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UK diy (uk.d-i-y) For the discussion of all topics related to diy (do-it-yourself) in the UK. All levels of experience and proficency are welcome to join in to ask questions or offer solutions. |
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#1
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Buiding a desktop PC.
I rather fancy having a PC integrated to the main Hi-Fi etc system. Mainly
to download/store music etc files. Got a fair bit of space for it, so even an older case size would be fine - but flat rather than a tower. Would like a decent processor so it doesn't become obsolete quickly. Only need an HDMI output for the TV, so probably not a fancy graphics card. I've built a few in the past, but can't for the life of me remember who I got the bits from. Googling as usual gives several. What would be the most reliable mother board to go for? Not had that good experience with ASUS before. And which processor? As I said not done anything like this for ages, so very out of touch. -- *Real women don't have hot flashes, they have power surges. Dave Plowman London SW To e-mail, change noise into sound. |
#2
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Buiding a desktop PC.
On 07/01/2019 14:07, Dave Plowman (News) wrote:
I rather fancy having a PC integrated to the main Hi-Fi etc system. Mainly to download/store music etc files. Got a fair bit of space for it, so even an older case size would be fine - but flat rather than a tower. Would like a decent processor so it doesn't become obsolete quickly. Only need an HDMI output for the TV, so probably not a fancy graphics card. Given the choice of stuff you can buy from the likes of Morgan I can't see the point in building your own any more unless for gaming. All the modern Intel i5 and i7 chips have more than adequate 2D graphics for normal users. Not up to partial screen video so if you intend to do video editing on it then you will need a graphics card. Otherwise you have have a high performance system that idles at under 50W using an i7-3770 or similar bought secondhand for around £300. I've built a few in the past, but can't for the life of me remember who I got the bits from. Googling as usual gives several. Many of the places I used to buy from are no longer in business. Scan are still going: https://www.scan.co.uk/ What would be the most reliable mother board to go for? Not had that good experience with ASUS before. And which processor? As I said not done anything like this for ages, so very out of touch. First define a budget and then decide what your priorities are. I would tend to favour low power, fast enough and quiet if it is a media centre. Bigger quieter slow moving fans will help as will SSDs to avoid noises off. You might also want some acoustic foam and silicone fan mounts. -- Regards, Martin Brown |
#3
Posted to uk.d-i-y
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Buiding a desktop PC.
On 07/01/2019 14:07, Dave Plowman (News) wrote:
I rather fancy having a PC integrated to the main Hi-Fi etc system. Mainly to download/store music etc files. Got a fair bit of space for it, so even an older case size would be fine - but flat rather than a tower. Would like a decent processor so it doesn't become obsolete quickly. Only need an HDMI output for the TV, so probably not a fancy graphics card. I've built a few in the past, but can't for the life of me remember who I got the bits from. Googling as usual gives several. What would be the most reliable mother board to go for? Not had that good experience with ASUS before. And which processor? As I said not done anything like this for ages, so very out of touch. I've built a few in the past but these days it's generally cheaper to spec. the machine and have it built rather than buy components yourself. Seems like the PC Builders sacrifice margin to make a great value PC whereas components are priced for margin on individual product sales. On-Board graphics which are part of the Intel processors are extremely capable and quite happily play HD Video without any problems. I'm a fan of QuietPC - have a look at these https://www.quietpc.com/sys-ultranuc-pro-7 |
#4
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Buiding a desktop PC.
On 07/01/2019 14:07, Dave Plowman (News) wrote:
I rather fancy having a PC integrated to the main Hi-Fi etc system. Mainly to download/store music etc files. Got a fair bit of space for it, so even an older case size would be fine - but flat rather than a tower. Would like a decent processor so it doesn't become obsolete quickly. Only need an HDMI output for the TV, so probably not a fancy graphics card. I've built a few in the past, but can't for the life of me remember who I got the bits from. Googling as usual gives several. What would be the most reliable mother board to go for? Not had that good experience with ASUS before. And which processor? As I said not done anything like this for ages, so very out of touch. Rather than buy the bits I think I would look for a recycled business machine. This isn't necessarily a particularly good example https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/FAST-DELL....c100005.m1851. I think these towers work fine on their side too. I've had two or three Dells for my main office machine, very easy to maintain or update (they usually have all the spare disk carriers and cables that you need). Or this? https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Lenovo-Th...ySu:rk:30:pf:0 |
#5
Posted to uk.d-i-y
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Buiding a desktop PC.
