Home Theater PC

[Dru22]

Well here is the deal, I have a Macbook Pro, Desktop PC, and now I wanna venture into the Home Theater Scene. I was in a debate in upgrading my desktop PC as well as build a HTPC, or just upgrade my desktop and use it as a HTPC and Desktop. Need your opinions on what I should do.

I'm not sure where to start with building the Home Theater PC. I have a 52" Sony Bravia 1080P TV. I have around 500 DVD's in my collection. I considering putting them all onto a HDD or just leaving them on DVD and playing through the PC. I def want to be able to play Blu-Ray on this HTPC. I don't necessarily need to back up my dvd's onto a hdd.

So my question is, what should I buy? Should i do SFF/HTPC case. Which motherboard/cpu/video card/blu ray player/etc should I buy? Or should i just upgrade my existing computer, so all i would need is Motherboard, CPU, Memory, BluRay Drive and Video card. Keep my case, Sony DVD+R drive, Power Supply, Sound card.

I've seen some video cards that have HDMI and some have DVI for hi-def?

I'm looking to start building this at the beginning of next month and I'm not picky when it comes to brands, as long as they perform well so AMD,Intel,Nvidia,ATI is ok by me. Right now I don't have a budget but would like a few options in what I'm looking at.

 

[bobhowell]

Go to avsforum.com and look under home theater pc. you will find extensive advice in the Guide to Building THPC thread. It covers EVERYthing. Priceless. Anything I say would be a summary of my prefs. Gigabyte has GA MA78GM-S2H with onboard graphics and HDMI that will Handle Blu Ray. Asus has a model also.

Bob

 

[Blain]

HTPC, Start Here...
MB - ASUS M3N78-EMH HDMI
CPU - X2 4850e
Case - SILVERSTONE SST-SG01-B
PS - CORSAIR CMPSU-450VX
HD - Western Digital WD6400AAKS
Optical Drive - Asus BC-1205PT

 

[ther00kie16]

For MB: go with Gigabyte as it's similarly priced as the Asus but comes with extra features like firewire, eSata and optical out. If you can afford a bit more, the Thermaltake dh-101 is an awesome HTPC case with all the desired features for about $215 shipped over at Directron.
For the power supply, Corsair is a good choice, but you may want to consider the 520HX for roughly the same price after rebate at buy.com because it's modular, which would make cable management in a sff/htpc case much easier.
For hard drive, either the 640gb western digital or the samsung 750gb. The latter offers a better gb/$ ratio.
For $20 more, you can get the highly recommended LG blu-ray/hd dvd drive at mwave. I only mention this because I don't trust the Asus drive. Or if you don't need to burn DVDs, you can get just a Blu-ray/dvd reader for $120 after rebate at zipzoomfly.

 

[Dru22]

Ok i've been looking a little. And i've decided to just upgrade my existing desktop computer. I'm going to make it able to play Blu-Ray and send to my HDTV. I also want this computer to be able to run all my programs including Adobe Photoshop, InDesign, Illustrator CS3. I want something that is fast so i'm not running into problems next year. Here is what I came up with, let me know what you guys think and if this will do.

XFX nForce 680i LT SLI Motherboard
Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 Processor 2.40GHz
OCZ 4096MB PC6400 DDR2 Memory
2 - XFX GeForce 8800 GT Video Cards PCie - Alpha Dog Edition
Sony BDUX10S SATA Blu-Ray Drive

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or this
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Intel DX38BT Motherboard
Intel Core 2 Quad Q6700 Processor 2.66GHz
(2) ATI Radeon HD 2600 Pro PCIe 2 x 256MB Video Cards
OCZ Gold 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333
Sony BDUX10S SATA Blu-Ray Drive

 

[Blain]

I wouldn't waste $$ on two 2600 "Pro" cards in crossfire.
Were you looking at 64-bit or 128-bit cards?

