Entries tagged with max builds a pc series - Channel 8

Max Builds an HTPC Part IV: The RAM

Max — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 21:17:00 GMT

Personally I can’t wait until we get to the point that memory is no longer volatile… imagine the power savings, speed, and data efficiency! But that’s a topic for another day. Right now, let’s make our Random Access Memory (RAM) decisions for our build an HTPC project!

In the motherboard discussion, many of you were recommending the “G45” chipset, which means we should stick to 240 pin DDR2 800 chips. Beyond that, the rest is really up to you to decide.

2 gigs? 4 gigs? 16 gigs?
Should it have a heat spreader?
What latency should we consider?
Does latency even matter for media applications?

Reaaaaaady….. GO!

Max Builds an HTPC Part III: The Motherboard

Max — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 20:37:00 GMT

It seems that you all have strongly leaned towards the Intel camp for this HTPC build… although I’m not sure I’d totally discount AMD for this space, your arguments are sound and we’ll continue on this premise.

Some of you think the Core i7 is the place to be, but there seem to be more of you recommending we stick to the Core 2 Duo/Quad which I think makes the most sense as well.

So, time to choose the motherboard!

Your pointers:

Stick with Intel, the chipset is up to you
Consider the board’s capabilities… specifically if it can be passively cooled (no fans) or if it will require a honkin’ big fan which may be a source of noise ;)
Power requirements… do you want something that’s hungry or light on the power needs? Remember, this may be on considerably more than your normal PC (although I admit my PC is on considerably more than the average person’s, haha)

Ooook… hit it!

Max Builds an HTPC Part II: The CPU

Max — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 23:18:00 GMT

I’m not sure we completely closed out our discussion on the case yet, but the show must go on!

Next up is the CPU for our Home Theater PC. Last time we had such a discussion, I feel like AMD and Intel were top contenders. This round, Intel is doing a bit more “winning” in the chip space, BUT keep in mind that as a home theater PC, we want to consider thermal efficiency, cost, and performance.

That said, here are your pointers:

Intel just recently released their new Core i7 chip, is that the right choice for this?? (or am I throwing you off the path ;))
What’s more important for media… high clock speed or multiple cores?
Should we rely on the CPU for our high definition content, or our GPU later on?
Bonus: what two inputs yield a “true” or “1” output for a NOR gate? (that’s just some basic logic for you electronic nuts, if this is too simple, I’ll start asking tougher questions ;))

Max Builds an HTPC Part I: The Case

Max — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 20:00:00 GMT

The HD160 Plus by Zalman

The Fusion by Antec (or in Black)

Alright, have at it… what do you guys say???!?!?

Oooooh myyyyy it’s a NEW Build-a-PC Time! This go: Media Center

Max — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 23:28:00 GMT

If you’re new to Channel 8, this is one of the most fun discussions we have had in the past (although your favorite is really up to you, but this one was one of my personal ones).

So here’s the basics of what’s about to happen:

I propose a topic component to discuss and I’ll give you a few pointers to get you started
You all participate in the discussion in the comments, give your views, votes for certain components, bash each other’s silly ideas (we call that “constructive criticism” ;))
I’ll choose the best of the best and use those components based on your suggestions/votes etc.
I’ll build this sucker… and one of YOU gets to keep it

So stay tuned for the first component post soon!

Read on for more on the rules, etc.

The Rules:

Anyone can comment, only a student enrolled in a higher education institution can win (US undergraduate/graduate university level or international equivalent).
While I encourage you to discuss your ideas as much as possible, you will only be allowed one contest entry per post in the series (meaning if you leave 3 comments in the graphics card post and 6 comments in the hard disk post, you have 2 total entries in the contest).
Despite my leaning towards choosing a winner based on the best thought out contribution... that may be too subjective and therefore the winner will be chosen at random (but of course as in rule 2, more entries increases your chances)
Posts will be open to discussion for 3 days each (unless more time is deemed necessary). Once a component decision has been made, no more entries for that post will be counted (but you will still be able to comment).
Try to keep this civil--that means a comment purely to insult someone else probably isn't in the best taste.
I may have to modify these rules as necessary. While it probably won't happen, I just want you to know it is possible.
Prior “build-a-PC” winners of the grand prize (the PC itself) are not eligible to win, although I encourage your participation (yeah, this pretty much means you, Trix).
No Microsofties can win… that means you, Laura ;).

