Htpc

Amp34 · 29 Mar 2006 at 18:49

I'm building a HTPC around a silverstone LC11M case. The spec i've decided on is:

Asus VM CSM micro ATX
AMD X2 3800
Zalman CNPS7700 CU
LG ESA 4166BL
Samsung spinpoint 250GB
Geil 1GB (2X512) value RAM
2 x freeview cards
HDA Digital x-mystique 7.1
Microsoft MCE

Now a few questions, is there anything that sticks out as being wrong or incompatable? Next a really stupid question, is PCI-E backwards compatable with PCI, as there will be 3 PCI cards I will need to fit one into the express slot to work. Will the remote work with MCE or will i need to get the official microsoft one, if so will i need to have a seperate infrared port?

Do I actually need the sound card? The info on the asus site points to not having an optical in/out on the exterior? Is there one inside that would work easily and will the sound be any better?

To anyone that has bought the LC11M from OCUK is the psu the updated one (300w) or the older 240w one? will either be able to cope.

The machine will be a pure HTPC, no games or anything. I just want to be able to use it for watching films etc. (1080i/p for the future) without too much effort. Is the zalman the quietest CPu cooler i could use or are there quieter ones that will fit?

Also I heard that you need to do a reg edit to get 2 tuners to work with MCE, can someone point me to a link of how to do it? Im thinking of going for the Hauppauge cards.

Thanks

Lanz · 29 Mar 2006 at 20:11

No you cant plug PCI cards into PCI-e slots.

The onboard 6100 graphics is ok for general stuff, it has good mpeg2 decoding etc, but it doesn't have all the proper purevideo features of a proper 6xxx card. You'd be best off getting a passive 7600 to go in there if your wanting decent 1080i decoding in the future.
You can see the purevideo features of all the different cards omn the NV website.

I think the two tuners thing was fixed with the MCE rollout patch a couple of months ago, so long as they are the same make, i think it'll work fine.

I suspect the X2 is overkill to be honest, it certainly doesnt need that kind of cpu grunt, but I guess it could be useful if you were maybe recording two programs and watching a HD movie at the same time.

I use a P4 2.6ghz HT in mine and it rarely uses more than 10% cpu.

Amp34 · 29 Mar 2006 at 20:36

Darn I thought that may be the case. I was wondering about getting a 7600 anyway so that will go in the pci-e slot. The problem is there are very few m-atx boards that will fit into the case and none of them seen to have have coax out on the outside, but they do have it on the inside. Im a little confused how that works.

Amp34 · 30 Mar 2006 at 00:13

Aftr a bit mor searching it seems the chipset will do HD on its own without an extra GFX card which is good.

Another question, If I connected a coax/spdif socket to the audio header on the mobo would i be able to play DTX and DD through it (other end of optical goes to surround sound system) or do i need a seperate sound card for that?

fornowagain · 30 Mar 2006 at 01:28

If the source is AC3 encoded it will come out the coax and decode into DD at the amp. Everything else will be just plain old 2 channel surround. The good thing about the 7.1 HDA is that it encodes any non AC3 into DD in real time without loading the cpu. The HDA is a must for an HTPC that plays anything other than DVD's. Even my normal TV is DD, just gotta love it.

Energize · 30 Mar 2006 at 01:37

Amp34 said:
Aftr a bit mor searching it seems the chipset will do HD on its own without an extra GFX card which is good.

Another question, If I connected a coax/spdif socket to the audio header on the mobo would i be able to play DTX and DD through it (other end of optical goes to surround sound system) or do i need a seperate sound card for that?

It might say it does but I doubt it can handle 1080p.

Amp34 · 30 Mar 2006 at 14:28

Unfortunatly the case im looking at has space for only 3 cards, 1 pci-e and 2 pci. Thats why its a little difficult.

So there is definitly no way of using some kind of adaptor to get a pci-card to work in a pci e slot? Has anyone seen a sort of dongle that just uses a wire to connect to audio header and just comes through a hole in the case that takes optical, instead of having to use up a pci slot?

Lanz · 30 Mar 2006 at 14:35

You can buy Dual Tuners, there's a PCI-e x1 card on this website, and i think you can buy proper MCE dual cards on PCI, but they are pricey.

Amp34 · 30 Mar 2006 at 15:34

I am looking at getting a fusion (dual digital on pci) but its £130 :eek:

I think in the end i'll have to get one of those and a HDA soundcard but i was wondering if anyone did one a cable type optical out instead of pci as that would be a lot cheaper.

Energize · 30 Mar 2006 at 16:00

You can buy usb tv tuners.

pcoltrane · 31 Mar 2006 at 10:32

The on board 6150 gfx should be fine for even H.264 1080p as I understand it. Getting a 7600 will only offer hardware acceleration, saving CPU cycles.
Since you have a very powerful processor it isn't an issue anyway, with an X2 even decoding H.264 1080p you won't be even be using 100% of one core I'm sure.

If the worst comes to the worst and the on board gfx proves not to be good enough you can always put in a PCI-E gfx card later when you actually need it. By then they will be far faster and cheaper anyway.

Incidentally, contrary to what was said earlier in the thread - i believe the 6150 does have all the purevideo features, not that it matters anyway. It's just a matter of acceleration again - you can use the purevideo decoder with an ati card no problem.

Marc