My first Freesat hd htpc - check my spec please?

tommytinkle

tommytinkle

tommytinkle

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Hey,

I've just priced up a htpc setup which I hope will work with freesat and am wondering if you guys could check it for me please?



Any changes you'd make please feel free to comment or change stuff, I want this to be a measure twice cut once affair!

The machine needs to -


  • Watch Freesat tv, pause record etc

  • Store pictures, hence the hard drives for raid just incase! Though perhaps bigger ones are needed.

  • Stream internet tv services

  • Play Bluray discs with a drive I already have

Please do be critical, any suggestions would be greatfully received.

Thank you.
 
I don't know much about systems for video streaming, but I'm sure that you could really do with a modular PSU in a case like that.

*edit*
Good job I didn't comment further as it seems I've been told otherwise :D
 
Last edited:
Hi,

Thanks for the reply, do you have any experience with freesat and media centre at all? From research on the net it looks perfectly do-able but I've not seen much posted on here about it!
 
I would go for cheaper ram which would give you £10-20 more to spend on a single 2TB drive. As above a modular PSU will help keep case tidy. The rest idk. Do you need OS too?
 
you don't really need a modular psu in the sg01 as you can put the optical drive in the lower bay and route the excess cables straight out the psu into the upper bay above it.

the one thing you need to watch out for though is the psu sits right above the cpu so the psu intake fan fights the cpu fan for air to the detriment of cpu cooling.
i put an antec basiq power psu with the 80mm fan at the back instead of a 120mm at the bottom and temps dropped around 4c -5c as my alpenfohn panorama no longer needed to fight for air.
 
Only need 2GB of ram really I would say to save some cash. Considered the X2 "e" versions of their CPUs? Have much lower voltage and TDP (45w instead of 65w). i.e. would be called X2 240e edition. (Energy saving). I'm about to go ahead with a similar build but recycling old parts. Also PSU is overkill? Surely for that you are only going to need a very basic PSU no more than 300w.
 
I think the motherboard integrated graphics is inadequate for HD. I would suggest at least a 780G chipset, preferably 785G/790G.

Get a lower rated 80% efficiency PSU. 300W maybe.

I have heard dubious things about the Compro cards, though I can't suggest a better alternative.

As said, you can probably manage on 2GB. Alternatively you could get a DDR2 motherboard and pick up some cheap second-hand DDR2. I got 4GB for £45 of the members market.
 
We have a Home cinema and hi-fi forum here,your freesat card question would more than likely be answered there faster than in the sff forum as odd as that sounds.
There's probably already threads in there also you can search for with those queries already answered.

Failing that Avforums is a huge resource site which is better equipped to deal with media centre use and add in cards for htpc rather than the pure hardware knowledge that you get from Ocuk generally.
 
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