 |
| DVI-D to HDMI |
I thought that including information about Hardware Specs would not be necessary for displaying a PC in High Quality HD, but when I am at work I see the Business PCs at my job, and thought that I should also include more specific information about what it takes to for a PC to display in High Quality HD! Just in case it is needed.
Many people that I have talked to would say that they have a good PC. However the issue is what is the PC good for exactly? Is it a basic Business or Home Office PC, or is it a good Media/Gaming PC.
To give an example, the PC I hooked up the 1080p LG M2262D HDTV Monitor to was a custom made Tower, that has:
The PC I used, shows better visuals than, and out performs, Xbox 360, and PlayStation 3. Now If you only want to playback HD video, then as far as CPU's go I would recommend at least a Dual-Core. (With a Dual-Core PC you can still do High Quality Gaming). For Real Hardcore HD Gaming, and Video Playback, I suggest a high quality Quad-Core CPU. However, a good CPU alone, will not make the cut, you will need a to have a good GPU (Graphics Processing Unit) also! I recommend at least an 8th Generation NVIDIA GeForce GPU, I would say an 8600 GTS or better. If you prefer ATI (Now bought out by AMD), then I recommend at least a Radeon series GPU, that has the same performance or better. As for The Main System Memory needed, there should be at least 2 GBs of DDR2 memory, at 800 MHz or better.
Add Note: Most stores in the surrounding area, including where I live, have a lot better Graphics Cards than what I just recommended, but I have looked for yesterdays model graphics cards to save money. Many of these stores that I have been to, in the past, had sales and service employees that have not been correct, with the price and performance it takes to run HD Media and Gaming. They will either suggest the most expensive option, or they will recommend a PC that will barely perform to the users standard. Hopefully you will not have to run into this problem, but just in case, be careful, and feel free, to benefit, from the information, that I have included in this post.
Update December 6, 2011: Right now I would recommend Looking on Tiger Direct, eBay, or Amazon to find the best performance for the amount of money you spend. Remember Tiger Direct accepts pay by phone.
Also the Motherboard I own works the best on Windows XP, and Vista. I ran into some problems with Windows 7, but I found out with Windows 7 running games at the same performance, requires a newer higher performance graphics card. I upgraded to an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560 Ti to run Guild Wars at the same performance on Windows 7, as the NVIDIA GeForce 8600 GTS did on Windows XP Service Pack 3. Also 2 GBs was good in the past, but because software updates are required from time to time you may want to now bump up the amount of memory of 4 or 8 GBs.
Information is from personal experience and these sources:
Warren Ernst, "Ultimate Kentsfield: Quad-Core CPUs & Dual GPUs in SLI With All the Trimmings" Computer Power User Vol. 7, Issue 2, Feb. 2007: pgs.70-71 Sandhills Publishing Company.
Mike Meyers, All In One,A+ Certification, Exam Guide Fourth Edition. Mc Graw Hill, 2002.
http://www.intel.com/products/processor/core2xe/specifications.htm
To give an example, the PC I hooked up the 1080p LG M2262D HDTV Monitor to was a custom made Tower, that has:
- A Quad-Core called The "Intel Core 2 Extreme Q6850" at 3GHz each core.
- An "NVIDIA GeForce 8600 GTS" Graphics Card with 256 MBs GDDR3 Video Memory at 1008 MHz.
- 2 GBs "Corsair XMS2" (Main System Memory) divided up into two RAM sticks at 800 MHz.
All this this is connected to an Asus Striker Extreme Gaming Motherboard!
The PC I used, shows better visuals than, and out performs, Xbox 360, and PlayStation 3. Now If you only want to playback HD video, then as far as CPU's go I would recommend at least a Dual-Core. (With a Dual-Core PC you can still do High Quality Gaming). For Real Hardcore HD Gaming, and Video Playback, I suggest a high quality Quad-Core CPU. However, a good CPU alone, will not make the cut, you will need a to have a good GPU (Graphics Processing Unit) also! I recommend at least an 8th Generation NVIDIA GeForce GPU, I would say an 8600 GTS or better. If you prefer ATI (Now bought out by AMD), then I recommend at least a Radeon series GPU, that has the same performance or better. As for The Main System Memory needed, there should be at least 2 GBs of DDR2 memory, at 800 MHz or better.
Add Note: Most stores in the surrounding area, including where I live, have a lot better Graphics Cards than what I just recommended, but I have looked for yesterdays model graphics cards to save money. Many of these stores that I have been to, in the past, had sales and service employees that have not been correct, with the price and performance it takes to run HD Media and Gaming. They will either suggest the most expensive option, or they will recommend a PC that will barely perform to the users standard. Hopefully you will not have to run into this problem, but just in case, be careful, and feel free, to benefit, from the information, that I have included in this post.
Update December 6, 2011: Right now I would recommend Looking on Tiger Direct, eBay, or Amazon to find the best performance for the amount of money you spend. Remember Tiger Direct accepts pay by phone.
Also the Motherboard I own works the best on Windows XP, and Vista. I ran into some problems with Windows 7, but I found out with Windows 7 running games at the same performance, requires a newer higher performance graphics card. I upgraded to an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560 Ti to run Guild Wars at the same performance on Windows 7, as the NVIDIA GeForce 8600 GTS did on Windows XP Service Pack 3. Also 2 GBs was good in the past, but because software updates are required from time to time you may want to now bump up the amount of memory of 4 or 8 GBs.
Information is from personal experience and these sources:
Warren Ernst, "Ultimate Kentsfield: Quad-Core CPUs & Dual GPUs in SLI With All the Trimmings" Computer Power User Vol. 7, Issue 2, Feb. 2007: pgs.70-71 Sandhills Publishing Company.
Mike Meyers, All In One,A+ Certification, Exam Guide Fourth Edition. Mc Graw Hill, 2002.
http://www.intel.com/products/processor/core2xe/specifications.htm
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.