Recent content by bpimmerman

A friend is offering me his Dell Dimension 9200, specs below (from the Dell Website). How will this work as an HTPC? I've heard the Pentium Smithfield chip uses a lot of power. I figure would grab at least 4gig of DDRII ram, and I would need new video card with HDMI out. A new capture...

1) Yes, you might still have reception issues. follow the advice above and learn more at antennaweb.org or tvfool.com. I went through rabbit ears, and eventually got a radio shack antenna, I forgot the model but it was the 59.99 one, small and white, and I mounted it on some safety bars...

does that mean even over optical out i won't get trueHD?

ah the lengths we must go in order to get that perfect setup.

well of course that's the issue, because if i go with the setup i posted, it's micro atx and only one pci-express. which i want to reserve for a tv tuner card later on (when the money allows). Therefore I really need a setup that has built in video enough for blu-ray. anyone using the AMD...

I'm in a slightly different situation, as I never had cable to begin with, but I just got a new 40" Samsung LCD (woot!) and instead of getting cable, I got this antenna from Radio Shack, which includes bolts for the "don't fall out" window guards. I put it outside and in Brooklyn, on the first...

That was my original reason for going the i3 route, but the amd boards, like the one i linked to above, has a built in radeon 4200, which i think should be powerful enough for 1080p video. I'm not doing any gaming, just looking to build a media center/dvr.

that makes sense. Thanks for the help.

I'm looking at this: ASUS M4A785-M Seems powerful enough tied with the cpu recommended above (athalon II X2 240e). And I can throw in the Happague 2250 in the pci express slot in the future. It's got an ati 4200 which should run blu-ray, 1080p (I could upgrade to a mobo with a 4250...

Will that onboard video be good for full 1080p? Is there a specific mb that people recommend?

I'd love some help, I've read a lot of the posts, but I'm still on the fence. I must say that budget is a big issue, as the TV was a huge purchase, but I'm willing to spend a little extra for something i'll be happy with for 2-3 years (unrealistic, i know). I just got a samsung 40" lcd - i...

ouch woofer, very ouch.

thanks for the quick responses, i'm not sure if i want to go messing with the in innards of the laptop, if it was a desktop then no problem, and of course that is the way to go, but I think i'm just going to stick with a stick for now, I like the idea of a chopstick actually. might give it some...

I modded an old dell laptop into a picture frame, except the power button is deep in the box and i have to reach my pinky through a hole i drilled. I'm looking for something that would allow me to either extend the power button to the outside of the box, or, ideally, a flexible, mountable...

I grabbed an old dell laptop (circa 2001), which is in great condition. I put it in a box, flipped the monitor around and installed slickr. All go. Then I moved it to my apartment and went to enable WPA and discovered that it was a non-service pack edition of XP. I went to update it and...