Building a HTPC does anyoneelse have one?

[Pub247]

Ok im going to start building a home theater pc i went and got a quote on a case i liked at my local pc shop they said $330. Cheapest i found online was $265.

Yesterday i won the same case new on ebay for $120
Silverstone LC16 Silver ATX HTPC with | MegaBuy Computer Parts

So i'm off to a decent start. I'm planning on buying pieces here n there as i have cash n theyre cheap.
So far i plan on using
Intel Core2 quad Q8500 775 socket
Gigabyte GA-EP45-UD3L (Due to being cheap n has good on board digital sound)
Radeon HD5450
Samsung blu-ray DVD combo
4 gig or ram
2x1 TB HDD
400w psu
leadtek winfast daul hd tuner

All adds up to $900

So i'm after some opinions from people who have or know stuff. Some of the main things i liked to know are:
Which OS is best win7 or xp? i dont want to use vista and i heard my case case is more compatible with xp (vfd screen wise)
Which HD Tuner card is good for a small price? i've been looking at this one
Leadtek WinFast DTV2000DS Dual HD Tuner [L-DTV2000DS] - $82.00 : PC Case Gear

So far I have been getting my price from PC Case Gear they seem well priced are there any other good online stores to check out?

Feel free to throw some ideas my way

[bezz]

Go windows 7, if the vfd is the imon one (and being a silverstone I'm pretty certain it is), there are updated drivers for win 7. Are you planning on gaming at all with it? If not, the processor is overkill. I'm running an amd x2 6000 in mine with onboard video and it plays back full hd perfectly. Alternatively I'd look at a phenom 920 or equivalent (uses less power, doesn't get as hot).

The aim with hardware is to keep the pc as cool and as silent as possible. I'd recommend looking for a fanless video card, pccasegear should have them and if you end up going for the intel quadcore I'd look at an aftermarket cooler.

What sort of psu are you looking at? I'm using a 360w Zalman in mine, while the power figure isn't incredible, they are really efficient and really quiet too. They can actually run at a higher efficiency whilst still delivering 400w+ than a lot of the cheaper 'high-power' units. I'd recommend investing a bit into a quality, silent psu.

Software-wise you cant beat xbmc. Even though it has no tv tuner support, the interface itself really impresses. Check out this clip with the Aeon skin:
YouTube - Aeon "Stark" - Release Trailer

With the tuner, I also bought a leadtek. I installed it and have never used it...

[Pub247]

Go windows 7, if the vfd is the imon one (and being a silverstone I'm pretty certain it is), there are updated drivers for win 7. Are you planning on gaming at all with it? If not, the processor is overkill. I'm running an amd x2 6000 in mine with onboard video and it plays back full hd perfectly. Alternatively I'd look at a phenom 920 or equivalent (uses less power, doesn't get as hot).

Yeah i believe its the imon one, so that is good news then i wanted to run win7.
Ok i only went the Q8500 because i read somewhere that recommended it for a htpc. Can you recommend a intel chip? im pretty set on this motherboard as it clean has everything i want lots of usb ports and the onboard sound is good with digital out.
I thought having a quad would help when it comes to doing multiple things like recording tv or timeshift plus playing pack blu ray and stuff. The place where i read the article said that the cpu runs cools and silent enough that you dont need to get an aftermarket cooler. I'm just going by they said. I may play some games on it i'm more of a xbox person but i guess itd be nice to have the option.

The aim with hardware is to keep the pc as cool and as silent as possible. I'd recommend looking for a fanless video card, pccasegear should have them and if you end up going for the intel quadcore I'd look at an aftermarket cooler.

The gigabyte radeon hd5450 that i chose has hdmi and hdcp and is also heatsink cooled.

What sort of psu are you looking at? I'm using a 360w Zalman in mine, while the power figure isn't incredible, they are really efficient and really quiet too. They can actually run at a higher efficiency whilst still delivering 400w+ than a lot of the cheaper 'high-power' units. I'd recommend investing a bit into a quality, silent psu.

Atm i picked the antec neo eco 400c mainly due to cost @ $56 and still has a decent power output. If you know theyre any good or have a better option let me know. i'd prefer to keep it cheap as possible

Software-wise you cant beat xbmc. Even though it has no tv tuner support, the interface itself really impresses. Check out this clip with the Aeon skin:
YouTube - Aeon "Stark" - Release Trailer

With the tuner, I also bought a leadtek. I installed it and have never used it...

Hmm that is impressive i've always been a fan of xbmc i use to have an orig xbox with it. The lack of tv tuner support is a downside do you think it will be a supported function in the future?

Thanks For the advice
Pub

[bezz]

Yeah i believe its the imon one, so that is good news then i wanted to run win7.
Ok i only went the Q8500 because i read somewhere that recommended it for a htpc. Can you recommend a intel chip? im pretty set on this motherboard as it clean has everything i want lots of usb ports and the onboard sound is good with digital out.
I thought having a quad would help when it comes to doing multiple things like recording tv or timeshift plus playing pack blu ray and stuff. The place where i read the article said that the cpu runs cools and silent enough that you dont need to get an aftermarket cooler. I'm just going by they said. I may play some games on it i'm more of a xbox person but i guess itd be nice to have the option.

