Ongoing Highend HTPC - request for comments (1 Viewer)

[lexx_kun]

I'm looking for comments & money-saving advice on my proposed HTPC build. Once I finalize the hardware selection I'll be ordering it at the end of the month.

Silverstone SST-LC16B-M $269
Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3L $99
POWERCOLOR 26XT512M/D3HDMI Radeon HD 2600XT 512MB $129
Xion Supernova 600W modular psu $119
Intel Core 2 Duo E6750 Conroe 2.66GHz $189
Kingston 2GB (2 x 1GB) DDR2 800 $49.99
2x WD 750GB SATA HDDs $309
LG dual format HD-DVD / Bluray reader & DVD-RW $299



Some rationale:

-that's one hella expensive case, and cramped as hell, but it has IR, fits 6 drives (2 new WDs, an existing 750GB WD I have, and a Seagate 500GB I have, with room for future expansion, and has cooling where I need it (drives, cpu).
-the 2600XT is a lock given its video decoding abilities, and this one's short enough to fit in the case (170mm I believe, limit's 200mm)
-2GB should be enough. I'll be running XP on this box with only 3 apps: media portal, utorrent, and remote desktop server. Media portal will use the retail hd/bluray player software's decoders to enable video processing to be offloaded to the vidcard
-I hardly need a quadcore to play back HD content, so a 2.66 dualcore ought to be enough
-are there any "skinny" micro-atx mainboards I can get to more easily fit the cramped confines of this case? It's not length that's the problem - it's width.
-the Xion power supply is modular which will help somewhat (since there will be NO space to dump extra cabling)

What do you guys think?

Also I need advice on:
-what soundcard to use (or to use one?)
-whether to use the onboard AC3 on the radeon vidcard (over hdmi)
-i need to know if there's a way i can do DTS5.1 realtime encoding of all media playback sources to send over the radeon HDMI link or soundcard link
-whether a RAID controller is a good idea

Incidentally, the audio/video output is going to a Panasonic 42" 1080p plasma and one of those sound "bars". Yes I know not exactly audio nirvana but apartment conditions dictate size of audio system

 

[ghanz]

Seems like a decent setup. I'm also waiting for newer soundcards with a hdmi output. For now I'm using the P35 DS4 which has the alc889a realtek audio chip. This incorperates a dts connect function which works very well. 1 advantage the 2600 card has, is that you can pin the spdif or hdmi audio over dvi converter to hdmi. If you have a reciever capable to decode dts over hdmi then there should be no problem. So eventhough it's hard to find in north america I would advise a P35-DS4. Then wait for new generation soundcards with direct HDMI1.3 output. The alc889a chip decodes everything to dts5.1.

Raid you can use i'm running q6600 with samsung spinpoint and I really don''t need raid

Look at Ahanix mce701 case!

Ghanz

 

[SiLenTYL]

i have an amp that does SPDIF PASSTHRU only..so the HDMI 1.3 cards wouldnt help me any

what exactly does HDMI 1.3 allow in terms of audio ?

 

[SwingSultan]

a radeon 2400pro has afaik equal video processing features and you would have about 20w less heat in your case. you could also take a smaller psu. im running an overclocked e4300 and a gf8800gts 320 (also overclocked) with a seasonic s12 380w. seasonic also builds excellent and silent psus. since my gaming pc is watercooled i can tell the difference the m12 series has a modular cable management. if you are looking for silent fans i recommend noctua (its a austrian company so i dont know if they are avidable in canada) or the all time favourite ebm papst. otherwise your config looks pretty good.

 

[ghanz]

HDMI 1.3 allows for 7.1 channel lossless full rate audio stream. Current spdif standard / protocol is limited by a (don't know number exactly) 500 kbp/s or so for each channel. The new standards Dolby True HD and HD AUDIO / DTS HD need more bandwith (1400 or so kbps each channel or more?). The 'codec' AC3 is physically not able to handle this. HDMI and only 1.3 is able to handle this. The ATI video cards have a header for passthru of audio in the hdmi cable (via DVI converter). If you use ac3 / spdif audio in this hdmi cable, your reciever must be able to 'see' that signal in the hdmi input.

 

[bigflause]

I wouldn't bother with a hd dual format drive save yourself 150 bucks and just get a bluray one. bluray has already won the format war.

 

[Beechus]

It could be that he has a collection of HD-DVDs, there are exclusives out there i'm going with the exact same drive, simply because i have 20 HD-DVDs in my collection, not worth selling them, but at the same time you can pick up some cheap HD-DVDs