htpc spec

lolwtfbbq · 15 May 2006 at 21:04

Hi, i have a around a £1000 to spend on a htpc.

Don't need a mouse or keybord

Phil99 · 15 May 2006 at 21:06

What do you want to do with it?

Any gaming?

Dual Freeview Tuners?

HDTV?

lolwtfbbq · 16 May 2006 at 07:01

No gaming ,some HDTV

Like this tv card:

Terratec Cinergy 2400i DT DVB-T TV Tuner (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-000-TT) £93.94

hp7909 · 16 May 2006 at 07:30

Terratec Cinergy 2400i DT DVB-T TV Tuner (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-000-TT) £79.95
Intel Pentium 4 940 Dual Core "LGA775 Presler" 3.2GHz (800FSB) - Retail (CP-113-IN) £144.95
Antec Overture II Piano Black Quiet Media case - 450W Smart Power PSU (CA-038-AN) £53.95
Asus P5WD2 Intel 955X (Socket LGA775) PCI-Express Motherboard (MB-139-AS) £99.95
Corsair 1GB DDR2 XMS2-5400 TwinX (2x512MB) (MY-059-CS) £64.95
XFX GeForce 7600 GS 256MB DDR2 TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (PVT73P-UDL3) (GX-080-XF) £74.95
Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 320GB ST3320620AS SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (HD-078-SE) £64.95 - **New perpendicular recording technology!**
Samsung SH-W163 16x16 DVD±RW Serial ATA Dual Layer ReWriter (Black) (CD-076-SA) £24.75
Zalman CNPS7700-CU Ultra-Quiet CPU Cooler - Retail (HS-010-ZA) £19.95
Microsoft Windows XP Media Centre 2005 Edition - OEM - 1Pk (M93-00200) (SW-008-MS) £64.95
Subtotal £693.30
Shipping (City Link Parcel Next Day (Delivered Mon-Fri)) £10.95
VAT £123.25
Total £827.50

Good guide here

lolwtfbbq · 16 May 2006 at 07:50

I would like to go for AMD (939)

hp7909 · 16 May 2006 at 08:06

vinh24 said:
I would like to go for AMD (939)

You said 'No gaming' so thats why I based it on the new 65nm Intel's

No worries though will make changes, but just need to know one thing - do you need a monitor?

utherpendragon · 16 May 2006 at 08:30

a pentium m would be best for s htpc i would have thought with eist, low power consumption, and heat output.

hp7909 · 16 May 2006 at 08:57

AMD A64's got Cool 'n' Quite which is also quite good

Retake:

Terratec Cinergy 2400i DT DVB-T TV Tuner (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-000-TT) £79.95
Antec Overture II Piano Black Quiet Media case - 450W Smart Power PSU (CA-038-AN) £53.95
XFX GeForce 7600 GS 256MB DDR2 TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (PVT73P-UDL3) (GX-080-XF) £74.95
Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 320GB ST3320620AS SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (HD-078-SE) £64.95
Samsung SH-W163 16x16 DVD±RW Serial ATA Dual Layer ReWriter (Black) (CD-076-SA) £24.75
Zalman CNPS7700-CU Ultra-Quiet CPU Cooler - Retail (HS-010-ZA) £19.95
Microsoft Windows XP Media Centre 2005 Edition - OEM - 1Pk (M93-00200) (SW-008-MS) £64.95
AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 3800+ (Socket 939) - OEM (CP-152-AM) £157.95
Asus A8N-E nForce4 Ultra (Socket 939) PCI-Express Motherboard (MB-088-AS) £54.95
Corsair 2GB DDR XMS3200C2PT TwinX (2x1GB) CAS2 (MY-079-CS) £119.95
Subtotal £716.30
Shipping (City Link Parcel Next Day (Delivered Mon-Fri)) £10.95
VAT £127.27
Total £854.52

If you need a monitor & is over budget, I'd sacrfice the X2 3800+ for a normal A64, even a 3000+ will be up to the task because the Terratec Cinergy has Hardware Encoding reducing the load on the processor.

squiffy · 16 May 2006 at 09:08

But if he's scaling Mpeg-II/Mpeg-IV you do require a fast CPU, I've yet to scale DVD to HD but already with FFDSHOW CPU is at 70-80% with SD material with FFDSHOW picture processing/blur options on (3700+)

lolwtfbbq · 16 May 2006 at 17:28

I don't need a monitor but i do transcoding