Would like to build HTPC

[Rol87]

Hello Everyone,

I wanted some advice on building a HTPC I would like to build one I am not too familiar on the parts for them. I have a 40" HDTV here is the link to the tv http://www.walmart.com/catalog/produ...uct_id=5645640 I only have basic cabe 4 now. My budget is $500-$600 I would like a list of some parts. Also for the cpu I would like AMD

Thanks

[farlex85]

Well the most important thing would be the tuner. Ati's All-in-Wonder would be a good choice. Blue-Ray is a possibility too, although I don't know if that would really be worth it w/ a 720p tv. 1tb hdd, or the new 1.5tb seagate. A gig or two of ram, a 4850e or something like that, and you'll be set.

[Rol87]

Originally Posted by farlex85

Well the most important thing would be the tuner. Ati's All-in-Wonder would be a good choice. Blue-Ray is a possibility too, although I don't know if that would really be worth it w/ a 720p tv. 1tb hdd, or the new 1.5tb seagate. A gig or two of ram, a 4850e or something like that, and you'll be set.

WOW thats a beast I guess blue-ray would be out of the picture. I just would like to watch some movies on it and surf the net.

[farlex85]

Originally Posted by Rol87

WOW thats a beast I guess blue-ray would be out of the picture. I just would like to watch some movies on it and surf the net.

lol you mean the all in wonder? Yeah it's not necessary either. There are plenty of solid amd boards w/ decent integrated graphics, as long as your not hoping to play games. You could get one of those and get a decent tuner for $80-110, it'll save you some. What OS will you be using? Vista? Linux? That's worth considering for how much hardware power you'll want as well as what tuner you get, as some have trouble w/ drivers for particular operating systems.

[Rol87]

Originally Posted by farlex85

lol you mean the all in wonder? Yeah it's not necessary either. There are plenty of solid amd boards w/ decent integrated graphics, as long as your not hoping to play games. You could get one of those and get a decent tuner for $80-110, it'll save you some. What OS will you be using? Vista? Linux? That's worth considering for how much hardware power you'll want as well as what tuner you get, as some have trouble w/ drivers for particular operating systems.

Well I am not a Game Freak so wouldn't need a high tech vid card. For the OS I would be using XP.

[pjladyfox]

Well, while your budget is a bit small here is what I was able to whip up:

SILVERSTONE Black LASCALA 10 CS-SST-LC10B - $109.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811163033

AMD Athlon X2 4450e Brisbane 2.3GHz Socket AM2 45W - $58.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813138128

BIOSTAR TFORCE TA790GX A2+ - $99.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813138128

Kingston 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 - $31.49
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820134635

SAMSUNG Spinpoint F1 HD322HJ 320GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822152096

Pioneer 20X DVD±R DVD Burner Black SATA Model DVR-2910 - $44.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16827129026

Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium SP1 32-bit English 1pk - $99.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16832116485

Everything comes in just at $500 before shipping and taxes. Would rather have gone with XP MCE 2005 with the remote but it would have put things over budget. Since you did not specify a TV tuner card I left that off but since you have the OS already you could probably get any number of ones that suit your fancy.

[Rol87]

dont know what kind of tv tuner card to get though. I would like to record stuff and rewind.

[farlex85]

I'd probably go w/ something along these lines:




The tv tuner is dual, so it will allow you to watch something and record on anther channel, pip, and stuff like that. The 1600 is very similar, and may be just as good. Any tuner will allow you to record and rewind, if your on xp pro though you'll need to use the software that comes w/ the tuner, which often sucks, even w/ the best tuners. If you get a little adventerous I would suggest checking mythtv out. You can get mythbuntu, which already has ubuntu and mythtv on it. It is a nice interface and free, just can be tricky if your not used to linux. Otherwise maybe vista which has MCE. Also if you want surround sound that is something to consider, you may want a better sound card if so.

[ShadowFold]

^Definitely go with a ASUS 780G. And pick up a X3,
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819103254
it will help if you have a slower video card with blu ray playback. I picked up a Phenom X4 and it sped up decoding from my Athlon X2 quite a bit! The onboard 780G is enough for blu ray playback too, I have the same board but a older revision.

[Rol87]

will i be able to hook up some speakers for surround sound

[farlex85]

Originally Posted by Rol87

will i be able to hook up some speakers for surround sound

You will but to get full digital surround sound you will need a card capable of decoding such a signal and sending it out, something that most onboards don't have. That may be an addition you save for later, especially since tv is rarely encoded in 5.1 and never afaik in 7.1. That would only come in handy w/ dvd's and rays.

