Ultimate HTPC - components suggestions

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derekcreed

4 posts

Wannabe Geek

#56648 20-Jan-2010 03:19

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Hi,

I am planning to build the Ultimate HTPC/Storage workstation which will be running almost 24/7 and placed in the living room. Objective of the machine:

Case, Motherboard, Processor, and Liquid cooling system:

I do appreciate helping me out picking the right case, motherboard and proper liquid cooling component to for the processor, video card, N bridge… etc.

Case: Must be specious enough to fit power supply, cooling component and motherboard including all the cards and easily access all mentioned in case of maintenance required

MOBO: must have enough slots and space for cooling equipment and the rest of the cards that’s installed on it.

Processor and RAMs: we’ll decide on that once we pick a Mobo

Power Supply: Athena Power AP-RRP4ATX65 658W + 658W mini redundant Dual AC Hot-Swappable mini redundant Power Supply - OEM

Network:

- Bluetooth Network

- Support of Infrared

PCI Card vs. USB? Suggestions appreciated?

TV Tuner:

Current Setup: Satellite dish with 3LNBs (1 LNB per satellite) signal from all LNBs then funnel into one cable which is connected to Humax IcordHD receiver

TV Tuner requirements:

- Play HD TV

- Being able to records other channels from different stateliest while watching a channel.

WinTV-NOVA-HD-S2?

WinTV-HVR-1600?

WinTV-HVR-2250?

ATI All-in-Wonder™ HD?

Video card:

- HDMI Support

- Memory suitable for a moderate gamer

If not included as part of the Motherboard, is the Geforce 9400GT sufficient to run 24/7?

Sound:

- Current system is 5.1 channels

If not included as part of the Motherboard, PCI Express® Sound Blaster® X-Fi™ Xtreme Audio is good enough?

Hard Drive:

- 1TB (Count 2): Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 ST31000340AS 1TB 7200 RPM 32MB

CD Drive:

- DVDRW/Blue Ray: Pioneer Black Blu-ray Disc/DVD/CD Writer SATA Model BDR-205BKS - OEM

Universal Card Reader

SABRENT CRW-UINB 68-in-1 USB 2.0 Internal Card Reader w/ USB 2.0 Port supports SDHC/VISTA

Remote Control:

Universal Remote Control (will I be able to wakeup window vista/windows 7 via the remote?)

Logitech?

Wireless Keyboard and mouse

Bluetooth: diNovo Edge

Thanks

Mattv

242 posts

Master Geek

#291380 20-Jan-2010 09:12

If I was building new at the moment I would start by looking at a new Intel DH55HC motherboard (ATX) with a Core i5 processor - will do HD video and audio. See this article on Missing Remote for more info.

Lenovo

Shop now for Lenovo laptops and other devices (affiliate link).

Deev8

481 posts

Ultimate Geek

#291406 20-Jan-2010 10:36

If I were building "the Ultimate HTPC" I would certainly want a lot of disc onboard (or as Network Attached Storage) - so I would be looking at a RAID disk array. I would also want a significant number of tuners installed to allow simultaneous recording of multiple programs (definitely more than two). I would certainly want to be connected to a UHF aerial, to get Freeview|HD.

It's likely that my Ultimate HTPC would need quite a bit of cooling and generate more noise than I want in the background while watching TV, and it would also be a bit bulky - so it would be installed elsewhere in the house. Viewing would be via a smaller quieter client PC (or possibly media extender) installed close to the TV connected over gigabit ethernet.

Mattv

242 posts

Master Geek

#291474 20-Jan-2010 13:07

For tuners I would love to go for 2 of these (total of 4 DVB-T and 4 DVB-S(2) if they ever become a reality...

Nety

2584 posts

Uber Geek

Retired Mod

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#291508 20-Jan-2010 14:07

derekcreed:[snip]
Video card:

- HDMI Support

- Memory suitable for a moderate gamer

If not included as part of the Motherboard, is the Geforce 9400GT sufficient to run 24/7?

Sound:

- Current system is 5.1 channels

If not included as part of the Motherboard, PCI Express® Sound Blaster® X-Fi™ Xtreme Audio is good enough?

[snip]

Remote Control:

Universal Remote Control (will I be able to wakeup window vista/windows 7 via the remote?)

Logitech?

Wireless Keyboard and mouse

Bluetooth: diNovo Edge

9400GT is not going to do games for you. Need to go higher end.

