I'm talking about the nVidia 6150SE onboard chipset. It does do hardware decoding of those popular codecs, that's why it's so good. These are mobos built expressly for HTPC service.
i did not know that. That's pretty awesome, seriously good value!
media pc spec
- Thread starter psalliss
- Start date
i did not know that. That's pretty awesome, seriously good value!
CPU
Surely though, if you have a powerful enough CPU, you wont have to worry about your motherboard or video card having to assist in the decoding process?
My own personal thoughts are that with HD material, getting video cards to assist in decoding is a bit of a minefield right now (there are huge threads in Avforums and avsforums regarding video cards and accelerating different codecs), so its best to make sure you cpu can do it all on its own.
Personally, I would opt for an Intel C2D as it will be able to do all the decoding on its own.
The last thing you want is to go through the trouble of putting together your PC only to find you are getting skipped frames when you view 1080p material.
Video Card
If you use an ATI card stay away from the ATI 2400Pro. 2400XT and up is fine. The Pro version has problems with some codecs.
Also, someone stated that the NVidia chipset assists in the decode of most common codecs. The codecs that would need assisting with will be with HD material. Im pretty sure that NVidia will struggle to assist with x264, H264, etc. I could be wrong, but a link would be nice.
Memory
I would stick with 1GB-2GB ram, as others have stated.
Hard disk
400GB is ok, but remember go for something as big as you can afford. I would go 500GB as the bare minimum. The price increase is only slight. Think, if in the future, you rip a Blu-ray or HD-DVD disk onto your hard disk and 30GB gets used up by a single movie? If you decide to put in a DVB tuner in the PC and record programs on your hard disk then think how quickly the space will get used up? One thing that a media PC needs is hard disk space.
Surely though, if you have a powerful enough CPU, you wont have to worry about your motherboard or video card having to assist in the decoding process?
My own personal thoughts are that with HD material, getting video cards to assist in decoding is a bit of a minefield right now (there are huge threads in Avforums and avsforums regarding video cards and accelerating different codecs), so its best to make sure you cpu can do it all on its own.
Personally, I would opt for an Intel C2D as it will be able to do all the decoding on its own.
The last thing you want is to go through the trouble of putting together your PC only to find you are getting skipped frames when you view 1080p material.
Video Card
If you use an ATI card stay away from the ATI 2400Pro. 2400XT and up is fine. The Pro version has problems with some codecs.
Also, someone stated that the NVidia chipset assists in the decode of most common codecs. The codecs that would need assisting with will be with HD material. Im pretty sure that NVidia will struggle to assist with x264, H264, etc. I could be wrong, but a link would be nice.
Memory
I would stick with 1GB-2GB ram, as others have stated.
Hard disk
400GB is ok, but remember go for something as big as you can afford. I would go 500GB as the bare minimum. The price increase is only slight. Think, if in the future, you rip a Blu-ray or HD-DVD disk onto your hard disk and 30GB gets used up by a single movie? If you decide to put in a DVB tuner in the PC and record programs on your hard disk then think how quickly the space will get used up? One thing that a media PC needs is hard disk space.
yeah i agree, but i would make sure that the graphics card supports hdcp if he wants to set it upto a hdtv. just to future proof. id go with a 2400xt will be very powerful for hd-decoding with a decent cpu. as i said id go for bigger hdd, save money on ram and case and spend it on hdd.
I agree on the HDCP. However, HDCP compliance is not the be all and end all, considering that as yet, HDCP hasnt really come into its own, on top of which AnyDVD-HD negates the need for HDCP compliance. Im sure that as the years roll on, an increasing amount of software will be available on the net for free that will remove HDCP.
I shall be building a PC exclusively for watching movies, videos and browsing the net (pretty similar to what the OP intends to use his PC for). I will be using an E2160 and ATI 2400XT. The full cost of the PC excluding monitor is around £400. I will be using a full tower, so my options are wider and costs lower. The OP seems to be restricted to using the Shuttle. Can the 'Shuttle XPC SG33G6 Deluxe Aluminium Barebones System' overclock the cpu?
I shall be building a PC exclusively for watching movies, videos and browsing the net (pretty similar to what the OP intends to use his PC for). I will be using an E2160 and ATI 2400XT. The full cost of the PC excluding monitor is around £400. I will be using a full tower, so my options are wider and costs lower. The OP seems to be restricted to using the Shuttle. Can the 'Shuttle XPC SG33G6 Deluxe Aluminium Barebones System' overclock the cpu?
Whilst the Hiper cases are nice, they limit you for upgrades since you cant run C2D in them (for instance) as any CPU fan that could fit in there to keep C2D cool would be so noisey.
Antec Fusion for the Case
Abit Fatal1ty f190 HD board (has HDMI onboard)
2Gb ram
and Vista
all yours for £350?
Antec Fusion for the Case
Abit Fatal1ty f190 HD board (has HDMI onboard)
2Gb ram
and Vista
all yours for £350?
That's the exact setup I've got except for running XP, and the processor is an E2160 I think with an arctic cooler 7(i think?) on the CPU and it runs beautifully. I output by VGA as I have an old non-HD plasma and powerline network it to my desktop
Runs nice and quietly, can slow/speed up the fans to whatever noise is tolerable for you.
My word! A non-HD plasma. You must surely have been one of the early adopters. How much did it cost you and how long ago did you buy it?