Nooby and 'is daid mawtherbord

[wordworlds]

Hi forum members,

I'm new to Maingear. I had an assembled system fail on me. I was looking for a new system and came across Maingear reviews on HardOCP. Great reviews and a great business philosophy. The forums were actually the clincher. Great fun!

My PC know-how is just slightly above average; trifle shameful considering that I use them so frequently but then I stopped feeling so bad when I had a epiphany about our instruments of daily use (while I wuz taking a leak...:-))

1) I need to recover the programs and data on the old system, a MSI K8N Neo2 based AMD system. Any suggestions on the best way to do this? The hard drives are intact as far as I can tell.

2) I am trying to get this computer to double up as a media center. I guess Maingear's MC are not out yet. What video card should I choose if I plan to connect it to a 37" LCD (Westinghouse 1080p)? I am not a hard core gamer although I do enjoy gaming occasionally.

3) I was also planning to get a Blu-ray player but was intrigued by the idea of installing a drive in the system instead. Would the functionality in terms of watching movies etc, be the same as a standalone player?

4) Any system suggestions? Main use is music, movies, occasional games and then MS office applications etc.

Thanks a bunch...Look forward to your replies.

[RottynDawg]

Welcome wordworlds!

If the hard drives are indeed functional, I would set them up as slaves in a working computer so that you can grab the data. Easiest method I can recommend although there are other, less easy methods :)

I'll have to leave the video card question for others as I am not up on all of the TV Tuner type cards that you will likely want/need for MCE.

MCE should provide the same functionality, and more, as a standalone player. Any of the Maingear desktop solutions should work for your need; it would probably be best to call them to find out which systems could most easily be setup with MCE and stay with your budget :)

[theDreamer]

Recovery I am out of my league.
As a media center any of the desktops would work, problems would come in if you want to keep it some what out of site that will get difficult since they are larger than your media center.

Now a stand alone Blu-ray player would technically be better, but also it might not be. It all depends on the players upscale ability for regular DVDs, the outputs for sound quality it has (might depend heavily on soundcard).

Also the connections for the TV are what you are going to need to be looking at to see if you have the right inputs to display things probably, especially if you are going with an internal blu-ray player. Just want to make sure you have the proper inputs for the best quality now. Best thing to do would be to find your exact model and write the down the inputs and talk to MG or list them here and we can help you.

A medium video card might do you good, I am thinking this because of the light gaming, but also that if you have this out in your media room you will want this to be almost silent as to allow for optimal hearing when listening or watching a movie.

Final comment, really I have always been more intrigued by standalone players for DVDs (soon blu-ray) and also for sound, but with the increases in computer quality in the media side it has come closer and closer, while not there. It might be a good cost v. quality thing to just go with the media center instead of stand alone systems. Just my .02.

[wordworlds]

RottynDog and Dreamer,

Thank you much....

Will post the inputs and prob call the Maingear folks as well....

[theDreamer]

Oh, sorry forgot to give you this:

:welcome: