Building a media center PC

[NiMhBatt]

After all the other computers I've done and all the stuff I've done in our home my wife has agreed that a mediacenter PC is an excellent idea. I'm going to be making a custom case for it so I don't need to worry about that but what would be good quality components for a media center.

I'm already looking at the Realmagic Xcard as a prime component.

This would be for everything from DVDs to CDs to TV, recording shows and playing MP3s.

What processor should I look at that would have more than enough horse power to handle all of this and yet be as affordable as possible?

I haven't done any SFF stuff yet so what motherboards/manufacturers should I look at going with?

I plan on putting in at least a 100GB hard drive and possibly a 200.

I will probably opt for a slot-fed DVD ROM drive as well.

Component suggestions? Helpful advice?

Thank you,

 

[jimmypop]

I highly recommend 80+ GB of porn.

 

[EvanAdams]

I did not know you can buy Windows Media Center edition retail

 

[Monoman]

Originally posted by: jimmypop
I highly recommend 80+ GB of porn.

what a fscking stupid post....

Originally posted by: EvanAdams
I did not know you can buy Windows Media Center edition retail

It's not available to the retail market

 

[sumrtym]

Want my HONEST picks?

Case: Antec Overture (comes with 380W TruePower PSU)
This fits nicely in an entertainment center, is quiet, and roomy enough to work in and not limit options as it can accomodate standard ATX mobos.

CPU: P4 Celeron 2.4 Ghz
P4's are noticeably better on media than using an AMD chip. This celeron seems the best price for the low-end celerons now available.

TV Capture: Hauppauge WinTV-PVR-250
Good card for MPEG-2 hardware encoding. Dump the included software, however.

Software: Beyond TV from SnapStream on top of Win XP
For computers serving dual-purposes, I usually go the ATI AIW route. However, for standalone media centers, they don't cut it for a couple reasons, one of the most noticeable being no program guide for distant viewers (10 foot range). BeyondTV works well with the Hauppauge card.

VideoCard: ATI Radeon 9200
Relatively cheap but offers good video output. Stick with one made by ATI. Also, it doesn't have a fan (passive heatsink) so quieter.

HDD: Western Digital 7200 RPM, 8 MB cache....200 or 250 GB

DVD-Writer

You could also use MyHTPC (which is free) with plugins if you dive in a bit more. If not, Beyond Media is coming out from SnapStream sometime soon that will incorporate a frontend for BeyondTV with DVD, Music, Photos, and Videos as well.

 

[Treyshadow]

Here is a difference of opinion

Antec Aria Case

Athlon Mobile 2500+ as they use less power and are happy in the small case environment

Shuttle MN31N Motherboard with onboard Geforce dual head card (good for having a second monitor to launch programs from (like movies)

1 Gig of Ram, Media can be performance driven when running high end Divx sources, moving files, and downloading at the same time.

Avermedia M150 PVR, or wait for the ATI HD card

Software SageTV 2.0, or Beyond TV.
Personally I have used both and have no preference either way as both work as advertised.

2 Seagate 200 gig HD 7200.7 (quiet, not too hot, very fast for long file transfers(movies)

DVD-R/RW+, whichever you prefer, I like the lite-on due to it being very short in length (better air flow in a small case)


This setup would be small, quiet, and work very well.

You can substitute any PVR Card that has a hardware MPEG2 decoder, but many are not supported. I would stick to the Hauppage PVR-250 if you want ease of support

 

[Treyshadow]

Oh and that overture will heat up just as fast as the aria, so in a limited operating environment, I would go with a dvine case.

 

[Zephyr106]

Originally posted by: sumrtym
TV Capture: Hauppauge WinTV-PVR-250
Good card for MPEG-2 hardware encoding. Dump the included software, however.

Wouldn't the PVR-350 be better because it can decode MPEG2 in hardware, for faster playback of recorded programming onto a TV? Along with the fact that it has TV output and the 250 doesn't.

Zephyr

 

[sumrtym]

No. The 350 is kind of a waste. Your processor can easily handle DVD playback, and the videocard offers far better video output than the Hauppauge cards.

 

[MercenaryForHire]

Originally posted by: sumrtym
CPU: P4 Celeron 2.4 Ghz

Well, there goes all your credibility - you suggested a Celeron.

