ragejg
06-23-03, 04:44 PM
For the past 4 months, 2/3 of my pc use has been in my home theatre pc setup...
- Gigabyte KT266A mobo
- XP1600/2000/Tbird1.4/XP1700 cpu's (I swttch a lot)
- SOMETIMES 512mb PC2100, usually 256mb
- GF2ti (usually)/FX5200 (playin around)/GF3 (for the past week... testing @ stock fsb's.../ 8500 AIW DV Soon...
- 400W PSU
- Good Quality Cybertron case
- Decent Ventilation
- 12X DVD
- 52X CDRW
- 27" Samsung TV
- AIWA 5.1 500W Reciever w/ Satellites, cabinets, & a (strong enuff for me) 50W sub
- ATI Remote Wonder
- AOpen cordless keyboard/mouse combo
I end up doing A LOT of surfing, media handling, AND GAMING on this system...
I play (Right now anyway, for convenience's sake):
UT1
SSSE
MOHAA
Will Rock Demo (tryin ta like it!:D)
UT2K3 Demo
Unreal2 Demo (I have the full version but haven't bothered to throw it on here yet)
Some of these are fairly *taxing* games (I'm not doin up BF1942 till megots 512mb PERMANENTLY)... and my specs are IMO that of a lower midrange class system... BUT...
heh... is 1024x768 used?
NO.
... how bout 800x600?
Most of the time...
... what about old 640x480?
Text too small? ..sure, I'll use it!
...heck, not everybody lists benchies @ 8x6 anymore... and while normal TV's are still around, HTPC owners will be using those lower resolutions...
heh, that "lower ceilling" really allows the GF2ti to still be a kickbutt card...
and the 64bit memory equipped 128mb FX5200 even did admirably...
While the GF3 just feels astonishingly PERFECTLY EQUIPPED for this role... a ti4200 would be nice @ stock speeds to keep heat/noise down... darn 7k fan on vidcard:rolleyes:
The 8500AIW DV performed nicely @ htpc resolutions when I had it on a crt a few months ago, before the RMA... It felt decent with cat3.1's, and I'm sure will give me performance basically on par with the GF3...
...
Might it be nice for some reviewers to actually allocate a little bit of focus to things like:
- TV-Out Quality (flicker/distortion/color clarity)
- Gaming perf. @ HTPC resolutions
.. yes, these things are peppered in among some reviews, but never with the focus on HTPC...
I'm not the only person with an HTPC who likes to game...
Or are there too many HTPC owners who do Twinview, and actually have a dedicated CRT as well? I did that for a while, then I got used to the setup JUST on the tv... I just need a script to instantly open me up nview's zoom window, so I cann assign a hotkey to the remote wonder... that'll be sweet... sometimes you need it for small text...
Who else out there purchases components from an htpc perspective?
I guess this also covers the Shuttle P4/R3XX boyz with their 42" Plasmas... sheesh, money money..:)
Questions/Comments/Rants on this subject?
Fire away...:D
- Gigabyte KT266A mobo
- XP1600/2000/Tbird1.4/XP1700 cpu's (I swttch a lot)
- SOMETIMES 512mb PC2100, usually 256mb
- GF2ti (usually)/FX5200 (playin around)/GF3 (for the past week... testing @ stock fsb's.../ 8500 AIW DV Soon...
- 400W PSU
- Good Quality Cybertron case
- Decent Ventilation
- 12X DVD
- 52X CDRW
- 27" Samsung TV
- AIWA 5.1 500W Reciever w/ Satellites, cabinets, & a (strong enuff for me) 50W sub
- ATI Remote Wonder
- AOpen cordless keyboard/mouse combo
I end up doing A LOT of surfing, media handling, AND GAMING on this system...
I play (Right now anyway, for convenience's sake):
UT1
SSSE
MOHAA
Will Rock Demo (tryin ta like it!:D)
UT2K3 Demo
Unreal2 Demo (I have the full version but haven't bothered to throw it on here yet)
Some of these are fairly *taxing* games (I'm not doin up BF1942 till megots 512mb PERMANENTLY)... and my specs are IMO that of a lower midrange class system... BUT...
heh... is 1024x768 used?
NO.
... how bout 800x600?
Most of the time...
... what about old 640x480?
Text too small? ..sure, I'll use it!
...heck, not everybody lists benchies @ 8x6 anymore... and while normal TV's are still around, HTPC owners will be using those lower resolutions...
heh, that "lower ceilling" really allows the GF2ti to still be a kickbutt card...
and the 64bit memory equipped 128mb FX5200 even did admirably...
While the GF3 just feels astonishingly PERFECTLY EQUIPPED for this role... a ti4200 would be nice @ stock speeds to keep heat/noise down... darn 7k fan on vidcard:rolleyes:
The 8500AIW DV performed nicely @ htpc resolutions when I had it on a crt a few months ago, before the RMA... It felt decent with cat3.1's, and I'm sure will give me performance basically on par with the GF3...
...
Might it be nice for some reviewers to actually allocate a little bit of focus to things like:
- TV-Out Quality (flicker/distortion/color clarity)
- Gaming perf. @ HTPC resolutions
.. yes, these things are peppered in among some reviews, but never with the focus on HTPC...
I'm not the only person with an HTPC who likes to game...
Or are there too many HTPC owners who do Twinview, and actually have a dedicated CRT as well? I did that for a while, then I got used to the setup JUST on the tv... I just need a script to instantly open me up nview's zoom window, so I cann assign a hotkey to the remote wonder... that'll be sweet... sometimes you need it for small text...
Who else out there purchases components from an htpc perspective?
I guess this also covers the Shuttle P4/R3XX boyz with their 42" Plasmas... sheesh, money money..:)
Questions/Comments/Rants on this subject?
Fire away...:D