Mid-range Budget HTPC

[jasonb]

Hey all, I'm new to the forum. I've been working on my htpc for a while now. I wanted to build a mid-budget system that still did well. I spent money in the areas that I felt really mattered and went low on others to save money. I also wanted to be fairly quiet so I used a slower cpu with a small fan. So here it is with prices and such.

Ahanix D-Vine 5: This case has been great. Plenty of room the setup and install was easy. It has a built in 2x16 VFD and IR sensor (which I will talk about later with my remote) The negative I have about the case is the blue LED on the front. It is too bright and can be distracting.

Plextor slot-load DL DVD-R: the slot-load feature just makes everything look great. I have heard things about the motors going out on these but I have had no such problems.

Hauppauge WinTV PVR 350 Video Recorder, TV/FM Tuner Card: This tuner is pretty versatile and works perfectly with MP. I have had no problems at all. The hauppauge remote also works with no problems however the built in IR with the case did not work at all. I had to run the IR receiver that came with the PVR into an open slot and around behind the window in the case. Not really a huge problem because I was able to hide it all inside the case.

Saphire Radeon 7000: I eventually will end up probably upgrading this card but it works fine for now.

Turtle Beach Riviera 5.1: If you are connecting to an external audio receiver and not running PC speakers, this card is perfect. It has an S/PDIF optical out. What I do is run a cable from there to my other computer which has an E-MU 1820 with S/PDIF inputs(I use the other comp for pro audio recording). I am running KRK V8 Series 2 studio monitors. These speakers are incredible.

ASRock K7S41GX Micro-ATX MOBO with an Athlon 2600+: built in lan, sound(not used), video (also not used). The only problem with micro atx is that I only have 2 PCI slots but I also don't really need any more than that. I am running 512 MB value RAM with no real problems there. I would like to upgrade to 1GB.


This setup is working very well for me. It is a little slow during startup and jumps a little while it is bufferring for recording and such. There is also a slight delay during channel changing. Other than that it runs very smoth once it is up. No problems with TV. The VFD took me a little to get working right but it works great now. I am running Win XP pro. I'll get pictures up here soon hopefully. Right now I am working on a test with Windows Vista public beta to see how MP operates on there. I'll put updates on that when I have something.

[Paranoid Delusion]

jasonb

Pretty balanced midrange system, forget the memory upgrade, just update the Grafix card at some point as that is the one thing which will make a visible improvement, for minimal money.

8)

[gxtracker]

I agree - forget about the memory upgrade for now, focus on getting a Directx9 graphics card and you should be good. The 7000 is really what's holding back your performance in MP right now.

[eric.c.mi]

get a nvidia 6200 for less than $50 american.