Building an HTPC - could use some advice...

[steveklein]

Hey guys. I'm building an HTPC that needs more horsepower than my current 1.5 GHz Athlon 1800+ can offer.

I'm looking to spend about $800 or less on the whole system. I have to get a motherboard/cpu, video card, hard drive, memory, and case.

the case i'm getting is an antec nsk2400. it's about $100 shipped and is micro atx.

i'm kind of stuck on processor/motherboard. i don't really need top top top of the line systems because i'm not going to be doing heavy duy gaming... just recording standard def tv using a hauppauge dual tuner.

should i go with amd (like a 3800+) or an intel (like an e6300)?

i'm basically looking for the sweet spot in the price/performance curve right now. also, i really need a system that runs very quietly since this pc will be in my living room.

what advice do you folks have for a motherboard/cpu?

edit: i should note i am not interested in overclocking. would rather have the system run quietly.

 

[Cogman]

For most HTPCs quiet is key. What I have found helpful is comparing the TDP of different processors on Wikipedia.com (search for intel processor list or something similar). The other thing that you might want to consider is what are you encoding? if you are just encoding TV you might consider going with a good TV Tuner card that has MPEG2 encoding built in. That way you can have a slow CPU with worrying about hitting a roof. If you plan on doing HDTV encoding (is this possible yet?) you need a Beefy CPU that can handle encoding.

My recommendation would be to get a Cheap AMD dual core processor. If you can find the Energy efficant ones (I have never seen them) it would be worth it as noise would be greatly reduced. The other thing I would check out is silentpcreview.com a website that specializes in, quiet computers. The other place I would go to is overclockers.com and check out their Heatsink reviews I think they have one of the better review systems out there.

You might look into using Linux and MythTV, that would save a few bucks on Windows Media edition.

Basicly there is not much of a straight answer because it mostly depends on what you want to do with the computer.

 

[Regalk]

My HTPC is built around a Biostar GF6100-M9/A64 3200+ oc to 2500 speeds and a 7300GS Nvidia - strictly HTPC use - not used for gaming period or any thing else since it is in my HiFI setup and hooked up direct to my plasma with wireless Mouse/KB - for gaming I use 2 other systems - Core2Duo 6300 in my sig and DFI/165opty at 2790 and BFG7950GT

 

[tomt4535]

I would grab a nice AMD Dual Core and a motherboard with the Nvidia 6150 or 6100 chipset. You can get nice boards designed for HTPC use with all sorts of video outputs. Also, the onboard video will be fine if you dont want to do crazy gaming. If you have a little more money to spend, get an Intel Core 2 Duo. The core 2 duo will def be faster, but the AMD will be fine. You might want to grab a video card with an intel setup, I havent found a really great one with decent onboard graphics features yet.