View Full Version : Too high spec for a HTPC?
Asus P5Q iP45 Socket 775 Motherboard (https://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Components/Motherboards/Socket+775+%28Intel%29/Asus+P5Q+iP45+Socket+775+Motherboard+?productId=32 294)
Intel Core 2 Duo E7300 2.66GHz (Retail 775) (https://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Components/CPUs+%2F+Processors/Intel/Core+2+Duo/Intel+Core+2+Duo+E7300+2.66GHz+%28Retail+775%29+?p roductId=33833)
OCZ 2GB PC2-6400 Gold Gamer eXtreme (2x1GB) (https://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Components/Memory/DDR2/DDR2+800+%28PC6400%29/OCZ+2GB+PC2-6400+Gold+Gamer+eXtreme+%282x1GB%29+?productId=261 15)
LG GGC-H20L Blu-Ray/HD DVD-ROM, DVDRW SATA Black Retail Kit (https://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Components/CD%2FDVD+Drives/Internal/SATA/LG+GGC-H20L+Blu-Ray%2FHD+DVD-ROM%2C+DVDRW+SATA+Black+Retail+Kit+?productId=2992 3)
Zignum Sphere Media Center Case (https://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Components/Cases/Micro+ATX/Zignum+Sphere+Media+Center+Case+?productId=31256)
80GB Samsung Spinpoint S166 SATA II Hard Drive (https://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Components/Hard+Drives/Serial+ATA/80GB+Samsung+Spinpoint+S166+SATA+II+Hard+Drive+?pr oductId=34085)
Compro VideoMate T500F PCI Hybrid DVB-T & Analog TV/FM Tuner (https://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Components/TV+Tuner+Cards/Compro+VideoMate+T500F+PCI+Hybrid+DVB-T+%26+Analog+TV%2FFM+Tuner+?productId=30266)
Like the title suggests, its only gonna really be used for retreiving files from abother computer
Would anyone change anything?
Beats mine (built from spare parts, although still performs well) :)
I think the motherboard is a little bit of overkill.. But apart from that, I'd say it was pretty good.. CPU probably doesnt need to be that fast, but its better to have too much power than underpowered. And there isnt alot of ££ difference between that and lesser cpus anyway. I'd probably add a video card tho :D Unless i've missed something where you say you've already got one :lol:
I'd probably add a video card tho :D Unless i've missed something where you say you've already got one :lol:
Hehe i was think that exact same thing tbh.
You might want to add more storage too, if you intend keeping anything you record from the tv for any lenght of time it soon adds up as, on my set up anyway, 1 hour of recorded tv roughly equates to 1gb.
Well i was just gonna have it for the OS and stream everything else other than TV and DVD
So, cheaper mobo and CPU, and a GPU
What GPU would any of you recommend for a HTPC?
HD3650 should be alright... or any of the HDs for that matter :)
Cheers Jon
Any recommendations on a mobo?
I've got an asrock in mine ;)
Ha... good one! Anyone have any ideas on a cheap and cheerful mobo with no onboard graphics
they all have on board graphics :P
I'm sure someone can recommend a good board at that price... we've got some older Intel chipsets and nvidia 630i boards.
FYI my HTPC is;
P4 2.8GHz northwood
Asrock PCI-E 478 board
1gb of 3200
320gig hard drive
dvd writer
X800AIW
and it works perfectly, no stuttering or lagging, although I'm not using it for HD...
I've got an ASRock in my HTPC too.. absolutely fine and never had any problems with it. I think they're generally fine if you're not overclocking etc..
I'm sure Wonderlust would vouch for them too :)
they all have on board graphics :P
I'm sure someone can recommend a good board at that price... we've got some older Intel chipsets and nvidia 630i boards.
FYI my HTPC is;
P4 2.8GHz northwood
Asrock PCI-E 478 board
1gb of 3200
320gig hard drive
dvd writer
X800AIW
and it works perfectly, no stuttering or lagging, although I'm not using it for HD...
What do you mean they all have onboard graphics?
All the boards in that price range for a media centre case have onboard graphics :P along with PCI-E slots though :)
What you going to have (got) for your screen and speakers? :)
Monkey, check out the one in my specs.