Max Builds a PC: The Final How-To Video and WINNER!

Max — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 16:00:00 GMT

It’s finally done! The “Max Builds a PC series” wraps up with the build process from start to finish. I had a lot of fun throughout this entire series starting with debating and choosing the parts with all of you all the way to the time I spent in the studio putting it all together. My only regret is that I have to give this 5.9 rated PC away rather than keeping it for myself……… Oh yes, you read that right: this got a 5.9 rating from Windows Vista’s experience rating system!

So to recap what we've accomplished, here are the old posts and decisions we have made:

· The Case: Antec 182B
· The CPU: Intel QX9650
· The Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-X38T-DQ6 (rev 1.1 if I can) ***this was out of stock so I went with the Asus P5E
· The RAM: Corsair 2 Gigs ***Since the Motherboard was a DDR2 based system, I decided to go with Kingston 4GB instead of just 2
· The Hard Disks: Western Digital Raptor and Backup Drive
· The Graphics Card: ATi 3870 series
· The Optical Drives: A draw… I decided to go with a DVD burner, no HD or BluRay
· The Input Devices: Logitech MX Revolution and Microsoft Reclusa
· Monitor: HP w2207

This thing is no joke... it's wicked fast. I mean, it's the fastest personal desktop I have EVER used. Windows Vista is SNAPPY, programs load INSTANTLY, and this monitor makes it all look so VIBRANT. I even loaded Premiere to see how fast video encoding was, and wow am I sorry to give this thing up. So now that you're all sufficiently excited after over a month of planning, it's time to announce the winner of this Channel 8 powerhouse!

And the winner is.......... drumrollllllllll................................ .

In addition to the PC, I have loaded it with a few games like Age of Empires III and Gears of War (PC). But of course, I also included the Expression Suite, Visual Studio 2008 Pro, and some other goodies.

As an added bonus, I threw in a second prize since you guys were so awesome... it's a black Zune 8 and it goes to .

Again thanks to everyone who participated in the discussion, it was very impressive to see the facts and research you guys put together and I look forward to our next series. In fact, I already have decided to do a new series VERY soon, so stay tuned!

Looky what I found in my office...

Max — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 18:43:00 GMT

Hey hey 8ers, I’m back in the US. I stepped into my office this morning and was greeted by a fort of boxes… OK so it was not really a fort so much as a small pile by my desk, but I turned it into a nice display on Laura’s couch (as seen in picture).

In case you are new around here and missed my earlier posts, what you are looking at are the components for the “Max Builds a PC” series.

That’s right folks, the parts are in and it’s time to build! So to sum it up… I’m back, the parts are in, and I’m ready for action. Be on the lookout for a build video in the near future.

Now… who wants to win this bad boy???

Max Builds a PC Series Part IX: The Monitor and more…

Max — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 17:00:00 GMT

Max Builds a PC Series Part IX: The Monitor and more…

Wow this has been one epic series with major contributions from all of you 8ers out there… There are those of you that had little to no hardware knowledge having stumbled into this discussion early on and yet you researched and provided logical reasoning for your suggestions. A few of you were already seasoned hardware gurus (which led to some really fun debates when there were disagreements!) but it looks like even the veterans learned a thing or two.

In the end, I have to say that collaborating on this as a team has been a stellar experience that I think could very well become part of the DNA here on Channel 8. Feel free to make suggestions, of course, in the comments or in the Student Union.

Before we wrap things up we have just one more component to choose: the MONITOR. In my experience I have found this is where most people make the mistake of going as cheap as possible… or as large as possible. I personally believe two things: quality is paramount, and size is subjective to need. This is the part you will see the most, so definitely take care to make the right decision.

