- Joined
- Dec 11, 2001
- Location
- Houston, Texas
After enjoying this setup for my htpc for about 2 years now I thought i'd share some experiences with those of you who are inevitebly on the fence about buying budget parts for their main or alternate pc as I know moeny is an option for almost everyone.
I built this computer in the summer of 08 with 1 goal in mind, spend as little money as possible but retain functionality for the purpose. The goal of this computer was to serve as an htpc with hdmi output, I had to find the cheapest parts.
When I went on search for a cheap micro-atx board with hdmi out I found a fledgling company ZOTAC. With a ridiculous name and almost no credentials I blindly purchased the N73PV-Supreme for $54. This board had what I needed, HDMI powered by the nvidia 7100 onboard graphics. It also had 4 onboard sata and was provided RAID via the nforce 630i chipset.
At this point you're probably wondering "what does this have to do with storage?" Good question. At first I just had a single 500gb hd because that suited the purpose at the time. A while later I purchased another of the same 500gb drive and went from my beloved winxpmce to vista 64 ultimate in a RAID 0 environment.
Despite the cheap pricetag on this board which sometimes carries down to the performance like some other manufacturers, this board never ceases to make me happy i paid $55 for it. If you're on the fence about buying budget hardware I understand exactly where you're coming from, but keep in mind that budget prices do not always mean budget performance. I would not always go budget, my intention is to share my experience with what some would consider "iffy" hardware.
Below are the full specs for the htpc and 2 raid benchmarks that I ran on the first day of install on the old vista ultimate and now windows 7(windows 7 mc is BEAUTIFUL).
ZOTAC N73PV-Supreme $54.99
Intel Celeron E1400 Allendale 2.0GHz LGA 775 65W Dual-Core $61.99
G.SKILL 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) $44.99
Microsoft A9O-00007 WinXP Media Center Infrared Remote Control $38.99
hec Black 0.7mm Thickness SECC 7K09 HTPC Case $49.99
Seagate 7200.10 ST3500630AS $79.99 and later 1 more for $64.99
LITE-ON 20X DVD±R DVD Burner $27.99
GIGABYTE GN-WP01GS PCI $17.99
Combo discount of $11 for the case/remote
Total without $36 of shipping $364
I have also attached these images since the built in picture viewer of this forum still leaves them a bit fuzzy.
As a comparison I am also including a picture that I found when I first built the computer of a pair of Western Digital Raptor WD1500ADFD 150GB 10,000 RPM Serial ATA150 Hard Drives in RAID0 with the Intel controller on the Intel D975XBX motherboard on Vista ultimate 32-bit.
The Raptors
I built this computer in the summer of 08 with 1 goal in mind, spend as little money as possible but retain functionality for the purpose. The goal of this computer was to serve as an htpc with hdmi output, I had to find the cheapest parts.
When I went on search for a cheap micro-atx board with hdmi out I found a fledgling company ZOTAC. With a ridiculous name and almost no credentials I blindly purchased the N73PV-Supreme for $54. This board had what I needed, HDMI powered by the nvidia 7100 onboard graphics. It also had 4 onboard sata and was provided RAID via the nforce 630i chipset.
At this point you're probably wondering "what does this have to do with storage?" Good question. At first I just had a single 500gb hd because that suited the purpose at the time. A while later I purchased another of the same 500gb drive and went from my beloved winxpmce to vista 64 ultimate in a RAID 0 environment.
Despite the cheap pricetag on this board which sometimes carries down to the performance like some other manufacturers, this board never ceases to make me happy i paid $55 for it. If you're on the fence about buying budget hardware I understand exactly where you're coming from, but keep in mind that budget prices do not always mean budget performance. I would not always go budget, my intention is to share my experience with what some would consider "iffy" hardware.
Below are the full specs for the htpc and 2 raid benchmarks that I ran on the first day of install on the old vista ultimate and now windows 7(windows 7 mc is BEAUTIFUL).
ZOTAC N73PV-Supreme $54.99
Intel Celeron E1400 Allendale 2.0GHz LGA 775 65W Dual-Core $61.99
G.SKILL 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) $44.99
Microsoft A9O-00007 WinXP Media Center Infrared Remote Control $38.99
hec Black 0.7mm Thickness SECC 7K09 HTPC Case $49.99
Seagate 7200.10 ST3500630AS $79.99 and later 1 more for $64.99
LITE-ON 20X DVD±R DVD Burner $27.99
GIGABYTE GN-WP01GS PCI $17.99
Combo discount of $11 for the case/remote
Total without $36 of shipping $364
I have also attached these images since the built in picture viewer of this forum still leaves them a bit fuzzy.
As a comparison I am also including a picture that I found when I first built the computer of a pair of Western Digital Raptor WD1500ADFD 150GB 10,000 RPM Serial ATA150 Hard Drives in RAID0 with the Intel controller on the Intel D975XBX motherboard on Vista ultimate 32-bit.
The Raptors