If you want to multitask a fair bit I guess the quad should come into its own there. It just really depends what you want from the htpc. Is power consumption an issue for you? If you're going to be recording tv I'd assume its going to be left on all the time?

Is the motherboard nvidia or ati based? If its ati you could see if you could use hybrid crossfire. Utilises onboard video and only turns on the video card if its required- a good power saving feature.

The gigabyte radeon hd5450 that i chose has hdmi and hdcp and is also heatsink cooled.

Good choice.

Atm i picked the antec neo eco 400c mainly due to cost @ $56 and still has a decent power output. If you know theyre any good or have a better option let me know. i'd prefer to keep it cheap as possible

I haven't used that particular model, but the antecs I have used have been really quiet, so it should do the job.

Hmm that is impressive i've always been a fan of xbmc i use to have an orig xbox with it. The lack of tv tuner support is a downside do you think it will be a supported function in the future?

When I looked into it it wasn't on the horizon. May have changed now though. Not even sure if xbmc uses video acceleration yet... used to be all processor based..

[Pub247]

I wouldnt say itll be all the time but but if its needs to be on it will be. Power consumption hopefully wont be an issue.
The motherboard has no onboard video....
I had a quick google of xbmc with tv tuner. They say they wont wont ever support it but you can use another program to receive it then watch it through xbmc so that works for me.

[ephect]

Pub look at the Thermaltake DH101 case Thermaltake DH101 HTPC ATX Case VF7001BNS | Case,Thermaltake,DH101,HTPC,ATX, VF7001BNS,iMEDIAN,MediaLAB,Thermaltake DH101 Black HTPC ATX Case VF7001BNS with Media Center Remote Control and VFD Review | Benchmark Reviews Performance Tests

i have 1 and have had it for a year now, perfect, big slow speed fans minimal noise, remote control imon display. comes with its own media centre program, cant think of the name atm. from a quick search its around the $200 mark. the next one up has a 7' display (possibly touch screen)

will post up a bit more later on other specs

[Pub247]

Well i got around to buying most of the parts for it the HTPC
Basic run down is
1 AMD Phenom II X2 545 $107.00
2 Western Digital Green 1TB WD10EARS $198.00
1 Gigabyte GA-MA785GMT-UD2H $109.00 (in built hdmi and optical sound out)
1 Silverstone Strider ST50F 500W PSU $75.00 ( bought this one as its the same brand as case and fits perfectly where fan vent is)
1 Kingston KVR1333D3N9K2/4G 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 $124.00
1 Adesso Wireless Multimedia/MCE Keyboard with Optical Trackball $109.00


So all up so far including case it has cost me $850 i have still yet to get a tv tuner card and a blu ray drive but those things can wait for a while

[Pub247]

well i got it running but have run into a problem seems my window xp key isw now invalid as its been used too many times by me over the last 6 or more years

EDIT all working now still need to get it networking and on the net

[Pub247]

Here's a couple of pictures of it Setup.

Windows XP was sorted i rang M$ and activated it over the phone I have now setup a daul boot system with windows 7 on the other HDD. As i havent ever used it before i dont know whether i like it.

Windows 7 seems to run much better than XP so i may have to make that my main OS

Anyways couple of pics

[bezz]

Nice one man, your tv setup looks a lot like mine!

Also good news, the new xbmc is rumoured to have tv tuner support and finally utilise video cards for hardware acceleration.

Did you get the imon remote with the big pad thing in the middle of it with your case? How do you find it? I'm thinking of upgrading to a logitech harmony or similar.

[Pub247]

Nice one man, your tv setup looks a lot like mine!

Also good news, the new xbmc is rumoured to have tv tuner support and finally utilise video cards for hardware acceleration.

Did you get the imon remote with the big pad thing in the middle of it with your case? How do you find it? I'm thinking of upgrading to a logitech harmony or similar.

Good to hear i havent got a TV tuner card yet so i will get one when xbmc supports it. I'm quite happy with xbmc running aeon stark with phil65 mod looks absolutely lush i havent got everything working in it yet but so far so good its kind of hard for me to figure out how to get things looking the way i want as it seems most f the support is rather to technical for me.
I cant get movies to show up in the movie section or tv shows in tv shows they only seem to show up in my videos. i Also want get rid of the add source pane when you select music i just want it to go straight to the music as its all in the one spot. Also it crashes in windows 7 which idk why so i have been sticking with xp for now.

Yes i got that remote i dont mind it but in xp the mouse is waaaaay to slow so i have been sticking with the wireless keyboard i havent tried it in XBMC yet so idk how well it works in that.

HAve to say i dont get much time on it missus loves it can watch and listen to music out in the lounge plus go on the net at the same time.

[bezz]

To get the movies and tv shows to show up in the right folders you need to add them to the library. I found the easiest way to do this was to go back to the PM3 skin so you can use the mouse. Go to the Videos section, and right click on your movies source, selecting 'Set Content' in the list. From here choose movies as the type of content and tell it to scan. It will then connect to an online database and scrape all the movie info, automatically adding it all to the library. Do the same thing with TV Shows.

In settings you can select to get rid of the add source button. Also you can set it to scan for new content whenever xbmc starts, good for when you add new videos.

With regards to the crashing, try running it in Win 7 under XP compatibility mode, you can set it in properties for the shortcut.