Still confused on HTPC build - more help plz!

ArchAnGeL

ArchAnGeL

ArchAnGeL

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Following on from this thread

I need more specifics please

I'll start with requirements

Currently - 720p playback from hard drive/network of mainly .mkv
In the future - 1080p playback from hard drive and optical

Internet browsing, general use etc.
No games (apart from maybe a bit of Mame and flash stuff)

My current TV is a toshiba 32wlt66 which has terrible problems with VGA pc connection as the massive thread on the avs forums shows.
I did try it last night via dvi-hdmi on my gaming machine which has a 8800Gt and it was fine when output was set to 1280x720, 60hz, overscan removed in forceware drivers (with hotfix).

I'm pretty much set on the Antec Fusion black case as it looks like it will match my amp.

I was considering the following:-

AMD AM2 Athlon 64 BE-2350 Brisbane Core, Dual Core 2.1GHz, 1mb Cache, Energy Eff'''' 45W Retail
Asus M2A-VM HDMI
2GB (2x1GB) Corsair TwinX XMS2, DDR2 PC2-5400 CAS 4-4-4-12

I am a little concerned that the 690g graphics chipset will not provide enough video acceleration to handle the 1080p playback.

Will that cpu handle it on it's own? I am not confident even when overclocked.

The other option I considered was basing something on an overclocked e2180 cpu. Would this have the necessary grunt for cpu playback alone?
I am unsure on motherboard chipset as well. The G35 is too expensive. Do any of the others provide enough hardware video acceleration? Which chipsets overclock reasonably well. I liked the look of the Gigabyte GA-73PVM-S2H but then I read the nforce 630i chipset only uses single channel memory.

The other option is to add in a seperate video card. I read that the newer ATi's provide hardware avivo acceleration for more hd formats than nvidia's purevideo HD.

With this is mind I was considering a passively cooled 2400pro. Then I read this review
Has this issue been resolved yet or is it still the case of no post processing on the 2400 and I would need to go for the 2600?

Any other recommendations? The 8600gt has been mentioned to me but again, it's more than I want to spend.

If the conclusion is that I need the gfx card, what mobo's are the mest matx for intel and amd in terms of overclocking.

OS at the moment is up in the air. I am leaning towards vista as I prefer the media centre in that to MCE2005 (this will mainly be for my wife so she can record TV easily). I imagine most of the file based HD playback will be using haali splitter/coreAVC codec and WMP 11.
 
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Why do you want to overclock it? Its a HTPC! The onboard HDMI should be more than happy dishing out 1080p but if you are not playing games, whats to stop you buying a reasonably GFX card with DMI and converting it to HDMI?

Vista home premium is (IMO) the minimum you'd want if you are wanting to run 1080p especially if you wanted to add a BR or HD drive at a later date. XP MCE required all manner of prating about with new codecs some which work in one machine that dont work in another, etc.

Dont dismiss the C2D range and the Abit boards such as the F190 HD. Cheap now and very quiet even with stock fans.
 
The point in having the overclock option was that if I was having problems with hardware acceleration from the onboard graphics. What do I need to achieve in terms of cpu speed for non-hardware accelerated overclocking? The e2180 is obviously quite overclockable if it isn't enough at stock but can the motherboard chipsets handle it?

I am happy to buy the 2400 pro as it's dirt cheap but the atricle I linked to at Tom's suggests dodgy image quality in regards to noise reduction etc and suggests the need for a 2600. Then we're into the £50-60 range which although not exaclty expensive, is undesirable as I am trying to do it on the cheap.

I thought the abit did look quite good in terms of a c2d board. Will it handle 1080p with the onboard or should I get a seperate card with it?

For vista - how does the media centre handle hd formats? Would I need to use media player classic or wmp11? Not really a problem but it would be nice to do it all through the media centre interface and remote.

thanks for the reply.
 
Don't the new 3850's and 3870's take over duties doing 1080 HD? That way the mobo, cpu, etc aren't as important - making the build cheaper in that respect and leaving more cash for the 3850.

As i understand it the ATi cards have a HDMI passthrough that also takes over audio streaming.

What's your budget?

gt
 
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Ideally I'm looking for cpu/mobo/ram to be less than £150 which is why I was intrigued by some of the integrated chipsets given the claims they are making - that the ati avivo in them provides harware acceleration of all common HD formats. So in terms of graphics card, I would obviously prefer not to have one. If I need one, I was hoping to get away with a 2400 pro - at worst a 2600 or 8500GT
 
I'd opt for a fast CPU, rather than dedicated videocard...you always need the CPU power, say when recording, re-compressing etc.

I'm using a 4200x2 at stock, CAQ enabled, with ATI X300 and 1080p movies works fine, although I don't have a Blu-Ray drive.
 
How about the best of both worlds:

basket-4.jpg


I'm sure the 3850 will work with the foxconn as i've seen someone on the forum with an old 939 asrock running a 3870 successfully! :)

gt
 
I'd use onboard, then wait for updated 2600 Pro with HDCP. There is no need to spend £100+ on a videocard for a HTPC. Put the extra money into a slightly faster CPU.

Crappy motherboard tbh.
 
badbob said:
I'd use onboard, then wait for updated 2600 Pro with HDCP. There is no need to spend £100+ on a videocard for a HTPC. Put the extra money into a slightly faster CPU.

