spec me a htpc

[Death] · 26 Mar 2007 at 22:15

looking for a nice system to go in the living room, to play 720p / 1080p movies / clips and do some web browse / bit of gaming. just wanna see what u can come up with, need the case and all insides, plus a wireless keyb / mouse. limit is about £1000

Will_3rd · 26 Mar 2007 at 22:41

Gaming GPU is kind of limited by the PSU in the HTPC case.

squiffy · 26 Mar 2007 at 22:56

Not bad spec but don't need 2GB of RAM, and videocard is a bit too posh. Could use onboard, if it has it. Could get NSK2400 instead. Also need IR remote/receiver kit. Standard RAM will do also.

oli collett · 27 Mar 2007 at 00:03

Nexus case fans, seasonic PSU, samsung/WD hard drives and swap the BFG card for one that is passively cooled. You want something that is quiet!

squiffy · 27 Mar 2007 at 00:06

Since it's a HTPC you'll want single keyboard/mouse, rather than seperate. Looking into one of these...

http://www.keysonic.net/pages/products/keyboards/wireless/ACK_540_RF/e_ACK_540_RF.html

Don't forget MS IR remote bundle. Unless you want to use keyboard/mouse (naff!)

[Death] · 27 Mar 2007 at 07:58

will the gfx / cpu handle the hd 1080p etc?

squiffy · 27 Mar 2007 at 10:54

Easily. You only need AMD X2 3800 for 1080P playback H264. The graphics car really doesn't do anything, you could get away with a much lesser card (7300GS) The 7300GS has 3 missing features, but that's only if you use purevideo. FFDSHOW uses CPU power, so doesn't matter your videocard doesn't have it. I'm using 3700+, stock, 6150/ATI X300 and 1080P H264 is just topping 85-100%, but smooth playback.