3. Components For The Ideal Media PC, Continued

Asus EN6700GT/HTDI

The graphics card on a media PC needs to present a workable compromise between noise output and bulk versus picture quality. For our builds we chose an Asus EN6700GT/HTDI with built-in HDMI (these retail for around $200). As we were finishing this story, we learned about Nvidia's newest line of 8600 processors, which feature a redesigned graphics processor and include HDMI/HDCP and other important media functions (especially TV/HDTV output) as well as Vista Ready status. Though only a few models are available right now, and no passively cooled versions are available, it looks like these should be ready by summer's end for somewhere between $200 and $220 (by that time, passive 7600 cards will probably cost $150 or less).

Whenever we can find a suitable passively-cooled graphics card for a media PC, we immediately take that option because such cards contribute nothing to the system's overall noise output. For the previous generation of graphics processors, this meant that the Nvidia card of choice was a passively cooled 6600, and the highest-level ATI graphics processor was a 1600XT model. Today, lots of HDMI/HDCP options are available for Nvidia 7xxx and 88xx processors, as well as the upcoming R600 family from ATI (where ATI has a substantial leg up over Nvidia at present because it includes onboard sound as well as video circuitry). (For more information on these increasingly important acronyms and their underlying technologies, see the sidebar entitled "HDMI, HDCP Gotchas and Workarounds").

So far, passively cooled models from ATI in this new vein are nonexistent (just coming online as we write this story) and limited to 7300 and 7600 processors on the Nvidia side, from vendors such as eVGA, Gigabyte and MSI, among others. No passively cooled 8xxx models are available (and would probably require water cooling to do away with potentially noisy fans anyway).

Because we didn't have a passively cooled 7600 HDMI/HDCP card available to us for our testing, we used the actively cooled EN6700GT/HTDI from Asus. We also had an 8800 card at our disposal, but abandoned it for reasons we explain in the next section of this story.

Hauppauge WinTV-PVR-500MCE

AVerTVHD MCE A180