Build a HTPC

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euanandrews

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#18600 16-Jan-2008 01:28

Welcome to the great Home Theatre PC thread.

Here people can discuss the latest and greatest, and their choice of HTPC components and set-ups.

I am building one myself, after much procrastinating, and have already asked many related questions in these forums.
Now I want to bring all this information together into 1 thread, where we can debate and offer suggestions and solutions, in the hope of building the best possible HTPC.

In this thread, I would like to see others post their HTPC set-ups, as well as welcome any suggestions for my HTPC,

I welcome your thoughts/suggestions of my system, or to post your own HTPC system.

***UPDATED CONFIGURATION***

- Case: Silverstone SST-LC16S-MR
- Motherboard: abit IP35 Pro
- CPU: Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 2.4 GHz
- TV Tuner: Hauppauge WinTV-NOVA-T-500 (dual DVB-T tuner)
- Video Card: WinFast PX8500 GT TDH HDMI (Low Profile)
- Hard drive: 2 x Western Digital Caviar GP WD7500AACS, 750GB, 5400rpm, 16384kb cache, sata-2
- PSU: Corsair VX Series, 450W ATX PSU
- Keyboard: Microsoft Media Centre Edition Keyboard (wireless, black, 3 pack)
- OS: Microsoft Windows XP Media Centre with SP2

Of course I am changing all the time as I find better components or configurations, but feel I am getting pretty close now to my final choice.

I am still looking at/researching:

- RAM
- DVD drive
- Fans/air flow (different types, how many required and their placement)
- CPU Heatsink

1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | ... | 8

91 posts

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#105243 16-Jan-2008 17:34

Great setup dude! You will have fun I'm sure of that.
Great case and great GPU for home theatre use, although IMHO not enough power to run Hi-Def games (might not bother you though) 8800GT is nice AND quiet I've heard.
DVI is just as good as HDMI so don't bother with that because you might want to opt with sending digital sound
through your 'coaxial out' (mobo) to your input on your amp. It is a more secure/interference free connection then that used by the poxy HDMi cables out there - they are pretty aweful compared, unless you have hardware that supports HDMI 1.3 which is good (i think)
The standards that were used for coaxial cabling were great so I researched. But do opt for Monster cabling if you do.

Don't settle for mediocre speakers they won't do your 5.1 any favours (i use B&W) the sound is graceful but could make you cry on demanding visual/audio scenes - promise! What are you using?

Spend 10% of your AV equipments worth on cabling as you will benefit from that - this is common knowledge I think.

I prefer to output 5.1 audio through coaxial output on my mobo I just use AC3 software to talk to the SPDIF system and wham I get sweet all the modes for discrete digital surround sound to my amp. Dolby D, DTS, Dolby EX etc.

Please let me know how your got on with the TV card I have not got one as yet as I I do not think its ready yet. IMHO these cards should work out of the box but they don't for Freeview DVB-S & there's numerous posts on dudes messing with Reg Edit and dish moving to get their cards operational. So I'll wait until someone brings out a Vista certified MCE TV card.

phatbloke

91 posts

Master Geek

#105358 17-Jan-2008 11:59

Your specs look along the lines to the HTPC I have just started to build
I have chosen as below:

Case - Silverstone SST-LC16B-MR - Same as yours but black to match my Yamaha Amp
CPU - Intel Core 2 Duo E6700, 2.67GHz
Mobo - Gigabyte GA-P35-DS4 - Mainly chosen for RAID, Optical Audio etc
Graphics - ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT Microstar RX2600XT - Apparently best card to decode DVB-T as it has an onboard decoder plus its all passive cooling
Hard Drive - 4 x Western Digital Caviar 500GB SATA - Gotta have room although I am starting to get worried about the noise
Ram - 2 x 2GB DDR2-800 PC2-6400 SDRAM - I'm planning running resource hungry vista so can't skimp on RAM. Mainly for the codecs available for the 2600XT
DVD - LG GSA-H62L Sata DVD Writer 18X LightScribe -
KB + Mouse Logitech MX 5000 Keyboard and Laser Mouse - Bluetooth so supposedly has good range.

