My budget HTPC spec so far...

tang0 · 22 May 2006 at 17:55

MB-119-AS Asus A8N-VM CSM Micro ATX (Socket 939) PCI Express Motherboard (MB-119-AS)
£47.95 £47.95
GX-027-HA Hauppauge WinTV PVR-150 Media Centre Edition TV Tuner (GX-027-HA)
£50.95 £50.95
CP-117-AM AMD Athlon 64 3000+ Venice 90nm (Socket 939) - Retail (ADA3000BPBOX) (CP-117-AM)
£61.95 £61.95
HD-017-SA Samsung SpinPoint P SP2004C 200GB SATA-II 8MB Cache - OEM (HD-017-SA)
£46.95 £46.95
CD-030-NE NEC ND4570 16x16 DVD±RW Dual Layer ReWriter (Black) - OEM (CD-030-NE)
£20.95 £20.95
FG-005-VT Vantec SF12025L Stealth 120mm fan - Retail (FG-005-VT)
£7.95 £7.95
FG-021-AK Akasa AK FC-06BK Fan Controller Junior - Black (FG-021-AK)
£7.50 £7.50
Subtotal £244.20
VAT £42.74
Total £286.94

Used for watching/recording TV, playback movies, playing music, backing up dvd collection to .avi etc

Im looking to output it to my TFT and TV, the onboard video is fine isnt it ? and what will i have to do to get sound through my tv speakers? im not sure what wires are needed.

Ive got a tagan 350watt psu, ram keyboard + mouse etc already.

Not sure what case to get, but i want the smallest matx case available really

Any other suggestions ?

squiffy · 22 May 2006 at 18:04

Case?
That motherboard has analogue line out, digital header on the motherboard but you might have problems finding the bracket. If you need digital out probably best just to buy a soundcard.

The onboard GFX lacks S-Video out, again you'll need a header plate. It has VGA and DVI out though. I have the Asus CSM board in my HTPC. You could fit a GFX card with S-Video out, perhaps a cheap passive ATI X300 or something, apparently you can have triple monitor setup this way.

Are you going to scale with FFDSHOW? Use processing options? Just be aware you do need a bit of CPU speed to do this, and also for HD material (65% average cpu load, can peak to 85% on a 3700+)

Snow-Munki · 22 May 2006 at 23:19

get the MSI board have heard it is much better.

tang0 · 23 May 2006 at 19:08

MSI .. what model ?

If i get the x300, then i wont need a mobo that has onboard gfx, so i could get a cheaper version of the board ?

tim_enchanter · 23 May 2006 at 21:49

A few thoughts I've had on this, starting with a question. Does your monitor do DVI? if so you could get a vga-scart lead for the TV and then you wouldn't need the Svid.

You can get Svid-Scart leads that have combined audio, this enables you to get the sound on the tv, I've not looked at enough VGA-Scart to see if any of those do also.

I've always had a bit of a mare deciding how to connect up my audio, because I use surround headpones and an AV amp and sometimes normal desktop speakers. Splitters can be used but I hate the things, what I really need is a 5.1 or 7.1 switching box.

The haupphauge software is bad but if you are using MCE then I suppose thats not really an issue.
It may be worth considering getting a USB version if there is one that does work with MCE as this removes a heat source from your case + frees a slot.
Also if you run one on a longish usb lead then your coax need not go near any other equipment. Less RFI maybe.