I need HTPC suggestions

[filibusterman]

ok guys im looking at building a htpc out of some parts i have lying around so basically i want suggestions on waht case to get, if you have personal experience. Also what else makes a good htpc..eg vid card specs, etc. I see some posts for building from a month or two ago but things might have changed.

Ok as I don't yet have and HDTV yet and I basically just want it to play dvds which are not HD yet what route can i go. Im thinking I would want and HTPC becuse I have a suitable soundcard already that wouldnt force me to buy and unnecessary receiver and maybe just speakers.

This is what I have to work with and would prefer to use since its just lying around
cpu:
2.26 P4 @3.4 with FSB bump up to 800
1.7 celeron
both 478
mobo:
asus p4s800
asus p4p800 dlx
Aud:
Audigy 1
vid:
powerspec certified radeon 9200se (has dvi out)

Those are teh main things i have so can i use them or do i have to start over?

 

[silverpig]

Get a mini-atx case if you want to keep it cheap and out of the way. I have one and it looks pretty decent sitting next to the tv.

A good htpc depends on how heavily you are going to use it. Will it be hooked up to an HDTV? Do you want to play high end h.264 content? I'd suggest a low end GeForce 7 series (7300 or so) or one of the 6000 series that supports that purevideo or whatever it is that accelerates h.264 playback if you want to play those types of files. A decent tv tuner is the hauppauge PVR150, or if you want dual tuners, the PVR500. Get a motherboard with onboard sound and digital out to save money.

 

[filibusterman]

bumps

 

[markrb38]

I have one now and I can tell you what I did.
Silverstone LC17 case. Full ATX. Made for HTPC. About $140 without PSU.
Video card 6600GT with High def out. Need the dongle unless you are going DVI-DVI that comes with the cards with hi-def out.
Make it quiet. I have the XP90C cooler so I could run a slower quiet fan on it. Ninja and other CPU towers do not fit.
I also have the Seasonic PSU as it's one of the quieter ones.
As for a front end I use MediaPortal. Open source and free.
Good source of info on HTPC specific stuff is www.avsforum.com in their HTPC forum.

My specific system is:
Silverstone LC17B case
AMD 64 3200+
512MB
Evga 6600GT with Zalman VGA cooler
M-Audio card with SPDIF out.
300GB hard drive.
Wireless network card.
Xgene wireless keyboard with built in trackball
USB-UIRT remote reciever

No DVD drive (everything off network), No capture card(personally don't want it).

Mark

 

[thecoolnessrune]

ASUS N4L-VM DH for the mobo.
Core Duo processor
The new passive Gigabyte 7300GS passive would be an excellent vid card.

As for the case, if the price can be winged, the Zalman HD160 is an excellent HTPC case.

 

[filibusterman]

ttt

 

[thecoolnessrune]

Since your not doing HD, the 1.7 celly with the 9200 and the audigy 1 will be more then enough

 

[Texun]

Yep..... what thecoolnessrune said. If all you intend to do at this point is play DVDs and get your feet wet with HTPC then what you have would do the trick.

I am very partial to the Haupauge cards and have the PVR250, which I think is the older brother of the 150 it's a great card. I think the 150 does HW decoding which would take a big load off the CPU.

My current "Work in Progress" is an MSI K8VMM or something close to that with a Sempron S754-3100, 2x512's of Corsair VR, 300g drive, PVR 250, NEC 3550A, nVidia 6200 and the Chinatech 710 sound card. No problems with recording but I haven't loaded the Purevideo yet for playback so images are pretty disappointing on my HDTV.

 

[aigomorla]

Originally posted by: thecoolnessrune
Since your not doing HD, the 1.7 celly with the 9200 and the audigy 1 will be more then enough

uhhhh 1.7 celly will only let him get away with basic high def. a p4 1.6 will lag on 1080p movies. I posted a thread on my build, and by the way no one is replying to my thread, i guess it was a bit overkill.

After doing research on HTPC's because no one seems to help when I asked, i came to this conclusion.

Anyhow on my HTPC which i will be building for my 1080p 1920x1080 plasma, i intend on dropping in a conroe. Entry level conroes at 1.66 will only cost about 219 and it will be way more then enough power for your HTPC. There also supposed to come out the end of this month according to the ICS report from anandtech. Ive heard you can get away with HD movies on a 2.53ghz P4, but i have no way to confirm this. If your building from scratch, go conroe, if that list you gave is the your usable parts, then use that. Your going to need a better video card tho. I dont think the 9200se will do a very good job at rending on a HDTV.

Anyhow my main question i wanted to ask was to the guy with the silverstone case. Im actually getting the same one but with the media display. But you said the scythe wont fit in the case??? what about the zalman 9500??? will that fit??? because if it wont, im gonna have to think of a way to go water on it :\ Because since its a HTPC, i want it making no noise greater then 25db, and if thats the case i only see passive water as the solution.