My major comment from reading heaps of forums is the choice of the 2600XT. From what I read so far it cant be beat. The onboard decoding relieves the CPU (even though the 2.6 Duo has more than enough grunt) so multitasking can carry on especially if recording TV and trying to watch another channel or do something else. The Microstar is the only 2600XT so far I have found with no fans. Still there probably are others around.

sbiddle

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Biddle Corp

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#105363 17-Jan-2008 12:16

jbmoocs: Great setup dude! You will have fun I'm sure of that.
Great case and great GPU for home theatre use, although IMHO not enough power to run Hi-Def games (might not bother you though) 8800GT is nice AND quiet I've heard.
DVI is just as good as HDMI so don't bother with that because you might want to opt with sending digital sound
through your 'coaxial out' (mobo) to your input on your amp. It is a more secure/interference free connection then that used by the poxy HDMi cables out there - they are pretty aweful compared, unless you have hardware that supports HDMI 1.3 which is good (i think)
The standards that were used for coaxial cabling were great so I researched. But do opt for Monster cabling if you do.

IMHO anybody who buys Monster Cable has more money than brains. Sure - in some instances good quality cable will make a difference but if you can spot a quality difference between a 1m $10 HDMI cable and a $200 monster cable then you're obviously a legend.

The nVidia 8800 is also terrible for HTPC use because it has no native H.264 onboard. At the present time it's pretty hard to go past an ATI card for HTPC use.

Please let me know how your got on with the TV card I have not got one as yet as I I do not think its ready yet. IMHO these cards should work out of the box but they don't for Freeview DVB-S & there's numerous posts on dudes messing with Reg Edit and dish moving to get their cards operational. So I'll wait until someone brings out a Vista certified MCE TV card.

There are plenty of Vista certified TV cards on the market already. Configuring a dish is simple if you use any of the other TV/PVR applications out there. It's only but XP MCE or Vista MCE that don't have native DVB-S support.

jbmoocs

91 posts

Master Geek

#105376 17-Jan-2008 13:10

sbiddle:
jbmoocs: Great setup dude! You will have fun I'm sure of that.
Great case and great GPU for home theatre use, although IMHO not enough power to run Hi-Def games (might not bother you though) 8800GT is nice AND quiet I've heard.
DVI is just as good as HDMI so don't bother with that because you might want to opt with sending digital sound
through your 'coaxial out' (mobo) to your input on your amp. It is a more secure/interference free connection then that used by the poxy HDMi cables out there - they are pretty aweful compared, unless you have hardware that supports HDMI 1.3 which is good (i think)
The standards that were used for coaxial cabling were great so I researched. But do opt for Monster cabling if you do.

IMHO anybody who buys Monster Cable has more money than brains. Sure - in some instances good quality cable will make a difference but if you can spot a quality difference between a 1m $10 HDMI cable and a $200 monster cable then you're obviously a legend.

The nVidia 8800 is also terrible for HTPC use because it has no native H.264 onboard. At the present time it's pretty hard to go past an ATI card for HTPC use.

Please let me know how your got on with the TV card I have not got one as yet as I I do not think its ready yet. IMHO these cards should work out of the box but they don't for Freeview DVB-S & there's numerous posts on dudes messing with Reg Edit and dish moving to get their cards operational. So I'll wait until someone brings out a Vista certified MCE TV card.

There are plenty of Vista certified TV cards on the market already. Configuring a dish is simple if you use any of the other TV/PVR applications out there. It's only but XP MCE or Vista MCE that don't have native DVB-S support.

Interesting reply

Your First quote. Does bad tools work as good as pro tools because they do the same thing? Why pay RRP anyway I didn't and my stuff looks good and s reliable.

I have used coaxial now for 2 years and never had issues. Good strong connections that are not flimsy like optical my cabling is tight and short hence I use it. Optical is great at longer distance and I like it, its too expensive for the good stuff though. Musically you'd have to come over to my house and 'listen & you will see' haha thanks B&W for that quote!

second quote please research before giving out flippant and false info.
http://global.msi.com.tw/index.php?func=proddesc&prod_no=1343&maincat_no=130 . Hardware Decode Acceleration
Provides ultra-smooth playback of H.264, VC-1, WMV and MPEG-2 HD and SD movies.

