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New Home Theater PC Build

R

rlines

Junior Member
1. What YOUR PC will be used for.
Watching/ripping/buring Bluray DVDs, Watch and record 2 channels of live TV, Convert some family videotapes to DVD, and have always on so I can remote into it from my phone. May do some light gaming but nothing a lower proccessor couldn't handle. May do some more in future

2. What YOUR budget is.
I started out thinking I could do this for about $500. That dream went away real fast. Now I am shooting for less the $900 if I can. I choose the motherboard below thinking that I could upgrade CPU later if I felt i needed it. For now I want Cool and Quiet

3. What country YOU will be buying YOUR parts from.
USA

4. IF YOU have a brand preference.
Lean torwards intel but if there is good reason won't be afraid to stray. Choose the I3 to try and use less power since this will be on 24/7.

5. If YOU intend on using any of YOUR current parts, and if so, what those parts are.
Wooden HTPC case. I saw this and fell in love. Can have an ATX or MATX Drive. Actual wood.

6. IF YOU have searched and/or read similar threads.
I have read a lot on how to put a HTPC together and think this setup will fit what I want. Let me know what you think.

7. IF YOU plan on overclocking or run the system at default speeds.
Will leave stock.

8. What resolution YOU plan on gaming with.
N/A
9. WHEN do you plan to build it?
ASAP

Here is what I was thinking. Where am I missing something? Any suggestions on anything I should change?

Motherboard MSI H55-GD65 $90.00
Proccessor Intel I3 550 $129.00
Power Supply Rosewill Green Series RG630-S12 630W $60.00
Memory G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR3
F3-10666CL9D-4GBRL $45.00
Hard Drive Samsung Spinpoint F3 1TB $65.00
Blu Ray LG 10 x Bluray Burner WH10LS30 $90.00
OS Win 7 Home Premium Packaged with tuner
TV Tuner Hauppauge HVR 1213 Dual Tuner $220.00
Wireless card ASUS PCE-N13 IEEE 802.11b/g/n $28.00
Keyboard/mouse Rii Portable 2.4GHz Mini Wireless $30.00
Total $757.00

Thanks for your advice on this. I have swapped parts before but have never built a unit.
 
You're building a computer that uses very, very, very little power. You could power 4 computers like your's with 600W.

$35 - Antec NEO ECO 400C
80 plus cert. and ATX12V 2.3.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817371029

$40 - Antec NEO ECO 520C
Kinda overkill, since you don't have a discrete GPU. It's only $5 more though.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817371030

There are many choices for 2x2GB DDR3-1333 ram. You shouldn't have to pay $5 more than necessary.

And since you're ripping and burning, maybe 2TB of space would be useful? Don't be fooled by the 5400rpm spec, the high density 666GB platters makes this thing fast.

$80 - Samsung F4 2TB
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-245-_-Product
 
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The 520 looks good. I had thought about a larger drive but was worried about writing to the system drive if I record two channels at once. Maybe I will give this a try. Right now I don't want to buy two hard drives but may in the future. I could throw in 3 more sata drives and had to make sure there were 6 sata motherboard connections. 1 blu ray, 1 frontside e sata port, and 4 HDD's.
 
I looked at Silent PC review right away. I haven't checked out the two suggested parts yet.

I still plan on getting a TV. Toshiba 40" 3 HDMI input and 60Hz refresh. That is what I am looking at. Everyone says great picture but ok sound, which is fine since I have a stereo to hook this to.

I currently have Dish satellite so Cable card reader wouldn't work. I live 5 miles from the closest cable connection so that won't happen. I will just use Over the air and Streaming like Hulu. I also have to consider I only have a 1 meg internet connection. Again 5 miles from a Cable DSL.
 
Depending on where the case is and its orientation (up against a wall, etc) you probably don't want a wireless card unless you have a cable and external antenna. What I did with two of my HTPCs was to get an Azio wireless USB adapter at newegg for $17 shipped, and used a USB extension cable so I could put it on top of the TV cabinet...it gets the full 300Mbps signal from up there.

I'd save a few bucks and go with one of the Intel mobos, probably the DH55HC over the DH55TC...always known for rock-solid stability, three years warranty instead of one year, and far fewer complaining customers than MSI. The only drawback: no digital out for audio, in which case you'd want to bump up to the DH57DD. My primary HTPC has a Bad Axe II (used to be in my main box), and I love it...but the living room HTPC has an MSI mobo, and the damn thing couldn't detect the GeForce 210 I dropped into it (can see a 6200 and an 8600GTS just fine, tho'), and yes it has the latest BIOS flashed.
 
