First post ... Help me spec a HTPC.

OttoMattik · 8 Jul 2008 at 01:07

Hi all, thought I'd introduce myself. Been lurking on these forums for the past few months, but just got round to registering (a few days ago).

Anyway, my first post is a spec help one

so please be gentle. Last time I built my PC was a few years ago (Barton 2500+ IIRC), so completely out of the loop as to what's the latest hardware.

I am planning to build a HTPC which will be connected to my 1080p capable LCD TV in the living room.

Main criteria:

1. Quiet, Cool and Energy Efficient - The pc will be left powered on almost 24x7, so it definitely needs to be low power

I would actually prefer if there was a way of passive cooling the cpu/gfx/mobo chipset, but not at the cost of performance, as 1080p playback can be quite demanding.

2. Decent case as it will go on the TV rack next to my AV gear. I've used Antec's in the past, which were pretty good. Not sure if they are still the ones to go for ??

3. A lot of usenet downloading intended, so hard disk needs to be reliable, and most importantly run silent, even while in constant use (Looking at around 750GB - 1TB for hdd space).

4. No gaming or overclocking of any sort, so decent onboard graphics will do, as long as there is some support for intensive video decoding to relieve the pressure on the CPU.

I'm planning to connect it to the TV straight via HDMI for minimum hassle. Is there a way I can pipe the PC audio to the TV speakers as well, so I don't have to connect separate speakers to the PC ?

Sorry for the long post, but I've tried to include as much info as possible. Budget is around £600, though this is not set in stone and can go up if there is a definite need for it. I just need the basic unit, without any peripherals or OS, which should help keep the cost down.

Any advice appreciated

Simian · 8 Jul 2008 at 08:14

Borrow the Spec from One of these http://www.overclockers.co.uk/productlist.php?groupid=43&catid=1079 and change a few things to suit your preferences or just buy one of em!...

Thats what I'm doing!!..

AbsenceJam · 8 Jul 2008 at 08:31

AMD 4050e
Gigabyte GA-MA78GM-S2H
2GB PC6400
Samsung F1 1TB
Antec NSK 2480

That lot is about £300. With the extra cash you could get a better heatsink that will run the CPU passively and perhaps go for a fancier case. The 2480 i a bargain though, the Fusion which is basically the same case is £50 more and for a Silverstone case + PSU you'll be spending more than that still.

OttoMattik · 8 Jul 2008 at 21:44

AbsenceJam said:
AMD 4050e
Gigabyte GA-MA78GM-S2H
2GB PC6400
Samsung F1 1TB
Antec NSK 2480

That lot is about £300. With the extra cash you could get a better heatsink that will run the CPU passively and perhaps go for a fancier case. The 2480 i a bargain though, the Fusion which is basically the same case is £50 more and for a Silverstone case + PSU you'll be spending more than that still.

This is the spec I'm currently leaning towards, though I'm not sure about the case. I know its mainly superficial, but I do like the looks of the Antec Fusion, with the big volume knob on the front. Don't know if it does anything though ?

Couple of questions

1. Is it ok to passively cool the cpu or is it not recommended for long periods of time ?
2. Audio/Video though HDMI - anyone have any experience of this ? One of my mates has a Dell XPS M1530, which has a HDMI connector, but he can't get the audio to come through the TV/screen and has to connect separate speakers. I really want an all in one solution, so is there a specific mobo/gfx card/sound card combo I should go for to make it easier.

Mobo wise, I've usually always gone for Asus and they never let me down in the past, though everyone seems to recommend the Gigabyte on these forums ?

Thanks for the advice so far guys, but please keep it coming

OttoMattik · 8 Jul 2008 at 21:57

Tentative Spec

Processor - AMD Athlon X2 4050e / 2.1 GHz
Motherboard - Asus M3A78-EMH HDMI AMD 780G Micro-ATX (Socket AM2) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard
Memory - OCZ 2GB (2x1GB) PC2-6400C4 Dual Channel Platinum Revision 2 XTC Series DDR2
Graphics - Onboard
Sound - Onboard (for now)
Case/PSU - Antec Fusion Black HTPC Case - 430HE Watt PSU
Hard Disk - Samsung SpinPoint F1 1TB SATA-II 32MB Cache
Optical Drive - LG GGC-H20L Blu-Ray Reader & HD-DVD ROM Serial ATA Drive

A few more questions

Is it possible to fit a full height PCI card in the case ?
Need some advice about CPU coolers ? Which ones will fit the case, best ones to go for silence / maybe passive coolers.
Is it worth installing 2 hard drives - I've always used a setup where I have a raptor as my boot drive and a separate one for dedicated media storage. I'm not sure this would be needed in the HTPC and might cause more heat/power usage ?

lee87 · 8 Jul 2008 at 22:02

2. Audio/Video though HDMI - anyone have any experience of this ? One of my mates has a Dell XPS M1530, which has a HDMI connector, but he can't get the audio to come through the TV/screen and has to connect separate speakers. I really want an all in one solution, so is there a specific mobo/gfx card/sound card combo I should go for to make it easier.

