My First HTPC

Lukky · 2008-02-24, 02:58

I have been thinking about building an HTPC for about two years now. I installed a Projector with a 120 inch screen and put a flat pannel LCD on the wall. Now I finally have a little extra money to order a cheap HTPC and this is what I ordered. All of it is from Tiger Direct.

PCChips A13G+ v3.0 Motherboard - NVIDIA GeForce 6100, Socket AM2

AMD Athlon 64 3500+ 2.20GHz OEM Processor

Ultra LS350 Lifetime Series 350W Power Supply - ATX, SATA-Ready, PCI-Express

Western Digital Caviar SE16 500GB Hard Drive - 7200, 16MB, SATA-300, OEM

2 x 1 gig Crucial 1024MB PC4200 DDR2 533MHz Memory

Diablotek Radeon X700se Video Card - 256MB DDR2, PCI Express, DVI, VGA, TV Out, Video Card

I ordered all of this before I found out about Media Portal. Am I going to have problems with the video card. I have not ordered a tv card yet. IF I decide to get one I will get one compatable with Media Portal.

Thanks Dustin

ghanz · 2008-03-05, 07:38

I really don't know if the X700 is up for the job. If I had to guess I think you will run into some limitations watching HD with this setup. However you might be able to pull through with the CPU. Are you planning on running XP64? Because this setup for vista and watching HD (1080p) will be a little to light. The x700 is not capable of directX10 anyways.

Lukky · 2008-03-05, 18:23

I am not planning on running HD through the system. This is mainly for Videos. I have it built and it seems to work pretty well. I am still loading software and transfering all of my files so I have not used it in the real world yet.

Thanks Dustin

kingnubian · 2008-03-19, 05:27

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lukky

I am not planning on running HD through the system. This is mainly for Videos. I have it built and it seems to work pretty well. I am still loading software and transfering all of my files so I have not used it in the real world yet.

Thanks Dustin

If you plan on viewing 1080i or 1080p h.264 or VC-1 HD streams this system may not be able to cope as it is now. The addition of a $50 AMD/ATI HD3470 PCIe video card will go a long way in offloading from the cpu the very intensive task of HD video decoding in particular with these two very popular formats.

2008-02-24, 02:58	#1 (permalink)
Lukky Portal Member Join Date: Feb 2008 Posts: 20 Thanks: 1 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts Country:	My First HTPC I have been thinking about building an HTPC for about two years now. I installed a Projector with a 120 inch screen and put a flat pannel LCD on the wall. Now I finally have a little extra money to order a cheap HTPC and this is what I ordered. All of it is from Tiger Direct. PCChips A13G+ v3.0 Motherboard - NVIDIA GeForce 6100, Socket AM2 AMD Athlon 64 3500+ 2.20GHz OEM Processor Ultra LS350 Lifetime Series 350W Power Supply - ATX, SATA-Ready, PCI-Express Western Digital Caviar SE16 500GB Hard Drive - 7200, 16MB, SATA-300, OEM 2 x 1 gig Crucial 1024MB PC4200 DDR2 533MHz Memory Diablotek Radeon X700se Video Card - 256MB DDR2, PCI Express, DVI, VGA, TV Out, Video Card I ordered all of this before I found out about Media Portal. Am I going to have problems with the video card. I have not ordered a tv card yet. IF I decide to get one I will get one compatable with Media Portal. Thanks Dustin

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2008-03-05, 07:38	#2 (permalink)
ghanz Portal Member Join Date: Sep 2007 Location: Ouderkerk Age: 35 Posts: 64 Thanks: 8 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts Country: My System	I really don't know if the X700 is up for the job. If I had to guess I think you will run into some limitations watching HD with this setup. However you might be able to pull through with the CPU. Are you planning on running XP64? Because this setup for vista and watching HD (1080p) will be a little to light. The x700 is not capable of directX10 anyways.

2008-03-05, 18:23	#3 (permalink)
Lukky Portal Member Join Date: Feb 2008 Posts: 20 Thanks: 1 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts Country:	I am not planning on running HD through the system. This is mainly for Videos. I have it built and it seems to work pretty well. I am still loading software and transfering all of my files so I have not used it in the real world yet. Thanks Dustin