Rig for movie dl cum streaming, CCTV & mid-end game

[jonkerboy]

Hi everybody, I'm planning to build a workhorse rig. I hope all you sifus can give me some advice on the mobo, proc, ram and hdd choices. Thx in advance.

The rig will be used mainly for:
1. downloading movies;
2. recording TV/Astro programs;
3. streaming the said movies to my living room's TV via Wireless Media Player (such as the D-Link DSM320 http://www.dlink.com/products/?pid=318) and
4. to do CCTV recording.

Weekends, my 10-year-old son will also use it to play online games. (He just told me he hopes to play CS on it too ).

I already have spare monitor, keyboard, mouse, speakers, DVD burner and a new Enermax Coolergiant 480W PSU lying around. And I dont mind waiting for a good budget DirectX 10 gc and use the onboard graphic first. So I hope I'll not need to spend too much on this rig.

For the hdd, I wonder how big it needs to be that's good for one week's of CCTV recording (with motion-detection on of course)? Also, pls take into consideration that it'll also be used to download Korean series/movies (for the home minister lah)during the day when no one is using the broadband connection at home.

Will I be able to get away with around RM1000 - 1500 for such a rig (I dont mind chapalang casing)?

TQ!

[Adrian Wong]

Hmm.. IMHO, if you are on such a tight budget, no real need to go for a DX10 graphics card yet. After all, your kid only wants to play CS, right?

Just spend your money on a really big hard drive. Value-wise, 320GB hard drives seem to offer the most value for money at RM 1 per GB. But if you are doing a lot of downloading, and wish to store a lot of CCTV clips, then best you get the largest hard drive you can afford.

As for the CPU-motherboard and graphics card, well, you can go for a cheap AMD A64 combo with a GeForce 7300 GT (GDDR3) or GeForce 7600 GT. Cheap and good enough for your use.

[jonkerboy]

Thanks Adrian for your advice.

I don't mind up my budget to maximum of RM1500. So should I go for A64 X2 cpu instead of A64?

Also, as my boy will in time most likely to progress to playing advance games, therefore, I hope whatever mobo selected will allow for future upgrades. By any chance you know of any good mobo and GeForce 7300GT gc you can recommend me(with the brands and model codes)? Thx in advance.

[The_YongGrand]

Hi jonkerboy,

You can choose a very huge HDD (preferbly more than 200GB), an X2 (if it's cheap enough - maybe the cheapest will do!) and also stick in a 7300GT or a 7600GS. This will become a very good budget rig already.

[Adrian Wong]

Hmm.. I wouldn't worry about motherboard upgrades really. For games, the graphics card counts the most.

Since your primary objective is to store loads and loads of media files, best target the hard drive first. Get the biggest you can afford.

Then since games might be important for your son, see if you can afford a GeForce 7600 GT or if you can't, a GeForce 7600 GS. At the very least, get a GeForce 7300 GT, but make sure it comes with GDDR3 and not DDR2. If you overclock it, it will be a very good low-end card for your system.

You can check out some of our reviews of those cards here -

- GeForce 7600 GT
- Gainward GeForce 7300 GT

After getting the hard drive and graphics card, see how much you have left. If you can afford an A64 X2, great! But don't get too engrossed with the processor. I would rather get a single-core A64 and 1GB or 2GB of memory than an A64 X2 but only 512MB of memory.

Well, that's my 2 cents!

[jonkerboy]

Originally Posted by Adrian Wong

Hmm.. I wouldn't worry about motherboard upgrades really.

Since your primary objective is to store loads and loads of media files, best target the hard drive first. Get the biggest you can afford.

Then since games might be important for your son, see if you can afford a GeForce 7600 GT or if you can't, a GeForce 7600 GS. At the very least, get a GeForce 7300 GT, but make sure it comes with GDDR3 and not DDR2. If you overclock it, it will be a very good low-end card for your system.

After getting the hard drive and graphics card, see how much you have left. If you can afford an A64 X2, great! But don't get too engrossed with the processor. I would rather get a single-core A64 and 1GB or 2GB of memory than an A64 X2 but only 512MB of memory.

Well, that's my 2 cents!

