Spec me a HTPC

McDaniel · 12 Jan 2008 at 22:30

Fire Wizard said:
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 quite the PSU and the fans are then that wont be a problem. The PSU itself is extremely quite and as regards to the fans, you certainly won't be able to hear them when you are watching films.

So it runs fine on the inbuild GFX GPU too? or would you recommend getting a dedicated PCI-E one... im just dribbling at the prospect of only paying ~ £250!

Fire Wizard · 12 Jan 2008 at 22:43

Hello McDaniel, it run's fine on the onboard graphics. However, If you are willing to spend the extra £50 on a dedicated graphics card such as the PowerColor ATI Radeon HD 2600 PRO SCS3 SILENT 512MB DDR2 HDTV/Dual DVI (PCI-Express), then it would certainly be a worth while purchase.

McDaniel · 12 Jan 2008 at 23:53

Thanks for all your advice guys, much appreciated

Vegetarian · 13 Jan 2008 at 01:18

Just built this system for about £330

Pentium E2180
Gigabyte GA-73PVM-S2H (gForce 7100, VGA, DVI and HDMI outs)
Geil Ultra 2gig 6400 RAM
Samsung sata DVD RW
Seagate 500gig 32mb cashe Harddrive
Antec Fusion Case

Its clocked to 3000mhz at the moment.

Walter Sobchak · 13 Jan 2008 at 07:21

Viberious said:
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)

Have you been able to get the new HD sound formats out of this system?

cheets64 · 22 Jan 2008 at 08:18

I was looking at a Media PC to connect to me 32" Sony D3000

And came across the Abit AN-M2HD due to its HDMI, speced a case, memory, board and cpu for £200. Would I

AMD AM2 Athlon 64 BE-2300
2GB (2x1GB) Corsair TwinX XMS2
Abit AN-M2HD, NF630a

I presume that spec is ok for playing hd files.

McDaniel · 27 Jan 2008 at 14:48

Western Digital Caviar SE16 500GB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM
Samsung SH-S203PRSMN 20x DVD±RW SATA Dual Layer Lightscribe ReWriter
Abit AN-M2HD nForce 520 Micro ATX (Socket AM2) PCI-Express DDR2
Antec NSK 2480 Desktop Case - 380W Earth Watts PSU
Crucial 2GB (2x1GB) DDR2 PC2-5300C5 Dual Channel Kit
AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 4000+ 2.10GHz (Socket AM2) - Retail

£244.44

Shipping : £9.95
VAT : £44.52
Total : £298.91

So just as a recap would the following run .mkv wmv-hd at 1920x1080 without any performance issues outputting at 5.1 sound also connected to Logitech Z5400 Speakers?

What adjustments would you suggest

Blu-Ray / HDDVD i have a 360 and PS3 for so it wont take these medias, but as said above would run BluRay/HDDVD rips

/edit

The likelyhood is it will connect via VGA, but possible HDMI

McDaniel · 27 Jan 2008 at 14:59

By adding the recommened ATI 2600 card would it conflict with the nForce board?

badbob · 27 Jan 2008 at 15:35

By adding the recommened ATI 2600 card would it conflict with the nForce board?

No.

My 4200x2 @ stock with CNQ enabled plays back 1080p H264 no problems, don't have HD/BR combo drive, I'll probably add one though due to region free playback.

Furton · 27 Jan 2008 at 15:40

McDaniel said:
By adding the recommened ATI 2600 card would it conflict with the nForce board?

No, although I have pretty much the same setup except my CPU is the X2 BE-2400 (only 45W) and the on-board is perfect for decoding all HD content I've thrown at it, try it first with the on-board, if your not happy you can always add the 2600Pro later.

McDaniel · 17 Mar 2008 at 18:19

Guys, got my bonus, as this thread is a few weeks old now - any new technologies out i should be aware of?

Or will the following run my HD contect lovely like

Western Digital Caviar SE16 500GB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM
Samsung SH-S203PRSMN 20x DVD±RW SATA Dual Layer Lightscribe ReWriter
Abit AN-M2HD nForce 520 Micro ATX (Socket AM2) PCI-Express DDR2
Antec NSK 2480 Desktop Case - 380W Earth Watts PSU
Crucial 2GB (2x1GB) DDR2 PC2-5300C5 Dual Channel Kit
AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 4000+ 2.10GHz (Socket AM2) - Retail

/edit

Now this...

AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 4800+ 2.50GHz (Socket AM2) - Retail
Antec NSK 2480 Desktop Case - 380W Earth Watts PSU
Samsung SH-S203PRSMN 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
Crucial 2GB (2x1GB) DDR2 PC2-5300C5 Dual Channel Kit (CT2KIT12864AA667)
HIS ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT iSilenceIII 256MB GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI/HDMI (PCI-Express) - Retail
Samsung SpinPoint F1 750GB SATA-II 32MB Cache - OEM (HD753LJ)

Grimley · 17 Mar 2008 at 19:14

Yep - Change the Abit board for this one, You wont need the graphics card then.

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-115-GI&groupid=701&catid=5&subcat=

McDaniel · 17 Mar 2008 at 19:50

Nice, the money saved allows me to get the Logitech deNovo keyboard thingy

im just cautious... this will def run 1080p rips at 1920x1080 fine?!

Grimley · 17 Mar 2008 at 20:02

Have a look at the review of this board on Toms hardware, it should quell any doubts on your mind.