Gaming Home Theater Vid Editing

[odekka]

Hi good folks. I'm getting together the game/movie/work room for the family. Id just get a build for pure gaming but I would never hear he end of it. That said, I need help with all the stuff!

Approximate Purchase Date: Middle-end of October

Budget Range: 2500-4000 (I need monitor, keyboard etc, have sound system)

System Usage from Most to Least Important: Hardcore gaming, movies, vid editing, (is it possible for one of us to play games while another of us watches movies on another monitor, possibly in another room?) stream content.So I guess we are looking for a Home theater that can game and do power and graphic intensive work.

Parts Not Required: we need all new

Preferred Website(s) for Parts: whatever you folks think is best!

Country of Origin: US

Parts Preferences: by brand or type I am thinking intel? But again its what will work best

Overclocking: Maybe, I would like performance out of the box, but if the work has to be done and I will get shelf life I am happy.


SLI or Crossfire: Yes

Monitor Resolution: best resolutions for movies, gaming. Higher= better?

Additional Comments: Please an ultra quiet machine! We would like to get a 24-30" monitor for movies(blueray, 3d etc) cordless keyboard, mouse and controllers. I have a great 5.1 sound system I want to hook into it. And I guess I want the Solid State drives for operating system and applications.

Thanks in advance!

 

[cmcghee358]

So I just need some clarification. You want to be able to play a game on it, while someone in another room is watching a movie off the same PC?

I can think of a few ways to do this.

1) Build an inexpensive HTPC for the room where the movies are being watched.

2) Use an Xbox360 as a media extender to watch the movie in the next room(This would also probably require the movie is saved to the HDD

3) Get a really long DVI cable and run it to the other room.

If I had to choose, I'd spend about 2000 on a super gaming/media editing PC and spend about 800 on a nice HTPC.

 

[firebird]

I agree with using 2 machines for this. "Hardcore" gaming is going to stress the CPU and GPU which isn't going to leave much room for watching/streaming movies.

 

[Twoboxer]

Have to agree - I don't think I'd want to impact the cpu/graphics on the gaming PC when you could build two "purpose built" PCs.

The small HTPC and the gaming PC could both access either their own DVDs or the images on a Network drive. This would also allow the HTPC to be used for other things as well as movies should the need/desire arise. It can also be connected to a second input on the Gaming monitor.

If your going to game on a 27"-30" screen that uses 2560 resolution, you are going to need a lot of graphics power to drive it. That PC is likely to be "warm" and will not be ultra quiet as you keep it cool. Sorry. At 1920, you are more likely to get total noise levels closer to where you'd like them, but never "HTPC Quiet".

If you game at lower than the screen's native resolution (eg, 30" @ 1920), other quality issues can occur that might or might not bother you. AFAIK, the largest screen that supports 1920x1200 resolution is (or was) 27". I have one from Dell, dunno if its still made or if there are others. Google will help you.

I honestly think you'll be more versatile and satisfied with two builds.

 

[odekka]

ok, sooo lets do do this, build the one gaming pc then the htpc. And yes I wanted to do both, either game and or edit and stream out movies.

So my other question is then, whats he largest size monitor I can get for an ultra quiet hardcore gaming pc with tvout?

thanks again!

 

[odekka]

err and good for editing too

 

[rwpritchett]

So my other question is then, whats he largest size monitor I can get for an ultra quiet hardcore gaming pc with tvout?

Depends on how much you want to spend. HDTV's are just big computer monitors, most come with a PC input so I say just hook it up to a HDTV. If you get a 1080p HDTV, it won't matter what size the screen is... the computer will be pushing the same resolution so gaming performance will be the same. So it's up to you: 47"... 55"... 100"??! Whatever fits your room and budget.

 

[sp12]

That said, smaller screens of the same resolution have higher image quality. Most cheap PC monitors are TN technology, and not suited for vid-editing. IPS or 120hz monitors can get expensive.

 

[cmcghee358]

Here's my suggested gaming build:

Case: HAF 922 89.98
HDD: Samsung Spinpoint F3 500 GB 54.99
Monitor: ASUS 27" 1920x1080 309.99
Gfx Card: Sapphire 5870 404.99
PSU: XFX 750W 80 PLUS SILVER Modular 114.99
Speakers: Logitech 2.1 Speakers 48.31
Mouse/Keyboard: Logitech Keyboard/Mouse 39.99
Memory: Mushkin DDR3-1600 CAS 7 6 GB Triple Channel Memory 139.99 (Great price btw)
OS: Windows 7 64 bit OEM 99.99
CPU/Mobo combo: i7-930/Gigabyte GA-X58A-UD3R LGA 1366 459.99

Shipping to AZ: 40.29

Total price with shipping and counting MIR: 1803.50

 

[cmcghee358]

HTPC build incomming. My crappy computer at work is about to crash so I'm posting builds one at a time.

 

[cmcghee358]

HTPC:

Media Drive: WD Caviar Green 2 TB 5400 RPM 99.99
OS Drive: Samsung Spinpoint F3 500 GB 54.99
Memory: OCZ DDR3-1600 CAS 7 Latency 4GB 94.99
OS: Windows 7 64 bit OEM 99.99
BluRay Drive: ASUS BluRay Drive 79.99 (Windows 7 doesn't support BluRay playback natively, might need to buy software to play BluRay)
Case/PSU: Antec MicroFusion HTPC case w/ 350W Antec PSU 74.99
CPU/Mobo combo: i3-530/ASUS H55 LGA 1156 Motherboard 183.99 (i3-530 supports bitstreaming/HD playback)
Keyboard/Mouse: Adesso 2.4 GHz wireless keyboard w/ trackball 69.99

Shipping to AZ: 6.77

Total with shipping and MIR: 765.69

If you want to use your HTPC as a DVR and record OTA High Def programming and CLearQAM from cable you'll also need something like this:

TV card: Hauppage 2250 Dual Tuner TV card with FM tuner 114.99

 

[cmcghee358]

Also after reviewing your initial post I saw you have a 5.1 system. Is that for your HTPC area or for your gaming computer? If it's for your gaming computer you can drop the 2.1 system I included.

Also I saw you want to use an SSD for the OS/Applications. Without more information of the size of the applications I can guess that 80 GB "should" be sufficient

An 80 GB Intel MLC SSD costs 194.99 found here: Clicky

Windows 7 64 bit uses about ~15 GB. The Drive will format down to about 74 GB. After OS install this leaves about 59 GB for applications.

Also you want to hover around 66-75% capacity.

Also if you intend to use your SSD as an OS drive see this link for how to optimize an SSD in Windows 7 to prolong it's life

 

[odekka]

That said, smaller screens of the same resolution have higher image quality. Most cheap PC monitors are TN technology, and not suited for vid-editing. IPS or 120hz monitors can get expensive.

So what any suggestions on a monitor that is good for vid editing? Esp since we are going to go and do the Home theater pc, I need to make sure the vid editing is going to be taken care of or im toast!

One last bit, I need to know about the future proofing. Though we are doing this now, we are not likely to do another build anytime soon!