 

[ther00kie16]

Buying 2 video cards is a no-no right now because of the new video cards coming out in less than a month. If you really want high performance right now, a 8800gt or 8800gts 512mb is plenty. Then you won't need a SLI motherboard and can go with something cheaper like a Gigabyte p35 DS3R
OCZ isn't great with memory anymore. Try crucial, corsair, mushkin, kingston, GSkill.
You can probably save a little by going with a non-Sony drive. The LG blu-ray/hd dvd drive is only $170ish at places like provantage and allstarshop

 

[Dru22]

Ok so i'll go with the 8800GT 512mb, The XFX motherboard came in a package with Core 2 Quad processor and memory for $375.
So do you think the Gigabyte P35 DS3R and 8800 and Core 2 Quad be fast enough to run all my CS3 products as well as output the Hi-Def to my tv with the Blu Ray? And i'm not worried about spending $179 for the Sony Blu Ray drive i already have a Sony Dru-710a DVD+R drive now. But now that I look at it the more I want since some video i like are on HD DVD still.
And with the 8800GT does it have the DVI to HDMI?

Also i've been looking at the cards and getting confused. Some have S-video HDTV, some have a Svideo to 3 component for HDTV, some have DVI to HDMI and some have HDMI straight from the card. Obvisually the HDMI to HDMI will have the best quality no? Then wouldn't DVI to HDMI have the next best? So what am I looking for when it comes to a good card for all my CS3 and video and picture stuff then when I want to watch the Blu-Ray on my tv what will give me the best video picture?

Also, how will i get the sound from the computer to the tv? Will the HDMI carry the sound through it as well? Will the DVI to HDMI do it or will i need to run a separate line out from my sound card to my tv?

 

[ther00kie16]

Everything sounds good, especially if you overclock the cpu a bit.
For the tv connection, are you trying to output audio over HDMI as well? If so, that will take a bit more research (avsforum) and I'm not positive but fairly sure that you can do so with most cards with a spdif connector from the onboard sound. There's a Zotac 8800gt at newegg that comes with a dvi->hdmi adapter.

 

[Dru22]

If i buy a separate DVI to HDMI adapter will that plug into any 8800GT? Do most tv's have the spdif connector on the back of the tv? Will this be 5.1? and also these video cards say works best with monitors up to 30", so does this mean the picture will be worse on my 52"?

 

[ther00kie16]

As long as the 8800gt has a spdif connector, it will work. The spdif wire goes from the motherboard audio to the video card so the sound is passed from the sound card through the hdmi slot on the video card. So spdif has nothing to do with the tv. And if you want 5.1, you won't be passing audio to the tv but rather a a receiver. That is a different matter and will depend on your setup.

 

[Dru22]

How about with the DVI to HDMI connector? If i get one can I use it with any 8800GT?

 

[ther00kie16]

You can use DVI to HDMI with any card, question is if you want sound on HDMI, the card needs a spdif connector on it (looks like a fan connector). A quick survey of a few cards showed that some had it and some didn't though the specs don't say. The cheapest 8800gt 512mb on newegg (XFX brand) seems to have it but I recommend the Zotac because it comes with the DVI->HDMI, has reviews saying the audio over HDMI works and has great ratings.

 

[Dru22]

The Zotac card has the audio cable that comes with the card but where does this plug into the motherboard to get the sound?

 

[ther00kie16]

There should be a spdif header on the motherboard's onboard audio section.

 

[Dru22]

Which front end is the best to use right now? A buddy of mine showed me a Linux version called eAR, but I was thinking Vista Media Center would prolly work the best for what i'm doin.

 

[Dru22]

Can someone tell me if the XFX 8600GT with Zalman fan has the SPDIF hookup on it so that i can run the cable from it to the motherboard. Also what would be better, running this from the sound card to the video card, or mb to video card? Or should i just run a Toslink cable from the mb to the Onkyo receiver? What will have better sound quality.

 

[Blain]

> Here <

 

[Dru22]

I've already looked at that, it doesn't say if it does or not.

 

[Dru22]

Ok after looking, should i get the XFX 8600GT or the ATI HD 2600 XT?