Upgrade Conundrum

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mrmagoo_83

2[H]4U
Joined
Aug 8, 2002
Messages
3,068
Current Rig:
6 - HDDs (SATA & PATA)
1 - DVDRW (PATA)
2 - 1GB Corsair XMS DDR2
1 - Xeon 3060 (2.4GHz Dual Core)
1 - Asrock 4CoreDualVSTA motherboard
1 - AMD 4800 series video card w/ HDMI out
1 - Ultra 500W power supply
2 - 23" Hanspree LCDs


Now, the questions
I am wanting to either upgrade this rig, which does pretty much everything I want now. I do not play many games any more on this machine, maybe like C&C, but thats about it. Otherwise its mostly bills and such. So I am thinking I should just keep this rig as is, and put together a new one for video encoding/service. I want to be able to slash the time it takes to recode my DVDs for my media server. Right now I have to give up on doing anything so this machine can recode, which takes both cores, and takes hours some times.

So I'm thinking about putting together a server type machine that can not only act as my media/file server, but as the recoding machine as well. Is that a good idea, or a waste of money? I was thinking a single hex-core AMD, or dual hex-core AMD would do the trick; as that seems to be the cheapest way to go, Intel is still high on their prices.

Thoughts?
 
Yeah seems like an ok idea.

We can start recommending parts if you can answer the stickied "ANSWER THESE QUESTIONS FIRST!"
 
Right, right, I'll get to those. I just didn't want to waste anyone's time if it was a stupid idea.
 
1) What will you be doing with this PC? It will serve as a video recoder, i.e. converting my DVDs/BluRays for my home media purposes.
2) What's your budget? - I would like ot keep it as close to $500 including Tax & S&H
3) Where do you live? Texas
4) What exact parts do you need for that budget? CPU, RAM, MB, PSU, probably use on board sound & gfx, BluRay Reader
5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? Case (Small 2 bay shuttle type), HDDs
6) Will you be overclocking? No
7) What size monitor do you have and/or plan to have? 23" as a direct connect to configure, otherwise, nothing
8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC? Mid-September
9) What features do you need in a motherboard? Lots of SATA, no real thoughts of RAID at this moment with only using 3 hard drives, possibly multiple processor sockets
10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license? Windows 7 Professional


As stated in the early post, my main idea behind this machine would be to act as a media server, and a media encoder that wouldn't take 36 hours to run a 2pass recode of a BluRay movie.
 
Gimme about an hour. Somehow I missed this thread.
 
Gonna be hard to put together a god encoding rig for $500.....the best CPU's for this will be the i5's/i7's from Intel as the memory speed/latency/bandwidth and hyper threading makes a big difference. Do you have any parts at all that you can contribute to the build? IE Power Supply, Case, video card, hard drive, ect?
 
Yea, in the list. I have a case, power supply, & hard drives, as well as the OS.

I will need a motherboard, cpu & cooler, & ram, and a SATA BR drive.

I though I had read that the Athlon Hex-Core processors were good for encoding, just not good for gaming or other things; must have misread it.
 
mrmagoo_83 said:
Yea, in the list. I have a case, power supply, & hard drives, as well as the OS.

I will need a motherboard, cpu & cooler, & ram, and a SATA BR drive.

I though I had read that the Athlon Hex-Core processors were good for encoding, just not good for gaming or other things; must have misread it.
Click to expand...
What PSU will you be reusing? What did you mean by "Small 2 bay shuttle type" in regards to the case?

Athlon X6 CPUs are good for encoding.
 
Sorry, didn't explain that very well. I am not sure about the PSU, have to double check it, its a Cooler Master 500W I think. I have a small shuttle type case that has 2 5.25 external bays, as well as 2 internal for the HDDs.

I meant I could use this case if needed, in the case that a dual socket board was too expensive and all I could deal with was a single socket board. A case is not really a problem, I have cases everywhere, from micro-atx to full server towers (like my 7 bay cheming). I also have a few 4U industrial size cases, as well as a Dell PowerEdge 850 1U case, that if I cant sell I will gut an possibly use to put a server board in. So I have cases out the ears.
 
mrmagoo_83 said:
Sorry, didn't explain that very well. I am not sure about the PSU, have to double check it, its a Cooler Master 500W I think. I have a small shuttle type case that has 2 5.25 external bays, as well as 2 internal for the HDDs.

I meant I could use this case if needed, in the case that a dual socket board was too expensive and all I could deal with was a single socket board. A case is not really a problem, I have cases everywhere, from micro-atx to full server towers (like my 7 bay cheming). I also have a few 4U industrial size cases, as well as a Dell PowerEdge 850 1U case, that if I cant sell I will gut an possibly use to put a server board in. So I have cases out the ears.
Click to expand...
Don't bother with the Coolermaster 500W. It's more than likely a piece of shit.

Case wise, gonna take your word on the cases. Just make sure that they don't use 80mm fans for cooling though.

Also do you happen to live near a Microcenter? They have two locations in Texas: One near Houston and one near Dallas
 
Didnt know there was one near Dallas, will have to look. I work in Irving. Ok looked it up, its not close, but its drivable at lunch. The power supply was given to me by a buddy, it was in a HTPC I had been trying to run, but we didn't get a long, the HTPC, not the buddy.
 
Cool. Well here's the deal: Right now from Microcenter, you can get a Phenom II 1055T CPU and a motherboard for only $210:
http://www.microcenter.com/specials...aign=E0883 eNews 20100803&utm_source=ACT_BYO&

The two motherboards you can get are the 785G-E53 AM3 ATX and the A785G3 AM3 mATX. Either will be fine for your needs.

$82 - G.Skill F3-10600CL9D-4GBNT 2 x 2GB DDR3 1333 RAM
$60 - Lite-On iHOS104-06 Blu-ray Reader SATA Drive
$65 - Antec NEO ECO 520C 520W PSU
---
Total: $207 shipped.

SO roughly $450 after everything is said and done.
 
Let me ask this, whats a good encoding time these days? Like I said, my dual core wanted like 36 hours using DVDFab to convert a BluRay to an uncompressed mkv file.
 
I found this list on my local craigslist - "Dell PowerEdge SC1425 DUAL 3Ghz Xeon, 6GB" $100. I'm assuming these are probably single core Xeons, but can't find any information on them, Dell's site isn't real helpful - "Processor, 80546K, 3.0G, 2M, XNI 800, N0".

I'm guessing this wouldn't be worth much to me since they are probably single core correct?
 
mrmagoo_83 said:
I found this list on my local craigslist - "Dell PowerEdge SC1425 DUAL 3Ghz Xeon, 6GB" $100. I'm assuming these are probably single core Xeons, but can't find any information on them, Dell's site isn't real helpful - "Processor, 80546K, 3.0G, 2M, XNI 800, N0".

I'm guessing this wouldn't be worth much to me since they are probably single core correct?
Click to expand...

Those are single core.
 
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