Actually, I didn't mean to upgrade the mobo in the future. What I meant was a mobo that would allow me to upgrade the gc or add additional pcx cards later on. Think you misunderstood me

I agree with you on hdd. I'll definitely get a hdd of at least a 250gb one if not 320gb. About the gc, do you think it's advisable to get a secondhand 7600GS or GT?

Also, will the single-core A64 be able to handle game, cctv and video download(the latter two will be on an ongoing basis) simultaneously on those rare occasions? That's why I was thinking of getting the A64 X2, in particular, the X2 3600+. What say you?

BTW, any value-for-money mobos that are within my budget you are familiar with?

Thx in advance.

[Adrian Wong]

Originally Posted by jonkerboy

Actually, I didn't mean to upgrade the mobo in the future. What I meant was a mobo that would allow me to upgrade the gc or add additional pcx cards later on. Think you misunderstood me

I agree with you on hdd. I'll definitely get a hdd of at least a 250gb one if not 320gb. About the gc, do you think it's advisable to get a secondhand 7600GS or GT?

Also, will the single-core A64 be able to handle game, cctv and video download(the latter two will be on an ongoing basis) simultaneously on those rare occasions? That's why I was thinking of getting the A64 X2, in particular, the X2 3600+. What say you?

BTW, any value-for-money mobos that are within my budget you are familiar with?

Thx in advance.

Oh, I phrased it wrongly. Yeah, I know what you mean. Don't worry, as long as you buy an AM2 (for AMD) or LGA775 (for Intel) motherboard, you will have no problem upgrading the other components - CPU, graphics card, RAM, etc.

Hmm.. I think you will need more than 320GB. Heh.. But that's for you to decide, of course.

Yes, second-hand is not a problem. They should work just as good as a new one, only cheaper.

Well, it depends on the game, but if you can afford A64 X2, why not? It will probably be good for your system since it will need to multi-task a lot - let you play games while downloading movies, etc.

Hmm.. Like I said, I wouldn't worry about the motherboard just yet. Pick out the hard drive, graphics card, RAM and processor first. Then see how much you have left for the motherboard. Hehe...

But I don't mean that the motherboard quality isn't important. IMHO, if you can, get the best quality motherboard you can afford.

[goldfries]

Originally Posted by jonkerboy

Also, will the single-core A64 be able to handle game, cctv and video download(the latter two will be on an ongoing basis) simultaneously on those rare occasions? That's why I was thinking of getting the A64 X2, in particular, the X2 3600+. What say you?

the A64 should be able to handle it.

X2 3600+ is nice, you might want to consider X2 3800+. it costs just a bit more.

game and video-downloads at the same time is no better than playing online games.

i've been playing Battlefield 2142 (a pretty demanding game) on my A64 with 1GB RAM and i have other stuff like Firefox and Photoshop i have at the background and it still runs fine, and IMO this is still a more demanding task than what you've mentioned.

[Dashken]

A64 should be just fine. I have a A64 2800+ with 1GB RAM which downloads video, Firefox and D2OL (distributed folding) running 24/7 while watching videos and sometimes playing games too. Where I have another 3 PCs connected to this PC playing the videos I downloaded from my shared folders. And so far after more than 3 years, it's still rocking! *touch wood*

But if you can afford an X2, the better.

[jonkerboy]

Originally Posted by Adrian Wong

Well, it depends on the game, but if you can afford A64 X2, why not? It will probably be good for your system since it will need to multi-task a lot - let you play games while downloading movies, etc.

Think I'll go for the A64 X2 cpu since it still has got lots more mileage in it before quadruple cpu becomes available (and affordable ). At least then my son will be able to use it for another 3- 5 years, I hope.

Incidentally, I checked out your review of Gainward GeForce 7300GT gc, I noted that you said "Although many games were not really playable at 1600x1200, this card delivered smooth-as-silk graphics at 1280x1024. This is perfect since those who will actually buy these cards are unlikely to own monitors that can support 1600x1200 or greater".

How do I find out my monitor's resolution? Is it the (maximum) resolution found in 'Screen Resolution' in Start > Control Panel > Display > Setting?

If so then no point I go for the 7600 as I think the 17" CRT monitor I want to use the rig with most likely will not have 1600x1200 resolution (manufactured in 2001).

Thx in advance for your feedback.