I bought vista for its MCE and I just want a PVR that works out of the box for all the freeview stuff. I don't want to use another software to get it working. Vista's one is a nice 1 stop shop. Anyone have a post that they know of that give me solid info on the best hardware available for this platform is a legend

euanandrews

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#105379 17-Jan-2008 13:25

jbmoocs: Great case and great GPU for home theatre use, although IMHO not enough power to run Hi-Def games (might not bother you though) 8800GT is nice AND quiet I've heard.

I am not a gamer so that I do not care about, strictly movies.
And the 8800GT does not fit into my chosen choice of case, the silverstone lc16m.

jbmoocs: DVI is just as good as HDMI so don't bother with that because you might want to opt with sending digital sound
through your 'coaxial out' (mobo) to your input on your amp. It is a more secure/interference free connection then that used by the poxy HDMi cables out there - they are pretty aweful compared, unless you have hardware that supports HDMI 1.3 which is good (i think)

I wanted HDMI (HDCP) to be compatiable with future standards but also more because it uses only 1 cable to connect. I do not want multiple cables running from the back of this unit, such as DVI and SPDIF, but those connections are still there if I require them anyway.

I searched long and hard for a video card that:
- Was silient
- That will fit my case
- That has HDMI
- Has H.264 acceleration
- That output full HD 7.1 channel sound

This card I have chosen meets that criteria, but I am not sure about the last...the specs and desciption on its webpage say 7.1 HD audio but does not go into detail or verify anywhere.

sbiddle

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#105386 17-Jan-2008 13:50

jbmoocs:
Your First quote. Does bad tools work as good as pro tools because they do the same thing? Why pay RRP anyway I didn't and my stuff looks good and s reliable.

I have used coaxial now for 2 years and never had issues. Good strong connections that are not flimsy like optical my cabling is tight and short hence I use it. Optical is great at longer distance and I like it, its too expensive for the good stuff though. Musically you'd have to come over to my house and 'listen & you will see' haha thanks B&W for that quote!

I still don't believe that saying "buy a monster cable" is good advice. I believe in buying quality cable but I challenge anbody to show me differences between video pictures or partake in a blind test using the same amp & speakers between a Monster cable and a cable that costs 1/4 of the price.

second quote please research before giving out flippant and false info.
http://global.msi.com.tw/index.php?func=proddesc&prod_no=1343&maincat_no=130 . Hardware Decode Acceleration
Provides ultra-smooth playback of H.264, VC-1, WMV and MPEG-2 HD and SD movies.

All early 8800's and the low end models don't have the VP2 chipset though and don't do H.264 so in terms of value for money the ATI still offers a significant cost benefit over a 8800 GT or GTS. Most people who are building up HTPC machines aren't using them for gaming.

I bought vista for its MCE and I just want a PVR that works out of the box for all the freeview stuff. I don't want to use another software to get it working. Vista's one is a nice 1 stop shop. Anyone have a post that they know of that give me solid info on the best hardware available for this platform is a legend

Ahh there is a difference between DVB-T and DVB-S support in Vista MCE. DVB-S for Freeview works great now with an appropiate hack to fool the system into using the DVB-T settings. Vista MCE at present has no support for the H.264 used in New Zealand. From what I've heard beta testers should be receiving copies of the new MCE updates (which include support for H.264) within the next month and this is apparently still scheduled for release before the end of the year at this stage.

jbmoocs

91 posts

Master Geek

#105410 17-Jan-2008 16:33

TheBartender:
jbmoocs: Great case and great GPU for home theatre use, although IMHO not enough power to run Hi-Def games (might not bother you though) 8800GT is nice AND quiet I've heard.

