Ongoing New HTPC Ordered... Comments? (1 Viewer)

[Redth]

I just ordered some parts for my new HTPC...

Here's what I'm getting:

Case: Antec NSK-2400
Motherboard: ASUS P5E-VM HDMI mATX Motherboard
Video: Onboard Intel G35 Video (supposedly capable of 1080p)
Sound: Onboard HD Audio (8 Channel)
Processor: Intel Core2Duo E4600
Memory: 2GB Mushkin DDR2-800
Hard Drives: 3x500GB Seagate SATA2 (will RAID-5) them for ~1TB effective storage
Tuner: Geniatech Digistar DVB-S (already used in my old HTPC)
Remote: Windows MCE Remote (already used in my old HTPC)
Monitor: Samsung 32" LCD (720p/1080i) HDMI Input (already have it)
Speakers: Logitech Z-5300 (not ideal, but still, 5.1, and already own them)

My biggest challenge now will be trying to squeeze another hard drive in there somewhere. I'd ideally like to install Windows on a 80gb sata drive I have laying around. It looks like there may be space in a couple spots, just a matter of modding the case to mount the drive.

Aside from that, any comments? Am I missing anything important?

 

[Paranoid Delusion]

Due to Intel VGA driver for Windows XP does not include screen scraper defense, so HD-DVD and Blu-Ray can only run under Windows Vista OS

Don't forget this.

 

[Spragleknas]

My first comment: You should post things like this BEFORE ordering
Second: Samsung is not a HTPC-friendly brand, due to lack of 1:1 pixelmapping - but I see you got this already.
Third: Why do you buy the old NSK-2400, when it has been replaced by NSK-2480 (w/better PSU)

 

[Redth]

Thanks for the comments...

Well, i lied a bit, I haven't ordered everything, which is why I posted this first as you suggest, it's better to do this before posting!

Paranoid Delusion - Thank you for this advice, I might possibly have gone through everything and had it not work on XP and been a bit annoyed. I suppose I'd be able to get a Nvidia card that could do this on XP? At this point I don't have BluRay yet, so I won't worry too much. This is great to remember though, thank you.

Spragleknas - When I said samsung, I meant it has a samsung panel (it's an off brand set otherwise). I don't know much about pixelmapping, but i use it for my HTPC right now and it works pretty good (haven't tried much HD content though, but the DVI to HDMI cable I use works perfect).

The case is something I haven't actually put the order in for yet (I have for all the hardware otherwise). I'll look into the NSK-2480, great suggestion!

Thank you both!

 

[mascot]

I woul have waited for Gigabytes 780g+SB700+ALC889 HDMI motherboard coming within a month.

Much better hardware acceleration than the P5E-VM HDMI with the integrated HD3200 graphics supporting Avivo HD and UVD+

Then a much slower, cheaper and motsly important: cooler CPU can be used.

The 780g shows tests of handling 1080p ~28 mpbs bitrate bluray/hddvd with 20-30€ CPU usage on a single core Athlon 3500+ so the simplest dual core CPU (Like the easy-to-use-passive-cooling AMD Be-2x00??) would be more than enough!