Help with a HTPC build

ArchAnGeL

ArchAnGeL

ArchAnGeL

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I am considering building a htpc but all I know about is gaming and high end stuff.

This will replace my xbox1+xbmc as I want to stream hd content.
I also have a 360 but I am frustrated by it's lack of supported formats.

Files will be mostly h.264 as .mkv and other HD as well as the usual divx/xvid

Ideally I want something that has hdmi and will carry sound to my tv but I also want optical out to my amp.

I won't be playing any games on this (perhaps the missus will play a few flash games but that's it). Purely for media and internet.

My tv is 720p but I want to make sure there is enough power for 1080p as I'll probably but a new tv at some point. The TV has no optical out hence the need for optical out from the pc.

OS will probably be Vista and mainly controlled from media centre via the media centre remote and using a wireless keyboard for browsing.

As cheap as reasonable as well please.

So, fire away with the specs and I have a few questions also.

1. a few threads recommend the amd EE cpus such as the 3800. Is this enough on it's own for hd playback or do I need some gfx acceleration? Are the current integrated offerings from ati/invidia sufficient? 2400 pro has also been suggested but I've not seen any with hdmi.

2. I like the look of the SilverStone SST-LC17B but it is ATX and most htpc motherboards seem to be mATX. Will mATX still mount in this case.

3. How powerful psu is required? Which are the quietest.

4. regarding hd hardware acceleration. Does this kick in independent of the ap p used?
 
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ArchAnGeL said:
1. a few threads recommend the amd EE cpus such as the 3800. Is this enough on it's own for hd playback or do I need some gfx acceleration? Are the current integrated offerings from ati/invidia sufficient? 2400 pro has also been suggested but I've not seen any with hdmi.
Click to expand...
The Brisbane BE chips TDP is 45W therefore run cooler & consume less. Dual-core should handle HD material ok, though the ATI HD 2000 or NVIDIA 8000 series have features to offload the decoded from the processor.
ArchAnGeL said:
2. I like the look of the SilverStone SST-LC17B but it is ATX and most htpc motherboards seem to be mATX. Will mATX still mount in this case
Click to expand...
mATX should fit fine. The case will have holes to mount the different size mobos.
ArchAnGeL said:
3. How powerful psu is required? Which are the quietest
Click to expand...
400W should be enough & can't go wrong with either Enermax, Corsair, Seasonic or Tagan ;)
 
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hp7909 said:
The Brisbane BE chips power consumption (TDP) is 45W therefore run cooler & consume less. Dual-core should handle HD material ok, though the ATI HD 2000 or NVIDIA 8000 series have features to offload the decoded from the processor.
mATX should fit fine. The case will have holes to mount the different size mobos.
400W should be enough & can't go wrong with either Enermax, Corsair, Seasonic or Tagan ;)
Click to expand...

just a small correction, TDP is the amount of heat something displaces, not the amount of power it consumes:)
 
yes it supports divx/xvid now and does it well but my xbox1 did that

The problem with the 360 is that you can only play hd as WMV. If you want to play .mkv you have to convert or change to mp4 which the 360 only supports with 2 channel sound. All in all a PITA tbh.

I'm just fed up with waiting for m$ to sort it out properly and the 360 is quite loud.
 
ok, I think I am looking at the following:-


AMD AM2 Athlon 64 BE-2350 Brisbane Core, Dual Core 2.1GHz, 1mb Cache, Energy Eff'''' 45W Retail
Antec fusion black (to match my amp and 360 elite)
Asus M2A-VM HDMI
2GB (2x1GB) Corsair TwinX XMS2, DDR2 PC2-5400 CAS 4-4-4-12
Keysonic KB-ACK-540RF v2 Notebook Cordless Keyboard

I have a spare sata drive and dvd rom somewhere. Not planning on using the optical drive as most stuff will be streamed.

any comments given my requirements?
 
Id go for a decent motherboard around £60+
Add a seperate GFX card and one that the GPU handles the decoding of HD rather than letting the CPU do it.

