1st HTPC build

Opty

Opty

Opty

Associate
Joined
31 Dec 2007
Posts
9
Hi,

I'm looking at doing my first HTPC build...

Could you have a look these components and see if I haven't made any stupid mistakes, or if there is anything better value available?

Intel Core 2 Duo E4500 "LGA775 Allendale" 2.20GHz (800FSB) - Retail £66.99
Samsung SpinPoint T 500GB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (HD501LJ) £56.99
Antec Fusion Black HTPC Case - 430HE Watt PSU £96.99
Gigabyte GeForce 8600 GT Silent Fanless 512MB DDR2 HDTV/DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GV-NX86T512H) £61.99
Gigabyte GA-G31MX-S2 Intel G31 Micro-ATX (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard £44.99
Corsair 2GB DDR2 XMS2-6400C4 TwinX (2x1GB) £31.99
Pioneer DVR-212DBK 18x DVD±RW SATA Dual Layer ReWriter (Black) - OEM £17.99

At the moment I'm loooking at connecting this to a Samsung rear projection, however within the the next 6 months I'm loooking to upgrade to a HDTV 1080p display.
 
Replace GFX with passive 2600 Pro
Need remote control/IR receiver
XP Home + Media Portal
Pioneers are supposed to be quiet loud, Samsungs supposed to be quieter.
 
Thx for the advice, and quick response especially considering the time of year :eek:.

I'll stick my hand up to being a bit of a nvidea fanboy... I always seem to go for the nvidea cards over ati. I'll take a closer look at the 2600's tho

I already have a all in 1 remote, and I had this strange idea it might might work with the ir receiver in the case... optimistic I know...

I am probably going to run the box on linux rather than windows, unless I run into major driver problems, was going to have a look at the knoppmyth distro.

Cheers for the heads up on the pioneers, I was under the impression they were on the better half of the market.
 
Ok, I'll swap the gpx for a Gigabyte ATI Radeon 2600 Pro Silent Fanless 512MB DDR2 HDTV/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GV-RX26P512H) £51.99

and the DVD writer for a amsung SH-S203D 20x DVD±RW SATA Dual Layer ReWriter (Black) - OEM £14.99
 
I have that Gigabyte fanless 8600GT and it plays HD-DVD's great. Highly recommend it. If your going with linux dont touch ATi!! There linux driver support is dire.
 
Last edited:
Opty said:
Thx for the advice, and quick response especially considering the time of year :eek:.

I'll stick my hand up to being a bit of a nvidea fanboy... I always seem to go for the nvidea cards over ati. I'll take a closer look at the 2600's tho

I already have a all in 1 remote, and I had this strange idea it might might work with the ir receiver in the case... optimistic I know...

I am probably going to run the box on linux rather than windows, unless I run into major driver problems, was going to have a look at the knoppmyth distro.

Cheers for the heads up on the pioneers, I was under the impression they were on the better half of the market.
Click to expand...

keep me posted about your linux OS. I have wanted to try mythbuntu for a while but am scared that it wont work well.

Have MythTV fixed HD-DVD/Blu-ray playback yet? LAst time I checked linux couldt play the disk unless u ripped it to the harddrive due to DRM restrictions.
 
Half the fun of linux installs is making them work :)

Afaik, there are still problems playing HD and Bluray discs with linux - I'm not too worried tho, the HDTV capabilities are just for future proofing. Well until I decide the prices for a decent 1080p display are reasonable, by which time I imagine that some clever soul will have fixed the disc playing issues ;)
 
Used mythbuntu for the install, after much hair pulling this week trying to install the ATI drivers, realised it wasn't the drivers causing the issue but the monitor :o

After manually setting the refresh rates, and vert/horiz freq it all seems to be working well :D - just need to connect it to the TV now :)

Nice case as well - very quiet - can only just hear it from the front when I'm a couple of feet away, just a shame the psu isn't modular, got cables tucked away everywhere trying to keep them out of the airflow :(
 
Glad it is all working. How you finding Mythbuntu?
I'm looking to build a Media Centre later this year and am leaning towards XP + Media Portal or Vista ultimate with MyMovies because it needs to just work and be easy to use. I don't mind fiddling with stuff to get this PC playing stuff properly but don't want that for a MC.

Yeah ATi driver support has improved a LOT over the last year and a half. Ubuntu 7.10 is great for graphics drivers as well. Every distro before this i have had to use other scripts to isntall the card but with 7.10 it worked right out the box :)
 
ati driver support under linux is nowhere near as bad as it used to be.
not perfect yet, but still.

on the other hand if you want to drive a CRT tv, the cable you need to make is a lot simpler for ATI solutions, the equivalent nvidia cable needs a lot more circuitry to generate a composite sync signal, which many ati cards can do themselves.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom