HTPC Build advice (2 Viewers)

[rogerjet]

Hi,

I have done a fair bit of reading but I am still unclear on some points

I would like some advice for my HTPC build.

Requirements:

• Watch & record HD 1080p tv
• Play DVD, Bluray, Divx, mpg, Audio CD, Mp3
• HDMI connectivity to TV and in short term S-video
• Burn DVD
• Some video editing / encoding
• Connnect to sound system via SPDIF current amp is 5.1

Build:

1. Case T/take DH101 or Antec Fusion tossing up between the 2. not sure if the mATX will limit me.
2. MB really need some advice here not sure whether to go AMD or Intel
3. CPU again AMD or intel
4. Cooling opinions needed
5. Ram 4gig kit ddr2 800
6. HDD 0S I have a few 100g lying around though I may use one
7. HDD Media WD10EADS 1TB
8. GPU on board or other really need suggestions here
9. Optical drive DVD r/rw + play Blu ray I think the LG as I always for some reason have trouble with pioneer
10. PSU Antec Neopower 430W
11. TV Tuner Hauppauge 2200
12. Network I have some parts lying around for wifi or may run cable back to other room. Wont be streaming for now just for internet and downloading.
13. OS would like to run Media Portal. I have XP pro, but will Vista 64 bit improve performance. Willing to purchase if benifit is there.

Notes:

I have not purchased my HDTV yet so I need s-video in the short term. So I really need something to give me that output.

Feel free to add anything I may have missed.

Thanks in advance for help and suggestions.

 

[FantaXP7]

Newegg.com - GIGABYTE GA-E7AUM-DS2H LGA 775 NVIDIA GeForce 9400 HDMI Micro ATX Intel Motherboard - Intel Motherboards

That is my pick for mobo/video card. I have built quite a few computers and have been compiling pieces for a htpc to be built sometime this summer. I would get this motherboard because it is more than capable of displaying 1080p and blu ray very well with its integrated geforce 9400. Built in multichannel audio that is supposively capable of sending a down sampled 7.1 dolby true hd signal. Also good to have built in vid card because it will help reduce noise and create better air flow.

There are many other good micro atx mobos out there with built in hdmi, but I figured to go with an nvidia graphics one would be better. There are asus boards with the 9300 card, but I've read some reviews about hot north bridges.

 

[drealit]

I honestly would get a very budget minded board (GA-MA74GM-S2 is only $50) and drop in a discrete card. The current IGP's don't offer enough (IMO) on both the HD and SD front. Most of the IGP's are great at handling HD material, some can do 24p, some can passthrough 7.1 channels etc... but NONE of them are up to snuff in terms of SD material. They are all lacking when it comes to post processing etc. (interlacing is finally almost under control but it is still no where near good enough). I had/have a 780G (Gigabyte) currently and am trading it out for the cheap 740G I mentioned above... why? Because I'm dropping in a Sapphire HD 4670 video card... why? Because currently it is one of the best rated devices for all the HTPC fronts, HD (including 24p etc.), SD (interlacing is very good, post processing is as good as or better than the rest), Audio is all there. The card I chose has a built in HDMI output that does both Video/Audio so that I don't need to use one of those special DVI/HDMI convertors... but it has a rather large fan on it. This is good because it stays very cool and is extremely quiet... the problem though is that it sacrifices one of my PCI slots... but I don't think I will be using it anyway!

I was going to go the 9400 route as suggested above... but after a lot of research and chit chatting over at AVS I decided the discrete route was definitely the best way for me to go.

Here is an amazing article that backs up most of my findings - High-Definition PC Experience: Graphics Cards vs. High-Definition Video Playback - X-bit labs it rates each of the chipsets (both ATI and Nvidia) and scores them in both HD and SD tests and analyzes the audio capabilities. It really gives you a nice mathematical run down and puts everything right in front of you so you can make a good educated decision. As I said it was important for me to not only have good HD playback (which most chipsets handle very well now) but also the SD front should be close to perfect.

Because I chose to go the discrete route... I was able to cheap out on my motherboard and cpu and save a lot of money for close to the best HTPC performance I could by. My videocard cost me $70 the motherboard was $45 and my CPU (BE-2400) was only $25 when I bought it... that's $140 for BETTER performance than the 9400 based chipset (excluding the raw power of the e5200 CPU which I don't need for my HTPC since that's all it is) and costs a heck of a lot less (9400 motherboard is $130? CPU is like $70 I think). There's a lot for you to decide and I wish you the best of luck! I am very happy with my setup.... I can tell you that much!

