Rolando
Screenwriter
- Joined
- Feb 19, 2001
- Messages
- 1,338
Hi,
Hope someone out there with experience is feeling paternal and will take me under their wing.
I have had a PC for a while so I am not completely PC illiterate. I have been thinking of upgrading my PC for a while since I still have a P3 500 with a 40Gb HD and 128Mb of RAM.
My problem is I like having the good stuff. So I keep waiting to inform myself as I have been out of the PC loop pretty much since 2000 when my PC was top of the line :b
I also read through the Primer and got a basic idea of what to look for but as I like to say: walk me through it like I'm 4 years old.
First off let's establish: Do I need an HTPC? Now I know I will be going FP in a year or so but for now I just got a 34" direct view. (Toshiba 34HFX84). Will I be able to use an HTPC? I am interested mostly for the ability to play movies from my Hard Drive and being able to set up trailers before hand. Is it worth it?
Now the next step might me a 51" CRT RPTV. neither of these has DVI. Will this be an obstacle? I guess I will need a HDMI to DVI cable?
So now th meat of it. What do I get? I mean really, from scratch. Pentium or AMD? I am really lost right now so basicaly I am looking for a shopping list. I want to take a reply and go to the store and say: give me this!
Now I know I want to eventually get extensive like dual layar DVD burner, 2 Gigs of RAM etc. but for now I want to get the basics to run a good HTPC. Not top of the line but not econo version.
What I eventually want is a system where I cam back up my DVDs on it play them from the PC. Also back them up on DVD-R so my 7 year old dauther can watch them on her DVD player without me worrying about her scratching them.
So what do I get? I want to be able to say, watch the T2 HD that came on T2 extreme on my TV or watch a quicktime trailer from Apple.com on my set etc.
can anyone help? Which processor? which video card?
oh yeah and do you guys used the HTPC as the sound processor too? like audio out to amp?
Hope someone out there with experience is feeling paternal and will take me under their wing.
I have had a PC for a while so I am not completely PC illiterate. I have been thinking of upgrading my PC for a while since I still have a P3 500 with a 40Gb HD and 128Mb of RAM.
My problem is I like having the good stuff. So I keep waiting to inform myself as I have been out of the PC loop pretty much since 2000 when my PC was top of the line :b
I also read through the Primer and got a basic idea of what to look for but as I like to say: walk me through it like I'm 4 years old.
First off let's establish: Do I need an HTPC? Now I know I will be going FP in a year or so but for now I just got a 34" direct view. (Toshiba 34HFX84). Will I be able to use an HTPC? I am interested mostly for the ability to play movies from my Hard Drive and being able to set up trailers before hand. Is it worth it?
Now the next step might me a 51" CRT RPTV. neither of these has DVI. Will this be an obstacle? I guess I will need a HDMI to DVI cable?
So now th meat of it. What do I get? I mean really, from scratch. Pentium or AMD? I am really lost right now so basicaly I am looking for a shopping list. I want to take a reply and go to the store and say: give me this!
Now I know I want to eventually get extensive like dual layar DVD burner, 2 Gigs of RAM etc. but for now I want to get the basics to run a good HTPC. Not top of the line but not econo version.
What I eventually want is a system where I cam back up my DVDs on it play them from the PC. Also back them up on DVD-R so my 7 year old dauther can watch them on her DVD player without me worrying about her scratching them.
So what do I get? I want to be able to say, watch the T2 HD that came on T2 extreme on my TV or watch a quicktime trailer from Apple.com on my set etc.
can anyone help? Which processor? which video card?
oh yeah and do you guys used the HTPC as the sound processor too? like audio out to amp?