Hows this for HD HTPC Build

nlel1975 · 11 Jun 2009 at 17:58

Components

Gigabyte GA-G41MF-S2H G41, X4500, HDMI out & capable of 1080p Blu-Ray according to website
Crucial Ballistix PC6400 CL4 2x2GB
Intel E5200 overclocked to at least 3ghz, stock hsf
Samsung Green 1TB ECO drive
Sony Blu-Ray Drive Black
Antec Minuet 350 Case with 80+ Certified 350W PSU
Hauppage HVR 2200 Dual Analogue/Digital Tuner TV Card

Total £ 384.91 ex VAT inc shipping

All I want it to do is surf web, record analogue then digital TV to hard drive. playback 1080p Blu-Ray connected via onboard HDMI to 42" Toshiba TV.

NoobieOCer · 11 Jun 2009 at 21:14

why not take a look at zotac itx lga 775 or its dual atom version. they be smaller so you have a nicer small HTPC, dont think you neeed to over clock. max maybe a zotac 9300 775 + e5200 at stock still be overkill for just HD content

edit: just noticed your tv recording req, umm not 100% sure can you get this in mini pcie cards....

b|gf|sh · 12 Jun 2009 at 11:10

Spec looks ok, but would recommend the following changes:

Gigabyte GA-G41MF-S2H G41 - Would recommend changing the motherboard to an nVidia 9300/9400 (nv730i) based motherboard instead of an Intel G4x. Look at Asus P5N7A-VM

Antec Minuet 350 - If you've got the space, Antec's NSK2480 case is a much better/newer design, especially in terms of cooling performance.
Hauppage HVR 2200 - Seems far too expensive for a dual DVB-T tuner, picked up a similar spec Pinnacle 3010i card recently which works great, but for about 15% of the price of that Hauppage

What software you planning on using?

nlel1975 · 12 Jun 2009 at 12:46

Thanks but the Gigabyte G41 board is costing me £ 48 ex VAT the board you suggest is £ 67 ex VAT, if I wanted better graphics I'd buy a decent dedicated card, the biggest task this will be running is 1080p playback.

I'm getting the Hauppage card becuase its dual analogue and dual digital, I need analogue as the switchover doesn't happen until Nov 2010 here... if there's a cheaper dual analogue & dual digital card please show me where I can get it for £ 15.

EDIT: OK I could get a cheap analogue card to last me for 1.5 years for say £ 15 then buy a dual digital only card for another £ 15 in Nov 2010 total cost £ 30, the HVR 2200 is an excellent card however and it does both jobs for £ 81.40 ex VAT, about £ 50 more but am I gonna care about £ 50 in Nov 2010?

b|gf|sh · 12 Jun 2009 at 13:25

nlel1975 said:
Thanks but the Gigabyte G41 board is costing me £ 48 ex VAT the board you suggest is £ 67 ex VAT, if I wanted better graphics I'd buy a decent dedicated card, the biggest task this will be running is 1080p playback.

I'm getting the Hauppage card becuase its dual analogue and dual digital, I need analogue as the switchover doesn't happen until Nov 2010 here... if there's a cheaper dual analogue & dual digital card please show me where I can get it for £ 15.

EDIT: OK I could get a cheap analogue card to last me for 1.5 years for say £ 15 then buy a dual digital only card for another £ 15 in Nov 2010 total cost £ 30, the HVR 2200 is an excellent card however and it does both jobs for £ 81.40 ex VAT, about £ 50 more but am I gonna care about £ 50 in Nov 2010?

Was just thinking in terms of saving on the tv card to allow you to spend more on the other components

The Pinnacle 3010ix I suggested is a hybrid card (Dual DVB-T/Analogue) btw, can't mention where to buy one though so you'll need to look about for that

Also, not sure the G41/G43 boards support hardware h.264 acceleration, you'd need at least a G45 board for that (someone might correct me on that one though?). But tbh, the nVidia 9300/9400 chipset boards are much more suited to blu-ray playback (proper 1080/24p support, scores a full 120/120 in the HQV test and better codec support too). Check the avsforum.com HTPC forum for more info though.

nlel1975 · 12 Jun 2009 at 16:45

Couple of reasons why I can't get the Pinnacle 3010ix from e*ay for £ 15

1. It doesn't come with a low profile bracket
2. It might only work with 4GB with the black gold 3450 drivers

Apart from that its £ 15 for a reason an £ 81 Hauppage HVR 2200 card is bound to be better.

Ross1234 · 12 Jun 2009 at 16:47

Yeh Hauppage stuff is great. I cant get the fm radio to work in media center though.

nlel1975 · 12 Jun 2009 at 17:04

Do you have the HVR 2200 ? I'm not really bothered about the radio. Also the G41 chipset does support full HD 1080p according to Gigabytes product page for the GA-EG41MF-S2H.

I might have to spend a little time downloading latest drivers etc but I fully expect it to handle H264. Apart from that the only reason why I'd need decent graphics is for games which I don't intend on playing.

Link to gigabyte page

http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/Products/Motherboard/Products_Overview.aspx?ProductID=2954

It says HDMI Interface for full HD 1080 bluray playback with HDCP, why would it say that if the board couldn't handle 1080 playback.

See also this from intel http://www.intel.com/support/graphics/sb/CS-029871.htm where it says the G4x chipsets support hardware decoding of blu-ray in Windows Vista.

Ross1234 · 12 Jun 2009 at 17:05

Nah I have an older one. HVR 1300 I think. The radio still works in a seperate application and digital radio works in media center.

nlel1975 · 15 Jun 2009 at 15:03

I recieved all the parts today, seems to playback blu-ray 1080p just fine.... very good picture quality too, cpu usage about 50% whiilst playing.

feriso · 15 Jun 2009 at 15:48

Well its obviously using software decoders for bluray - if it was using the gfx (hardware) decoders then your cpu usage would be ~2%. Are you using a powerdvd or MP-C codec/programme for watching the blu-rays

nlel1975 · 15 Jun 2009 at 15:56

feriso said:
Well its obviously using software decoders for bluray - if it was using the gfx (hardware) decoders then your cpu usage would be ~2%. Are you using a powerdvd or MP-C codec/programme for watching the blu-rays

PowerDVD that came with the Sony Blu-Ray drive. hardware acceleration is ticked in PowerDVD, maybe there's a little hardware acceleration going on, anyway I'm happy with it and saved £ 30 by not getting a board with superior IGP. For my purposes it works fine + I haven't bothered to overclock yet.

Dreadhead · 18 Jun 2009 at 23:15

If you get a Hauppauge Nova-S2 HD you can hook up a mini dish and get some HD channels along with standard freeview over satellite. Would look nicer than the analogue signal you are currently receiving. May be worth a thought.