Im just building a new HTPC myself and opted for a

Gainward 8600GT 512mb
Heatsink fanless card
Includes HDMI / DVI / VGA and coxial audio to stream the audio via the HDMI

Looking at reviews its even decent for older games but ideal for HTPC

Are you for using XP or Vista?
 
that's what my initial thoughts were but i read numerous reviews saying that system would handle 1080p h.264 etc.

So if I were to go for a card would a HD2400 pro or geforce 8400 suffice?

What player software makes use of the hardware acceleration?

Seems to work in wmp11 ok for wmv files but not for .mkv with my 8800gt judging by cpu usage
 
I only recommend going with a seperate grfx card if you are having a blueray/HDDVD drive, powerdvd ultra will make use of the grfx card when playing HD movies.

If you only intend to watch x264/h264 files then you really dont need a seperate card if you have a fairly well specced cpu.
Just make sure you use CoreAVC codec as it is the most efficient available, you can use any frontend you like, I use MPC, some use KMplayer etc.
 
The system you specced will handle full 1080P just fine. You don't need a powerful gfx card for it. The onboard will cope although with full 1080P you might get pretty high CPU loads. To reduce these you might want to get a mobo that utilises nVidias PureVideoHD decoders that offload some of the work from the processor. The AVIVO on this mobo isn't as good at that as the newer ATi products.

Look at this review for some benchmarks from the 690G with video decoding.
 
The Gigabyte GA-MA69GM-S2H should cope well with 1080p content from a file on hard disk. I think with higher bitrate content from HDDVD or BluRay you are looking at needing 3ghz+ CPU. The board has integrated HDMI and looks to be a pretty solid board. The CoreAVC comment is a good one, but it does cost a few quid. I also believe Vista is a little better (effiecient?) at dealing with video than XP.

Personally i wanted to go with the gigabyte board and a BE2400 chip but i think it may be pushing it for when i go the route of HDDVD or BluRay discs.

There is also the new integrated chipsets coming from AMD/ATi (RS780) and nVidia (MCP78) in the new year which i would hope will be able to cope with HD (1080p from disc) with greater ease, but in this world you could wait forever

The other solution as pointed out is to go with a seperate GFX card that offloads all HD work from CPU, but i think these bring there own issues.
 
I own an ATi 690G bades mobo, which i use for playing HD-DVD. I need 2.6Ghz from my E2160 to play an H.264 encoded HD-DVD with the onboard graphics. On an AMD System, this would be higher. A dedicated graphics card will help no end.

I recommend getting an ATi 2400 graphics card for £30. This is better than the current Nvidia offerings, as it will also entirely decode VC-1 (ie, most HD-DVDs and Blu-rays) on the GPU, which the Nvidia can't.
 
OK to address the audio in Vista first...

Well I have Ultimate 64 and i gather it doesnt support 5.1 via digital.
Youd need to use analouge multichannel if your after 5.1 in ultimate.

Not sure if your after this yet you mentioned an amp and tv.
 
Mr Latte said:
OK to address the audio in Vista first...

Well I have Ultimate 64 and i gather it doesnt support 5.1 via digital.
Youd need to use analouge multichannel if your after 5.1 in ultimate.

Not sure if your after this yet you mentioned an amp and tv.
Click to expand...


I wasn't aware of that, thanks. I could use multichannel but optical is so much easier I will probably go xp or mce2005 (if it works with that)
 
The more I look into this I get concerned about the cpu and it's ability to handle 1080p content without hardware acceleration.

So I am thinking about moving to a e2180 which should handle any decoding itself with a mild overclock. Correct?

Obviously this means I will miss out on any avivo decoding by using an intel chipset but I hope that shouldn't really matter. it's not the end of the world to add a 2400 pro if needed.

Is this a sensible courese of action or overkill?

I know the 2180 will be hotter than the AMD but if I don't increase the volts it should be reasonable cool.

A quick question on the 2400 pro. I think this comes with a dvi>hdmi converter which also has an audio input so that sound is carried over the hdmi cable. Where does the other end of the audio cable plug in? the toslink? If it isn't the toslink can you get simultaneous sound from the toslink at the same time as moving sound over hdmi?

Cheers for the help
 
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