Review on the Setup for Desktop Media Centre custom made.

[Harkoliar]

Okay, some may know I posted something of building a computer but for media center focusing on low powered setup.

I want to share to you my reviews so far as I have finally just completed everything I wanted (nearly!) after 1.5 months since Ive posted.

Pointing to the old setup
http://www.ironworksforum.com/forum/...d.php?t=101663

Okay here is my experience for the 1st week in having the computer, installing windows and basically hooking it up to a 42 inch lg lcd tv.

First off ordering the custom made setup proved to be harder than expected. I do not know if it was the retailer (supplier) or the actual setup but it took me 1 month to actually obtain my computer.. not cool . They kept giving me issues like memory not compatible with motherboard ( only specific memory apparently will work for a mini-atx motherboard).

Testing!

I brought the computer home twice only to find out it wasnt working at all with no video coming out from TV or Monitor
- note: be sure to test it in both HDMI and DVI output before bringing it home. They gave me a lousy excuse that it would only be configured output to either HDMI or DVI but not both. Thats crap. Motherboard will automatically detect which monitor your using (either hdmi or dvi) and will adjust automatically. Nothing to setup in BIOS.

When I asked them to test it initially they gave me an excuse they dont have any hdmi monitor to test it and there wasnt any dvi output video showing. They assumed it was coming out via HDMI... WRONG.

If you recall my mother board is AT510N which runs on builtin CPU and Video. The main thing I wanted from this mother board was the onboard video HDMI output - low voltage and running on heatsink only!

Okay, I finally got the computer and tested in thier shop and it was finally showing some video. Now it was my turn to install Windows 7. I only had a legit copy of Win 7 64 bit so I decided to use that as I am planning to expand the memory in the future (it only had 2gig atm) with 2.5 inch 500 HD.

Okay ran into another unforeseen problem. In trying to get low voltage.. I didnt put in a dvdrom.. initial consultation I couldnt install a cheap standard dvdrom as well. whoops, I had to figure out how to do a usb boot windows 7 installation. My thoery worked and legit copy installed after searching on how to with google. . Pretty handy as well if your installing WIN7 OEM all the time.

Okay, after that setup, by that time, I was using my LCD TV as monitor the whole process... Alittle neckache from looking at a huge screen all the time. Video output all good at 800X600.

Installing all drivers this is when I came across another big problem. HDMI to LCD TV sounds good on paper but there is an issue with flickering video (black screen). I initially thought it was my computer with screen resolution 1920 X 1080p, video card couldnt handle the output, so updated Nvidia ION drivers again. Still didnt work. Next step was to check my power maybe surge protector would work.. Nope. Lastly, I updated my LCD firmware ( i didnt know it had one). Still nothing.

Pretty disheartened so far. In trying to increase resolution to 1920X1080p. I get flickering every 5mins or so using windows drivers. Using NVIDIA drivers, it was every 3 seconds. It was pretty bad.

So I am stuck with this flickering and then I was forced to downgrade the resolution down to 1280X1080. Flickering stopped. I dont know why its happening. LCD cant handle the full HD 1080p although it was suppose to.

Maybe because the TV is 2 years old and couldnt handle the resolution.. I dont know.

But I guess I have to content after spending 500aud (thats 500 USD with dollar parity atm ). I get what I pay for. Im not planning to put in an external video card when I was suppose to have a energy saver - low voltage 24/7 computer running. Also I doubt it would have any audio when I do put in an external graphics card.

Lastly, in terms of being a media hub, I am pretty happy. It can handle downloads and play media files pretty well. I tested it playing up to 8gig mkv files so far. It plays smoothly as long as you dont use it for something else. All the CPU focused on playing the video.

The only issue I have really is the resolution. Ah well, maybe with time, or TV upgrade, something will pop up. I will just have to contend with 1280 X 1080p.

[SpiritWarrior]

1280 x 1080 is fine. Like you said, you did do this on the (relatively) cheap, so beggars can't be choosers. I run at that res. right now - anything else is just too small for me and many games don't support it (i.e. extra space and borders). Good job on realizing your vision though, you did well especially given the budget.