Newbie Graphics Card & Bluray Advice

heathersonline

Howdy folks,

I picked up one of the Dell Vostros that was going on the Bargain alert thread. I've included the spec from dell below, I've added 2gb of RAM to bring it up to 3 in total. I would now like to add a blue ray drive, and connect to my TV via a HDMI cable (can I do this or does it have to be another cable? Trying to keep it as simple as possible!!). Can anyone please advise what Bluray drive to go for, and what graphics card would be needed to support it? No real budget limitations, but as cheap as possible would be nice.

Vostro 200 E2200 Pentium Dual-Core Processor (2.20GHz, 800MHz FSB, 1MB cache) 1 S
D062023 1 S
Free Hard Drive Upgrade from 160GB to 250GB 1 S
Vostro Resource DVD (Diagnostics & Drivers) 1 S
English - Vostro 200 System Docs (UK power cord) & English Adobe 1 S
Memory 1GB Dual Channel DDR2 667MHz [2x512MB] Memory 1 S
No Floppy / MCR 1 S
Hard Drive 250GB Serial ATA non Raid (7200 Rpm) 1 S
Roxio Creator / MYDVD 9.0 (Vista & XP) 1 S
16X DVD+/-RW 1 S
Display : Not Included 17in E178WFP 1 S
Integrated Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 3100 1 S
Audio Integrated HDA 7.1 Dolby Digital capability 1 S
Speakers Not Included 1 S
No Modem Mod 1 S
UK/Ireland (QWERTY) - Logitech - EX110 - Cordless - Desktop 1 S
Operating System : English Windows Vista Home Premium SP1 (32Bit OS) with Recovery DVD 1 S
English Microsoft Works 9.0 (Word Processor, Spreadsheet, Outlook Express, Powerpoint Viewer) (With Recovery CD) 1 S
Dell Support Center 2.0 1 S
English Adobe Reader 8.1 (No Recovery CD) 1 S
English McAfee 9.0 Security Centre 30 Day Trial Version (No Recovery CD) 1 S
Vostro Desktop Order - Ireland 1 S
Dell Internet Order 1 S
Mouse Included in Wireless Keyboard and Mouse option

Gracias!!

sink

I assume you have a free PCIe slot. Ati cards are better for video decoding and the software is free. With Nvidia you have to pay for the video software as an extra. If you are only looking for one that will decode HD films then you only need a very basic one at the bottom of the range. I would go for one that is both passively cooled and has a HDMI adaptor. This Sapphire Radeon HD 3450 from komplett fits the bill.


I have the LG Blu-ray burner which works pretty well but blank discs are way overpriced atm. If you just want to play blu-ray movies then I would recommend the LG Blu/HD-DVD combo drive. Mine came free with PowerDVD 7 Ultra. Afaik PowerDVD 7/8 is the only Blu-Ray/HD-DVD software decoder available so you will need that as well.

heathersonline

I do have a free PCIe slot, looking at the pic, which cable would connect to HDMI, the S Video one? All brand new to me I'm afraid!! Also, is it possible to connect to a surround sound system?

I only want to watch, no need to burn bluray dvds. I'm surprised at how cheap your suggestions are, I thought I'd end up forking out a fortune!!

sink

Blu-ray players have come down in price a lot since last year. The graphics card comes with a DVI-HDMI adaptor. The DVI is the white socket in that pic. The adaptor usually just fits over it.

Rsaeire

heathersonline wrote: »

I do have a free PCIe slot, looking at the pic, which cable would connect to HDMI, the S Video one? All brand new to me I'm afraid!! Also, is it possible to connect to a surround sound system?

I only want to watch, no need to burn bluray dvds. I'm surprised at how cheap your suggestions are, I thought I'd end up forking out a fortune!!

I bought a Sapphire 3650, though the passively cooled 3450 will suffice, and a DVI=>HDMI adaptor came with, just like sink mentioned. Using a HDMI cable will allow video and audio to be transmitted from the 3450 to your HDTV.

It's a nice and simple solution with minimum fuss.

C14N

For a while I was considering getting a Blu Ray player for my PC but tbh it doesn't seem worth it. Yes they've gone down in price but in all honesty they are still expensive and utterly useless at the moment. It's not even 100% they will catch on vs downloadable content. Really, I decided that I would wait, if Blu-ray is defo going to be the main form of media and if DVD becomes obsolete and the price goes down then it's time to buy. There's no use being ahead of everyone else right now because you'll have to wait for everyone else to catch up before you can make the most of it.

Unless of course you already have a large pile of Blu-ray movies...