Onward to creating my HTPC.

[MaxDepth]

Update: The boards are now available at NewEgg for $84.00. Looks like a heck of a deal compared to the A-Open offering. AFAIK, A-Open offers only one thing more, DVI-I, but it's also $200 more.

After much consideration, it looks like I'll order the AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+. Not as much overclocking as the 4200 but I also don't want to fry my breakfast on the lid on the HTPC either. I'll save $78.
-----------------------------

Question - 290897
From : Max Depth
Sent : 2005/11/15 00:26
Question : I am looking for a company that sells the Gigabyte GA-K8N51PVMT-9 motherboard. I have tried several places and the only thing I can find are reviews of the board.

Do you have a list of companies in the USA that carry this board? Also, what is the suggested retail price for this board. I would rather have this one than the A-Open i915GMm-HFS.

Thank you for your time,
Max

Answer :
Dear Customer,

This model just began to ship to dealers. Please expect them to be available from online and retail outlets within the next two weeks. The MSRP will be $110, but will be much lower from online dealers.

Thank you for choosing Gigabyte products

Yeah, I read reviews on this board from other sites. (Funny, I remember reading about this geeky high school kid in Raleigh, who would review mobos. And used to be pretty thorough too. Wonder what happened to him? )

Now to find an online store that will sell it, find the best CPU for money, and a stylish yet usefull box to put it in.
:thumbsup:

 

[K1052]

I went the cheap route with a Dell SC420, a ATI X300 (did the slot mod), and 800GB worth of storage.

Works decently well.

 

[Ausm]

I have a gigabyte mobo in my HTPC also but this board looks like a mini mobo? I used all the PCI slots in mine for TV Tunners and also and Additional Raid card for my 2 terabytes of storage space


Ausm

 

[loup garou]

I'm considering ditching my homemade HTPC for one of the XPS 400's Dell's been dumping in the outlet lately.

 

[eplebnista]

I went the socket 754 route with a Jetway ATI chipset motherboard.

 

[ColdFusion718]

I'm thinking of building a small form factor HTPC which does high-def then hook it up to a massive file server for 1 TB or so. I find it too difficult to try and cram everything into 1 computer. There comes a point where that computer ceases to be an HTPC and not having plenty of hard drive space is not an option either.

 

[MaxDepth]

Originally posted by: ColdFusion718
I'm thinking of building a small form factor HTPC which does high-def then hook it up to a massive file server for 1 TB or so. I find it too difficult to try and cram everything into 1 computer. There comes a point where that computer ceases to be an HTPC and not having plenty of hard drive space is not an option either.

I agree. I plan to network this to a file server. The hard drive on this HTPC box would be a direct mobo connection for recording TV shows, a la TiVo.
The video and audio main storage would come from the file server. I'm thinking the HTPC box would replace my DVD player. So this box would need a DVD drive. So why not go ahead and put a DVD burner in there, since cost is not that much? But then again, why would I need it? I have one on my main machine and one on the laptop. If I really think this through...I would put a DVD burner on the file server, for uhm, back-ups, yeah. So rethinking this, I would just put in a DVD player.

So now I have two questions: one, I need a turner card, yes? ATI has the HDTV card for broadcast HDTV, but does this card allow for Dish network pass through? I know having this HTPC box work as my Dish tuner (and eliminate another box) would be great but this isn't feasible at this time.

Second question: Since this is a DIY, I can't just buy a copy of Windows Media Center. Do you know how or where I could purchase a license? I have the MS Software Pack, but it doesn't come with that software.

 

[Kremlar]

You can purchase an OEM version of MediaCenter with any hardware purchase.

 

[cerebusPu]

Ive got a 933mhz dell running media center. its a bit slow but it does divx and dvds. Ive got no HD content on the computer.

 

[Crucial]

Windows Media Center Edition 2005 OEM

The HDTV wonder only does over the air HD. Not sure what you mean by passthrough of the dish network. Are you looking to eliminate the dish box altogether? IIRC this is not possible unless there is some kind of sat decoder card. From what I remember you feed an analog tuner the output from the sat box.

I built a windows MCE pc last year for my christmas present to myself. I love it and wouldn't want to use anything else now. I just bought this case to upgrade the crappy looking one I have in there now. It's not the best HTPC case out there but it is a good deal cheaper and runs very quiet from the reviews I have read. I have the HDTV wonder and 2 Hauppage PVR-150MCE analog cards. They all work great together.

 

[MaxDepth]

I have the HDTV wonder and 2 Hauppage PVR-150MCE analog cards. They all work great together.

Why do you have two analog cards?

Yeah, in answering your question, I would like to decode Dish signals but I know that isn't possible at this time. But the ATI card will allow me to feed the signal through the analog connection

Beside the functionality, I know that I need quiet as possible operation and excellent heat dispersal.

I also notice the ATI card has jumped $20 in price. I guess I'll have to do some reading and compare this with other cards. Dayam, I didn't think it would be this hard. I guess I could buy just about anything and have an HTPC, but I would like to build a best of breed that is suits all my needs and cost effective.

 

[Crucial]

I have 2 analog cards so I can record 2 analog channels at once. You could do the same with one PVR-500.

The analog tuner on the HDTV wonder isn't functional in windows media center. I think it might be with some hacked drivers but I didn't bother with all that.

From ATI's site.

Q9: Is the retail boxed HDTV WONDER? supported under Media Center?
A9: Media Center will recognize the HDTV WONDER? as a separate Digital TV Tuner device; Analog TV tuning will not work or be detected by Media Center for the HDTV WONDER?. A previous hardware encoder-based Analog TV Tuner (such as ATI?s E-HOME WONDER) should already be preinstalled by your system manufacturer for support under Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005, and should continue to be used for analog TV viewing/recording purposes. Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 is the first release by Microsoft that supports HDTV over-the-air tuning, however, The Update Rollup 1 for Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 with HDTV Support (KB873369) is required prior to installing the HDTV WONDER?. More information is available from Microsoft

 

[MaxDepth]

The boards are now available at NewEgg for $84.00.

After much consideration, it looks like I'll order the AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+. Wish it would drop, but not until sometime next year when they come out with a new die. But if I wait for that, then I will always be waiting.


So far... $506 + tax + shipping
Mobo: $84

Proc: $322 - whoa, most of the current expense is this

Mem: ??? (since it has on-board GeForce 6150 and will share mem, is 2 gigs enough? A-DATA Vitesta is selling for $155, but I haven't bought memory for so long that I have forgotten what is best.)

Hard drive - already have it.

HDTV tuner card - DVICO FusionHDTV 5 Lite Bundle $99.99. (As Crucial pointed out, ATI admits that the HDTV card works - only for HDTV. You need another analog TV card for non-HDTV. :| )

Still looking at cases...

 

[LeadMagnet]

I am using an old Dell 400SC with a 2GHz Celeron, 512MB ram, WinXP_sp2, and a Hauppauge PVR-150 card ($70 NewEgg).

I am using GB-PVR (free) as my software to capture & stream to several Hauppauge MediaMVP ($39each RadioShack) plugged into the entrtainment systems throught-out the house.