Thanks for the advice. I was kind of curious about the motherboard seeing the same reviews that you saw. I will look into the Intel Boards. I wanted to be sure to have enough PCI slots to put in a video card if I decided down the road to upgrade GPU/CPU.
 
rlines said:
I wanted to be sure to have enough PCI slots to put in a video card if I decided down the road to upgrade GPU/CPU.
Click to expand...

I could be wrong about this, but I'm pretty sure nobody has ever made a PCI video card that can challenge the i3, much less outperform it. Current cost-to-performance ratio for PCI video cards are insane, and when most manufacturers stop making them a couple of years from now, the cost will become obscene.

Upgrading just the CPU (with integrated graphics) will be a vastly better option. Or, go with just a PCI-e video card, or a combination of the two for a kickin' upgrade.

The days of the PCI slot is numbered. You'll find later that your machine will have a couple of empty slots, maybe all empty. And an mATX board would give you more case options.
 
Motherboard Intel BOXDH55HC $88.00
Proccessor Intel I3 550 $129.00
Power Supply Antec NEO ECO 520C 520W $40.00
Memory G.SKILL NS 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 $40.00
Hard Drive SAMSUNG Spinpoint F3 HD103SJ $65.00
Blu Ray LG WH10LS30 $90.00
OS Win 7 Home Premium Packaged with tuner
TV Tuner Hauppauge HVR 1213 Dual Tuner $220.00
Wireless card Rosewill RNX-N2LX IEEE 802.11b/g/n USB 2.0 $21.00
Keyboard/mouse Rii Portable 2.4GHz Mini Wireless* $30.00
Total $723.00

Well here is what I think I will order. I stuck with the Spinpoint F3 just for the higher speed. I plan to add another hard drive later when I get that one partially filled. I took some of the advice and changed the wireless card, motherboard, memory, and PSU. The only regrets I have is that the Mother board will loose a firewire port for the front and I will loose a PCI 16 for a plan PCI slot. I will probably order this later today.

On an earlier post someone suggested a case. I already have one, nMEDIAPC Red Wood Wood/Steel HTPC 8000 ATX Media Center / HTPC Case. This is made out of wood and accepts ATX or MATX Motherboards. I saw it and fell in love. I ordered it before they decided to discontinue it like some other stuff I fell in love with in the past.

Thanks for any last minute suggestions if you have any.
 
Looks fine. I'm not sure how great that wireless dongle is, those sorts of things tend to be really hit or miss.
 
Instead of that Antec PSU which is way overpowered for your build, you should look at a pico psu. I'm running one on a similar system and I only have a 100 watt brick. I think they make them up to 150 watts now. A 520 Watt PSU is way overkill, if you are going to go with a standard ATX psu, go with the earthwatts 380.

btw, I'm running a core i3 540, 2 GB RAM, 250 GB HDD, and a Lite-On BluRay drive. on a 120 watt pico psu and a 100 watt brick. If you plan on adding mutliple 2TB hard drives then ignore the pico as they only have 2 power jacks 1 sata 1 molex, but I still say you only need the 380 PSU.
 
master7045 said:
Instead of that Antec PSU which is way overpowered for your build, you should look at a pico psu. I'm running one on a similar system and I only have a 100 watt brick. I think they make them up to 150 watts now. A 520 Watt PSU is way overkill, if you are going to go with a standard ATX psu, go with the earthwatts 380.

btw, I'm running a core i3 540, 2 GB RAM, 250 GB HDD, and a Lite-On BluRay drive. on a 120 watt pico psu and a 100 watt brick. If you plan on adding mutliple 2TB hard drives then ignore the pico as they only have 2 power jacks 1 sata 1 molex, but I still say you only need the 380 PSU.
Click to expand...

I would normally agree with you, but in this case, (a) the 520C is less expensive than the Earthwatts 380 and (b) the OP wants to add a GPU at a later date, which rules out the pico.
 
Second above notion. Parts that were last posted have been ordered. Should be here Thursday or Friday. I will post on the build once I get it started. For $20 I will take a chance on the wireless dongle. I was just trying to avoid putting a hole in the wall for a T-1. Thanks for all of your advice.
 
rlines said:
Second above notion. Parts that were last posted have been ordered. Should be here Thursday or Friday. I will post on the build once I get it started. For $20 I will take a chance on the wireless dongle. I was just trying to avoid putting a hole in the wall for a T-1. Thanks for all of your advice.
Click to expand...

You're welcome! 🙂 Be sure to post here if you run into any trouble during the build.
 
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