grand on my audio setup, and ive half blown one of the speaker terminals.. god i wish i had the money for a new yamaha...

dude, if you sell everything in your sig youll have more than enough for the shuttle.

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Yes, I know I will/would.

edit: since the only options for LGA775 are presscots, you might want to look into the 2.8A or something. they would be cheap, are plenty fast for web browsing, and have great oc'ing potential as they are on the 133 (533 effective..) bus

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I'm not, repeat NOT going with anything else, going with a 2.8E 775 in the 83G5 allows me to both keep my current memory, and use the X600Pro AIW....which I HAVE to have. going with another AIW along with a s478 XPC would not allow me keep the DVI on the X600...I'd sitll have the tuner functionality....but when I do get an LCD it's going to be a fairly expensive 19" at least....and I'm gonna WANT the dvi on the card.......and the X600 AIW is the first AIW that doesn't limit you to a single VGA connection.

save some money and get an NEC3500A. its a great drive

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I'll see, I haven't finalised anything yet....as at this rate I probly won't be making the switch until my birthday in June.....and by then I'll have to re-evaluate things and see what's available at that time. With the speed that DVDRW drives have been moving forward at, and dropping in price I'll definitley have to re-look over my options...but for now I'm sticking with the Pioneer...I just have much better PERSONAL experience with Pioneer as opposed to NEC.

and i recommend getting a digital a/v reciver and some high quality speakers( like difinitive, thats what i have) to make this setup scream. this of course, might be a little out of budget ive spent about a grand on my audio setup, and ive half blown one of the speaker terminals.. god i wish i had the money for a new yamaha...

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Considering that my computer is located inside my 5'x6' closet, I don't have a lot of want, need, or desire to do anything more extravagent then the 680's at this point in time. I've got the 680's wall mounted currently and it sounds simply amazing...I dont see myself wanting any more then this for a LONG while.....and for the price, the 680's are REALLY hard to beat.

doh! sorry i forgot the 2.8a's were 478 only, i was thinking about pressy and made a non existant connection between that and the LGA socket! my bad

lithium726 said:

doh! sorry i forgot the 2.8a's were 478 only, i was thinking about pressy and made a non existant connection between that and the LGA socket! my bad

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Haha, no biggy....thx anyways.