new computer build

[bcastle]

has anyone had any luck with the second gen i5 cpu and lga 1155 board using easyworship?

[shane2943]

If EW is all that the PC will be used for, I'd imagine that any typical dual core processor would be plenty. Put your emphasis more on the GPU(s) and HDD type, quantity and size.

Our media PC is a Core i7 based system but it does other things and will eventually do even more so I built a PC that would be pretty future proofed for a good while and can handle multi-tasking like a champ, all the while not causing delays on transitions and such with EW. If your goal is the same, then a Core i5 should be fine depending on how much you want to put on it. If you plan to tax it a lot with other tasks, the i7 might be the better route.

Now, that being said, my media PC at the house (not for EW, but movies and such) has an 1155 Core i5 in it and I can say that it's a very capable quad processor. Multitasking on it is usually no bother at all, even while stressing all 4 cores with handbrake to transcode an entire movie into a compressed MKV container.

[bcastle]

right now, all the computer will be used for is EW, but we video and record the sermon separately, eventually I want to be able to stream our services online. I'm trying to future proof as much as we can. With all the research I have been doing, a home build computer is the way to go. I'm pretty tech savvy and have been tempted to build my own, just waiting for an excuse (ie computer to crap out).

i do have another question. i've been seriously looking at the H67 boards since they come with dual monitor setups. are you running your system's graphics through the mother board or though a stand alone card. I do have a stand alone 1GB radeon card that I picked up for us to run video through dual monitors but i have another idea for that card. i've tried to get better specs on the intel hd3000 vs hd2000 on board chips but no dice.

overclocking isnt much of an issue for us since the new chips do the turbo boost and i would then have to buy a more powerful psu and upgrade to a heat sink or better fan, so the benefits of the p67 arent really there for the churches computer. For my personal build it might be an option though.

My overall goal is to build the thing for under $500 w/o operating system based on current needs and as future proof as much as i can for future needs. ie i know that with the i5/lga1155 combo i can either upgrade the mobo/cpu or both if i want to later as i want to. I guess i could look into the i3 dual cores since they fit the same board.

oh right now im running an athlon X2 at 2.2 GHz, 4 GB ram, 1GB radeon card with XP that is easily 4-5 yrs old. any upgrade will be noticed immediately.

[shane2943]

I would stray away from boards with built-in GPUs for the simple reason that they share the system RAM for video purposes. Get a board with no on-board GPU and the add 1 or 2 GPUs to it. Our media PC actually runs 2 NVidia GT240 cards. Card 1 is for the control monitor, and card two runs EW main and foldback displays. So the PC has 3 17" flat screens attached to it (as well as projectors via VGA splitter amps) which looks really cool on the desk!

If your budget is small (which it sounds like it is), and you plan to upgrade later (which it sounds like you will), I'd start with a 1155 core compatible board that will support the i3/5/7 as we'll as the fastest DDR3 ram you can toss in it. Then start with the i3 processor and a couple gigs of ram and go from there.

[bcastle]

thats kinda what i'm thinking. i've been looking at some boards on newegg and will definitely go with one that maxes out with 32 gigs of ram. i might go with the i3 and then load the board with as much ram as i can.

i would normally agree with you on using a graphics card over the computer's gpu, but the new sandy bridge cpu's supposedly handle 1080p graphics as well as 3d stuff. I'm going to go to best buy and have em set up a dual monitor setup for me and play a bluray disc while im downloading a clip on youtube under hd settings to test this out. this will make my decision as to the h67 or p67 board easier. (the differences in the boards are that the h67 lets you overclock the graphics portion of the cpu and the p67 lets you overclock everything else)

thanks for your insight though on everything else. i still have time and am not under any time constraint. i still have a few other projects that i've got going on.