allanweinman,

I got the pioneer 112 in silver. I think NEC and someone else made one in silver.

Hi guys.
I plan to build a Gaming HTPC sometime in January and February when I get my TV and when soem of the parts become cheaper and faster.
I never built a HTPC before so i'm not fully sure where to start.
I'd like to keep my budget under or around $1000.
I plan to use the HTPC for
-Gaming
-Internet
-Office documents
-Movies
-As a DVD player
-Stereo ( or w.e you call it)
-Music
-Recording programs

I haven't decided on whether to get a Intel CPU or Athlon CPU. Will someone kindly tell me the pros and cons for each one for my situation? I dont really plan to overclock. Same for ATI or Nvidia. I was planning on getting a Nvidia but i recently heard ATI is better for HTPC. Something to do with sound output. :/

At the moment, I have chosen
-Nvidia 8800 with 320mb 1.7ghz
-2GB of cheap ram
-Reusing my old audigy zs 2 sound card
-Case Nmedia HTPC-100BA
-wifi card

The case I have right now is pretty nice and cheap. I'm open to options to a better one if you guys recommend me one.

Also what cables will I need?
My TV is most likely going to have a HDMI input and my GPU will have a DVI.

Q: thanks I will take a look.

Though now I have another problem, I just realized that the Antec 2400 case might be too tight a fit for my entertainment unit. The case is 17.5" wide, and my entertainment unit is 18" inches.

I noticed there are large fans on the right side of the case, so it probably needs more then 1/2" of space.

I guess I could go with the Antec minuet 300. It only comes with a 300 watt power supply, but then again, I will not be adding any cards. It is much smaller.

Or I could go with the Antec NSK1300 MICROATX, it also is only 300 watts, but at least it has room to add regular full height cards, if I ever want to in the future, and I think the minuet only allows half height.

Any thought on a good case that will fit in a wall unit, in the Antec 2400 price range?

Thanks,
Allan

Rxq,

I'll let others make suggestions but I see you are considering a wifi card.

My HTPC was wired to my router but when I moved to a new house, I didn't have the luxury. I have a D-link DI-534 wireless G router so I tried a wireless G usb adaptor; the kind that looks like a flash drive. Performance was poor so I added an extension to move it away from the PC and that didn't work either. I then tried a PCI card made by D-link and it was marginally better. I could surf and download slowly but I could not stream a movie from my other PC or my network drive. This is what I primarily do with my HTPC.

I'm waiting for the wireless N products to drop a bit in price and then try one of those. I expect it should do much better from what I've been reading.

In the end, if you have the option to wire the PC directly to the router, that is the best way to go.

In my case, the signal had to go diagonally about 4 walls and floor so I'm sure that contributes to the problem. Fortunately my HP laptop has no issues connecting wirelessly so I guess it has a really good wireless card inside.


Congo

i dont have the luxury of a wired system.

Any other suggestions on the other parts?

Honestly, I'd say come bakc and ask again in January. COmputer hardware moves very fast. By January, AMD will have a new line of CPUs, Intel will have faster clocks, and both Nvidia and ATI will have updates to their DX10 line up

Well I'd like to get an idea of what i would be getting.
Also i might probably get CPUS that are out now in January just because its cheaper, unless something comes out thats cheap and good.

Well how about the TV tuners? They dont change that fast, do they? What Tuner should I get?
I plan to use HD cable btw.

By January, I would look at Nvidia's new 8800GT card, or whatever upgrade is made to it. It should have the features of the newer 8400/8600 cards, and the horsepower to run games too.

CPU wise, I would pick any mid-range dual-core CPU that is under 200$. Look for the low TDP or energy efficient variants from either Intel or AMD. The new Phenom processors will be out for AMD, but a good Athlon X2 should be fine also.

I would look at Nvidia's new 8800GT card,

This is probably one of the best developments in video cards in a VERY long time. I have just finished reading multiple reviews of the 8800GT and it looks like it will be THE card to get for just about any use. The only real concern I will have is what the noise level from the cooling will be.

CPU wise, I would pick any mid-range dual-core CPU that is under 200$.

If one is to have an 8800GT in their system (or any respectable discrete video card), the need for a mid to high end dual core CPU greatly diminishes and you can "cheap out" and go with a ~$100 CPU.

Sparkle has a passively-cooled 8800GT variant out. It's totally silent, but it does run a little hot. If you go to some of the popular hardware sites, you'll find reviews of it.

I have a passively-cooled 8600GT from Gigabyte that I plan to move to my DVR. Although it's not a stellar performer for gaming, it's fine for DVR use, runs very cool and quiet and it has full h.264 hardware-accelerated playback for BluRay or HD-DVD (like the 8800GT, but unlike the older 8800's).

