[Rop]

I'm slowly but surely starting to put my (first) HTPC together (have build many PCs before though) and one of the components I want to go with is the Asus P4PE motherboard.


On the Asus Web site it says "optional" for a number of features, such as serial-ATA, LAN, audio and firewire. These are items I need though, so I want to make sure that the Mobo I order has these 'options'. Does anyone know if there's a special type designation to make sure the board comes with these? Or how does this work? The Asus Web site is not too clear about this.


While I'm at it: Any recommendations for a good source for PC components? The forum guidelines discourage posting of shop URLs, so please just drop me a line at . I'd like to find one mail order shop that has most of the items I need and has reasonable service/reliability/prices. To avoid having to order from a dozen places and pay a fortune in shipping...


Thanks!


-Rob-

 

[rudolpht]

Search "P4PE" and you will get your answer.


Newegg is where I got mine & it is an EXCELLENT choice for an HTPC. From the low end to the highend the spread is about a $20 difference. Go for the higher end and build in a little future (Gigabit Enet, etc.).


Tim

 

[jmbnyc]

Do a search for Asus P4PE-GBL and you will find what you need, plus find the option designation info. I ordered this mobo from jncs. I put a 2.4 GHz CPU in it with 512KB of PC2700 memory.


I recently ordered all my stuff for an HTPC that I am building and found the following online retailers interesting:

www.digitalconnection.com
www.directron.com


What case are you going with? I ordered the Vision 2 case.

 

[Salmoneous]

Question 1:


The various flavors of P4PE's have letters after "P4PE/" to designate which options are included. But don't worry about learning which letters match up with each feature. If you look at the listings at a quality website like www.newegg.com or www.mwave.com they are very clear and obvious about which features are included.


Question 2:


Hmmm, didn't realize recommending a website was discouraged. Oh well. When I was looking to buy my P4PE and all the other parts for my HTPC, I did searches on this website and several usenet forums. The same two places kept getting recommened over and over again as having good customer service, being straight shooters, and have good, but not rock-bottom pricing. Do any search and I'm sure you'll turn up the names.

 

[Rop]

Quote:

Originally posted by jmbnyc What case are you going with? I ordered the Vision 2 case.

After looking at lots of them and lots of back and forth I'm now fairly sure I'll be going with the Kingwin aluminum KT-436KB/WM case. This is a mid-tower black ATX case.


I considered the more "audio component" looking cases but eventually just figured it's easier (and cheaper) to put a regular mid-tower next to the big screen. I did want something that didn't look like just any PC tower though, and that's where the Kingwin comes in.


- Rob -

 

[abshar]

The P4PE comes in three forms , 2 and 3 are basically the same except it is called Gold and I think it has graphic chip on it, and it is about $30 more

last week I bought the second one and it has every thing you will need now and in the near future.

last night I installed the OS, so far it is going as expected.


1-P4PE

2-P4PE/L/R/S

3-P4PE/L/R/Gld


from other gurus I would like to know how to tweak for CPU, I have 1.8/A


abshar