I'm using a Gigabyte GA-MA78GM-S2H with onboard graphics and sound, connected up to my HDTV through HDMI. The sound and video works fine through one cable.

OttoMattik said:
Is it possible to fit a full height PCI card in the case ?

The Antec Fusion can fit full hight cards. But length can be an issue.

Teaf · 8 Jul 2008 at 22:07

Processor - AMD Athlon X2 4050e / 2.1 GHz
Motherboard - Asus M3A78-EMH HDMI AMD 780G Micro-ATX (Socket AM2) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard
Memory - OCZ 2GB (2x1GB) PC2-6400C4 Dual Channel Platinum Revision 2 XTC Series DDR2
Graphics - Onboard
Sound - Onboard (for now)
Case/PSU - Antec Fusion Black HTPC Case - 430HE Watt PSU
Hard Disk - Samsung SpinPoint F1 1TB SATA-II 32MB Cache
Optical Drive - LG GGC-H20L Blu-Ray Reader & HD-DVD ROM Serial ATA Drive

That looks a superb HTPC spec.

OttoMattik said:
This is the spec I'm currently leaning towards, though I'm not sure about the case. I know its mainly superficial, but I do like the looks of the Antec Fusion, with the big volume knob on the front. Don't know if it does anything though ?

I have the Antec Fusion, the knob is indeed for volume and turning it adjusts it up/down, but it's also kinda superficial as you'd probably be using a remote anyway.

1. Is it ok to passively cool the cpu or is it not recommended for long periods of time ?

Long term passive cooling is perfectly fine, but finding a cooler that can passively cool within acceptable limits is going to be a difficult one. There are some out but getting them to fit in an Antec Fusion, or the NSK2480, will be the problem.

2. Audio/Video though HDMI - anyone have any experience of this ? One of my mates has a Dell XPS M1530, which has a HDMI connector, but he can't get the audio to come through the TV/screen and has to connect separate speakers. I really want an all in one solution, so is there a specific mobo/gfx card/sound card combo I should go for to make it easier.

I tend to find dedicated sound cards are the way to go if you are using a high quality speaker setup. Onboard is good through HDMI but if you are only using something like built-in speakers on a LCD TV which are going to be sub-20 watt then the HDMI is perfectly fine. The Gigabyte or Asus motherboards mentioned above will output graphics and sound through the HDMI port to the TV.

Mobo wise, I've usually always gone for Asus and they never let me down in the past, though everyone seems to recommend the Gigabyte on these forums ?

It's just personal preference mostly when it comes to an HTPC. The important aspects are what the technology of the board is like.

Is it possible to fit a full height PCI card in the [Antec Fusion]?

Yes, you can fit full high PCI/AGP/PCI-E cards in it. You will probably not being able to get in a proper graphics card though like a new range 9 series Nvidia or 4 series ATI, due to the length of the cards you clip the hard drive bay.

Need some advice about CPU coolers ? Which ones will fit the case, best ones to go for silence / maybe passive coolers.

Just go with stock I'd say, as long as it's running in PWM mode. Unless you have the hearing of a bat you aren't going to hear a CPU cooler running @ 400~ RPM at a distance of over 5 feet.

Is it worth installing 2 hard drives - I've always used a setup where I have a raptor as my boot drive and a separate one for dedicated media storage. I'm not sure this would be needed in the HTPC and might cause more heat/power usage ?

I would personally use 2 hard drives - one as your dedicated system drive and one as a storage drive, just get a 80 - 160gb drive for the system such as a Western Digital AAJS 160GB and a Samsung F1 1TB / 640GB for the storage. There won't be heat issues or lack of space, I personally have 2x 3.5" SATA drives in my Fusion.

OttoMattik · 8 Jul 2008 at 22:37

lee87 said:
I'm using a Gigabyte GA-MA78GM-S2H with onboard graphics and sound, connected up to my HDTV through HDMI. The sound and video works fine through one cable.

