HTPC Spec & Requirements

Fatboy

Fatboy

Fatboy

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When looking to purchase a complete HTPC which of the following are important to you.

1) Looks
2) Performance
3) Features

Would you buy a pre-built HTPC or would you preffer a HTPC bundle where all the parts are pre-selected and you do the setting up yourself. Have any of you got anything that you would like to see but have not seen available on the market at the moment ?
 
One thing you didn't mention is noise!! :)

The quieter the better, followed by looks and performance equally.

As most are used with plasma/LCD's and are not really pushed, my main concern would be that it doesnt look like a PC - my missus moans that the living room looks like Dixons already.

Edit - Should have added - like the sound of the selected bundles - as hopefully, it takes hardware non compatability out of the equation.
 
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One other thing, OCK'ers do a nice range of cases - is there any chance that you/they could stock dedicated HTPC cases from the likes of Origen, as they have some really exciting designs coming up, and look quality as well.


Origen Web Site
 
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Fatboy said:
When looking to purchase a complete HTPC which of the following are important to you.

1) Looks
2) Performance
3) Features

Would you buy a pre-built HTPC or would you preffer a HTPC bundle where all the parts are pre-selected and you do the setting up yourself. Have any of you got anything that you would like to see but have not seen available on the market at the moment ?
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My preference is below:

4) Noise
2) Performance
3) Features
1) Looks

In my view I wouldn't buy a prebuilt machine from the likes of dell,hp etc. However I would consider an OcUK prebuilt machine as they'll be built with the same items I would buy myself or an OcUK bundle for that matter. It would be a great idea to offer a silent option as an upgrade path - Acoustic Matting, Slient Fans and CPU Cooler etc. Not to mention a good selection of cases would be nice :D
 
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1 - performance
2 - features
3 - looks

I'd like to see some sort of breakout box that has all the outputs and some sort of switch so I can chose component/DVI or whatever rather than messing about in windows changing primary displays.

Some sort of discreet push button device to turn up/down fans would be good, not those tacky things with nobs on the front - just a neat small option to turn up fans/use extra fans when it's hot like it has been today.

What I'd most like is this but connected via ethernet so it can be tucked away somewhere

http://cooldrives.stores.yahoo.net/fodrulsarera.html

There are similar products around but haven't seen any that let you put in your own SATA drives and can be networked. High def video can be 10GB per hour so lots of drives necessary. Only alternative at the moment is to have a seperate PC just for storage.
 
I dont think pre-built HTPCs are too popular because they are too expensive.

Most people make HTPCs out of their old kit that has been upgraded. And a lot of these expensive pre-built ones offer nothing better than if you put all your old bits together.

For MCE to really take off, you need a sub £400 system, that is silent, upgradable and stylish. It doesnt have to be a powerhouse, as you can play 1080i stuff on an old P4 2.8ghz. It doesnt need a video card, so long as it has DVI onboard (NVidia 6150) and it doesnt need any fancy sound, as onboard 7.1 with SPdif is good enough got most people.

Seeing as you can get a modded xbox for under £100, or a wifi media player for about £200, people just dont wonna spend £700+ on a HTPC.
 
There seems little point in building an HTPC and disregarding HD-DVD and Blu Ray therefore it does need to be something of a 'powerhouse' since h.264 1080p stuff is very cpu intensive.
I also wouldn't make/buy an HTPC at the moment until HDCP issues are sorted.
 
hmm for me noise is fairly low as msot of the time i'm using it i'll be watching a film etc so can't hear it anyway.

obviously can't be too loud.
 
they are all important, i dont know if i could put them in any order tbh. it needs to look good, be very quiet and work like the stink if it has to.
 
as the two posts above from Lanz & Goatboy show there are different levels of HTPC,

for an average user you can get away with low spec systems with off the shelf software with little in the way of tweaking, this is ok for the typical divx / dvd user.

For advanced users (high def, projectors etc) you are really looking at a PC that can rival a top end games system, it is typically used instead of an external scalar & takes a lot of tweaking with not user friendly software, not easy or cheap to set up & takes a lot of effort to cool quietly.

As Goatboy mentions with high def formats around the corner its not a great time to start brining these out.
 
H.264 only needs a beefy system now because there arent many decent codecs for it. If you try CoreAVC will you see it can run h.264 stuff on quite a low spec machine, its pretty damn amazing. My MCE machine is a relatively low spec, but if you put it next to a machine twice as expensive, you'd be hard pushed to see the difference quality wise (this is at 1360x768).

You certainly dont need a fast cpu, ram or hardisk. Just the video card needs some consideration. But a cheap 7600GS will do anything a 7900GTX will do when it comes to video features.
 
Lanz said:
H.264 only needs a beefy system now because there arent many decent codecs for it. If you try CoreAVC will you see it can run h.264 stuff on quite a low spec machine, its pretty damn amazing. My MCE machine is a relatively low spec, but if you put it next to a machine twice as expensive, you'd be hard pushed to see the difference quality wise (this is at 1360x768).