P.S. - If you want more power for your encoding etc (which I think you do)... you can drop in a beefy AMD Phenom 9600 Quad Core CPU (it's only $85 right now at Newegg). It's only 95W's considering it's power and encodes as quickly as my E8400 when I had it overclocked to 3.6Ghz (it's at 4ghz now and I haven't encoded anything with it). I have one of these CPU's currently in my Server 2008 computer and I use it for torrenting, encoding, SQL hosting etc.

 

[FantaXP7]

Wow, excellent suggestions and that article is great! I had been searching for something like that for awhile now. Most how to's and htpc analysis articles on the web are dated.

I was not aware about the standard definition processing. I am now planning to go the route that you have chosen, although probably go with the ati 4550 because I was able to find it in a low profile and the case I want is slim.

Another selling point for me is that I can easily upgrade the video card. I am anxiously awaiting for the day that these video card support full Dolby True HD and DTS Master Audio. I know about the Asus Xonar, but I've read those are a pain.

 

[etheesdad]

i found that MP ran slower in Vista x64 than in xp 32. For me it had really bad startup times. (my htpc is xp, but I have a client thats x64 vista and it takes forever for MP to load)

 

[Undel]

About 780G chipset - I completely disagree. My Gigabyte GA-MA78GPM-DS2H(with 128mb SidePort memory) does job just fine. Of course, if HD content is encoded badly, IGP sometimes can't decode it - but neither would your discrete card - everything would depend on CPU. SD content is processed very smoothly. And of course, with integrated solutions you can make your PC almost silent, which means a lot for HTPC.

 

[etheesdad]

Undel - the 780g wont do 1080i unless you have a very fast cpu.

Also, many discrete cards are available with passive cooling, (no fan:: silent), noteably the HD 4350/4550 and the 9400gt/9500GT/9600gt. Other models are also available without fans (nvidia 8x series, radeon 3x series).

https://forum.team-mediaportal.com/...ce-amd-780g-mediaportal-43361/?highlight=780g

 

[drealit]

About 780G chipset - I completely disagree. My Gigabyte GA-MA78GPM-DS2H(with 128mb SidePort memory) does job just fine. Of course, if HD content is encoded badly, IGP sometimes can't decode it - but neither would your discrete card - everything would depend on CPU. SD content is processed very smoothly. And of course, with integrated solutions you can make your PC almost silent, which means a lot for HTPC.

I haven't had experience with your specific board (GA-MA78GPM-DS2H) but I myself had the revision 1.0 of the GA-MA78GM-S2H. It couldn't deinterlace SD content for its life! All of my content is being decoded by my HD 4670 now and I am getting damn near perfect playback. Scanlines are a thing of the past for me. I don't see how the extra onboard memory would help you out much for this. The chipset itself still only supports the shader model 4.0 tech which is the same as my original 780G. Either your acceptable level for quality playback is lower than mine or you don't know what you're missing ... or you're using some type of software to handle your deinterlacing etc. (ffdshow etc.) which I am not since I want everything going through the card and simple filters (refer to the SAF filter guide here - https://forum.team-mediaportal.com/...-55/standalone-filters-mediaportal-saf-44614/).

My Sapphire HD 4670 is extremely quiet. Fan doesn't spin up much at all from start to finish regardless of the HD load I put on it... my entire setup only pulls 69-70W during a full 1080p h264 mkv and peaks at 110W's during first boot up. It idles at around 65W's.

If you're HD material is encoded badly it's easy enough to change the profile to something that is DXVA compliant. IDC Changer does the trick for me in no time... 4.1 is the way to go!

 

[Undel]

I have AMD 64 X2 4800 (overclocked by 5% with MB utility). Some 1080p BD-rips not perfect, but most of them just fine with FFDShow or CoreAVC.
Hardware acceleration for WinDVD+Blu-Ray 9 works perfectly. I disabled only to have ALL2HD feature enabled.

 

[drealit]

Ya but what about SD playback (mpeg2) do you have that going through FFDshow because my whole goal (and a lot of people) is to have our setups not reliant on software like that. I want my HTPC to be as clean as possible... easier to maintain not not as many areas for complication.