Over the last 6 weeks, I have collected the following:
I had intended to go AMD, with the intention of encoding (as well as playback of course), but considering that the only ALC882x AMD MB available in Australia was the DFI LANPARTY UT RDX200 at over AUD $300, I reconsidered, especially as AMD's 940-pin M2 Socket (with DDR2) is 3-6 months away.
The Gigabyte i945 board has ALC882M (Dolby Master Studio with EAX support, etc), coax, optical and analog out (I have a 7.1 Amp). SATA2, GLan, etc is all included.
The only edge the Intel CPU has over AMD is video encoding. Considering the cheapest Dual Core AMD is $500 (3800+ X2), I concluded that the Intel 820 Dual Core 2.8Ghz CPU based solution was the best way to go. Together with the 6600GT 'purevideo' GPU optimisations, I hope to get reasonable .TP (SD & HDTV) to mpeg2, Divx/xvid or WMV9 encoding performance (H.264 is gonna need @ 10Ghz CPU's for real-time :roll: )
I decided on the Samsung HDD's as they are cool, the quietest in the industry (fluid coupled motors), and have very high sustained data transfer rates (even beating out the 10,000 rpm raptors). Seek time ain't the best, but when video reading/writing, who cares? The 250Gb versions are quicker (higher data density per platter), but at $120(ex) for 200Gb who's gonna argue ? :mrgreen:
The 6600GT card is supposed to have an external TDMS capable of 1080i @165Mhz, with VIVO (S-Video). A second VIVO S-video port is available on the Ultraview DVB-T card.
This Intel/Mb combo has cost $453.70
The 3800+ x2 CPU / Mb Combo would have cost me well over $830.00, and would soon have been redundant due to M2 (devalued at least).
Has anybody built anything remotely like the above? Any comments, advise or suggestions (This is my first attempt at a HTPC)? This is not meant for gaming (response times on large HDTV are not very good anyway), and I have an AMD64 6800GT beast with a Philips 22" screen for gaming already. It is meant for HTPC only, permanently connected to 7.1 Amp and TV :?:
- Silverstone LC03V - Ebay - Delivered $170.00
Ultraview DVB-T Plus HDTV PC Tuner Card w/ Remote Dvico
Ebay Delivered $97.00
DELUX 500W Silent Power Supply - Ebay Delivered $55.00
GA-8I945P-G, PCIe/DDR2/SATA2/Glan/8ch-S - EYO Delivered $161.70
6600GT 128MB VIVO HDTV PCI-E - Ebay delivered $219.00
HDD 200Gb SAMSUNG SPINPOINT SATAII $132(inc) x 2
TODAYTECH = $264.00
LG 4167B DVD+/-RW DL - TODAYTECH = $57.20(inc)
Mem (1 Gb) PQI DDR2 533MHZ - EBAY DELIVERED $90.10
CPU Intel 820 Dual Core
EBAY USA (USD$162.50 + 35P&H) + FEES = AUD $293
Big Typhoon (inc delivery) $72.00
I had intended to go AMD, with the intention of encoding (as well as playback of course), but considering that the only ALC882x AMD MB available in Australia was the DFI LANPARTY UT RDX200 at over AUD $300, I reconsidered, especially as AMD's 940-pin M2 Socket (with DDR2) is 3-6 months away.
The Gigabyte i945 board has ALC882M (Dolby Master Studio with EAX support, etc), coax, optical and analog out (I have a 7.1 Amp). SATA2, GLan, etc is all included.
The only edge the Intel CPU has over AMD is video encoding. Considering the cheapest Dual Core AMD is $500 (3800+ X2), I concluded that the Intel 820 Dual Core 2.8Ghz CPU based solution was the best way to go. Together with the 6600GT 'purevideo' GPU optimisations, I hope to get reasonable .TP (SD & HDTV) to mpeg2, Divx/xvid or WMV9 encoding performance (H.264 is gonna need @ 10Ghz CPU's for real-time :roll: )
I decided on the Samsung HDD's as they are cool, the quietest in the industry (fluid coupled motors), and have very high sustained data transfer rates (even beating out the 10,000 rpm raptors). Seek time ain't the best, but when video reading/writing, who cares? The 250Gb versions are quicker (higher data density per platter), but at $120(ex) for 200Gb who's gonna argue ? :mrgreen:
The 6600GT card is supposed to have an external TDMS capable of 1080i @165Mhz, with VIVO (S-Video). A second VIVO S-video port is available on the Ultraview DVB-T card.
This Intel/Mb combo has cost $453.70
The 3800+ x2 CPU / Mb Combo would have cost me well over $830.00, and would soon have been redundant due to M2 (devalued at least).
Has anybody built anything remotely like the above? Any comments, advise or suggestions (This is my first attempt at a HTPC)? This is not meant for gaming (response times on large HDTV are not very good anyway), and I have an AMD64 6800GT beast with a Philips 22" screen for gaming already. It is meant for HTPC only, permanently connected to 7.1 Amp and TV :?:
