I haven’t built a pc in almost 5 years and have been out of the regular update scene for several more after switching to buying laptops. The last pc I built was a HTPC which has held up pretty well but I feel its time to build a new one and wanted some advice.
Things I am looking for it to do are ;
Dual Freeview PVR (with good solid reception –this is its main purpose last time i did a build black gold where the best on the market – are they still the best?)
Playback all video file formats in full 1080p
Dual video out (I run a flat screen and a projector)
SPDIF out and Audio over HDMI out (for when I upgrade my amp)
Build in IR Receiver would be nice – can live with the WMC remote receiver but would be nicer built in.
Reasonably small case – currently have a Silverstone monster that is bigger than my THX amp. In theory the more hardware built in the better (as long as it works)
Not worried about bluray as I have a PS3
Built in wifi receiver
Most of all I just want solid hardware that works – my existing HTPC has an asus motherboard with onboard sound and optical SPDIF out. It worked perfectly to begin with but 1 year later and 1 microsoft service pack later and the onboard sound didn’t want to output the bitstream 5.1 anymore. Asus never bothered to fix the problem it took weeks of playing with ac3 filter and using bodged drivers from other mother boards to create a fix – i don’t want to do any of this – I want to build the thing stick it under the tv and it work.
I have been running XP Media Centre happily enough – its solid and doesn’t require too much fannying around to get it working. I’m guessing i probably best to upgrade to vista pro / windows 7 but are you able to include .MKV files from within media centre yet?
Was very interested in the ion ASRock units but am put off as don’t think I can add a tv card and unconvinced that in the real world it would be able to run a 1080p video file perfectly smoothly with 5.1 audio at the same time as recording a tv programme and windows doing some random file maintenance in the background?
Any ideas? Thanks
Things I am looking for it to do are ;
Dual Freeview PVR (with good solid reception –this is its main purpose last time i did a build black gold where the best on the market – are they still the best?)
Playback all video file formats in full 1080p
Dual video out (I run a flat screen and a projector)
SPDIF out and Audio over HDMI out (for when I upgrade my amp)
Build in IR Receiver would be nice – can live with the WMC remote receiver but would be nicer built in.
Reasonably small case – currently have a Silverstone monster that is bigger than my THX amp. In theory the more hardware built in the better (as long as it works)
Not worried about bluray as I have a PS3
Built in wifi receiver
Most of all I just want solid hardware that works – my existing HTPC has an asus motherboard with onboard sound and optical SPDIF out. It worked perfectly to begin with but 1 year later and 1 microsoft service pack later and the onboard sound didn’t want to output the bitstream 5.1 anymore. Asus never bothered to fix the problem it took weeks of playing with ac3 filter and using bodged drivers from other mother boards to create a fix – i don’t want to do any of this – I want to build the thing stick it under the tv and it work.
I have been running XP Media Centre happily enough – its solid and doesn’t require too much fannying around to get it working. I’m guessing i probably best to upgrade to vista pro / windows 7 but are you able to include .MKV files from within media centre yet?
Was very interested in the ion ASRock units but am put off as don’t think I can add a tv card and unconvinced that in the real world it would be able to run a 1080p video file perfectly smoothly with 5.1 audio at the same time as recording a tv programme and windows doing some random file maintenance in the background?
Any ideas? Thanks