You certainly dont need a fast cpu, ram or hardisk. Just the video card needs some consideration. But a cheap 7600GS will do anything a 7900GTX will do when it comes to video features.
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not quite, 7600 GS doesn't cover all the purevideo features, you will also be getting dropped frames on h.264 on your system as coreavc is not up to scratch yet, V 1.1 is in beta & should help things when its released. Thats also a fairly low res you are playing back, going to 1920 X1280 will heap on the load.

Try playing back some BBC HD stuff & see how much CPU is required, they are killers.

GPU support is the way forward, hopefully when the market grows we will see better / cheaper products.

Post processing also uses huge amounts of CPU, like I said in my previous post there are 2 distinct types of HTPC user.
 
like I said in my previous post there are 2 distinct types of HTPC user
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I agree, and i think for ocuk to market HTPCs they should be looking at the average consumer, not the guy with projectors and stuff, as he'll want to build his own.

We need a basic £400 HTPC that can do all the basic mpeg2/divx/720p stuff for connecting to a 32inch LCD via DVI etc, but with the option to expand into something more beefy.

Everyone who sees my cheapo MCE is impressed, they ask how much it costs and even tho its cheap, they kinda think its too much still. These are the kinda people who buy £100 DVD players (like most of the population I guess) and wouldnt dream of spending a grand+ on a upscaling DVD player with decent speaker etc.
 
Looks are fairly important to potential buyers in this sector as the systems have to be in their living room, and must either fit in with their other kit or be quite discreet.

Obviously for me a nice Lian-Li or CM case would do the trick, as long as it doesn't look like one of those terrible "gaming" cases.

Noise is very important and as long as I could play everything and encode TV at a reasonable speed this is more important than performance. I wouldn't have every conceivable video processing option turned on if it meant I had to have a Delta screamer fan installed.

For an HTPC you have to have PVR functionality imo otherwise it doesn't make it worthwhile to have. This is far more important than all the bells and whistles of the video processing.

I think OcUK should start thinking about HTPCs, as they are becoming more and more popular. However I think they should definitely take a broad spectrum of prices into consideration, as not everyone wants or needs an all singing all dancing video processing machine costing £2k+. A nice silentish PVR could easily be specced for about £600 using a Sempron processor. Obvisouly it would be limited in storage and processing speed, but it could easily burn to DVD and even feature two TV tuners. I think more people would consider moving to the world of HTPC if such a cheap option were available.

EDIT: I should also say, not many people are going to have access to HD content for a little while, and for recording digital TV right now a simple spec can be used.
 
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Snow-Munki said:
hmm for me noise is fairly low as msot of the time i'm using it i'll be watching a film etc so can't hear it anyway.

obviously can't be too loud.
Click to expand...

Not all films are action all of the time, and having a PC whirring away in the background for me can break the concentration of viewing a film.

I'm watching or listening I should say, through a fairly top AV system, so wouldn't want the PC interfering. :)
 
The Spec I have still kicks ass imo for performance - price, still pleased to bits with it yet and have had 2 friends build almost identical specs. Even though im not interested much in MCE (overrated) just prefer a clean desktop and my other fave PC apps running on the 40" LCD with MCE remote (works with most apps lads) and a wireless mouse/keys.

As for PVR on pcs well these can be troublesome, we much more prefer the simpleness of a good DVD recorder with harddrive or Sky+. Its no fuss works when you want it eveyone can work it and can start recording within seconds not waiting to boot up a PC etc. Of course its always possible to later burn off a DVD of your recordings and rip it back to your PC harddrive if required.

Personally i just prefer to use my HTPC as a complete entertainment database but not a do everything wonder box. The main reason is Tv cards are interlaced **** and cause more headaches in the HTPC sector than any other. Everyone to their own in this department.

System Tips
Get good quality ram and a minimium 1GB with 2GB recommended.
Consider a dual Core 3800 CPU its cheap and with good ram will allow a great approx 250 FSB on a good motherboard board like the Asus when paired with a decent CPU cooler.

Well I saved over £300 at the time (november) going with the 3800 and overclocking it faster than a 4800.

PS regards running noise mine is about as loud as a PS2 or Xbox i use no internal case fans, mobo and gfx are silent with only the PSU and CPU 120mm running.

I dont think everyone here would hold the same view that HD content is curently limited, its their in abundance if your bothered to find it but this topic shouldnt be discussed further.

"Revenge of the Sith EP3 in 1080i" is one example though.
 
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With all my case fans at 5v and a fanless PSU my HTPC is quiter than my DVD recorder or video. It is also optimised solely for TV, playing media and web browseing. To run games as well would require at lot more cooling (and noise).
 
Quietness is a huge WAF (Wife Acceptance Factor :p ) as well as looks. Most people do not game on their HTPC so graphics dont need to be beefy.

I was looking into some form of Core Duo setup in a Silverstone LC09 case, but that would only allow for a single PCI slot, an LC11 is also an attractive idea.
 
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