Sound just use onboard. I sold my Soundblaster after fighting with it for a couple of years. Creative just do not seem to be able to get 5.1/7.1 working correctly. On the other hand the onboard Realtek has just worked. I did go for a Mobo with the better chipset that can do uncompressed analoge out in case the bluray software I use supports it at some stage.

I have two logitech remotes and swear by them. I bit to get them setup exactly how you want but once there they are great.

Keyboard/mouse, how about this one. A lot less then the diNovo Edge and you are already installing bluetooth so you dont need to add that.

http://www.logitech.com/index.cfm/gaming/mice_keyboard_combos/devices/3616&cl=us,en

Media centre PC - Case Silverstone LC16M with 2 X 80mm AcoustiFan DustPROOF, MOBO Gigabyte MA785GT-UD3H, CPU AMD X2 240 under volted, RAM 4 Gig DDR3 1033, HDD 120Gig System/512Gig data, Tuners 2 X Hauppauge HVR-3000, 1 X HVR-2200, Video Palit GT 220, Sound Realtek 886A HD (onboard), Optical LiteOn DH-401S Blue-ray using TotalMedia Theatre Power Corsair VX Series, 450W ATX PSU OS Windows 7 x64

derekcreed

4 posts

Wannabe Geek

#291683 21-Jan-2010 00:49

Thanks for the feedback Mattv, Deev8 and Nety.

Motherboard:
I am having hell of a time picking a motherboard; in order to have the ability to install a blue-tooth network card (any recommendation? PCI vs USB?), Infra-red Receiver (any suggestions?), 2 TV Tuners... etc. both video and sound must be built in on board. any recommendations for motherboard?

TV Tuner:
Alot of people have been anticipating release of the Ceton CableCard Multi tuner. It will be released for sale sometime end of March start of April. It will cost $399 and will be able to tune 4 HD channels and W7 does endorse it. What do you guys think?

PS. Planned budge for this project max 3,000 USD; which should give me the flexibility to built a system which will last me for few years.

thanks again for your help,
Derek

Deev8

481 posts

Ultimate Geek

#291717 21-Jan-2010 08:54

derekcreed: TV Tuner:
Alot of people have been anticipating release of the Ceton CableCard Multi tuner. It will be released for sale sometime end of March start of April. It will cost $399 and will be able to tune 4 HD channels and W7 does endorse it. What do you guys think?

I see from your profile that you are currently located in Kuwait - and that will affect the choice of TV tuner cards. Most of us won't have any idea about whats available in Kuwait in terms of broadcasts via satellite, terrestrial or cable.

derekcreed

4 posts

Wannabe Geek

#291990 21-Jan-2010 18:18

Deev8:
derekcreed: TV Tuner:
Alot of people have been anticipating release of the Ceton CableCard Multi tuner. It will be released for sale sometime end of March start of April. It will cost $399 and will be able to tune 4 HD channels and W7 does endorse it. What do you guys think?

I see from your profile that you are currently located in Kuwait - and that will affect the choice of TV tuner cards. Most of us won't have any idea about whats available in Kuwait in terms of broadcasts via satellite, terrestrial or cable.

Thanks for your response Deev8, yes currently i am working in kuwait and have access to Eurosat, Nilesat and Arabsat via my own sattliet dish.

Thanks.

derekcreed

4 posts

Wannabe Geek

#292029 21-Jan-2010 21:36

Hi again, as i am still in the process of research here is what i have in mind so far:

MotherBoard: (please help me pick one from below)
ASUS P5N7A-VM
ASUS M4A78-HTPC/RC
Asus P6t SE

Gigabyte:
GA-MA790GPT-UD3H(rev. 1.0)
GA-H55-UD3H (rev. 1.0)

VGA (Please help pick one from below)
GeForce GTX 295
GeForce 9800 GX2
Sapphire Radeon HD 5870 Video Card

Bluetooth network: please help finding the best solution

Power Supply:
CORSAIR CMPSU-750HX 750W PSU

Memory
G.SKILL Ripjaws 4GB DDR3 1600

Hard Drive:
Western Digital RE3 WD1002FBYS 1TB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive (count: 1)
SAMSUNG Spinpoint F3EG HD203WI 2TB SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive (count: 2)

Wireless Keyboard and mouse
Bluetooth: diNovo Edge

Once i deiced on the Mobo, VGA, and blue tooth. I'll pick a TV tuner based on available slots on MOBO. the following step to that is agree on the cooling method and then i'll be able to pick a case.

your feed back is appreicated.