My vote: the Samsung 226BW. It fits with my gadget style likes and it has great specifications on top of that. Namely, a 2ms response rate on an LCD is wicked fast. In addition, it has a great brightness level and contrast ratio which is why it gets my vote. What do you guys think?

Here are the components we have chosen so far:

· The Case: Antec 182B
· The CPU: Intel QX9650
· The Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-X38T-DQ6 (rev 1.1 if I can)
· The RAM: Corsair 2 Gigs
· The Hard Disks: Western Digital Raptor and Backup Drive
· The Graphics Card: ATi 3870 series
· The Optical Drives: A draw… I decided to go with a DVD burner, no HD or BluRay
· The Input Devices: Logitech MX Revolution and Microsoft Reclusa
· Monitor: still time to vote….
· Accessories: if you think I have forgotten anything, write it in the comments for this post ASAP!

On a side note, I will be traveling overseas for the next few weeks (Jan 11-28) and will have sporadic internet connectivity (if at all). Therefore you will see a little less from me during that time but I will check in as often as I can. As soon as I get back, hopefully the parts will have all arrived and I will get going on the build process, so sit tight!

Max Builds a PC Series Part VIII: Input Devices

Max — Mon, 07 Jan 2008 16:25:00 GMT

I know what you're thinking: we're getting so close to the end you're already starting to see blinking LEDs and hearing the tranquil whir of a semi-silent case fan! (If this is literally happening, you’re having a stroke and you should probably get to a hospital soon…)

Here’s what we have covered so far:

· The Case

· The CPU

· The RAM

Next up is deciding the input devices for this beast. Some of you have already seen my post about the Microsoft Reclusa keyboard being my new favorite—especially coupled with the Microsoft Habu mouse—and a few of you even agreed that it would be a very nice addition to our Build a PC series. So I’m throwing my vote in the pool for the Reclusa and Habu since I like them so much.

Another set to consider is the Microsoft Wireless Entertainment Desktop 8000 since it is, obviously, wireless and a very well designed set. Personally, however, I prefer wired so I never have to deal with charging or batteries. And no matter how miniscule it may be, ANY lag whatsoever is unacceptable to me whether I’m gaming, working on some graphics, or surfing the web. I’m very picky when it comes to input devices… so don’t mess!

What say you?

Max Builds a PC Series Part VII: Optical Drives

Max — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 18:33:00 GMT

I have to say I’m impressed with the amount of research and thought you all have been putting into each component in our Build a PC series. We are getting really close to ordering all the parts and building this sucker!

Already covered is our case, CPU, motherboard, hard disk, RAM, and graphics card… but we still have a few more decisions to make. Next up are the optical drives—and I don’t expect this will be a simple decision.

The Pointers:

For over a year now we have been amidst a new “high definition” format war between HD-DVD and Blu-Ray
I personally am leaning towards an HD-DVD solution since it tends to be slightly cheaper and has better backwards compatibility with today’s DVDs
Brand I will leave up to you guys, I know Asus has an HD DVD drive out… who else?
Should we also get a DVD burner? Which one?
Lastly, does it matter if we go SATA or IDE?

Ok… go drop some knowledge--comment style :)

Max Builds a PC Series Part VI: The Graphics Card

Max — Mon, 31 Dec 2007 20:51:00 GMT

Happy new year friends and enemies (wait, do I have any enemies??)... It's time to scoot along to our next step in building our PC. It's a new year so let's start off with a whopper: the Graphics Card!

If you're new to this discussion, check out how we've done so far with our case, CPU, motherboard, hard disk, and RAM. If you're well aware of our progress, then jump into the comments and have at it, big dog.

This is going to be one tough decision so let's get right down to the pointers:

The two big players in this game are ATi and nVidia
Since we're getting an X38 motherboard, I'd recommend we go PCIe 2.0 for the graphics card
I'm leaning towards a single card, not two, or three, or if some of you had their way... 4
What's more important: game performance or HD video and media center capabilities?
What extra features do you think we should go for? DirectX 10.1? HDCP capable?