In article ,
www.GymRatZ.co.uk wrote: On 07/01/2019 14:07, Dave Plowman (News) wrote: I rather fancy having a PC integrated to the main Hi-Fi etc system. Mainly to download/store music etc files. Got a fair bit of space for it, so even an older case size would be fine - but flat rather than a tower. Would like a decent processor so it doesn't become obsolete quickly. Only need an HDMI output for the TV, so probably not a fancy graphics card. I've built a few in the past, but can't for the life of me remember who I got the bits from. Googling as usual gives several. What would be the most reliable mother board to go for? Not had that good experience with ASUS before. And which processor? As I said not done anything like this for ages, so very out of touch. I've built a few in the past but these days it's generally cheaper to spec. the machine and have it built rather than buy components yourself. Seems like the PC Builders sacrifice margin to make a great value PC whereas components are priced for margin on individual product sales. On-Board graphics which are part of the Intel processors are extremely capable and quite happily play HD Video without any problems. I'm a fan of QuietPC - have a look at these https://www.quietpc.com/sys-ultranuc-pro-7 Low noise would be essential. But I'd rather have an all in one box with built in PS - and likely a DVD drive. As space and portability isn't an issue. -- *Two wrongs are only the beginning * Dave Plowman London SW To e-mail, change noise into sound. |
#6
Posted to uk.d-i-y
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Buiding a desktop PC.
www.GymRatZ.co.uk wrote:
On 07/01/2019 14:07, Dave Plowman (News) wrote: I rather fancy having a PC integrated to the main Hi-Fi etc system. Mainly to download/store music etc files. Got a fair bit of space for it, so even an older case size would be fine - but flat rather than a tower. Would like a decent processor so it doesn't become obsolete quickly. Only need an HDMI output for the TV, so probably not a fancy graphics card. I've built a few in the past, but can't for the life of me remember who I got the bits from. Googling as usual gives several. What would be the most reliable mother board to go for? Not had that good experience with ASUS before. And which processor? As I said not done anything like this for ages, so very out of touch. I've built a few in the past but these days it's generally cheaper to spec. the machine and have it built rather than buy components yourself. Seems like the PC Builders sacrifice margin to make a great value PC whereas components are priced for margin on individual product sales. On-Board graphics which are part of the Intel processors are extremely capable and quite happily play HD Video without any problems. I'm a fan of QuietPC - have a look at these https://www.quietpc.com/sys-ultranuc-pro-7 And nowadays people are going for water cooling which is not all that expensive |
#7
Posted to uk.d-i-y
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Buiding a desktop PC.
Never thought of going for a used machine - which might make some sense.
Other thing I'd probably like is the ability to add a sound card with balanced in and outs - I'm still fairly analogue here for some things. ;-) -- *Change is inevitable ... except from vending machines * Dave Plowman London SW To e-mail, change noise into sound. |
#8
Posted to uk.d-i-y
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Buiding a desktop PC.
On 07/01/2019 14:07, Dave Plowman (News) wrote:
I rather fancy having a PC integrated to the main Hi-Fi etc system. Mainly to download/store music etc files. Got a fair bit of space for it, so even an older case size would be fine - but flat rather than a tower. Would like a decent processor so it doesn't become obsolete quickly. Only need an HDMI output for the TV, so probably not a fancy graphics card. I've built a few in the past, but can't for the life of me remember who I got the bits from. Googling as usual gives several. I think for this application I would actually look at some of the better NAS units. Very small and neat, loads of strage obviously, quiet, low power ( 30W ) and you can get them with HDMI out and remote controls etc. e.g. https://www.qnap.com/en-uk/product/ts-251%2B If building one, then you don't need a huge amount of CPU power for this application, so even an i3 class machine should be fine. What would be the most reliable mother board to go for? Not had that good experience with ASUS before. And which processor? As I said not done anything like this for ages, so very out of touch. Oddly I would always go for ASUS motherboards - over the years I have found them to be the most reliable choice. Gigabyte are ok, and ASROCK a bit cheaper. -- Cheers, John. /================================================== ===============\ | Internode Ltd - http://www.internode.co.uk | |-----------------------------------------------------------------| | John Rumm - john(at)internode(dot)co(dot)uk | \================================================= ================/ |
#9
Posted to uk.d-i-y
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Buiding a desktop PC.
