Finally, Ordering the HTPC, Spec Check Please

Conanius · 15 Jul 2007 at 11:35

As topic,

Shuttle XPC SS30G2 Aluminium Barebones System - Intel Core 2 Duo (LGA775) £119.99 (£140.99)

Intel Core 2 Duo E2140 "LGA775 Conroe" 1.60GHz (800FSB) - Retail £43.99(£51.69)

GeIL 2GB (2x1GB) PC6400C5 800MHz Value DDR2 Dual Channel Kit (GX22GB6400DC) £44.99 (£52.86)

Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 2400 PRO SILENT 256MB DDR2 HDTV/DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (11109-01-10R) £29.99 (£35.24)

Samsung SpinPoint T HD501LJ 500GB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM £65.99 (£77.54)

Netgear WG111 54Mbps USB 2.0 Network Adapter £19.99 (£23.49)

Optiarc NEC ND7173 18x18 DVD±RW Dual Layer LabelFlash ReWriter (Silver) - OEM £16.99 (£19.96)

Hauppauge WinTV PVR-500 Media Centre Edition Dual TV Tuner £89.99(£105.74)

Microsoft Remote Keyboard for Windows XP Media Center Edition - OEM (ZV7-00007) £21.99 (£25.84)

Sony Floppy Drive - Silver £5.99 (£7.04)

OcUK Value AT/ATX Mains Cable £1.99 (£2.34)

Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium 32-Bit Edition DVD - OEM - 1Pk (66I-00715) £56.99
(£66.96)

Sub Total : £518.88
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 is being charged at 17.5% VAT : £92.55
Total : £621.38

Open to suggestions

Machine will have my sky and normal aerial inputted into it for freeview, and then output to my tv (non LCD) via SVIDEO.

Many Thanks in advance

Dingleberry88 · 15 Jul 2007 at 11:49

Looks good, but do you really need 2GB of RAM for something that's just going to be playing video?

Will_3rd · 15 Jul 2007 at 11:51

Dingleberry88 said:
Looks good, but do you really need 2GB of RAM for something that's just going to be playing video?

For HD and Vista I would think 2GB would be a requirement

Conanius · 15 Jul 2007 at 12:02

Will_3rd said:
For HD and Vista I would think 2GB would be a requirement

quite, for the price difference it seemed to make sense to put 2 gig in. Ive heard vista can be a bit fussy about only 1 gig of ram.

Also, when I get a LCD tv, and want to play HD material, seems to make sense to have 2 gig then.

Any other pointers/suggestions?

Dingleberry88 · 15 Jul 2007 at 12:04

RAM isn't important for playing HD, it's the CPU more than anything.

But yeah, for the price I suppose you might as well go for 2GB.

Conanius · 15 Jul 2007 at 12:12

Dingleberry88 said:
RAM isn't important for playing HD, it's the CPU more than anything.

But yeah, for the price I suppose you might as well go for 2GB.

okie doke, that c2d should be up to it should it?

squiffy · 15 Jul 2007 at 12:21

It'll be fine.
Why the FD?
PSU will come with IEC cable.
I'd rather have a MATX system than a Shuttle.

That keyboard is rubbish, get the Keysonic RG laptop style keyboard/trackpad instead.

stickroad · 15 Jul 2007 at 12:23

Ignore me.

Wiggins · 15 Jul 2007 at 12:25

Conanius said:
As topic,

Shuttle XPC SS30G2 Aluminium Barebones System - Intel Core 2 Duo (LGA775) £119.99 (£140.99)

Intel Core 2 Duo E2140 "LGA775 Conroe" 1.60GHz (800FSB) - Retail £43.99(£51.69)

GeIL 2GB (2x1GB) PC6400C5 800MHz Value DDR2 Dual Channel Kit (GX22GB6400DC) £44.99 (£52.86)

Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 2400 PRO SILENT 256MB DDR2 HDTV/DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (11109-01-10R) £29.99 (£35.24)

I'm building a very similar Shuttle as a new media centre for my 32" LCD but with the SS32G2 and posted a thread on what processor would keep its head above water. It looks like its going to be the 2140 or the 2160 after all

I ordered the same memory but upped the budget a little for the 2400 XT Silent instead.

Conanius · 15 Jul 2007 at 12:35

squiffy said:
It'll be fine.
Why the FD?
PSU will come with IEC cable.
I'd rather have a MATX system than a Shuttle.

That keyboard is rubbish, get the Keysonic RG laptop style keyboard/trackpad instead.

FD just incase I need it, didnt realise the shuttle came with a power lead, and I chose a shuttle just because

I chose that keyboard as it has all the media centre parts on it, and is backlight if I use it in low light

stickroad · 15 Jul 2007 at 12:39

Conanius said:
okie doke, that c2d should be up to it should it?

If your not overclocking you could get a faster AMD system for the same price.

No offense or anything that shuttle looks well ugly. :eek:

Something like this would be better.

Or even this

Looks much better than that shuttle to be honest.

Dingleberry88 · 15 Jul 2007 at 12:43

Conanius said:
okie doke, that c2d should be up to it should it?

Easily.

Have you though about the Antec Fusion Case?

Looks a lot better than the shuttles IMO.

Also, what about the Abit Fatal1ty F-I90HD. It has an onboard HDMI port, which means your wouldn't need to get a graphics card.

Conanius · 15 Jul 2007 at 12:49

Wiggins said:
I'm building a very similar Shuttle as a new media centre for my 32" LCD but with the SS32G2 and posted a thread on what processor would keep its head above water. It looks like its going to be the 2140 or the 2160 after all

I ordered the same memory but upped the budget a little for the 2400 XT Silent instead.

only really getting the 2400 for its onboard processor for HD stuff when I get an LCD tv, the 2400 XT significantly better?

Conanius · 15 Jul 2007 at 12:59

Dingleberry88 said:
Easily.

Have you though about the Antec Fusion Case?

Looks a lot better than the shuttles IMO.

Also, what about the Abit Fatal1ty F-I90HD. It has an onboard HDMI port, which means your wouldn't need to get a graphics card.

its gonna push the price up a fair whack, also, does that board have SVIDEO out, as thats what im gonna be using initially

Wiggins · 15 Jul 2007 at 13:03

Conanius said:
only really getting the 2400 for its onboard processor for HD stuff when I get an LCD tv, the 2400 XT significantly better?

I ordered the 2400 XT really ( for the Vivo of course ) and just for the extra bit of speed to help offload what the processor has to do when encoding/decoding HD.

Have a look here

squiffy · 15 Jul 2007 at 13:06

Conanius said:
I chose that keyboard as it has all the media centre parts on it, and is backlight if I use it in low light

Still rubbish. Signal is over IR, not RF.

Conanius · 15 Jul 2007 at 17:55

cheers for the feedback guys, i'll get my order in this week \o/