There's so much to think about with this one... so go nuts.

Max Builds a PC Series Part V: Hard Disk

Max — Wed, 26 Dec 2007 19:45:00 GMT

It looks like our PC is really starting to take shape having had great discussions already about our case, CPU, motherboard, and RAM.

Some of those components were a little more limited in choices since you can't plop an AMD Phenom into an Intel X38 chipset... not without bending some pins at least and creating a very expensive paperweight--not recommended.

But now we're onto the hard disk and oh man are there plenty of choices out there.

So as usual, here are some pointers to keep in mind:

Interface to the motherboard... SATA? SATAII? IDE??
Rotation speed of the disk... 5400RPM? 7200RPM? 10,000RPM??!?!?
Size of course.... let's think GB, first person to say TeraBytes is getting their username changed to "I-Like-A-Do-Da-Cha-Cha."
Brand... I'll be honest that I've had bad experiences with some of the top brands except Western Digital. They are the only brand for me these days, but I'm talking about years ago so maybe others are good these days; you tell me.

Alright, let the games begin!

Max Builds a PC Series Part IV: RAM

Max — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 20:17:00 GMT

Since in our last thread we narrowed down our motherboard choices to the X38 chipset, specifically the Gigabyte GA-X38T-DQ6, that means that when it comes to choosing RAM... we have to stick with DDR3.

"RAM you say? Audowhaty?" No I don't mean that truck you've been drooling over (besides, that's too big for the "compact car" parking spot you have on campus)... I'm talking about Random Access Memory.

Key factors to consider:

How much is enough? 2GB? 4GB? Vista requires 512 MB minimum, 1 GB for the premium experience... but I'll be the first to admit that 2 GB is more of a sweet spot for Vista and of course it doesn't hurt to have more.
Keep in mind that a 32-bit OS can only "address"* up to 4 GB of memory in total (including onchip and other devices like graphics cards). This means if you have 2 graphics cards each with 512 MB of memory, you can effectively address at most 3 GB of other memory modules (RAM etc.)
Our FSB clock will be 1333 MHz, what clock rate should our DDR3 memory be set at? (don't end sentences with a preposition... )
Latency????? Does this matter?
Are we going to get into another brand war? Who are you loyal to these days?

Alright get crackin' and let me know what you think!

*addressing in computer-speak means being able to have a numeric pointer for each location in memory. If you use a 32 bit OS, you can effectively address 2^32 locations, or about 4 GB; 64 bit means 2^64 which even though we cannot due today due to hardware limitations, it will peak at about 16 EXAbytes (mega, giga, tera, peta, exa).

Series Rules
Part I: Case
Part II: CPU
Part III: Motherboard

Max Builds a PC Series Part III: The Motherboard

Max — Sat, 15 Dec 2007 18:34:00 GMT

So far we've narrowed down our case selection to two brands: Lian-Li and Antec. It was a tight race and it's still not 100% sure yet but the Antec 182B may be the winner on that one.

As for processor, due to its thermal efficiency, advances in chip design, and blazing performance... you guys convinced me to go with the Intel QX9650.

Next up for debate is the peice that holds it all together: the motherboard.

We have already narrowed down our choice considerably by picking an Intel based quad core chip with a 1333 FSB speed, so clearly we need a board that supports that.

Decision factors to consider:

Type of chipset... P35? X38? An nVidia 680?
The memory slots of the board can accept either DDR2 or DDR3 (there are a few hybrids but I personally see no reason to go that route)... so this means the board you choose has a direct impact on the type of RAM we can use later
What kind of onboard components are important? Is it sound? Wireless networking? Firewire ports?
Does brand matter or is it just the chipset it uses that makes a difference?

I'll throw the first option into the hat: the Asus Maximus Formula SE. This thing is 45nm ready, quad-core ready, supports ATi CrossFire (my preference graphics brand), and hey with a name like MAXimus, you can't go wrong, right?

So 8-ers..... what say you?

