Build me a HTPC

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18 Oct 2003
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Hey all,

Need some help please I'm looking to buy myself a HTPC & need some help.

I have a budget of £600 to spend & basically need a complete build from start to finish.
Only one thing it MUST have...Component output!!!

Now I know Component out is VERY rare but I only have the JVC HD CRT to use it with so I need component to Connect it to.

It will be used for DVD playing & possibly some Internet use but thats not really important as I have an old Laptop I use for that anyway.

Would like it to be wireless enabled as well so if I do want to use internet I dont have to have a massive length of cable running round the lounge.

Also Soundcard would need optical out to use on my Amp.

Finally would like the case to be as slim as possible & silver to fit in with the rest of my AV rack & lounge fixtures (Chrome/Black)

Think thats about it.
Whatever you think would be best for CPU/RAM/HDD/DVD will be fine so long as it all comes within budget.

Thanks in advance for any help.

Neil
 
ok couple of questions, do you need component out on you graphcis, cant you just get convertor? otherwise your looking at an all in wonder 900 or something. Do you need monitor as well? and keyboard and mouse? do you want a TV card or is just for dvds? and do you definatly need an optical out cause the cheapest one I could find, (on overclockers) was a hundred quid which is a fair whack out of your budget
 
Edward01 said:
ok couple of questions, do you need component out on you graphcis, cant you just get convertor? otherwise your looking at an all in wonder 900 or something. Do you need monitor as well? and keyboard and mouse? do you want a TV card or is just for dvds? and do you definatly need an optical out cause the cheapest one I could find, (on overclockers) was a hundred quid which is a fair whack out of your budget

Okey Dokey lets see.

Component would be nice but if a VGA/DVi to Component convertor would deffinitley work ok then that would be fine.

No need for Monitor/Keyboard/mouse as I can pick them up pretty cheap or use my old CRT monitor if needs be.

No TV card as it will be just for DVD's & DivX

Finally Optical would be preferable as I want to run it to my Amp but I might be able to get away with Coaxal for Dolby Digital & DTS.
If thats not possible & standard RCA out's are the only real option then that will do.

Think that about covers it.

Thanks for looking at this for me it's appreciated as I havent got a clue myself.

Neil
 
Plenty of Nvidia 6150 chipset motherboards have component output from the onboard graphics. I have a Gigabyte one. Couple that with an Athlon 64 3000+ (which is plenty fast enough for your needs) 512MB of ram and you're good to go. You might not be able to find one with Optical out, so you may have to buy a cheap sound card for that. Co-axial digital out can almost certainly be wired onto a header on the motherboard (i did this to mine).
 
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Product Name Qty Price Line Total
Microsoft Windows XP Media Centre 2005 Edition - OEM - 1Pk (M93-00200) £65.99
(£77.54) £65.99
(£77.54)
Antec Fusion HTPC Case - 430HE Watt PSU £95.99
(£112.79) £95.99
(£112.79)
AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 3800+ 2.00GHz (Socket AM2) - OEM £51.99
(£61.09) £51.99
(£61.09)
Asus M2NPV-VM Micro ATX (Socket AM2) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard £49.99
(£58.74) £49.99
(£58.74)
OcUK 1GB (2x512MB) PC2-6400 800MHz DDR2 Dual Channel Kit £47.99
(£56.39) £47.99
(£56.39)
Samsung SpinPoint T HD321KJ 320GB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM £53.99
(£63.44) £53.99
(£63.44)
Samsung SH-W183 18x18 DVD±RW Serial ATA Dual Layer ReWriter (Black) - OEM £17.99
(£21.14) £17.99
(£21.14)
Auzentech X-Meridian 7.1 Soundcard £96.99
(£113.96) £96.99
(£113.96)
Sub Total : £480.92
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
City Link Parcel Next Day (Delivered Mon-Fri)
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £9.95
Vat : £85.90
Total : £576.77


very much over kill for what you need tho, the mother board doesn't have component tho but it is the same chipset bigpops recommended so i'd try and find a gigabyte one if he says they have comp out built in. And htats a hell of a sound card but cheapest one with optical. you could try and wire one to the motherboard like bigpops suggested, would be a much cheaper opion.
 
