[WinstonSmith]

Hi, all, about a week ago my Vaio HTPC began to crash and I'm looking at buying a new one. Prebuilt is the way I need to go. I simply do not have the time to build one right now. In addition, this one has a nice rebate with it.


A remote w/ "the green button" is a must for me due to my wife's need for it.


Here is one I've found recently, and I need your opinions on:

http://www1.officedepot.com/a/produc...ktop-Computer/



There is no question some of it is overkill, I know that, but its hard to find a prebuilt system that includes the things I need and isn't overkill.


That said, I have a couple areas of concern.

-- The video card is a GeForce 9500GS. Is that going to be enough to run DVDs, HDTV, record and play back HDTV, and, in the future, play BluRay? I currently have a 7600GS in my HTPC and could transfer that if it would be better.

-- Is the power supply going to be enough? In the future, I would like to add a BluRay player to this system. I don't want to burn up the PS. I think that is what happened to my Vaio.


Thanks for your opinions. I love this place.


FYI: I plan to connect it to the system described in my sig.

 

[WinstonSmith]

Any help? The rebate on this thing ends Saturday, so I'll have to make a choice pretty quickly.


I appreciate any input.

 

[brianley]

The 9500 is 2 generations newer than the 7600 - it can provide hardware acceleration for most file types. Definitley don't swap it for the 7600. Power supply should be fine (I don't see wattage listed), particularly if you swap the included DVD drive for the BluRay one.


Personally, I'd go to ubid.com and buy one of the HP refurbs with the 8500 GPU and save 3-400 bucks, but that's just me...

 

[WinstonSmith]

Thanks, is the 8500 pretty adept at decoding?

 

[ilovejedd]

Forget about Office Depot. Just saw this on Slickdeals.net. Speccing it similar to the Office Depot deal, it's $899+tax after coupon w/o mail-in rebates.


If you're willing to spec it a bit lower, you can even get it for $649+tax with Blu-ray drive included:


Windows Vista Home Premium SP1 - 64-bit

Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600

3GB DDR2 800 SDRAM

512MB NVIDIA GeForce 9500GS

500GB 7200RPM SATA HDD

Blu-ray/HD DVD player & Lightscribe SuperMulti DVD burner

ATSC-NTSC TV tuner with PVR, FM tuner, remote

Integrated 7.1 channel sound w/front audio ports


Also makes for an inexpensive CableCARD-ready PC if that floats your boat.

 

[WinstonSmith]

That seems like a great deal.


How is that video card?

 

[ilovejedd]



Quote:
Originally Posted by WinstonSmith /forum/post/14271736


That seems like a great deal.


How is that video card?

Quote:
Originally Posted by brianley /forum/post/14267519


The 9500 is 2 generations newer than the 7600 - it can provide hardware acceleration for most file types. Definitley don't swap it for the 7600.

No idea how the video card performs but it's similar to the video card included with the Office Depot deal, except with less memory.

 

[WinstonSmith]

I'm just wondering if it will be sufficient to drive HDTV, ripped movies, and BluRay movies.

 

[ilovejedd]



Quote:
Originally Posted by WinstonSmith /forum/post/14272382


I'm just wondering if it will be sufficient to drive HDTV, ripped movies, and BluRay movies.

Yes, it should.

 

[adude]

I have a HP m9100. It has AMD Quad 9500 and 8400 GS. I can play blu-ray + record HD show simultaneously. I was using ffdshow as decoder for blu-ray and cpu handled it well without any jerks/jadder etc.


Intel processors are better than AMD for video editing/decoding. So, you should do fine with these configurations.