Go for the XP-M 2500, but don't buy an IGP nForce board - get a discrete TV-out capable card instead, like an R9200.

- M4H

 

[sumrtym]

Originally posted by: MercenaryForHire

Originally posted by: sumrtym
CPU: P4 Celeron 2.4 Ghz

Well, there goes all your credibility - you suggested a Celeron.

Yes, I did. I initially recommended a P4 Northwood, but he's looking for CHEAP. A Celeron easily handles DVD and music playback and the TV card is handling video encoding (duh)! He doesn't want it for playing games, and I think the requirements for BeyondTV are an 800 Mhz Celeron. I think a 2.4 Ghz easily qualifies.

:disgust:

 

[coolred]

IF I remember correctly the TV out of the 350 cards will not show the desktop anyways, it only works with specific programs.


I myself am consideringt he overture, I know it can run warm, but I won't be putting in too many hot components, and it is thus far the best all aroudn case I have found. It may not look as good as the divines and silverstones, but it is half the cost, can house both a standard ATX MB and PSU. I am still looking, cause I would prefer soemthing that looks a little less liek a computer, but like I said, so far its the best option I have found. I am still on the fence about what platform to use, either AXP or A64, I am leaning towards A64 though. I already have a hauppauge 250(roslyn)card and sage TV 2.0, its freaking awesome, can't wait to build this machien and add more tuners. I haven't picked a video card yet. I was considering just using my AIW 8500DV, but then I found out I need a directX 9 card for VMR9 in sage. SO I am not sure if I will go cheap liek a 9200 in the HTPC and then upgrade to a 9600Pro in my main rig, or just get the 9600Pro for the HTPC.

I can't harldy wait till I figure it all out and start building. Good luck to you in your venture.

 

[Frightcrawler]

Originally posted by: sumrtym

Originally posted by: MercenaryForHire

Originally posted by: sumrtym
CPU: P4 Celeron 2.4 Ghz

Well, there goes all your credibility - you suggested a Celeron.

Yes, I did. I initially recommended a P4 Northwood, but he's looking for CHEAP. A Celeron easily handles DVD and music playback and the TV card is handling video encoding (duh)! He doesn't want it for playing games, and I think the requirements for BeyondTV are an 800 Mhz Celeron. I think a 2.4 Ghz easily qualifies.

:disgust:

Uh. Did you not read the very informative article on Anandtech? The Celerons got its ass handed to it by the Durons.
And to top it off, Durons are CHEAPER than Celerons.

Budget CPU Shootout: Class of the 'rons

 

[sumrtym]

Originally posted by: Frightcrawler

Originally posted by: sumrtym

Originally posted by: MercenaryForHire

Originally posted by: sumrtym
CPU: P4 Celeron 2.4 Ghz

Well, there goes all your credibility - you suggested a Celeron.

Yes, I did. I initially recommended a P4 Northwood, but he's looking for CHEAP. A Celeron easily handles DVD and music playback and the TV card is handling video encoding (duh)! He doesn't want it for playing games, and I think the requirements for BeyondTV are an 800 Mhz Celeron. I think a 2.4 Ghz easily qualifies.

:disgust:

Uh. Did you not read the very informative article on Anandtech? The Celerons got its ass handed to it by the Durons.
And to top it off, Durons are CHEAPER than Celerons.

Budget CPU Shootout: Class of the 'rons

You mean where they compare it for encoding files (which the TV card handles, not the CPU), and compare it in a host of games, which we don't care about??? Yep. and the fact the cheapest Duron OEM is $48 at Newegg for a 1.8 Ghz and you can get a retail Celeron with heatsink plus 3 year warranty that's 2.4 Ghz for $67 at Newegg as well. Your point again?

Maybe quoting articles on prices that are 6 months out of date isn't the best policy....

 

[coolred]

Don't ask me why I am getting into this, as I don't really care.

sumrtym, please don't take offense to this, I am not saying your wrong, or anything like that, but to be fair for roughly the same price as that retail Celeron, you could get a retail 2200+ or 2400+ AXP, and that would throughly stomp on the celeron(except maybe in encoding, I am just not sure abotu that, I know the Intel chips are usually better at that, but not sure about comparing a celeron with an AXP)but given that encoding is one of the mroe important things for an HTPC, the celeron may still be the better bet assuming it canbeat the AXP in encoding, which again I ahve no idea about.

