Hows this for HD HTPC Build

[nlel1975]

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.

 

[nlel1975]

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?

 

[nlel1975]

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.

 

[nlel1975]

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.

 

[nlel1975]

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.

 

[nlel1975]

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.