On 07/01/2019 14:07, Dave Plowman (News) wrote:
I rather fancy having a PC integrated to the main Hi-Fi etc system. Mainly to download/store music etc files. Got a fair bit of space for it, so even an older case size would be fine - but flat rather than a tower. Would like a decent processor so it doesn't become obsolete quickly. Only need an HDMI output for the TV, so probably not a fancy graphics card. I've built a few in the past, but can't for the life of me remember who I got the bits from. Googling as usual gives several. What would be the most reliable mother board to go for? Not had that good experience with ASUS before. And which processor? As I said not done anything like this for ages, so very out of touch. I did this with a Zotac motherboard which came with an Atom processor, integrated graphics and RAM, all passively cooled. Stuffed it in a mini case, which could hold a couple of 3.5" drives - but I used 2.5" drives for lower noise, and an SSD as the OS boot drive. It uses an external laptop PSU. That was some years back - it's still quite capable but only 720P video IIRC. These people seem to specialise it what you're after: https://www.mini-itx.com/store/ IME it's the quiet/silent bit that presents the challenge/compromise/potential cost. -- Cheers, Rob |
#10
Posted to uk.d-i-y
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Buiding a desktop PC.
"John Rumm" wrote in message o.uk... On 07/01/2019 14:07, Dave Plowman (News) wrote: I rather fancy having a PC integrated to the main Hi-Fi etc system. Mainly to download/store music etc files. Got a fair bit of space for it, so even an older case size would be fine - but flat rather than a tower. Would like a decent processor so it doesn't become obsolete quickly. Only need an HDMI output for the TV, so probably not a fancy graphics card. I've built a few in the past, but can't for the life of me remember who I got the bits from. Googling as usual gives several. I think for this application I would actually look at some of the better NAS units. Very small and neat, loads of strage obviously, quiet, low power ( 30W ) and you can get them with HDMI out and remote controls etc. e.g. https://www.qnap.com/en-uk/product/ts-251%2B If building one, then you don't need a huge amount of CPU power for this application, so even an i3 class machine should be fine. What would be the most reliable mother board to go for? Not had that good experience with ASUS before. And which processor? As I said not done anything like this for ages, so very out of touch. Oddly I would always go for ASUS motherboards - over the years I have found them to be the most reliable choice. Me too. Gigabyte are ok, and ASROCK a bit cheaper. |
#11
Posted to uk.d-i-y
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Buiding a desktop PC.
On 07/01/2019 17:34, RJH wrote:
On 07/01/2019 14:07, Dave Plowman (News) wrote: I rather fancy having a PC integrated to the main Hi-Fi etc system. Mainly to download/store music etc files. Got a fair bit of space for it, so even an older case size would be fine - but flat rather than a tower. Would like a decent processor so it doesn't become obsolete quickly. Only need an HDMI output for the TV, so probably not a fancy graphics card. I've built a few in the past, but can't for the life of me remember who I got the bits from. Googling as usual gives several. What would be the most reliable mother board to go for? Not had that good experience with ASUS before. And which processor? As I said not done anything like this for ages, so very out of touch. I did this with a Zotac motherboard which came with an Atom processor, integrated graphics and RAM, all passively cooled. Stuffed it in a mini case, which could hold a couple of 3.5" drives - but I used 2.5" drives for lower noise, and an SSD as the OS boot drive. It uses an external laptop PSU. That was some years back - it's still quite capable but only 720P video IIRC. These people seem to specialise it what you're after: https://www.mini-itx.com/store/ IME it's the quiet/silent bit that presents the challenge/compromise/potential cost. I just skipped an atom board case and PSU... -- I would rather have questions that cannot be answered... ....than to have answers that cannot be questioned Richard Feynman |
#12
Posted to uk.d-i-y
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Buiding a desktop PC.
On Mon, 07 Jan 2019 14:07:42 +0000, Dave Plowman (News) wrote:
I rather fancy having a PC integrated to the main Hi-Fi etc system. Mainly to download/store music etc files. Got a fair bit of space for it, so even an older case size would be fine - but flat rather than a tower. Would like a decent processor so it doesn't become obsolete quickly. Only need an HDMI output for the TV, so probably not a fancy graphics card. I've built a few in the past, but can't for the life of me remember who I got the bits from. Googling as usual gives several. What would be the most reliable mother board to go for? Not had that good experience with ASUS before. And which processor? As I said not done anything like this for ages, so very out of touch. I tend to use Overclockers. https://www.overclockers.co.uk/ They often have some very attractive bundles. I also bought a Silverstone HTPC case which will (honestly) one day go into the stereo stack underneath the TV. https://www.overclockers.co.uk/searc...verstone+htpc/ sPerPage/12/sFilter_category/Cases+%26+Modding My last purchase was an AMD system (see signature) which required a separate graphics card but matched my i5-2500k in the (intended) HTPC for general performance. My case is double height because I am also using it as a file server so it has a lot of space for HDDs. A single height case would be fine for most uses. Motherboards - the HTPC uses Asrock, this PC uses Gigabyte. Both (touch wood) seem to be fine. Should you ever desire to use Ultra HD which I think would require a separate graphics card, you might need some extra headroom on the PSU. Cheers Dave R -- AMD FX-6300 in GA-990X-Gaming SLI-CF running Windows 7 Pro x64 --- This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software. https://www.avast.com/antivirus |
#13
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Buiding a desktop PC.