Thanks, that helps. I think I'm sold on the 780G chipset but will probably go for the Asus mobo, out of loyalty

flibby said:
I have the Antec Fusion, the knob is indeed for volume and turning it adjusts it up/down, but it's also kinda superficial as you'd probably be using a remote anyway.

Well, thats good to know. I probably will be using a remote, but its cool to have big knobs on your gear

flibby said:
Long term passive cooling is perfectly fine, but finding a cooler that can passively cool within acceptable limits is going to be a difficult one. There are some out but getting them to fit in an Antec Fusion, or the NSK2480, will be the problem.

Yeah, thought so. Have seen a few setups which have VIA cpu's in them which are passively cooled, but then you do trade power for the advantage.

flibby said:
I tend to find dedicated sound cards are the way to go if you are using a high quality speaker setup. Onboard is good through HDMI but if you are only using something like built-in speakers on a LCD TV which are going to be sub-20 watt then the HDMI is perfectly fine. The Gigabyte or Asus motherboards mentioned above will output graphics and sound through the HDMI port to the TV.

Hmm, that maybe something to look at in the future. TBH, I'm not a massive audiophile and tend to find the sound coming from the TV good enough

. I might look into getting a separates setup later, cos I've got my eye on the new Onkyo TX-SR606 amp.

flibby said:
Yes, you can fit full high PCI/AGP/PCI-E cards in it. You will probably not being able to get in a proper graphics card though like a new range 9 series Nvidia or 4 series ATI, due to the length of the cards you clip the hard drive bay.

It won't be for a graphics card. As I said earlier, I won't be doing any gaming on this PC at all. The only reason I need a spare PCI slot is sometimes I need to bring my work home, and need a specialist card which fits into the PCI slot. Its probably no bigger than any average PCI card, like an Audigy but definitely smaller than a graphics card.

flibby said:
I would personally use 2 hard drives - one as your dedicated system drive and one as a storage drive, just get a 80 - 160gb drive for the system such as a Western Digital AAJS 160GB and a Samsung F1 1TB / 640GB for the storage. There won't be heat issues or lack of space, I personally have 2x 3.5" SATA drives in my Fusion.

Yeah, this is the setup I normally go with. As the storage drive will be used a lot to download/repair/unpack archives, I think it has a higher chance of failure and a separate system drive just ensures your PC keeps going, even if you lose your media collection.

Teaf · 8 Jul 2008 at 22:41

OttoMattik said:
It won't be for a graphics card. As I said earlier, I won't be doing any gaming on this PC at all.

It was just more so for dedicated graphics solutions for high definition, but the 780G does it well enough but my HTPC has a 2400 Pro in it for HD decoding (as 780g wasn't around at the time) and I had to go with that card over others because it was short. Just in case you went the same route :-)

Yeah, this is the setup I normally go with. As the storage drive will be used a lot to download/repair/unpack archives, I think it has a higher chance of failure and a separate system drive just ensures your PC keeps going, even if you lose your media collection.

Aye there's been a couple of times my Windows has died... if I had stored all my music on the same drive I'd be rather screwed :-)

OttoMattik · 8 Jul 2008 at 23:21

Ok, getting somewhere now. Very close to finalising the spec

NOTE: I have included the X2 4600 Processor for reference only, it will be swapped for a 4050e when I come to order (OcUK doesn't have the 4050e in stock).

Teaf · 8 Jul 2008 at 23:28

Looks top notch mate, I'd be very happy with that if it were me, I'm sure you will be too. Just to note on the Fusion, to get the front LCD panel working you need to make sure it's plugged in. There is a small cable hidding along the inner front side of the case, I missed it at first when I was plugging mine together and it took me ages to realise. It comes with a USB adapator so you can if you want attach that and take it out the back of the case and plug it into a USB port - which I find beneficial in case I wanted to turn it off, therefore didn't have to open the machine.

OttoMattik · 8 Jul 2008 at 23:36

Thanks for all your help so far mate

Good to know about the LCD. Its one of those I things I would definitely miss, lose patience and just get the PC built without connecting it up at all and then get mad over paying for a feature "that doesn't work"

Will probably get round to ordering these tomorrow sometime, hope I can get them in time for the weekend

shaffaaf27 · 9 Jul 2008 at 01:16

no sound card?

AbsenceJam · 9 Jul 2008 at 05:55

If you're going Asus then I'd suggest the EM one since it has an eSATA port built in which you may find useful at some point.

If you're getting a second drive then make it a 320/640GB Samsung F1. That WD drive will be much slower than an F1 and is a rip-off, it'd be a shame to have a system disk that doesn't at least match the speed of your storage one.

A mini ninja without the fan would fit that case and cool the CPU well.