Edward01 said:
Product Name Qty Price Line Total
Microsoft Windows XP Media Centre 2005 Edition - OEM - 1Pk (M93-00200) £65.99
(£77.54) £65.99
(£77.54)
Antec Fusion HTPC Case - 430HE Watt PSU £95.99
(£112.79) £95.99
(£112.79)
AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 3800+ 2.00GHz (Socket AM2) - OEM £51.99
(£61.09) £51.99
(£61.09)
Asus M2NPV-VM Micro ATX (Socket AM2) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard £49.99
(£58.74) £49.99
(£58.74)
OcUK 1GB (2x512MB) PC2-6400 800MHz DDR2 Dual Channel Kit £47.99
(£56.39) £47.99
(£56.39)
Samsung SpinPoint T HD321KJ 320GB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM £53.99
(£63.44) £53.99
(£63.44)
Samsung SH-W183 18x18 DVD±RW Serial ATA Dual Layer ReWriter (Black) - OEM £17.99
(£21.14) £17.99
(£21.14)
Auzentech X-Meridian 7.1 Soundcard £96.99
(£113.96) £96.99
(£113.96)
Sub Total : £480.92
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
City Link Parcel Next Day (Delivered Mon-Fri)
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £9.95
Vat : £85.90
Total : £576.77


very much over kill for what you need tho, the mother board doesn't have component tho but it is the same chipset bigpops recommended so i'd try and find a gigabyte one if he says they have comp out built in. And htats a hell of a sound card but cheapest one with optical. you could try and wire one to the motherboard like bigpops suggested, would be a much cheaper opion.

That is pretty much perfect from what I can see...time to start saving ;)

Anyway was just investigating that M/Board via google & found that it actually comes with a Component & S-Video output board included (Looks like a PCI adaptor that you plug in) so I think it will work fine.

Incase your wondering the card looks like this...

untitled-1.jpg


Although Bigpops...if you could let me know the model number of your gigabyte board as well that would be a great help.

Also Edward...if I didnt go with that Soundcard apart from wiring an Optical out to the M/Board (which would be too difficult for my limited knowledge) is there a way to get Digital audio to my AV Amp from standard Sound Card connections??

Thanks again for all the help it's been greatly appreciated.

Neil
 
Spec above..

Consider 2400, cheaper.
Soundcard is too posh, you don't need or want live encoding. A basic soundcard with bit for bit output is suitable (and DTS/DD digital output support)
 
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These are all the bits from over clockers site and are the cheapest ones I could find, the 2400 would be cheaper but for 50 quid for a dual core 3800 isn't bad is it? also a dual core 3800 should be able to handle HD DVD when it becomes more avalible.

I didn't know that about the motherboard, thats handy.

I completely agree the sound card is overkill but as I said it was the cheapest one with optical from overclockers.

Is the case ok or is it to thick? it is suppose to be pretty good.

I don't know about getting digital to your amp I have limited knowledge when it comes to sound, hopefully some one else can help you but I will have a look around.
 
Edward01 said:
These are all the bits from over clockers site and are the cheapest ones I could find, the 2400 would be cheaper but for 50 quid for a dual core 3800 isn't bad is it? also a dual core 3800 should be able to handle HD DVD when it becomes more avalible.

I didn't know that about the motherboard, thats handy.

I completely agree the sound card is overkill but as I said it was the cheapest one with optical from overclockers.

Is the case ok or is it to thick? it is suppose to be pretty good.

I don't know about getting digital to your amp I have limited knowledge when it comes to sound, hopefully some one else can help you but I will have a look around.

For the price I'd deffinitley rather have the 3800 :)

The case could do with being a bit smaller but I'll look into that as well see what I can come up with although I am adding a second AV Rack soon so could move the HTPC to that rather than cram it all in the current Stand, which means that case would be fine anyway but I'll have a peek :)

I was quite chuffed as well when I found out about that plug in card, will be ordering the board next week to make sure I dont miss out on that then add all the other parts in the coming months.

