HP Media Center + graphics card

Alright, the situation is I'm getting an HP Media Center with a Core 2 Duo E6600. This is inevitable.

However I also want a new graphics card. I've had my eye on the Radeon x1900 XT for a while, it's perfect for me. Since I'm not planning on going dual-card (also because I CAN'T), I wanted the best single-card solution. For the price, the 1900XT wins out over the XTX for me. However, I could also settle for an 1800XT. First question is basically: which one would you reccomend? Which do you think has the better price/performance ratio?

Anyway, that's pretty irrelevant because I don't think either of those will be able to survive in my media center. That's where my next few questions come in. I'm worried about three things: the size of the case, the ventilation, and the power supply.

Will the card even fit into the case? The 1900XT is a BEAST, there aren't too many card bigger than this thing. Secondly, if I do cram it in there, do you think it would overheat? I have no idea what the ventilation is like in a media center, and while the 1900XT has its own heat sink and fan, I'm afraid it won't be enough. And finally, with all the extra power the card is sucking up, will the media center power supply be able to handle it? I'm not too worried about this one, but it's something to consider.

If the 1900XT won't fit I think I'll be forced to by the 1800XT and use the extra money to buy a case, which doesn't make me happy

If absolutely necessary I could go with an nvidia card becasue they're smaller and run cooler, but I'm not the biggest nVidia fan. At the resolutions i'll be running at (1680x1050), ATI beats nvidia, and at a lower price to boot. I'll take any suggestions though, if you really think nvidia would be a better buy.

Sorry about the, erm, longness of this post, but I like to give the big picture when I ask a stupid question =p

How ya doing, buddy?

On the specs page it says:
HP Pavilion Media Center TV m-series chassis
System dimensions: 15.75 H x 7.5 W x 15.75" D

I don't know what that means lawl.

If I do need a new case, it needs to be as cheap as possible, since I'm running out of cash. The thing I worry about is if everything on the Media Center will fit in a new case. By that I mean the 15-in-1 media reader and things like that. I've never bought a case before, so i'm not sure if the Media Center is too unique or weird or whatever....

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Well, this isn't a good situation at all

The reason I can't build a computer is basically because my parents don't trust me to, and they're funding a large portion of this project >_> But if I'm going to need a new case and power supply, it'd be much better to build my own PC, so I'll try to convince them. Sure, I wouldn't get the Conroe, but everything else will be much better. Besides, my last computer was 700 MHZ, ANYTHING is an upgrade =p

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

Thanks for your help. I got permission to build my own PC, and the parts are already ordered.

~THE END~

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

Quote:

1 ASUS M2N-SLI Deluxe Socket AM2 NVIDIA nForce 570 SLI MCP ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail
Item #: N82E16813131013 $144.99
1 CORSAIR XMS2 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Unbuffered Dual Channel Kit System Memory Model TWIN2X2048-6400 - Retail
Item #: N82E16820145590 $219.00
1 GIGABYTE 3D AURORA GZ-FSCA1-ANB Black Aluminum ATX Full Tower Computer Case - Retail
Item #: N82E16811233002 $139.99
1 Antec TRUEPOWERII TPII-550 ATX12V 550W Power Supply - Retail
Item #: N82E16817103931 $79.99
1 AMD Athlon 64 X2 4600+ Windsor 2000MHz HT Socket AM2 Dual Core Processor Model ADA4600CUBOX - Retail
Item #: N82E16819103751 $269.00
1 Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 w/SP2 - OEM
Item #: N82E16832116049 $109.99
1 MSI RX1900XT-VT2D512E Radeon X1900XT 512MB GDDR3 PCI Express x16 Video Card - Retail
Item #: N82E16814127206 $394.99
1 Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 ST3320620AS (Perpendicular Recording Technology) 320GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM
Item #: N82E16822148140 $94.99
1 SAMSUNG 16X DVD±R DVD Burner With 5X DVD-RAM Write and LightScribe Black ATA/ATAPI Model SH-S162L - OEM
Item #: N82E16827151118 $34.99

Subtotal: $1,487.93
Shipping: $29.71
Total: $1,517.64
Rebates: -$140 (100 off the GPU and 40 off the RAM)
Total of STUFF: 1377.64

That's it, pretty much. I also got a hawt 20" widescreen LCD from Samsung for $300. I don't know too much about it, but $300 seems like a very good price, plus it's from Sam's Club so I've got the best return policy around (I think it's no questions asked FOREVER or something like that.)

I was going to get a better PSU so I could someday go dual-gpu, but with DirectX 10 and DX10 cards coming out pretty soon, I figured it wouldn't be prudent to go dual-gpu with the current batch of cards. Plus, by the time I'm ready to upgrade I'm thinking PSUs will be better designed for dual-card setups, so whatev. The only downside is that I don't get the Conroe, but it's no big deal really.

I aquired a TV Tuner as well, so I didn't need to buy one. No sound card either, but that's cool with me, the integrated sound on the mobo should be fine. I'm not too much of a sound nerd.

Everything arrived today, (newegg's shipping roxxorz), although I won't be able build it until after the weekend. The case is fucking HAWT, so much better than any HP thing (even though it is huge - too big to fit in my computer desk in fact).

I just hope everything is compatible and I put everything together correctly lawl.

I was speaking idiomatically.