The Natural Philosopher wrote:
On 07/01/2019 17:34, RJH wrote: On 07/01/2019 14:07, Dave Plowman (News) wrote: I rather fancy having a PC integrated to the main Hi-Fi etc system. Mainly to download/store music etc files. Got a fair bit of space for it, so even an older case size would be fine - but flat rather than a tower. Would like a decent processor so it doesn't become obsolete quickly. Only need an HDMI output for the TV, so probably not a fancy graphics card. I've built a few in the past, but can't for the life of me remember who I got the bits from. Googling as usual gives several. What would be the most reliable mother board to go for? Not had that good experience with ASUS before. And which processor? As I said not done anything like this for ages, so very out of touch. I did this with a Zotac motherboard which came with an Atom processor, integrated graphics and RAM, all passively cooled. Stuffed it in a mini case, which could hold a couple of 3.5" drives - but I used 2.5" drives for lower noise, and an SSD as the OS boot drive. It uses an external laptop PSU. That was some years back - it's still quite capable but only 720P video IIRC. These people seem to specialise it what you're after: https://www.mini-itx.com/store/ IME it's the quiet/silent bit that presents the challenge/compromise/potential cost. I just skipped an atom board case and PSU... Do you know about the problem with 2000 series (2550, 2558, 2750,2758) atom boards? There is a processor hardware bug that causes nearly all of them to fail in the first two or three years. Reputable ones actually made in the last year or so should have newer processors without the fault but it is hard to tell without the year of manufacture. Most board makers will repair/replace them, but that it obviously a big nuisance. -- Roger Hayter |
#14
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Buiding a desktop PC.
On 07/01/2019 20:00, Roger Hayter wrote:
The Natural Philosopher wrote: On 07/01/2019 17:34, RJH wrote: On 07/01/2019 14:07, Dave Plowman (News) wrote: I rather fancy having a PC integrated to the main Hi-Fi etc system. Mainly to download/store music etc files. Got a fair bit of space for it, so even an older case size would be fine - but flat rather than a tower. Would like a decent processor so it doesn't become obsolete quickly. Only need an HDMI output for the TV, so probably not a fancy graphics card. I've built a few in the past, but can't for the life of me remember who I got the bits from. Googling as usual gives several. What would be the most reliable mother board to go for? Not had that good experience with ASUS before. And which processor? As I said not done anything like this for ages, so very out of touch. I did this with a Zotac motherboard which came with an Atom processor, integrated graphics and RAM, all passively cooled. Stuffed it in a mini case, which could hold a couple of 3.5" drives - but I used 2.5" drives for lower noise, and an SSD as the OS boot drive. It uses an external laptop PSU. That was some years back - it's still quite capable but only 720P video IIRC. These people seem to specialise it what you're after: https://www.mini-itx.com/store/ IME it's the quiet/silent bit that presents the challenge/compromise/potential cost. I just skipped an atom board case and PSU... Do you know about the problem with 2000 series (2550, 2558, 2750,2758) atom boards? There is a processor hardware bug that causes nearly all of them to fail in the first two or three years. Reputable ones actually made in the last year or so should have newer processors without the fault but it is hard to tell without the year of manufacture. Most board makers will repair/replace them, but that it obviously a big nuisance. this one did years withiut attention but teh PSU fans in te teeny cases were dead noisy and I got given a mini tower with a 64bit celeron or summat...free... And that case and board hadn't got room for all the drives I wanted..the new server has two big disks and a CD rom -- €œThe fundamental cause of the trouble in the modern world today is that the stupid are cocksure while the intelligent are full of doubt." - Bertrand Russell |
#15
Posted to uk.d-i-y
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Buiding a desktop PC.
In message , The Natural Philosopher
writes this one did years withiut attention but teh PSU fans in te teeny cases were dead noisy and I got given a mini tower with a 64bit celeron or summat...free... And that case and board hadn't got room for all the drives I wanted..the new server has two big disks and a CD rom Noise was the problem with my mini-itx machine I'm getting rid of. I'm also about to try to lose a Dell Vostro 200, which is an XP generation Core 2 Duo machine with an additional posh video card that needs an adapter to feed the lowly vga monitors here. It only takes the low-profile pci cards, though. I'm a bit out of touch with current balanced i/o soundcards, but most of the ones here are full height cards or have external breakout boxes, so you might as well use a usb device. -- Bill --- This email has been checked for viruses by AVG. https://www.avg.com |
#16
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Buiding a desktop PC.
On Mon, 07 Jan 2019 23:47:16 +0000, Bill wrote:
Noise was the problem with my mini-itx machine I'm getting rid of. Same here. I had four 1U servers, all Mini-ITX. Mostly fanless (on the motherboard) but tiny, noisy fans in the case. I dumped them in favour of HP microservers that I got for about £100 each. Large, slow fans. -- My posts are my copyright and if @diy_forums or Home Owners' Hub wish to copy them they can pay me £1 a message. Use the BIG mirror service in the UK: http://www.mirrorservice.org *lightning surge protection* - a w_tom conductor |
#17
Posted to uk.d-i-y
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Buiding a desktop PC.
On 07/01/2019 23:53, Bob Eager wrote:
On Mon, 07 Jan 2019 23:47:16 +0000, Bill wrote: Noise was the problem with my mini-itx machine I'm getting rid of. Same here. I had four 1U servers, all Mini-ITX. Mostly fanless (on the motherboard) but tiny, noisy fans in the case. I dumped them in favour of HP microservers that I got for about £100 each. Large, slow fans. Yes. I had wanted a low power server but in the end the motheboard I used wasn't hugely powerful, and the case/CPU fans were quiet, there was bags of room for disks, and it all sits in a cornber plugged into the ethernet anyway so who cares? If you run headless Linux, you need only a GB of RAM or so, any 64 bit machine is well powerful enough - mine is an XP era home mechine - but tedesktop here is much hiher spec. It has no disk except 64GB of SSD to boot and run programs from, an onboard sound ethrnet and video though it actually run an Nvidia card for playing real time games instead. The case is old but te original XP era MB went peculiar on me and I was doing a fair bit of video processing and running an XP virtual machine inside it as well, so I went for a cheapo modern board with decent CPU and 8GB RAM, and a new nvidia card. Mostly bought from https://www.woc.co.uk Prices are up these days...hatrd to get anything under £500.. -- "A point of view can be a dangerous luxury when substituted for insight and understanding". Marshall McLuhan |
#18
Posted to uk.d-i-y
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Buiding a desktop PC.
On 07/01/2019 15:34, FMurtz wrote:
www.GymRatZ.co.uk wrote: On 07/01/2019 14:07, Dave Plowman (News) wrote: I rather fancy having a PC integrated to the main Hi-Fi etc system. Mainly to download/store music etc files. Got a fair bit of space for it, so even an older case size would be fine - but flat rather than a tower. Would like a decent processor so it doesn't become obsolete quickly. Only need an HDMI output for the TV, so probably not a fancy graphics card. I've built a few in the past, but can't for the life of me remember who I got the bits from. Googling as usual gives several. What would be the most reliable mother board to go for? Not had that good experience with ASUS before. And which processor? As I said not done anything like this for ages, so very out of touch. I've built a few in the past but these days it's generally cheaper to spec. the machine and have it built rather than buy components yourself. Seems like the PC Builders sacrifice margin to make a great value PC whereas components are priced for margin on individual product sales. On-Board graphics which are part of the Intel processors are extremely capable and quite happily play HD Video without any problems. I'm a fan of QuietPC - have a look at these https://www.quietpc.com/sys-ultranuc-pro-7 And nowadays people are going for water cooling which is not all that expensive For a media centre I wouldn't touch water cooling probably wouldn't even go AIO . Slow big fans are the way to go. |
#19
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Buiding a desktop PC.
On Mon, 07 Jan 2019 14:07:42 +0000 (GMT)
"Dave Plowman (News)" wrote: I rather fancy having a PC integrated to the main Hi-Fi etc system. Mainly to download/store music etc files. Got a fair bit of space for it, so even an older case size would be fine - but flat rather than a tower. Would like a decent processor so it doesn't become obsolete quickly. Only need an HDMI output for the TV, so probably not a fancy graphics card. I've built a few in the past, but can't for the life of me remember who I got the bits from. Googling as usual gives several. CCL ebuyer Aria Scan Overclockers ... What would be the most reliable mother board to go for? Not had that good experience with ASUS before. And which processor? As I said not done anything like this for ages, so very out of touch. Raspberry Pi 3+ with a DAC - do you really need more? :-) |
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