Although no tried it myself as i don't have a BD player, that mobo allegedly handles blue-ray with ease and very little cpu load.
Also.....i'd go for a bigger hdd simply for faster read/writes and bigger cache.
some of the gigabyte m-atx boards look good and should be in your price range :)
Ok now what about a decent TV tuner
This part needs too be good
And does anyone have any recomendations for a good Case
check out the tv tuner i have in my media centre
terratec 2400i, pcie, dual digital tuners, remote control and receiver
Its not cheap but then i tried cheap and it didn't pick up half the available tv channels even though i had a mofo of an aerial bolted to it.
Or just continues this thread... :|
Say ive not specced up a htpc yet, what would you recommend? Needs a big screen atleast 24"
So, whos first?
You could do alot worse than something similar to mine? As per my sig? Even that probably ott for a htpc tbh, playing blu rays my cpu hits maybe 10% load tops.
Well i have one that i have priced up and i was just wondering if anyone had any recomendations for a case?
Needs to be almost silent too, no louder than an xbox for example (hate xbox's by the way, infact all modern consoles)
EDIT: Just realised ive got a ati 1950 agp sat around doing nothing cos it wont work, would anyone recomend puttin that into a pc or not :P
I had a 1950 in mine before xmas and yes it will be fine, but i would recommend you use one that works :thumbsup: , but it wont do onboard hidef decoding, so expect cpu usage to be considerably higher, my set up spiked upto 50% cpu usage on my X2 5200 iirc, if you want blu ray capability on that.
Screw it then, ill just get something better, may even go all out and get a 4850 and some smeg box control pads :thumbsup: (why isnt the thumbs up next to thumbs down???)
Thing is though, there arent any games on pc that you can split the screen, in my opinion thats the only thing PC games are missing
Get a cheap HD3850 or similar that will do all high def decoding and output over HDMI nicely.
I was looking at getting this (https://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Components/Cases/Micro+ATX/Hiper+Media+Chassis+Micro+Atx+%2F+ITX+?productId=2 1895) case, and i searched on google and saw this (http://static.pcinpact.com/images/bd/news/20564.jpg)
I take it its not gonna take a GPU! :P
By looking at the big picture, there is space for a full size graphics card, but it looks like it would fit sideways somehow, and the outputs would go where there are black leads going to just above where the rear vent is?
Infact, in the description it says:
Riser cards are available these allow you to use AGP, PCI or PCI-E, please note these are not supplied with the case.
But just to contradict the description, it says in the Q&A at the bottom:
Comes with AGP riser (PCI and PCI-E available seperately) and also rounded IDE cables.
I wouldnt recommend that card unless it's going to have a very low power/heat processor in there as you'd have to use a low profile cooler.
So you can get a riser for the gpu to sit it sideways?
And do you wreckon the stock intel cooler will fit in the case?
Not sure, if it does (the slimline one) will probably touch the top of the case.
If you're after a media centre case get the Antec fusion.
Also the hiper case needs a slimline optical drive.
It looks like the cooler in those pictures is a 1U cooler, and it looks like that is pretty tight fitting - I may well be wrong, as im only guessing from those pictures, but i'd be surprised if a stock intel cooler did fit..
Also the PSU wont be easily replaceable
Looks a nice case
What are teh screen and dials for?
Theres a review on here somewhere
http://forums.aria.co.uk/showthread.php?t=4488
Do you wreckon the PSU that comes with that case can handle a decent GPU? like say the 3650 to 4850???
The fusion? should have no probs with the 3650, not sure about a 4850 though
Not too fussed about gettin the 4850 to be honest, no split screen games on the pc that i can think of
It will be running the same screen i have on my pc though
Is this the (http://photo9.bababian.com/upload4/20071103/DBB13C4341C7661F249AC95CA1FBBDB8.jpg) remote that comes with that case or is it a newer one?
Thats a hp remote so its unlikely to be that one
Ok so this case, if i bought this (https://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Electronics/Barebones+Systems/Hiper+Media+Center+HTPC+Slimline+barebone+bundle+? productId=33944) instead of the antec, i could only get 1 PCI in?
yes as its on a 90 degree riser card.
I know this is gonna cause alot of controversy as its a pants build really, but will this all work as a media centre and play Blueray movies??
