Spec me a HTPC

[McDaniel]

Gonna build a htpc unit, no pvr required (yet)

Needs to be able to play HD content fine being used on a 40" HDTV, no monitor, keyboard our mouse required...

CPU
MOBO
RAM
GFX
CASE
HDD

think thats all i need!

/edit

Oh and 5.1 sound via optical or coax

Budget... £350ish, more within reason

 

[Grimley]

How’s this?

Abit AN-M2HD nForce 520 Micro ATX (Socket AM2) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard = £49.99

AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 5000+ Black Edition 2.60GHz (Socket AM2) – Retail =£57.99

Crucial 2GB (2x1GB) DDR2 PC2-4200C4 Dual Channel Kit (CT2KIT12864AA53E) = £24.99

PowerColor ATI Radeon HD 2600 PRO SCS3 SILENT 512MB DDR2 HDTV/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) – Retail = £44.99

Samsung SpinPoint T 500GB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (HD501LJ) =£52.99

Antec Fusion HTPC Case - 430HE Watt PSU £97.99

Sub-total = £327.94
Vat = £57.39
Total = £385.33

No optical drive? Better add another £150-£200 if you planning to go hi-def as well.

 

[McDaniel]

why another £150-£200

DVD drive would be needed thinking about it!

 

[Viberious]

CPU - Intel E2180 -£57.56
MOBO - Asus P5K-VM £76.36
RAM -2x1gb Geil -£37.59
GFX - HIS ATI Radeon HD 2400 PRO 1024MB £31.71
CASE - Antec 2480 £68.14
HDD - Samsung HD501LJ -£62.26
DVD - Samsung SH-S203NBEBN - £19.96

Total ex delivery £353.58

I have recently built mine around almost exact spec except for a few items (dvd - old nec IDE/hdd WD500AAKS/gfx ASUS 2400 Pro Silent)

 

[Snow-Munki]

CPU - Intel E2180 -£57.56
MOBO - Asus P5K-VM £76.36
RAM -2x1gb Geil -£37.59
GFX - HIS ATI Radeon HD 2400 PRO 1024MB £31.71
CASE - Antec 2480 £68.14
HDD - Samsung HD501LJ -£62.26
DVD - Samsung SH-S203NBEBN - £19.96

Total ex delivery £353.58

I have recently built mine around almost exact spec except for a few items (dvd - old nec IDE/hdd WD500AAKS/gfx ASUS 2400 Pro Silent)

Just wondering does he need an extra gfx card ? Why not use the onboard one ?

 

[Viberious]

On-board only has vga not DVi or HDMI

 

[Viberious]

Mine does HD / SD perfectly on my Sony 40inch LCD

 

[Snow-Munki]

On-board only has vga not DVi or HDMI

ah, suppose so. In that case would it be better to have a motherboard that has onboard DVI or HDMI ?

 

[Grimley]

why another £150-£200

DVD drive would be needed thinking about it!

So you dont want to play blu-ray or HD-DVD then

 

[McDaniel]

So you dont want to play blu-ray or HD-DVD then

I already have both in the form of a PS3 and Xbox 360 HDDVD player

 

[Grimley]

Oh. didn't know that. any old DVD drive will do the trick then (Unless you have more than 1 region in your collection)

 

[Fire Wizard]

Hey McDaniel, I have just built a HTPC based setup very similar to the one below. Instead of buying the Abit AN-M2HD nForce 520 Micro ATX (Socket AM2) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard I bought this one instead since I didn't really need HDMI so I thought I would save £10.

How's the system below work out for you:

Antec NSK 2480 Desktop Case - 380W Earth Watts PSU

AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 4000+ 2.10GHz (Socket AM2) - Retail

Crucial 2GB (2x1GB) DDR2 PC2-5300C5 Dual Channel Kit

Western Digital Caviar SE16 250GB SATA-II 16MB Cache

Samsung SH-S203NRSMN 20x DVD±RW SATA Dual Layer Lightscribe ReWriter (Beige/Black/Silver) - Retail

Abit AN-M2HD nForce 520 Micro ATX (Socket AM2) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard

Total : £276.00

The AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 4000+ is around the performance of the Intel Core 2 Duo E2140 and is slightly cheaper along with the AMD Micro ATX Motherboard. As I said above, I have the cheaper version of the Abit motherboard which is absolutely superb, no problems what so ever nice layout and it even has a VGA and a DVI port which is a nice little feature.

Overall I am extremely pleased with the setup I had ordered. It's running like a dream.

 

[McDaniel]

wats it lik running wmv-hd and mk4 files at a 1920x1080 res?

 

[badbob]

No problem at all, 4200x2 here. ATI X300.

 

[Quixote]

If going AMD for HTPC then you've got to go for AMD's 690G chipset, better graphics than NVidia (for what it's worth) but more importantly HDMI & decoding built in.

 

[McDaniel]

Fire Wizard spec looks great for the price, if it can match in performance then i am tempted.

Im assuming from myy quick read up the gfx is inbuilt to that mobo?

Have you tried to run any hi def content at the above res?

 

[badbob]

Everything except material for HD-DVD / Blu-Ray. I did play 1080p AVI/MKV/WMV with onboard Nvidia 6150- I don't use onboard anymor as I have a dedicated card, also when I switch TV off the onboard disables the output (ATI doesn't do this) Perhaps fixed since I got a new motherboard in the screen...but might as well use dedicated.

 

[McDaniel]

Everything except material for HD-DVD / Blu-Ray. I did play 1080p AVI/MKV/WMV with onboard Nvidia 6150- I don't use onboard anymor as I have a dedicated card, also when I switch TV off the onboard disables the output (ATI doesn't do this) Perhaps fixed since I got a new motherboard in the screen...but might as well use dedicated.

What spec would you recommend.

This spec wont be used for hddvd / bluray disc but will have bluray and hddvd rips so performance is key, wont be used for anything but media - i have another PC for this!

 

[badbob]

2ghz dual core, 2GB RAM (1GB can go just over with a few apps open) Case with large, low rpm case fans. CPU HSF with large slow rpm fan. Samsung HD. Plenty of space in case for future additional HD and large CPU HSF. Passive mobo, graphics and CPU hsf if possible. Corsair or Seasonic 430W PSU. IR receiver/remote control. XP Home/Pro with Media Portal. Disconnect case LED's, especially HD access or if they're bright.

Basically it's a PC just with ultra-quiet components.

 

[Fire Wizard]

Hello McDaniel, HI-Definition content runs absolutely fine.

If you are also wondering about the Antec NSK 2480 Desktop Case - 380W Earth Watts PSU in regards to how quiet the PSU and the fans are then that wont be a problem. The PSU itself is extremely quiet and as regards to the fans, you certainly won't be able to hear them when you are watching films.