I am not a gamer so that I do not care about, strictly movies.
And the 8800GT does not fit into my chosen choice of case, the silverstone lc16m.
jbmoocs: DVI is just as good as HDMI so don't bother with that because you might want to opt with sending digital sound
through your 'coaxial out' (mobo) to your input on your amp. It is a more secure/interference free connection then that used by the poxy HDMi cables out there - they are pretty aweful compared, unless you have hardware that supports HDMI 1.3 which is good (i think)

I wanted HDMI (HDCP) to be compatiable with future standards but also more because it uses only 1 cable to connect. I do not want multiple cables running from the back of this unit, such as DVI and SPDIF, but those connections are still there if I require them anyway.

I searched long and hard for a video card that:
- Was silient
- That will fit my case
- That has HDMI
- Has H.264 acceleration
- That output full HD 7.1 channel sound

This card I have chosen meets that criteria, but I am not sure about the last...the specs and desciption on its webpage say 7.1 HD audio but does not go into detail or verify anywhere.

---------------------------------------------------------------------
HDMI is interesting though sound + vison in one. Why do you need that on your video card? please define this as I am well confused. video cards are only for video right? 7.1 audio to a TV why? I'm Confused? Do you mean you will run HDMi cables from video card to TV and back to your amplifier to decode 7.1? Geez that's tidy?!

Sharesies kids

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lchiu7

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#105412 17-Jan-2008 16:49

jbmoocs: ..
HDMI is interesting though sound + vison in one. Why do you need that on your video card? please define this as I am well confused. video cards are only for video right? 7.1 audio to a TV why? I'm Confused? Do you mean you will run HDMi cables from video card to TV and back to your amplifier to decode 7.1? Geez that's tidy?!

Well I suspect if you want to be able to play HD titles on your PC (either BR or HD-DVD) then you are going to want HDMI for audio since a Toslink connector won't transport hi resolution audio such as Dolby TrueHD, PCM 5.1 or DTS Master HD. Perhaps the new cards can do that?

Staying in Wellington. Check out my AirBnB in the Wellington CBD. https://www.airbnb.co.nz/h/wellycbd PM me and mention GZ to get a 15% discount and no AirBnB charges.

jbmoocs

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Master Geek

#105413 17-Jan-2008 17:06

lchiu7:
jbmoocs: ..
HDMI is interesting though sound + vison in one. Why do you need that on your video card? please define this as I am well confused. video cards are only for video right? 7.1 audio to a TV why? I'm Confused? Do you mean you will run HDMi cables from video card to TV and back to your amplifier to decode 7.1? Geez that's tidy?!

Well I suspect if you want to be able to play HD titles on your PC (either BR or HD-DVD) then you are going to want HDMI for audio since a Toslink connector won't transport hi resolution audio such as Dolby TrueHD, PCM 5.1 or DTS Master HD. Perhaps the new cards can do that?

-----------------------------------------------
arhh HDMI out to HDMI on your amp, I see thanks. Still makes no sense as this is solving the audio part alone.
What new cards?
Still confused as to why HDMI inputs are on an LCD TV, it is not the primary source for decoding sound, hence why do you need sound & vision to your TV? I need a diagram to convince me that I'd need to invest in this money making technology which i have no doubt will not be a standard eg HDMI 1.3 is out already. Bragging rights for geeks i guess.

euanandrews

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#105414 17-Jan-2008 17:09

jbmoocs: HDMI is interesting though sound + vison in one. Why do you need that on your video card? please define this as I am well confused. video cards are only for video right? 7.1 audio to a TV why? I'm Confused? Do you mean you will run HDMi cables from video card to TV and back to your amplifier to decode 7.1? Geez that's tidy?!

I did not care where the HDMI connectivity was located, but a few things came into play that made the decision for me:

1) I am including a dual tuner
Because of this, it is preferable to include a video card to lesson the load on the cpu, a HD video card that does H.264 acceleration...

2) I wanted a HDMI connection
This could have been provided in the mobo, but if I add a video card, it would render this connection useless, so the preference was to find a video card with HDMI built in as opposed to a motherboard with HDMI built in...

It may be a video card, but it does provide an audio connection as well...it not a sound card, just uses/provides a connection to the spdif that is already provided through the HDMI connection.

