Ok, i'm thinking about making a piece of furniture...for music and tv, and storage of all my dvd's and the like, naturally with a computer built in. For this rig, I have a few socket A motherboards (which should be sufficent), but the only processor is a palamino core Athlon 2000, which i have the distinct impression is on it's last legs. HDD space will not be an issue, nor will RAM, but an operating system is, and also a remote control. I'm considering Windows Media Center 2005, and yet, not sure about remotes, nor IR ports. So my questions - Can you still get brand new socket A processors from anywhere? - How do I get a Media Center compatible remote control - Is it possible to get infra-red kits for a PC, which could be custom fitted into wood, taking up a very tiny footprint (basically, so you only see the sensor, and nothing else) -Actually one more question....for a media pc, what would you go with, I also have a socket 478 celeron 2.4 which I think is still operational, or shall I stick with AMD...no fanboyism please, just facts. And yes, this is low budget, trying to use up as many spares as possible. -Finally, and this is the last question. IDE or SATA? for a PC like this shall I stick with the original plan (IDE), or go for SATA? -Brooxy
The only question I feel I can answer resonably is your cable idea. I do not think you will notice any change from one form of cable to the other. Whatever you feel like is just as good as the other. For neatness Sata is much easier to use.
cool, i'll stick with IDE then...none of the boards have native SATA support, and I wasn't sure if it was worth the expense, being low budget... anyone got any responses to the other questions?
No socket As will have SATA and you cant buy them new anymore, unless you find a shop that has some REALLY old stock. Ebay is your friend.
AMD don't even make socket A chips anymore so you'd have a hard time tying to find one new but you'd probably be able yo pick one up from ebay for a bargin price You can get a remote from Kustom PC's, it's reasonable priced: http://www.kustompcs.co.uk/acatalog/info_5498.html The remote above have a IR reciever I don't know if thats why you wanted one though. Also it should be easy to hide as you said. Just buy what ever is cheapest maybe a 478 3 Ghz/ 2.8ghz P4 with hyper threading ? Hope this helps
Rubbish. Almost all of the nForce 2 boards have SATA - e.g. the Abit NF7-S (rev2). Having said that, just go with IDE, it'll be guaranteed to work plus it'll still be cheap.
Does the board HAVE to have native sata? All it means is installing a driver when you bung windows on, not a lot of hassle (unless you dont have a floppy drive )
But it's not the question he ASKED though, is it. If it aint native I dont wanna know, and no I dont own a floppy drive.
