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Nick · 31st July 2003, 18:46

A few things I would add:

If you go for an nForce2 board put 2x256MB DDR RAM in slots 1 & 3 rather than 1x512MB. nForce2 has dual memory architecture which means better memory bandwidth from 2 256 sticks than a single 512 stick. This should mean an increase in encoding speed.

The other thing is, if you buy DDogg's case, get the processor for $30 and then spend $30 on a fan, why not just buy a cheaper case and spend $90 on a Barton XP2500+ retail box? They (in the UK at least) have a 3 year warranty and adequate fan thrown in! Another worthy saving is to look for a SiS748 Board instead of nForce2. My ASRock K7S8X-E was much cheaper than any nForce2 and almost as good. You lose your dual memory architecture but it's right up there on most benchmarks. Not good for overclocking but I reckon for price, 748 board with XP2500+ Barton Retail box will cost no more that XP1700+B, adequate fan for overclocking and an nForce board. No risk of o/c instability and 3 yr warranty on CPU - so unless you're VERY confident setting up a heavily overclocked machine this has got to be a winner.

Drives - DVD & CDRW go LiteON. Cheap, solid, reliable drives.
However DVD+-RW could be worth a look. NEC1300A and Pioneer DVR106 dual format are plummeting in price. Since Compressed Domain Transcoding can be done relatively quickly on even a modest machine it may be a better investment to go for an integrated platform mainboard (ie VGA, Sound, the lot on board) with an XP1700+ and ditch the CDRW drive. Spend your saving on DVD+-R and go DVD Recordable! May be a better long term investment than a seriously powerful reencoding machine for SVCD.

Just my two pence worth. DDogg, whenever you're ready get your big gun warmed up and shoot me down in flames!

31st July 2003, 18:46	#6 \| Link
Nick One click is all it takes Join Date: Mar 2002 Location: Heart of the Broad Acres Posts: 1,404	A few things I would add: If you go for an nForce2 board put 2x256MB DDR RAM in slots 1 & 3 rather than 1x512MB. nForce2 has dual memory architecture which means better memory bandwidth from 2 256 sticks than a single 512 stick. This should mean an increase in encoding speed. The other thing is, if you buy DDogg's case, get the processor for $30 and then spend $30 on a fan, why not just buy a cheaper case and spend $90 on a Barton XP2500+ retail box? They (in the UK at least) have a 3 year warranty and adequate fan thrown in! Another worthy saving is to look for a SiS748 Board instead of nForce2. My ASRock K7S8X-E was much cheaper than any nForce2 and almost as good. You lose your dual memory architecture but it's right up there on most benchmarks. Not good for overclocking but I reckon for price, 748 board with XP2500+ Barton Retail box will cost no more that XP1700+B, adequate fan for overclocking and an nForce board. No risk of o/c instability and 3 yr warranty on CPU - so unless you're VERY confident setting up a heavily overclocked machine this has got to be a winner. Drives - DVD & CDRW go LiteON. Cheap, solid, reliable drives. However DVD+-RW could be worth a look. NEC1300A and Pioneer DVR106 dual format are plummeting in price. Since Compressed Domain Transcoding can be done relatively quickly on even a modest machine it may be a better investment to go for an integrated platform mainboard (ie VGA, Sound, the lot on board) with an XP1700+ and ditch the CDRW drive. Spend your saving on DVD+-R and go DVD Recordable! May be a better long term investment than a seriously powerful reencoding machine for SVCD. Just my two pence worth. DDogg, whenever you're ready get your big gun warmed up and shoot me down in flames! Last edited by Nick; 31st July 2003 at 19:12.