spec check please - HTPC

surreal

surreal

surreal

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Joined
14 May 2007
Posts
79
Hi,

Just need a sanity check on the components for this. It will be a dedicated HTPC/media box running probably XBMC or Mediportal, From reading these forums I believe that the AMD 780g chipset is best for a HTPC?

I have an XP Pro licence which I will use on this box (4gb RAM is on the off-chance that I go to Vista early next year).

Basically I want the box to hold and stream all my avi and FLAC files direct to the TV (HDMI) and the Squeezebox (will be installing SqueezeCenter 7) - it will be located in the living room so it needs to be QUIET!!! Will the PSU be quiet and powerful enough?

Samsung SpinPoint F1 1TB SATA-II 32MB Cache - OEM (HD103UJ) - £67.99 x 2
Gigabyte GA-MA78GM-S2H AMD 780G Micro-ATX (Socket AM2) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard - £59.99
AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 5400+ 2.70GHz (Socket AM2) - £49.99
Antec EarthWatts 380W PSU - £34.99
OCZ 4GB (2x2GB) PC2-6400C5 Dual Channel Vista Gold Series DDR2 - £32.99
Keysonic Wireless Keyboard/Touchpad ACK-540RF - £24.99
Gigabyte GZ-M1 Black Micro-ATX Case No PSU - £22.99

Total inc VAT & shipping: £436.99

Any obvious changes?

Also can I just buy an MCE remote and use that with XBMC or MediaPortal, or would I need the Windows Media Center version of XP? Any recommendations for a wireless card / dongle so it can connect to my network?

Thanks in advance
 
Looks reasonaby right to me, though I have heard that the Samsung F1 series have noise issues, I doubt they're widespread, but it's something to look up. And as I say, I've only heard it on a few occasions, where they might not have been set up right in the first place.
 
Grimley said:
PSU will do the job admirably, no optical drive though.
Click to expand...

I have a spare SATA optical drive in another machine so I'll probably just liberate that one...

Thanks for the replies so far - anyone answer my query about the remote? Or with the wireless keyboard / trackpad will I not really need one? Does the keyboard translates easily to a remote...?
 
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surreal said:
Hi,

Just need a sanity check on the components for this. It will be a dedicated HTPC/media box running probably XBMC or Mediportal, From reading these forums I believe that the AMD 780g chipset is best for a HTPC?

I have an XP Pro licence which I will use on this box (4gb RAM is on the off-chance that I go to Vista early next year).

Basically I want the box to hold and stream all my avi and FLAC files direct to the TV (HDMI) and the Squeezebox (will be installing SqueezeCenter 7) - it will be located in the living room so it needs to be QUIET!!! Will the PSU be quiet and powerful enough?

Samsung SpinPoint F1 1TB SATA-II 32MB Cache - OEM (HD103UJ) - £67.99 x 2
Gigabyte GA-MA78GM-S2H AMD 780G Micro-ATX (Socket AM2) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard - £59.99
AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 5400+ 2.70GHz (Socket AM2) - £49.99
Antec EarthWatts 380W PSU - £34.99
OCZ 4GB (2x2GB) PC2-6400C5 Dual Channel Vista Gold Series DDR2 - £32.99
Keysonic Wireless Keyboard/Touchpad ACK-540RF - £24.99
Gigabyte GZ-M1 Black Micro-ATX Case No PSU - £22.99

Total inc VAT & shipping: £436.99

Any obvious changes?

Also can I just buy an MCE remote and use that with XBMC or MediaPortal, or would I need the Windows Media Center version of XP? Any recommendations for a wireless card / dongle so it can connect to my network?

Thanks in advance
Click to expand...

get GA-MA78G-DS3HP if its out yet :D but the one above is the one i would buy, and remember dont buy it yet, the governments going ot lower vat to 12-15%:D .


get any wireless card, the microsoft remote is ok not great but as you ordered the keyboard which is blue tooth,then it dont matter, you can do more on that keyboard than with the remote. dont you have a spare hdd? if so use the spare for the os and the 1T for movies. but yes youve got a nice system, next save up for a nice case. btw dont forget add a muilt card reader.
 
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mattheman said:
get GA-MA78G-DS3HP if its out yet :D but the one above is the one i would buy, and remember dont buy it yet, the governments going ot lower vat to 12-15%:D .


get any wireless card, the microsoft remote is ok not great but as you ordered the keyboard which is blue tooth,then it dont matter, you can do more on that keyboard than with the remote. dont you have a spare hdd? if so use the spare for the os and the 1T for movies. but yes youve got a nice system, next save up for a nice case. btw dont forget add a muilt card reader.
Click to expand...

Thanks for that - I think the case will be ok, it should fit nicely in the space I have in mind, and as this machine will pretty much be the centre of my network I need the extra drive bays for further expansion, otherwise I'd have gone for a Shuttle or something. I'm planning to maybe use a 10gb partition of one of the drives for the OS. I'll look into the cardreader, but not sure if I'd have much use for it at the moment.
 
surreal said:
Thanks for that - I think the case will be ok, it should fit nicely in the space I have in mind, and as this machine will pretty much be the centre of my network I need the extra drive bays for further expansion, otherwise I'd have gone for a Shuttle or something. I'm planning to maybe use a 10gb partition of one of the drives for the OS. I'll look into the cardreader, but not sure if I'd have much use for it at the moment.
Click to expand...

you'll need more that a 10 gig partition 40 gig, you need to install media apps etc.. so 10 gig is far too low.
 
mattheman said:
you'll need more that a 10 gig partition 40 gig, you need to install media apps etc.. so 10 gig is far too low.
Click to expand...

Ah, of course, good point - I do have a 120gb SATA drive somewhere, so I'll go with that for the OS and use the 2 x 1TB drives for all the storage.

Thanks again
 
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