I have a passively-cooled 8600GT from Gigabyte that I plan to move to my DVR.

So you have one of those nice black heatsinked units!!!

How is it overall? I am looking into getting one for the next iteration of my main SageTV server and the price is just sweet at about $125 from most places.

Really, from all that I have read (Performance, image quality, upscaling, etc...), the 8600GT is the very best card for the money on an HTPC.

Well how about the TV tuners? They dont change that fast, do they? What Tuner should I get?
I plan to use HD cable btw.


HD Capture cards for cable don't really exist yet (not in the sub $5000 range anyway)
if your STB has firewire output, you might have the ability to capture that way (google up firestb)

HD Capture cards for cable don't really exist yetRxq and Tikker:

HD-capable digital cable capture cards (ATSC/QAM tuners) have been available for quite some time. The problem is that Canadian cable companies do not provide Clear QAM signals, so they won't work up here. See this DHC FAQ: http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/showthread.php?t=32271

They do however work for Digital OTA if you live in a suitable area:

There's a huge difference between an ATSC tuner, and a HD capture card

there are no equivalent yet to the analogue capture cards (hauppage pvr 150, nvidia NVTV, etc) for the HD cable/satellite source

Tikker, welcome here btw, but I think you are confusing two things. Cards that capture HD off of either component, DVI, or HDMI inputs are extremely expensive but you have to find them at sites that cater to video production professionals.

That's not what the original poster was asking for - he said "tuner".

Almost all of the ATSC tuner cards on the market now definitely are able to capture and save the HD signals, with some letting us save them in uncompressed .TS (transport stream) format rather than in mpeg2. :)

So you have one of those nice black heatsinked units!!!

How is it overall? I am looking into getting one for the next iteration of my main SageTV server and the price is just sweet at about $125 from most places.

Really, from all that I have read (Performance, image quality, upscaling, etc...), the 8600GT is the very best card for the money on an HTPC.
Yeah, it's the Gigabyte (GV-NX86T256D). It's great so far. I have it in a case with 3 slow-moving fans (an Antec P182), and it never seems to get too hot. Like I said, it's not spectacular for gaming, but it should be perfect for HTPC use.

I haven't tried the h.264 decoding on the 8600GT yet, although I'm really tempted to get that LG Blu-Ray/HDDVD combo drive -- dual format HD for less than 300 bones, can't beat that.

Well it's been quite a while since I've built a new PC, but on Christmas Eve, thanks partially to my brother in law, and Boxing Day sales, I decided to splurge and build myself a new (HT)PC.

Now I've pretty much got all the components bought, except for the HDD, which is minor, and the case (very important), which is why I'm here.

The following items will be going into the HTPC:

Asus Maximus Formula motherboard
HIS IceQ3 Radeon HD3850 Turbo (2 slot cooling solution)
Intel Q6600 2.4GHz Quad Core processor
OCZ GameXStream 700W PSU
OCZ DDR2 PC2-6400 800MHz Platinum Edition 4GB (2x2GB)
LG GGC-H20L Combo BluRay and HD DVD drive
WDC WD5000AAKS (most likely purchase)

Running Vista Ultimate 64 Bit edition.

Now I would appreciate some recommendations on a case that's not too large that will fit the above components, and have room for possible expansion to crossfire down the road. Of course one of the most important aspects will be noise since this will be used for mostly movie watching (can retire the PS3 and 360 for BD/HD viewing), but I don't want to compromise cooling either as overclocking may eventually be a part of this system.

I was looking at maybe the LC17 Lascala from Silverstone, or maybe an NZXT Duet, but considering this is my first HTPC build ever, I really don't know who makes good HT cases.

Any tips would be greatly appreciated, thanks!

Seems like an awful lot of horsepower for just watching movies. Are you also planning on gaming with it?

In general the Silverstone stuff is pretty good but if you can go microATX I would look at the GD02.

One thing to make sure of is that you check the depth of the case.

Is anyone considering using the Asus M2A-VM-HDMI mobo ?
it has built in audio/video/hdmi and is hdcp compliant...

I already bought the GGCH20L last week and am now planning to assemble a HTPC that will not put me into the 1K$ range...

Right now the setup I'm considering :
ASUS M2A-VM-HDMI
AMD A64 X2 5400+ cpu
2Gb (Dual 1Gb DDR2 800Mhz)
500Gb SATA HDD
LG GGCH20L BLURAY and HDDVD drive
AverTV MCE A180 hdtv ota tuner
...the case is still up in the air... I am looking for a 17inch wide (audio component look-alike that will mesh well with the rest of my equipment)
I have a problem paying over $200 for case and power supply, when the mobo is barely costing $120...

My fav from Silverstone on cost and capacity is the LC-17.

For mATX, I like the NSK2400 from Antec. I have one for one of my setups and it is very nice.