HTPC spec/help/advice

antc

antc

antc

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Joined
23 Jun 2005
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1,774
Location
Nottinghamshire
Hi,

I have been reading for about the past week all the threads and stickies and seen lots of great htpc builds. I did briefly have a htpc at the start of the year, but it didnt last long due to having much greater need to have a server built for storage. Anyway, now the server is ready and holding all my media, i now want to venture back into the world of htpc properly this time.

I have the following parts left over from the original pc i built.

Silverstone LC17m case in silver
ATI Radeon 2600xt gfx card
Auzentech Auzen x-plosion 7.1 sound card
Media centre remote control and reciever

Now, to clarify the uses for this htpc i intend to build.

1. Watching hd films blueray and hd dvd (due to them being so cheap) from either disc or hdd
2. recording and timeshifting tv
3. playing my music collection (although this wont happen to much as i have a seperate setup for this)
4. internet use

I wont be playing games on this machine, apart from maybe the odd bit of football manager but im not fussed about this too much if its going to cause any issues.

Once built the htpc will be connected to my samsung lcd running 1366x769 via a hdmi to dvi cable and connected to my denon amp using optical out on the soundcard.

What im wanting is help/advice/opinions on the parts i am missing to compleye this build, mainly cpu, mobo, ram and so on.

If anyone can help that would be great.

Thanks
 
What i am mainly struggling with is should i go for amd or intel based system. I understand the amd based system, for example the 4850e chip runs pretty cool due to being energy efficient. But will going for an intel system make me a bit more futureproof? Easier to upgrade later? Or would it just be overkill for a htpc.

The other thing i would really like is to make this system as silent as possible.
 
Been putting togother a rough spec today for my htpc.

Asus M3A78-EMH hdmi and 780g micro atx am2 pci-e mobo - £49.34
Amd Athlon 64 x2 dual core 5200+ 2.7ghz am2 retail - £52.86
ocuk 2 gig (2x1 gig) pc2 6400 800mhz ddr2 dual channel - £24.66
Corsair VX 450W ATX PSU - £49.34
Compro VideoMate Vista T500F DVB-T Hybrid Internal PCI TV Tuner - £44.64

Grand Total - £220.84

Just to recap i have the following -

Silverstone LC17m case in silver
ATI Radeon 2600xt gfx card
Auzentech Auzen x-plosion 7.1 sound card
Media centre remote control and reciever

Anybody have any thoughts or suggestions for improvement on this system?
 
Change the Fans to Xilence or Sharkoons & 7v mod them.
CPU cooler = Sythe mini Ninja.
Is there supposed to be Hard drive & optical drive? (If not - WD6400AAKS & LG HD-DVD/BR combo)
Up to you if you want the AMD system, but the Card will be doing the decoding so you could go intel if you want.
 
Yeah going for the LG drive i thing, and the coolers you suggested. Hdd i think will get a smallish one, due to al my films and music being on my windows home server, local drive i guess will mainly just be used for recorded tv. Would you say there is an advantage for going intel over amd?

As i understand the amds seem to run cooler?
 
I would vote for Intel - they are far more reliable when it comes to working with TV cards etc. I currently run a media server on a 2.4 Intel with a Hauppage card - not sure which one as the machine runs 24/7 and has done so since July 2003 when I built the machine. Using the old maxin, if it ain't broken.... etc.
 
AMD 780g chipset mobo (Gigabyte) & Energy-efficient 'e' series Athlon X2 CPU e.g. 4850e* ;)

2GB PC2-6400 800MHz RAM will also be enough.

The onboard GFX is good for HD & you might not even need to re-use the (noisy) 2600xt unless gaming :)

EDIT:*Available at other e-tailers (OcUK/Gibbo why don't you stock this?!?!?!)
 
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