Crappy motherboard tbh.
Click to expand...
Well the mobo can be changed for not much extra so no probs there. ;)

Why is this 2600 so good though. The 3850 runs silent, cooler and has HDCP already. Surely the 2600 is a larger production process and older tech.

Also, your 4200X2 is virtually identical to the 4000 i've recommended so will also cope admirably. :)

Intrigued about this 2600 though - could someone tell me why it's the better choice?

gt
 
badbob said:
I'd use onboard, then wait for updated 2600 Pro with HDCP. There is no need to spend £100+ on a videocard for a HTPC. Put the extra money into a slightly faster CPU.

Crappy motherboard tbh.
Click to expand...

but which onboard? the slower but cooler amd with the better 690g chipset or a c2d with an older gfx chipset.

a 3850 is out of the question in terms of price and also I would prefer a silent solution. I won't be playing any games ont his system.
 
gt_junkie said:
Well the mobo can be changed for not much extra so no probs there. ;)
Also, your 4200X2 is virtually identical to the 4000 i've recommended so will also choice?
Click to expand...

Sorry,I should point out that I am at work and so certain images when posted on this forum are blocked. So I can't see your recommendation.
 
ArchAnGeL said:
but which onboard? the slower but cooler amd with the better 690g chipset or a c2d with an older gfx chipset.

a 3850 is out of the question in terms of price and also I would prefer a silent solution. I won't be playing any games ont his system.
Click to expand...

I'd get the motherboard with the better chipset, with inferior GFX. If onboard is incapable, then easy enough to upgrade it...unlike the motherboard I/O chipset. £50/£60 for GFX job done..
 
This was my recommendation:

HIS ATI Radeon HD 3850 Pro 256MB GDDR3 TV-Out/Dual DVI/HDMI (PCI-Express) - Retail £89.99
(£105.74) £89.99
(£105.74)
Corsair 2GB DDR2 Value Select PC2-5300C5 Dual Channel Kit (2x1GB) (VS2GBKIT667D2) £22.99
(£27.01) £22.99
(£27.01)
Foxconn 6150M2MA-KRS2H Micro ATX (Socket AM2) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard £28.99
(£34.06) £28.99
(£34.06)
AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 4000+ 2.10GHz (Socket AM2) - Retail £34.99
(£41.11) £34.99
(£41.11)
Sub Total : £176.96
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
City Link Parcel Next Day (Delivered Mon-Fri)
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £8.95
VAT is being charged at 17.5% VAT : £32.53
Total : £218.44

Obviously as badbob stated the mobo is the cheapest AM2 option. However, even the most expensive AM2 MATX board is still only £20 extra. Plus it's on board GFX may negate any need for the GPU.

gt
 
A quick note on the AMD690G chipset. I have a mobo with this chipset, and i can say that it hardly helps at all playing 1080p HD-DVD. For a start, you need to give it 256MB of your system memory, or you'll just get a black screen when you try to play the video. Secondly, it only helps out with motion compensation, meaning the CPU will need to the vast proportion of HD-DVD/Blu-ray decoding. I need 2.6GHz from my Intel E2160 to avoid dropped frames.

If you want to save on the CPU and memory, you'd be best to go for an ATi 2600.

PS: My HTPC is Abit Fatality 190HD, E2160 @ 2.6GHz, 1GB RAM, Xbox360 HD-DVD drive (soon to be a Blu-ray/HD-DVD combo drive)
 
cheers mate, first hand experience is exactly the sort of info I needed

I was considering the e2180/2 gig ram/Fatality 190HD like yours (perhaps +a 2600 pro or XT). I hadn't twigged that x700 and the 690G used the same X1250 gfx chip. I thought they were different - doh!

So can you give me an idea of cpu usage with yours when playing h.264 files from Hard Drive at 720p and 1080p?

Do you think you would benefit from adding a seperate card?

Also, it seems the 2600 is significantly better than the 2400 from what I have read in terms of image quaity (especially noise reduction). Does anyone know if there is a difference between the 2600pro and XT when it comes to processing?
 
I suggest you find a decent and easily overclockable AMD CPU / Motherboard combination and start off with 1 gig of ram. Theirs lots of possible options within your budget using retail cpu/fans and overclocking the FSB for a little extra performance.

Surely if you find this runs HD alright then theirs no need to spend any further. A decent overclocked AMD dual core CPU should be suitable for this easily.

Having a better graphics card is probably a £50+ addition but if your main format is MKVs then these wont be as taxing as a Blu Ray or HD DVD disc.
The benifit of the GPU doing the work is take an example your downloading in the background or re-encoding something else while trying to also use your media centre for multimedia purposes. Various multitasking scanarios could be possible which wouldnt probably be possible on CPU powered playback only.

Looking at tyour sig and what youve spent on a gaming PC i find it hard to believe you cant raise the budget an extra £50 - £100 on a decent graphics solution.
 
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ok back to this then

AMD AM2 Athlon 64 BE-2350 Brisbane Core, Dual Core 2.1GHz, 1mb Cache, Energy Eff'''' 45W Retail
Asus M2A-VM HDMI
2GB (2x1GB) Corsair TwinX XMS2, DDR2 PC2-5400 CAS 4-4-4-12

+ hd 2600xt

Should be ample, yes?
 
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