Intel Celeron D336 2.8GHz 775 OEM (https://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Components/CPUs+%2F+Processors/Intel/Celeron+D+Socket+775/Intel+Celeron+D336+2.8GHz+775+OEM+?productId=30205 )22.95
Foxconn 925XE7AA-8KRS2 LGA 775 Intel 925XE ATX Intel Motherboard (https://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Components/Motherboards/Socket+775+%28Intel%29/Foxconn+925XE7AA-8KRS2+LGA+775+Intel+925XE+ATX+Intel+Motherboard+?p roductId=35753)£ 19.95
Arianet 2GB PC2-6400 DDR2 SDRAM (https://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Components/Memory/DDR2/DDR2+800+%28PC6400%29/Arianet+2GB+PC2-6400+DDR2+SDRAM+?productId=30174)£ 13.95
Sony BDU-X10S Blu-ray BD-ROM Black SATA Retail (https://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Components/CD%2FDVD+Drives/Internal/SATA/Sony+BDU-X10S+Blu-ray+BD-ROM+Black+SATA+Retail+?productId=34470)£ 45.95
1TB Samsung Spinpoint F1 SATA2 7200RPM 32MB cache (https://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Components/Hard+Drives/Serial+ATA/1TB+Samsung+Spinpoint+F1+SATA2+7200RPM+32MB+cache+ ?productId=30998)£ 61.95
nVidia GeForce 9400GT 512MB PCI-E (https://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Components/Graphics+Cards/PCI-E/nVIDIA+GeForce+9+Series/nVidia+GeForce+9400GT+512MB+PCI-E+?productId=33751) £ 35.25
SV 500w SilentLoad 20 & 24+SATA PSU (https://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Components/Power+Supplies/500w+%2B/SV+500w+SilentLoad+20+%26+24%2BSATA+PSU+?productId =25509)£ 12.65
Compro VideoMate T100 Advanced Silicon (https://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Components/TV+Tuner+Cards/+Compro+VideoMate+T100+Advanced+Silicon?productId= 26868) £ 20.75
Lian Li PC-V350B Micro ATX Case Black (https://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Components/Cases/Micro+ATX/Lian+Li+PC-V350B+Micro+ATX+Case+Black+?productId=30011)£ 72.09
28" Hanns-G HG281DP Widescreen Monitor (https://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Displays/Monitors/TFT+24+%2B/28%22+Hanns-G+HG281DP+Widescreen+Monitor?productId=33242) £ 274.95
Celeron D, are you having a laugh, E2160s are cheap!
Whats the difference? What im trying to get at is i have a 1.6athlon at home that can play videos at 1920x1200
And i cant see that i will need much better to run blueray videos
Should be fine mate, the 9400gt does HD decoding iirc so the cpu is basically only needed to run mce. My 7750 hits around 15% load when playing blue rays so the smelleron should cope ok i would have thought. If you are planning on using it for anything else it might be wise to go for a 2160.
mce? ahh, googled
Ok so what about this Just for insurance
Intel Pentium Dual Core E2220 2.4GHz (Retail 775) (https://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Components/CPUs+%2F+Processors/Intel/Core+2+Duo/Intel+Pentium+Dual+Core+E2220+2.4GHz+%28Retail+775 %29+?productId=31124) £ 47.75
wonderlust
28-04-09, 19:10
I run VMCE on an E2160 Pin modded to 1066fsb (2.4Ghz :D)
The V350's a fantastic case but it won't take a full ATX board. It's a nice case to have sitting on a table top but it'll be a misfit as a HTPC sitting under a TV with other "cuboid" shaped devices.
I have one of these and definitely recommend it
https://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Components/Cases/Desktop/Antec+Fusion+Remote+Media+Center+Case+-+Black+?productId=33879
My HTPC thread from last year might be of assistance
http://forums.aria.co.uk/showthread.php?t=5977&page=3
Why the Hanns G 28" ????
I know plenty of peeps who bought the 19" ad 22" version and all and i mean all have gone back after 12 - 18 months.
Plus its £316, you can get a top spec 37" LCD TV for £450.
Also its a crap screen, 800:1 contrast, trust me it would be (swearwords), get the ASUS 24" £206.
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