Thanks again it's been a really big help.

Neil
 
soundwave said:
Although Bigpops...if you could let me know the model number of your gigabyte board as well that would be a great help.

Mine is a socket 939 board. The model number is GA-K8N51PVMT-9-RH (link).

Gigabyte do an AM2 version, but it has the lesser 6100 chip. The only difference so far as an HTPC is concerned, is that it doesn't support as many Purevideo acceleration features as it's bigger brother. See here for details.
 
Bigpops said:
Mine is a socket 939 board. The model number is GA-K8N51PVMT-9-RH (link).

Gigabyte do an AM2 version, but it has the lesser 6100 chip. The only difference so far as an HTPC is concerned, is that it doesn't support as many Purevideo acceleration features as it's bigger brother. See here for details.

Thanks for that Bigpops.
Had a look & think I'll probably just buy the Asus board mentioned above as that seems to be perfect for what I want :D

Thanks again though it's all been a great help.

Neil
 
Edward01,

Could I possibly pick your brains again?? ;)

I have seen the following case available elsewhere...

X-QPACK-AL/420 APEVIA X-QPACK Aluminum Case w/ 3 Window-Silver

And just wondered if that would accept that M/Board ok?
I'm considering that case because it is a lot smaller & also considerably cheaper than the Antec

Also I've managed to find a nice Soundcard with Optical out cheaper as well which will do the job nicely :)

Just need to ask you now as well about cooling...obviously with the CPU being OEM can you recommend fans that I should get??
Had seen the Artic Cooling Freezer Pro on here & was hoping that would do the job?? or do you have any better recommendations??

Thanks again & sorry for all these questions.

Neil
 
hey
the X-QPACK-AL/420 APEVIA X-QPACK Aluminum Case w/ 3 Window-Silver will accept that motherbaord no problem, they are both micro ATX, I like the pruple lights on it by the way.

I'm presuming you want it as quite as possible with cooling, but your big problem is going to be space in a case like that.

The Artic cooling is a good cooler, (make sure you get the Artic cooling 64 freezer pro not the Artic cooling 7 freezer pro as the latter is for intels). If you want really quite go for the Scythe Ninja, however it is quite expensive.
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HS-003-SY&groupid=701&catid=57&subcat=821

Hoenstly, If you don't want to spend anymore money the Freezer is pretty much the best you can get in that price range.
 
Hey Edward,

Thanks for the reply.

Glad the M/board will fit...thought that was the case but just wanted to make sure first...this will actually be my very first own PC build (Normally boight ready built systems before) so wanted to make sure everything would be good first time ;)

Well I dont mind spending more on the cooler as I will be saving myself the best part of £100 by buying that case & the other sound card I found so I will probably go for the quieter option as long as it will definitley fit ok??

Thanks again for the help.

Neil
 
the x2 3800+ is not fast enough for 1080p stuff like HD-DVD or mkv's even with coreAVC codec, you want to pick silent components and sound should be ok from an onboard sound card something with coax s/pdif will work just fine. if you have a amp you dont want pcm direct to your amp. With the gfx card i would say MSI 7300GS its about £55 and has HDCP HDMI so in future if you upgrade to a LCD/plasma it will work with that.
 
the Zalman HD160 is a geat case and gives you more choice with parts its the same size as most hi-end amps same size as a Denon 4306 and can be had for little as £160 if you look
 
jammir said:
the x2 3800+ is not fast enough for 1080p stuff like HD-DVD or mkv's even with coreAVC codec, you want to pick silent components and sound should be ok from an onboard sound card something with coax s/pdif will work just fine.


it isn't? im quite suprise at that really. should be fine, if not with an overclock
 
clocked to about 2.2 it runs ok (just about) but at stock when running 1080p mkv's its nearly always 100% load HD-DVDs are ok but sometimes with films with very high bitrate and your running a DTS audio track you can notice frame drop-outs, I had my HTPC with a x2 3800+, 1gb xms2, 7300gs now iv swapped the mobo and chip to a E6300 and load doesnt go above 60% which also keeps the system cool
 
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