[pjladyfox]

Originally Posted by farlex85

The tv tuner is dual, so it will allow you to watch something and record on anther channel, pip, and stuff like that. The 1600 is very similar, and may be just as good. Any tuner will allow you to record and rewind, if your on xp pro though you'll need to use the software that comes w/ the tuner, which often sucks, even w/ the best tuners. If you get a little adventerous I would suggest checking mythtv out. You can get mythbuntu, which already has ubuntu and mythtv on it. It is a nice interface and free, just can be tricky if your not used to linux. Otherwise maybe vista which has MCE. Also if you want surround sound that is something to consider, you may want a better sound card if so.

Good catch on the PSU which I missed I'm embarassed to admit. I am kind of curious why the 780G over the 790GX? Granted you get a nice $20 savings but did not the Asus board suffer from overheating issues with some of the newer Phenom CPU's that was fixed in the 790GX?

That aside I'd steer away from Vista's MCE which do not have full QAM support compared to XP MCE 2005. Granted there's some beta plug-in's that fix the issue but we all know how well that can go. Of course, this all could be avoided if he went with mythbuntu but it's really not that easy to troubleshoot if things go south for someone who isn't that familiar with it.

[Rol87]

Originally Posted by farlex85

I'd probably go w/ something along these lines:




The tv tuner is dual, so it will allow you to watch something and record on anther channel, pip, and stuff like that. The 1600 is very similar, and may be just as good. Any tuner will allow you to record and rewind, if your on xp pro though you'll need to use the software that comes w/ the tuner, which often sucks, even w/ the best tuners. If you get a little adventerous I would suggest checking mythtv out. You can get mythbuntu, which already has ubuntu and mythtv on it. It is a nice interface and free, just can be tricky if your not used to linux. Otherwise maybe vista which has MCE. Also if you want surround sound that is something to consider, you may want a better sound card if so.

I was thinking about going with this and with the

SILVERSTONE Black Aluminum front panel, 1.0mm SECC body LASCALA 10 CS-SST-LC10B ATX Media Center / HTPC Case - Retail-Item #:N82E16811163033

[farlex85]

Originally Posted by pjladyfox

Good catch on the PSU which I missed I'm embarassed to admit. I am kind of curious why the 780G over the 790GX? Granted you get a nice $20 savings but did not the Asus board suffer from overheating issues with some of the newer Phenom CPU's that was fixed in the 790GX?

That aside I'd steer away from Vista's MCE which do not have full QAM support compared to XP MCE 2005. Granted there's some beta plug-in's that fix the issue but we all know how well that can go. Of course, this all could be avoided if he went with mythbuntu but it's really not that easy to troubleshoot if things go south for someone who isn't that familiar with it.

Hmm, I wasn't aware that vista's mce didn't come w/ full QAM support. XP MCE would be good, require less ram and such, may be a little tougher to find. I wasn't aware of the asus issues either, I just thought the features of the gx were not worth the extra $25 for a build like this. And I figured the money would be better spent on a big hdd, especially if recording hdtv. Mythbuntu can be tricky, but it's free, and pretty powerful. I guess it's another toss up between time and money.

[Homeless]

I highly recommend waiting till the 25th as that's when radeon releases the lower 4xxx series cards which have full hdmi suppport

[pjladyfox]

Originally Posted by farlex85

Hmm, I wasn't aware that vista's mce didn't come w/ full QAM support. XP MCE would be good, require less ram and such, may be a little tougher to find. I wasn't aware of the asus issues either, I just thought the features of the gx were not worth the extra $25 for a build like this. And I figured the money would be better spent on a big hdd, especially if recording hdtv. Mythbuntu can be tricky, but it's free, and pretty powerful. I guess it's another toss up between time and money.

I did have at one time a Vista and XP MCE box setup at home to see if Vista had any improvements. That was a mistake that I quickly realized when I found not only little quirks like the QAM issue but found that everything was just, well, slower on the same hardware and do not even get me started on the stupid tuner limit they seem to have built into the Vista version. *grrrr*

Do not get me wrong XP MCE is not perfect by any stretch but it's a lot less hardware intensive than Vista is and well worth tracking down a copy of it. Really wish Mythbuntu was a bit more user friendly since it does have a lot of nice features to it and the free part is nice as well. But, dang, if something goes wrong you can easily wind up spending hours digging thru man-pages which does not go over well with the hubby when all he wants to do is watch stuff he's recorded or ripped. *sigh*

Well, he should be okay with the Asus board as long as he sticks with the lower powered AMD processors and nothing higher than say 95W I think on the Phenom's and he does get a 1TB drive in the bargin. Just felt it was worth pointing out in case he decides to upgrade to a faster CPU later.