I myself am pretty well set on an AMD, but thats just my preferance, not trying to influenece anyone, I just wish I coudl decide which to get.

 

[sumrtym]

If cost isn't so much the issue, coolred, obviously a P4 Northwood, not celeron. It's MUCH better on encoding than the AMD. I only recommended the celeron because the original question wanted to know how little he could get by with....

I'd also change my initial recommendation from BeyondTV to SageTV having seen their new 2.0 version. This effectively takes the place of MyHTPC as a frontend now. Supposedly, the Studio portion is coming in the future that I think is going to be a free piece to existing customers that allows for individual skins to be created. It also has a lot of very nice features that I think are better than the BeyondTV offering.

 

[mrbdm99]

if all he really wants to do is watch tv, dvds, record tv (in a dvr/pvr type way), then he doesn't need much. i'm personally running a 5 year old gateway w/ an 800 mhz amd chip, old 512 ram, SLOW 27 gig hard drive (we are talking ata 33 or less), etc. all the stuff you would expect with an older computer. i recent bought a 9000aiw card and 120 gig external hd (firewire connection) and it works perfectly. i've never had any problems recording any shows, outputting to the tv, dvd play back, etc. etc. etc., the aiw software works great, no need for media center. the only problem i have is when i want to make a dvd from a group of recorded shows, it takes a pretty good while for encoding (don't even go there, we are talking 10+ hours). anyway, my point being, if my machine (which i might be lucky to sell for 400 bucks with everything on it) can handle being a media center pc with no problems, there shouldn't be much of a need for "fancy" equipment.

 

[fragstar]

This is all crazy talk. Media center can't not be bought separately. You will need a preconfigured unit. I would suggest a small form factor pc, probably a shuttle. Check the microsoft website for a list of media center partners to find out who actually sells these products.

 

[sumrtym]

Originally posted by: fragstar
This is all crazy talk. Media center can't not be bought separately. You will need a preconfigured unit. I would suggest a small form factor pc, probably a shuttle. Check the microsoft website for a list of media center partners to find out who actually sells these products.

What the heck? Who would want to use Microsoft's Media Center anyway???? Go with Sage, or MyHTPC, or BeyondTV. I can't imagine why you'd want to spend more money to Microsoft than what it costs yourself, AND be limited in your hardware software (not to mention crippling usability / portability of records with DRM)!!!

You want crazy talk, I think you just spouted it....

 

[coolred]

This is all crazy talk. Media center can't not be bought separately. You will need a preconfigured unit.

Yeah when did he say he wanted windows media center in the first place. I would also recommend Sage TV 2.0, it is working great for me.


sumrtym, I never said that money was no issue. You were just trying to say that since the retail celeron was only 19 bucks more then the slower duron that was a better choice. I then countered with the factt hat for the same or approximately the same costs, that the 2200+ and 2400+ were even better choices then the celeron.

Like mrbdm99 said, for what he wants, he doesn't need much, sure if he wants real cheap then he could get the durons, but if it were me, I would opto for the 2200+ or even the 2400+. And for what he is saying he will do with it, he won't even benefit fromt he intels lead in encoding, since the only encoding he will be doing will be handle pretty much entirely by the hardware card. Also I don't rememeber where I saw it but some encoding software actually preferred the AMD chips and ran significantly faster then the pentiums. But in general I will grant you the intel chips encode better.


Like I said, I just should have stayed out of it, but I was just giving my opinion, as were you, unfortunately my opinion was in contrast to yours.

 

[NiMhBatt]

Thanks for all of your help. Your suggestions and even your debating because its helped a lot.

You are right. I don't want M$MCE. BLEH. The majority of the DVDs we play right now are on my laptop which is a PIII 750 with 512 MB of ram.. and my wife plays MP3s all the time on her Athlon XP 2500 system. Part of the reason I want a mediacenter PC is because I want to up the output and have a dedicated system. I want to keep the costs reasonable because I doubt there will be any game playing on it but I'm not ruling out spending a little extra to get good options or features.

