HTPC spec!

[S.A.S]

hi guys, my family wants a new freeview recorder in the living room and i thought this would be a great chance for me to build HTPC.

maximum budget £370? could stretch to £450?

can it be done lol

Thanks in advance

 

[jak731]

Your basket
Product Name Qty Price Line Total
Gigabyte GA-MA78GM-S2H AMD 780G Micro-ATX (Socket AM2) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard £63.99
(£73.59) £63.99
(£73.59)
LG GGC-H20L Blu-Ray Reader & HD-DVD ROM Serial ATA Drive - Retail £59.99
(£68.99) £59.99
(£68.99)
Samsung SpinPoint F1 640GB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (HD642JJ) £46.99
(£54.04) £46.99
(£54.04)
AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 5200 2.70GHz (Socket AM2) - Retail £45.99
(£52.89) £45.99
(£52.89)
Seasonic Silverpower 400W PSU £39.99
(£45.99) £39.99
(£45.99)
OCZ 2GB (2x1GB) PC2-6400C4 Dual Channel Platinum Revision 2 XTC Series DDR2 (OCZ2P800R22GK) £19.99
(£22.99) £19.99
(£22.99)
Sub Total : £276.94
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DHL @ Home Next Day (Delivered Mon-Fri)
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £8.99
VAT is being charged at 15% VAT : £42.89
Total : £328.82

complete with case and additional HDDs if needed

 

[hp7909]

I'd try get the Energy-efficient 'e' series X2s e.g. 4850e.

But above looks good. Maybe this case (comes with a decent PSU)

 

[bremen1874]

When you can buy a 160GB dual tuner Freeview recorder for well under £100 why bother?

For the cost of a HTPC you could get Sky+ or the Virgin equivalent and a year or more worth of subscription fees to channels that might possibly be worth watching.

I did have a 'HTPC' for a while but gave up as the Wife refused to get on with it.

 

[Glaucus]

When you can buy a 160GB dual tuner Freeview recorder for well under £100 why bother?

For the cost of a HTPC you could get Sky+ or the Virgin equivalent and a year or more worth of subscription fees to channels that might possibly be worth watching.

I did have a 'HTPC' for a while but gave up as the Wife refused to get on with it.

Because they can't play blu-ray or have music or films stored on them. What a stupid post..

 

[ssmacc]

I appreciate that HTPC are great indeed, I’ve got one and built one for my Dad. However, I would say that a basic (to people reading this forum) and an advanced (for 'most') PC knowledge is needed to reliable work one. A Freeview Recorder may not be such a ‘stupid’ suggestion, given the ease of use and price.

Just bear in mind that a good knowledge of PC’s is required to make the most of a HTPC.

 

[S.A.S]

oh i have great knowledge of building and using pc's, i custom build computers for people, but i have never built a HTPC before, this could be my chance.

As for the virgin media and sky, we had sky for about 2 years and was un-impressed with their signal quality and customer care.

and thankyou jak371, thats looks like a very nice build, and hp7909 that case does look good and comes with the psu, so i'll be using that.

Thanks guys

 

[bremen1874]

As for the virgin media and sky, we had sky for about 2 years and was un-impressed with their signal quality and customer care.

How will building a HTPC improve the signal quality?

Most of the issues I see with signal quality on Sky/Virgin/Freeview are caused by the individual channel broadcasters choosing to use low bitrates for the transmissions.

 

[S.A.S]

never had any trouble with my outside aerial for receiving freeview channels on my bedroom pc (has a tuner card inside). never had one jump, glitch or, distorted image.