HTPC build

[DisgruntledVirus]

GIGABYTE GA-MA78GM-S2H AM2+/AM2 AMD 780G HDMI Micro ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail

SAPPHIRE 100255L Radeon HD 4670 512MB 128-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFire Supported Video Card - Retail

OCZ SLI-Ready 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model OCZ2N800SR2GK - Retail

AMD Athlon X2 4850e 2.5GHz Socket AM2 45W Dual-Core Processor Model ADH4850DOBOX - Retail

I have everything else for now (a full size case, psu, opticals, etc), until I get a blu-ray drive/mATX case/etc. I just really need to overhaul the core parts of it, and am sending it to a Kuro 5080. This system will be used primarily to play all my movies/music (some of it is HD, but want to start doing most in HD), and also backup blu-ray (and encode it to h.264 or other HD format).

Anybody have any better recomendations?

Also the video card I might wait on, because I do have a 7950 GT OC that I can use to drive the display until I buy a 4670/4850 to replace it. Any thoughts on this idea?

 

[imported_Scoop]

Why do you need a discrete GPU for an HTPC? The IGP on that board will do just fine.

 

[DisgruntledVirus]

Originally posted by: Scoop
Why do you need a discrete GPU for an HTPC? The IGP on that board will do just fine.

Two fold. First is I have a spare 7950 GT OC laying around, so might as well throw that in (I am fairly sure it will be faster than the 3200 IGP at a lower CPU usage). Second is for connectivity/HDMI audio. The 4xxx series can encode the audio stream into the video and put it on a single HDMI cable. The IGP does not support multichannel pass through IIRC.

 

[imported_Scoop]

If you need to get everything out with one cable, which I can fully understand, I would wait for the HDMI soundcards to be released to get the HD audio experience. That is if you're planning on hooking it up to an A/V receiver, which I assume. I wouldn't throw in a card like 7950 just to up the power consumption, unless this is a gaming rig.

 

[mcveigh]

I have the same board and a 5000+ BE CPU. it handles almost everything perfectly. 720P and 1080i is perfect. 1080P is perfect if I use WMP or VLC for playback. when I use sageTV for playback i'll get a slight stutter every once in a while. I use SPDIF out to my receiver.
that said if I was building today I would use an intel solution. A G45 chipset and a Q6600 processor. mainly the quad core if you want to encode anything.

 

[DisgruntledVirus]

Originally posted by: Scoop
If you need to get everything out with one cable, which I can fully understand, I would wait for the HDMI soundcards to be released to get the HD audio experience. That is if you're planning on hooking it up to an A/V receiver, which I assume. I wouldn't throw in a card like 7950 just to up the power consumption, unless this is a gaming rig.

It's a rig that I would like to be able to use as a spare gaming rig if need be, but not it's primary use. I saw over on AVS that both the Xonar and IIRC m-audio are both releasing their HDMI sound cards soon.

Currently the way it is setup is everything (cable box/dvd player/computer) all goes through HDMI to the TV. I have the sound out from the tv going back to the computer, which goes to my Logitech Z5300 (the one's before the z5500's) for surround sound. This one day will change and I will be getting a receiver and actual home theater speakers. For now though I don't have the money to do that (the way I want to at least).

I am building this rig to be able to send audio/video over one HDMI cable to a receiver though with minor upgrades needed (hopefully none). It sucks I need to upgrade it right now though because stuff is just now coming out for HDPC's.

I can hold off on video cards for now, but if I need to I can just put in the 7950 and it will work as a gaming pc.

Originally posted by: mcveigh
I have the same board and a 5000+ BE CPU. it handles almost everything perfectly. 720P and 1080i is perfect. 1080P is perfect if I use WMP or VLC for playback. when I use sageTV for playback i'll get a slight stutter every once in a while. I use SPDIF out to my receiver.
that said if I was building today I would use an intel solution. A G45 chipset and a Q6600 processor. mainly the quad core if you want to encode anything.

I use WMP or VLC for everything, and my tv is *only* 720p (which TBH I don't think a 1080p would have made a difference for me, and the Kuro 5080 has an amazing picture). I would go with a quad core except for 3 things. First I don't want to spend a lot of money and that setup is $200 sans video card. Second is I want a low power system that runs cool because I want it to be on 24/7 so the gf doesn't have to do anything to be able to play media from it (other then going to that directory obviously). This pc will also eventually become a "file server" of sorts (when I get some TB+ drives). Third since the pc will be on 24/7 I can have it encoding while I'm sleeping/working/at class which is 20+ hours out of the day mon-thurs. I don't need stuff encoded in under an hour, and later on I can just drop in a better cpu if need be.

 

[mrSHEiK124]

I just built two computers for a friend using the 4850e and that same OCZ RAM, but with this motherboard: http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16813131324 (ASUS M3A78-EM). I'm almost certain it supports passthrough via HDMI for the sound, I could've sworn I saw an option for it in the BIOS. Amazing how AMD took the same CPU I still have (AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200+, Socket 939, overclocked to just about 2.5 GHz) ran it at half the power consumption, and sold it for like $50. I paid like $250 for mine, that's insane, I love these chips

 

[DisgruntledVirus]

Originally posted by: mrSHEiK124
I just built two computers for a friend using the 4850e and that same OCZ RAM, but with this motherboard: http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16813131324 (ASUS M3A78-EM). I'm almost certain it supports passthrough via HDMI for the sound, I could've sworn I saw an option for it in the BIOS. Amazing how AMD took the same CPU I still have (AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200+, Socket 939, overclocked to just about 2.5 GHz) ran it at half the power consumption, and sold it for like $50. I paid like $250 for mine, that's insane, I love these chips

Does the optical port support optical in by chance?

 

[mrSHEiK124]

Originally posted by: DisgruntledVirus

Originally posted by: mrSHEiK124
I just built two computers for a friend using the 4850e and that same OCZ RAM, but with this motherboard: http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16813131324 (ASUS M3A78-EM). I'm almost certain it supports passthrough via HDMI for the sound, I could've sworn I saw an option for it in the BIOS. Amazing how AMD took the same CPU I still have (AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200+, Socket 939, overclocked to just about 2.5 GHz) ran it at half the power consumption, and sold it for like $50. I paid like $250 for mine, that's insane, I love these chips

Does the optical port support optical in by chance?

I can't say that I checked it when I had them, but I've never really seen a SPDIF port on a motherboard that was SPDIF in, unless it was on an expansion card. The board might have an SPDIF header on it, check the manual at ASUS's site.

 

[ther00kie16]

Just wondering, why not go with an Nvidia chipset? 8200/8300 (dunno about 8100) support 7.1 LPCM over HDMI.