a HTPC build

[drextremeops007]

Hey there all PC Enthutiasts/Experts

I am going to build a HTPC within the next month or so and I need all your expert advices/opinions,etc. The last time I built my own PC was 3 years ago which was a P4 3.0 HT and I have been missing out on the PC hardware scene. So here are some of the parts that I am considering. Let me know if there is a better option out there. I am open to all feedbacks.
Right now I only have the case, memory, PSU, HD and dvd driver on top of my head and I need help in the mobo/cpu, tv-tuner and graphic card selection.

Budget: ~$800


Case: Silverstone LASCALA 10 CS-SST-LC10B $99
PSU: Coolermaster RS-450 $56
RAM: G.Skill 2 GB DDR2 800 $85
HD: Seagate 7200.10 250 GB HD OEM $67 (I have another 250GB ATA HD that will be used as the 2nd HD)
DVD: Liteon LH-20A1P 20x DVD Burner Black $33
OS: Win MCE (though I am also considering a linux/MythTV combination) $110

That will leave about $370-$400 for the rest. I can increase the budget a little bit or tweak the above selections.

I was considering the DFI Infinity NF UltraII-M2 + AMD X2 3800 Retail Combo which is $146. What do you guys think? There are so many chipsets that I am co confused. I am also open to a Intel setup as well if it falls within my budget.

Thanks in advance for all the feedbacks and hope to hear from you guys soon.

All prices are based on Newegg.

 

[darkswordsman17]

By you already have do you mean that's what you picked out or what you've already bought? If its the former then I think you might be able to tweak that a little bit. The only thing I would point out is the case, as I wouldn't be a big fan of the small exhaust fans. I think Antec has a pretty nice case right around that price that has dual 120mm so it should help cool things better and possibly quieter. Depending on what you want/need, you might even consider using their Sonata which would save you about $50 on having to buy a PSU (you should easily be able to find the Sonata for $100 or so and it comes with a 450W PSU). There's a few other options worth considering as well. Also, not a big deal if you really like that case, Silverstone makes good ones.

Onto the rest.

For the CPU, I say go as cheap as possible, so I would say even a 3600. Personally I would want to go with an aftermarket HSF so I would save even more and take the OEM version and put the money saved towards the HSF. You should be able to overlock it decently and I doubt you'd notice the performance difference at all even if you don't OC it.

For the motherboard, I would probably look at the Radeon Xpress 1250 chipset, although you'll want to read up on it to see if there's any issues. I think it probably has the best integrated video performance (in terms of games and just graphics power). nVidia has a chipset that I think should offer slightly better video encode/decode performance (due to an onboard video processor and their decoder software). That might be a better path. Both of these chipsets are designed more with HTPC in mind I believe (have HDMI, etc).

On the audio side, what is your setup there? Do you have a HT system with a reciever or is it just a TV. There's some pretty nice cards that are aimed at HT with the capability to encode into DD or DTS for surround sound. At the same time your board should have digital output capabilities so there's not real need to mess with the signal and you can still get surround in movies via passthrough.

Depending on the level of gaming you want to do, the integrated graphics on those boards might be enough (the X1250 is actually not half bad for integrated if I remember correctly). If not you can pick up a pretty decent gaming card for about $150 I think.

Its been a little while since I've looked at tuners, so I don't think I can help too much there. You might let us know if you have digital cable or are you wanting to get over the air (OTA) Hi-Def and/or unencrypted QAM (lets you get the free hi-def channels through your cable) or what kind of setup you're wanting there.

If you go with the 3600 and one of those mobos and then a decent (but not over the top) aftermarket HSF then you should end up at about $150-175 there I think. If you want a video card you could get I think maybe a 7900 or X1950 based card for about $150 that'll do pretty good. That'll put you up to $300-325 to spend on the TV tuner. There's surely a pretty decent option at that pricepoint.

 

[Varun]

If you have never built a HTPC before here is my advice. Make it as quiet as possible.

Sure it sounds easy, but remember in your living room you will get pretty tired of whining exhaust fans

The PSU you have picked for instance got a bad review for noise at SilentPCReview.com:
The <20dBA claim by Cooler Master cannot be confirmed. This is an overly optimistic figure.

This is the essential issue with the Cooler Master Real Power RS-450-ACLY PSU for seekers of quiet PCs: The basic acoustic character of the fan is poor, and the fan controller only makes a gesture at low noise. To take advantage of the high efficiency and strong power delivery performance of this PSU, a quiet PC enthusiast would want both the fan controller and the fan to be swapped or modified. This is not a simple matter. In this day of greater choices in components that are quiet right off the shelf, there are better choices.

It's a solid PSU for power delivery but not noise, which is a big concern here in a HTPC. I would go with a Corsair or Seasonic, both excellent PSUs.

The Seagate 7200.10 drives are on the loud side of HDDs, and I would go with the Samsungs, but from across the room you may not care about seek noise etc.