On that note... I think this has pretty muched nixed the idea of the Real card I mentioned before but thats not a big deal. I don't seem to need it.

Can I get some input on Sound Cards and Speakers? I want Dolby Digital Surround capability so I was looking at the upper end Audigy 2 ZS' which I believe have that ability. Or should I look for a surround sound system to tie this into somehow?

Thanks,

 

[NiMhBatt]

BUMP

 

[wyvrn]

This is the HTPC I am building (posted in another thread up the list):


Black Inwin Desktop Case
Athlon 1.7G
Matrox G450 eTV for both video encoding and decoding
IBM 60GB hdd
512MB Crucial PC2100
NuTec 8x DVD burner
Refurb Shuttle MN31N from Newegg (soundstorm audio is the key here)

I am going for minimalism here both in terms of cost, noise, space, and power. This system will cost about $370 total. I bought the vid card, hard drive, and ram used from the FS forums. I have seen boxes with 1Ghz processors and 256MB ram get the job done, even though many people like to beef up their systems with the latest for bragging rights I am also using myhtpc as frontend, and GotTv as the media center software. Neither costs a dime and both are well proven.

The biggest argument seems to be around encoder cards. The PVR 250 and 350 seem to get the most love. But Newegg has the ATI E-home Wonder for $73 (full version with FM) that is intended for MS MCE computers, and there is a registry hack that allows you to use the card in a normal version of Windows 2k/XP. Some people actually prefer software encoders, but you have to have a bit faster processor for those obviously. The Matrox I am using is software encoder and also a dual-head output, so having one video card doing everything fits in with my low cost and power requirements.

Also look at hardocp.com HTPC forum for much much more information.

I will post back how it turns out, should know as early as next weekend.

 

[CrimsonSky]

I called this one Jujube after my fave movie theater candy Scratchbuilt case, parts mostly found at Lowe's. The front bezel is an aluminum door saddle (or sill). Interior framing is all alum angle from Lowes. Acrylic from local plastic shop. The gold finish is Duplicolor simulated annodized paint.

specs:

P4 2.8c
MSI MicroATX mobo
ATI AIW 9800 Pro w/remote
SB Audigy2 ZS
Sony DVDR-RW
1GB Corsair
200GB WD Sata HDD
BeyondTV 3
WinXP Pro

Additional hardware:

Griffen Powermate USB Knob
Matrix orbital 2x24 VFD


Jujube_1

Jujube_2

Jujube_3

Jujube_4

Jujube_5

Jujube_6

 

[dclive]

Originally posted by: NiMhBatt
After all the other computers I've done and all the stuff I've done in our home my wife has agreed that a mediacenter PC is an excellent idea. I'm going to be making a custom case for it so I don't need to worry about that but what would be good quality components for a media center.

I'm already looking at the Realmagic Xcard as a prime component.

Whatever you get, get something with MPEG2 encoding, and get something that's compatible with Media Center in case you ever have the opportunity to put that on the machine.

This would be for everything from DVDs to CDs to TV, recording shows and playing MP3s.
What processor should I look at that would have more than enough horse power to handle all of this and yet be as affordable as possible?

Assuming you have a card with MPEG2 encoding, anything on the market today, including those cheapy Epia Centaur-based knockoffs at 1000 mhz, can easily handle the load. When I'm recording on an AMD 1800 with MPEG2 encoder, my CPU hits 4-5%....and that's just to hit the hard drive and update the screen every so often.

I haven't done any SFF stuff yet so what motherboards/manufacturers should I look at going with?

Most people want a small form factor, so they suggest Shuttle and similar boxes. The Contour seems pretty popular too.

I plan on putting in at least a 100GB hard drive and possibly a 200.

You will want a large HDD in it if you plan to capture TV shows to it.

I will probably opt for a slot-fed DVD ROM drive as well.
Component suggestions? Helpful advice?
Thank you,[/quote]

Suggestions inline. I've built several of these; I don't see a big deal in having a small case, as most of the mATX cases/boards out there now are easily small enough to fit by my TV and work very well, plus they have the advantage of a standard form factor - which means it's cheaper and more easily expandable.