I'm thinking about building meself one of these, but as its an area I know nothing about, I could use a bit of guidance. What sort of spec would i need for a decent setup to watch/record tv to H/d, play dvd's, either PS3 or Xbox 360. Also what software is needed to run it all? Its not gonna built on shoestring, but then again, I don't spend wads of dough. Cheers.
HTPC, what do I need?
- Thread starter pieman109
- Start date
Basically it's a normal PC, but as quiet as possible. So choose a motherboard that's passive. On-board graphics card, or seperate card that's passive. Quiet PSU. As few hard drives as possible. IR Receiver and remote. You'll want to choose a cool running CPU. Looking at 2ghz PC as a minimum.
XP with a front end will be sufficient (Meedio, Media Portal) or could use XP MCE, or perhaps Linux. You'll want a soundcard with ASIO drivers if you plan to sent audio to a AV amp.
Software wise Power DVD, FFDSHOW, Real Alternative should be enough.
Can't help with recording from TV though, guess need a TV tuner/DVB card.
IMO I would buy a MATX 939 Mobo, use your 3700 for the HTPC, buy a faster one/dual core 939 CPU for your Gigabyte system.
XP with a front end will be sufficient (Meedio, Media Portal) or could use XP MCE, or perhaps Linux. You'll want a soundcard with ASIO drivers if you plan to sent audio to a AV amp.
Software wise Power DVD, FFDSHOW, Real Alternative should be enough.
Can't help with recording from TV though, guess need a TV tuner/DVB card.
IMO I would buy a MATX 939 Mobo, use your 3700 for the HTPC, buy a faster one/dual core 939 CPU for your Gigabyte system.
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squiffy said:Basically it's a normal PC, but as quiet as possible. So choose a motherboard that's passive. On-board graphics card, or seperate card that's passive. Quiet PSU. As few hard drives as possible. IR Receiver and remote. You'll want to choose a cool running CPU. Looking at 2ghz PC as a minimum.
XP with a front end will be sufficient (Meedio, Media Portal) or could use XP MCE, or perhaps Linux. You'll want a soundcard with ASIO drivers if you plan to sent audio to a AV amp.
Software wise Power DVD, FFDSHOW, Real Alternative should be enough.
Can't help with recording from TV though, guess need a TV tuner/DVB card.
IMO I would buy a MATX 939 Mobo, use your 3700 for the HTPC, buy a faster one/dual core 939 CPU for your Gigabyte system.
I'm figuring using the kid's pc 'cos it hardly gets used (they're always on the main one below in me sig), its got the following:
A64 3200 S754, freezer 64 hsf, X800, 2gig ram, 80g samsung spinpoint h/d, gigabyte K8N passive mobo, antec psu, lian li case.
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yup that machine will be more than good enough, although I would buy a bigger HD, you can quite easily fill 80GB, especially if you put TV series onto it. Looking at 4-8GB for a 24 episode TV season.
Might as well buy a Microsoft IR kit, only 20 quid, and prat around with XP/MCE. take a while to get sorted exactly.
Might as well buy a Microsoft IR kit, only 20 quid, and prat around with XP/MCE.
take a while to get sorted exactly.