Max Builds a PC Series Part II: The CPU

Max — Mon, 10 Dec 2007 19:47:00 GMT

Looks like we have a close race in the case selection with the camps generally siding with either a lian-li or an antec solution (I tallied 6 votes for each). I'm going to leave the discussion open on that one still while starting the new--sure to be a heated discussion--thread:

What CPU should we use???!?!?

I'm going to leave this one a little more open ended instead of starting you off with two great choices, I will give you some pointers.

Pointer 1: Intel and AMD are the current giants in the CPU space. While there are others still in the game, for our build I would rather stick with the more mainstream choices.

Pointer 2: While clock speed may have been the deciding factor in years past, these days there are more features to consider such as cores and cache.

Pointer 3: Both Intel and AMD have different front side bus architectures and memory controller placements... for example Intel currently offers 1066MHz and 1333MHz FSB options. AMD utilizes what they call "hypertransport" and have recently released their new version with their Spider platform.

Pointer 4: Don't forget thermal and power requirements... an Intel Extreme Edition chip may be fast, but it sure is power hungry and requires a good cooling solution. The new AMD Phenom is quad core and has a surprisingly low thermal envelope...

Point 5: well don't just sit there... comment COMMENT COMMENT!

PS: original rules here.

Max Builds a PC Series Part I: The Case

Max — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 14:39:00 GMT

Here it is 8-ees... or is it 8-ers? Whatever it is, it's time for you guys to get your opinion out there and help me pick the case for our new project PC. Based on everyone's input, it seems that this PC's goal will be an all around system good for gaming, productivity, and media.

So step one: let's pick the case enclosure for this sucka. One of my favorite case companies is Antec so my first option to throw out there is the Antec P182 in Gunmetal or Black (there are also white and silver iterations in the 180 series I believe, but those colors aren't my speed personally).

I have had the Antec Sonata series I and III cases and loved them both due to solid construction, super quietness, and included power supplies. So Antec has my attention so far and this case has had some great reviews.

Another option I will toss out to see if you guys like is the one suggested earlier by Dau_Sama, the Lian Li PC-B25B.

(If you haven't figured it out yet, I'm a big fan of black and silent)

I haven't seen this one in person yet but from the pictures on the site it seems very stylish. The blue lit circle in front fits with just about every modern electronic device I have these days, so I'm partial to this design :-).

So what other ideas do you all have? Throw them into the comments and try to support your reasoning!

Max Builds a PC Series

Max — Sun, 02 Dec 2007 21:59:00 GMT

To kick off my joining the Channel 8 team, I wanted to show you something interesting, something you could learn from, aaand give you something cool.

So here's the plan:

In this series, I will present my point of view about a certain computer component (like a graphics card or motherboard)
YOU comment and tell me your point of view and why
Once we have all the components discussed and chosen, I'll build it and post video to show exactly how I did it
Here's the fun part... when I'm done, one of you clever community commentators will WIN the new PC!

Now it may not look like an HP Blackbird--my favorite looking PC on the market today--but I am sure together we can make this thing fly and maybe even find a slick case to put it in?

Before I get started, this is your chance to make any suggestions if you think I should go about this differently. So get commenting and keep me on track!

The Rules:

Anyone can comment, only a student enrolled in a higher education institution can win (US undergraduate/graduate university level or international equivalent).
While I encourage you to discuss your ideas as much as possible, you will only be allowed one contest entry per post in the series (meaning if you leave 3 comments in the graphics card post and 6 comments in the hard disk post, you have 2 total entries in the contest).
Despite my leaning towards choosing a winner based on the best thought out contribution... that may be too subjective and therefore the winner will be chosen at random (but of course as in part 2, more entries increases your chances)
Posts will be open to discussion for 3 days each (unless more time is deemed necessary). Once a component decision has been made, no more entries for that post will be counted (but you will still be able to comment).
Try to keep this civil--that means a comment purely to insult someone else probably isn't in the best taste.
I may have to modify these rules as necessary. While it probably won't happen, I just want you to know it is possible.

Series Status (as of 12/12/07): discussing the CPU
Part I: The Case
Part II: The CPU