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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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.
 
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
 
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.
 
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?
 
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?
 
ok I got round to buying some stuff

so far

AMD AM2 Athlon 64 BE-2350 Brisbane Core 45W Retail
antec fusion black inc 430w psu
Gigabyte GA-MA69GM-S2H
OCZ 2GB PC2-6400 Gold Gamer eXtreme (2x1GB)

I went for the gigabyte board over the asus I was looking at because the asus has the hdmi on a seperate breakout board that occupies the pci-e 16x slot. This board also gas the digital audio out on it so when I put a seperate gfx card in I would lose digital audio about.

The ram is a bit overkill given the bus speed but it was only dirt cheap.

I will give it a whirl tonight and probably get the asus 2600xt tomorrow.
I will post the results with and without the card in for reference.
 
case, chip, ram and motherboard was pretty much spot on £250. So not bad

I already had a dvd rom and some hard drives lying around

just need to buy the card if necessary, a wireless keyboard and a 5m hdmi cable

not on the case - very tight for the sata cables to fit with this motherboard. Right angles cables would be a good idea
 
It runs fine with 720p/1080p h.264 files output to a 720p TV with cpu around 60% using wmp11 and coreavc codec on vista ultimate. Running same 1080p material in vista media centre is jerky, 720p is fine. I don't have a hd-dvd or blu ray drive so I can't comment on how it performs but I suspect I will need a seperate gfx card (2600xt or similar) but I was expecting that.

The hdmi on this board does video and audio
You can only have audio either via hdmi or spdif, not both - selectable in drivers
The audio over spdif to my amp is easily as good at my 360 and xbox1+xbmc.

I haven't played a lot of material on it yet as it's a christmas present that I haven't wrapped up yet but picture quality is good and I am happy with the spec so far.

The hard drives are just some maxtor sata's I had lying around. - Can't hear them when playing content but there are undoubtedly better choices. The whole system is very quiet.

I am using the mce2005 remote as the case has an in built receiver for it. Works fine.

I will also be getting a keysonic wireless keyboard as you can't control the actual windows desktop with that remote - only media centre.

The case is generally excellent but the VFD, while good, could be better. Jerky text scroll and poor use of available space are minor annoyances. (it's the imon VFD)
 
sWiZzLe said:
Just watched a video review of this case and noticed the dimensions .... case looks massive and i think it may not deep enough to fit on my stand. I have an old Antec Overture case which i was going to use but its far too deep - something like 20 inches :eek: and just too wide to fit through the legs at the back.

Gonna have to get my tape measure out when i get home!
Click to expand...

Yes, it is a good bit deeper then my AV receiver (and annoyingly 1cm wider)
 
had a bit of a play on the nova and vista media centre. Installed drivers via windows update and works fine recording two things at once.

if you are getting a nova t-500 watch out as some retailers are selling the td-500 instead which has loads of issues from reading around.
 
it is just one file which is jerky when played through media centre. it is ok in wmp11. I am going to get a 2600xt just after christmas so that I get lower cpu usage which means I will be confident recording tv while watching hd. At the moment when playing 1080p my keysonic keyboard seems slow to wakr up at times.

The problem with the 2600 cards is finding a silent one with the hdmi dongle included - a lot don't have it and you need the 24 pin ati one for sound over hdmi. A standard dvi>hdmi adapter wont do it.

1080p h264 cpu usage when output to at 720p screen is 50-60% atm.

I don't really plan on overclocking the chip as the board isn't reportedly a great clocker and I want to keep the fans low as it is practically silent at the moment.
 
I'm no expert on this but probably, yes. It may depend on how multithreaded the codec used for playback is.

As I said before, what I have built so far is really quiet for air cooling and I am looking for a passive 2600 so this doesn't increase. I'm not sure what the cooler in the phenom is like concerning heat and noise.

In terms of the dongle, the gigabyte's definately don't have it. I think the sapphire 2600xt does. It seems more commonly included in US bundles compared to the EU ones. Best to ask the retailer or pop in if you can
 
Furton said:
What CPU cooler are you using? Is there much space in the Fusion for a big cooler?
Click to expand...

i'm using the standard cooler that came with the chip.

I can't measure the case at the moment as it is now wrapped from christmas! I wouldn't imagine you could get a very tall cooler in there though. At a guess take 10mm off the case height.
 
just an update

I got a 2600xt
orginally I went for the passive gigabyte one but it didn't fit the antec fusion case so I ended up with the powercolor one with has a zalmanesque heatsink. neither of these cars had the dvi-hdmi dongle but I output sound over spdif so it's not an issue

however, for me this has so far been a bit of a pointless update as I don't have a HD optical drive. I can now playback h264 endoded blu ray and hd-dvd images using powerdvd and get hardware acceleration. I also get hardware acceleration for mpeg2 but there is not hardware acceleration for vc-1 titles. This is isn't a biggy as they are less demanding that h264 contnet but I am seeing very high cpu usage with a vc-1 encode of pans labyrinth.

the problem is that the cyberlink h264 codec which is needed for x264 hardware acceleration is incompatible with many .mkv's. There is no way in VMC af far as I can see to tell it to use coreavc or similar for .mkv's and then use powerdvd for hd-dvd/blu-ray so to get .mkv's playing through VMC again you need to uninstall powerdvd. You can tell something like km player to use a specific codec but this takes away the simplicity of using vmc
 
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