For the CPU, I agree you don't need much to drive a HTPC for SDTV - mine is running on an Athlon XP-M 2500+ at stock speeds, however here are some things that you have to decide:
Are you ever going to hook it up to a HDTV? You might want some muscle for HDTV videos.

Are you going to be encoding your recorded TV? Once again some more muscle makes this faster

Are you going to game on it?

The ATI motherboards are known to run cooler which helps out a lot in a cramped space, but I have only ever used Nvidia (and VIA way way back in the day) so I can't comment too much on them. You don't need anything with SLI etc and almost all motherboards come with SPDIF now. Just be sure to get a motherboard with passive cooling because chipset fans have no place in your living room.

If you want to tune SDTV I would recommend the ATI 550 Pro chipset cards - they are amazing. I wish I could show you how much they clean up my incomming cable feed. Just amazing cards. If you want/need OTA HD the ATI 650 includes that as well as the SDTV MPEG encoder. Unfortunately in Canada there is no OTA HD for me.

For CPU cooling, in a cramped case there is no room for the huge tower coolers. The tried and true Zalman 7000 series are still very good coolers with a so-so fan, but at 5V it is inaudible basically. I found the 7000 quieter than the 7700 too.

DVD Drive - I had an NEC but it was stupid loud watching movies. I just got a Pioneer 112D and it is perfect.

Video is more important than you may think. The good cards have some excellent MPEG decoding abilities. They can deinterlace and make movies and TV look as good as $2000 DVD players! If you have it in your budget maybe try for the 8600GT with the full HD-DVD/Blue Ray decoding capability, or look into the new AMD cards.

Don't forget Windows MCE does not come with a MPEG Decoder so I would recommend the Nvidia PureVideo which is a very reasonable price and takes full advantage of the video card capabilities.

 

[erwos]

Originally posted by: Varun
Don't forget Windows MCE does not come with a MPEG Decoder so I would recommend the Nvidia PureVideo which is a very reasonable price and takes full advantage of the video card capabilities.

Two points about that:
1. PureVideo is going to lose support fairly soon, because...
2. Windows Vista includes an MPEG-2 decoder built-in, and drivers will be written to accelerate that from now on.

I'm not trying to push Vista, but once you start factoring in total cost, I'm not sure MCE+PV is really much cheaper than Vista Home Premium.

As for tuners, there's only two worth bothering with for serious users:
1. SiliconDust HDHomeRun for QAM256 and OTA HDTV tuning.
2. Hauppauge PVR-500MCE for analog cable tuning.

Both of those are dual tuner devices. The PVR-500MCE runs off PCI, and the HDHomeRun is actually an ethernet device. Driver support for both is probably the best you'll get for Vista, Linux, or XP.

If you can't lay down the $150 each of those costs, there's also the Hauppauge PVR-150 and AverTVHD A180 cards. The Hauppauge HVR-1600 also has a pretty good rep, but I tend to avoid USB tuners when possible.

As for the video card, it seems like the 8600GT w/ HDCP is a reasonable budget bet. Not as fast as some of the 7-series cards of the same price for gaming, but does have that fun PureVideo HD acceleration.

For the mobo requirements, I'd focus on the integrated audio and the number of SATA ports. You want 6+ SATA ports for future expansion (HD video isn't small!).

Unless you're transcoding into H.264 or VC-1, you can get away with an E4300 for your CPU - you really don't need much for just recording and watching, except at very high bitrates. Remember to wait for the July price cut before you buy!

 

[drextremeops007]

wow. Thanks for all the replies. I haven't bought the parts yet. Thought I should decide on them sometime soon than I can start planning. I also need a few weeks more to save up on the cash needed (halfway there). Yeah. I am also considering waiting out till the July price cut if I am going to the Intel route. So far I have no plans to run HDTV yet, but that is of course in the future. I forgot to mention that I am running digital cable. I am not going to game. Hmmm, I will go and try to revise the parts and will post later for an updated review. Once again, wanna thank everyone that replied. And keep those feedbacks coming.

 

[erwos]

Originally posted by: drextremeops007
So far I have no plans to run HDTV yet, but that is of course in the future. I forgot to mention that I am running digital cable.

The choice is going to be taken away from you by 2009. Analog spectrum is going away for OTA broadcast, and the cable providers are generally moving aggressively to end remove analog channels to free up cable bandwidth. I would be shocked if there wasn't a major push in 2008 to switch everyone over to digital set-top boxes on the cable side.

The problem with QAM (which is the technology used to tune digital cable) is that you only get unencrypted channels. That tends to be the "basic" tier, plus whatever extras your cable provider decides to forget to encrypt. There are other options besides QAM (Firewire, Cablecard, and next year, DCAS), but these all have their limitations. Investigate carefully.

Anyways, even with digital cable, all of the analog channels should still be there - your set-top-box just isn't using them. So, a PVR-500 might not be a bad choice for now.

 

[Noema]

Get this 8500GT.

It does hardware based HD (h.264) acceleration. Plus it's passively cooled