I am not too familiar with hardware that go into a HTPC and so I need some advice and help.
I have a 32" HDTV with HDMI inputs and I also have a whole bunch of HD DVD/Blu Ray movies on my HDD and so I am looking for a machine that is capable of playing back these movies on the TV through the HDMI connection. I am not looking to spend too much $$ on this machine and so I am only looking for a basic setup.
I've been hearing a lot about AMD's 780G and nVidia's GF8200. Should I be looking at these options? Would a discrete ATi 2400/2600 card better than those two integrated solutions? I assume that I don't need a powerful CPU since the GPU (capable of hardware acceleration) can share loads with CPU.
A question regarding to the sound. Does the onboard optical audio output differ much from a discrete sound solution while running the signal to a logitech Z-5500?
I am essentially looking for a system that is low power consumption, capable of playing HD movies off HDDs and has a HDMI connection as well as optical/digital audio output connection.
BTW, any chance if I can turn on/off the HTPC by using a remote??
Thanks a bunch,
Jack
I have a 32" HDTV with HDMI inputs and I also have a whole bunch of HD DVD/Blu Ray movies on my HDD and so I am looking for a machine that is capable of playing back these movies on the TV through the HDMI connection. I am not looking to spend too much $$ on this machine and so I am only looking for a basic setup.
I've been hearing a lot about AMD's 780G and nVidia's GF8200. Should I be looking at these options? Would a discrete ATi 2400/2600 card better than those two integrated solutions? I assume that I don't need a powerful CPU since the GPU (capable of hardware acceleration) can share loads with CPU.
A question regarding to the sound. Does the onboard optical audio output differ much from a discrete sound solution while running the signal to a logitech Z-5500?
I am essentially looking for a system that is low power consumption, capable of playing HD movies off HDDs and has a HDMI connection as well as optical/digital audio output connection.
BTW, any chance if I can turn on/off the HTPC by using a remote??
Thanks a bunch,
Jack