Cabling will still have a minimum of 2 connections, that the minimum you can have.

Proposed cabling set-up:
- HDMI from HTPC to Amplifier
- HDMI from Amplifier to TV

Alternative set-up (standard)
- DVI from HTPC to TV
- SPDIF from HTPC to Amplifier

richms

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#105421 17-Jan-2008 18:08

jbmoocs:
sbiddle:

IMHO anybody who buys Monster Cable has more money than brains. Sure - in some instances good quality cable will make a difference but if you can spot a quality difference between a 1m $10 HDMI cable and a $200 monster cable then you're obviously a legend.

The nVidia 8800 is also terrible for HTPC use because it has no native H.264 onboard. At the present time it's pretty hard to go past an ATI card for HTPC use.
.

Interesting reply

Your First quote. Does bad tools work as good as pro tools because they do the same thing? Why pay RRP anyway I didn't and my stuff looks good and s reliable.

I have used coaxial now for 2 years and never had issues. Good strong connections that are not flimsy like optical my cabling is tight and short hence I use it. Optical is great at longer distance and I like it, its too expensive for the good stuff though. Musically you'd have to come over to my house and 'listen & you will see' haha thanks B&W for that quote!

Coax is better for long distances then spdif optical since they use a lossy plastic fiber - 10 meters is about all you get without a repeater.

Optical is better for HTPC in my experiance since its immune to ground loops which are always a problem when putting a grounded PC into a home theater where nothing else normaly is.

Also monster is a marketing company, not a technology one, seems you have swallowed their lines totally. Their cables are worse than many other lower priced ones, I beleive they still have a spiral wrapped shield despite all the known problems that gives.

In addition, using a single coax connection to get audio from the PC to the reciever means you are compressing the audio to AC3 to deliver it to the reciever. Analog connections are better, particually if you plan on playing DVD-A on the computer since there is no way to get the higher samplerates losslessly out of the PC thru a single SPDIF connection. HDMI nicely solves that except for the crap all support for it on PC's

Richard rich.ms

Fossie

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#105469 18-Jan-2008 00:24

Monster cables are for the 'Noobs', They see a high price and assume quality.

A low profile Ati x3xxx would be nice.

jbmoocs

91 posts

Master Geek

#105486 18-Jan-2008 10:13

What do you think of these HTPC cases? I think they are very sexy. http://www.itmighty.co.nz/mCube_515.html

jbmoocs

91 posts

Master Geek

#105490 18-Jan-2008 10:47

richms:In addition, using a single coax connection to get audio from the PC to the reciever means you are compressing the audio to AC3 to deliver it to the reciever. Analog connections are better, particually if you plan on playing DVD-A on the computer since there is no way to get the higher samplerates losslessly out of the PC thru a single SPDIF connection. HDMI nicely solves that except for the crap all support for it on PC's

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
True on paper. But I stilll love the sound I get.HDMI is a single cable solution and currently if you want the lossless audio such as Dolby TrueHD soundtrack from your HD DVD disc, a person needs to use six analog RCA cables instead of one HDMI cable so I've read.

richms

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#105597 18-Jan-2008 20:53

My experiance with dolby digital live encoding is that its pretty poor. My nvidia board would redirect all the bass to the LFE channel with the crossover only going down to 40Hz - my later standalone card would only do it at 48kHz and there was no way to get it to pass 44.1kHz PCM unaffected so all my DTS CD rips either came thru as hiss or a really bad DTS->5.1->DD transcode with noticablely worse bass then when played on the dvd player with the compressed bitstream going to the receiver. The lack of disctinction by the people who make PC audio solutions of a LFE channel from a sub out is worrying.

It seems that with HDMI and HD audio all the decoding is done by the PC and 8 uncompressed channels are sent to the reciever to just DSP and amplify which is a cleaner solution. Looping the soundcard spdif back to the video card doesnt achieve that. Mind you, I did have a soundcard once with a din jack with 3 spdif outs, if there was support to take that in on the video card it would be a viable solution but it seems that has gone away now too.

Richard rich.ms

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