Completed Old man's first at HTPC's (1 Viewer)

[slowtwitch]

First of all, I want to say hello. First time poster and HTPC builder. I'm just an old maintenance man, who likes playing with computers. I've been lurking for a bit here and absorbing a ton of info. Hopefully, I can return the favor

Anyway, let's get to the good stuff. I recently finished remodeling our attic and made it a bedroom/small office, so please excuse the starkness. This is what the wife and I watch, Toshiba 26" Lcd.......Oh, I'm still waiting on my MCE remote, that's why the keyboard is there.

I decided on using a standard case, so I can place the stb on it and it can be seen by the remote. Here's the HTPC ...with the STB on it's temporary perch

WinXP Pro
Antec 300 case
MSI P6NGM (NVIDIA GeForce 7150 with HDMI
Intel P4 3.2ghz
2 gb GSkill memory
80 gb sata hd
Seasonic power supply
Trendnet PCI wireless card

Except for the case , everything was bought used on EBay... Total cost $155.

This is a wireless setup (because I goofed and didn't put in a network drop, when I wired the room) and it's only the a front end...here's the other part.....in my little playground...

In the background is the is the computer that my wife and I share...

Win XP Pro
Antec 300 case
DFI Blood Iron Mboard
Intel Q6600 quad core
2 gb GSkill
2 250 gb sata hd's

and here is the back end...

Win XP Pro
Antec Solo case
AMD ATHLON 64 X2 4200 CPU
Abit Abit AN78GS GeForce 8200
3 gb OZC Ram
4 sata HD's (1 80 gb for the system, 2 250 gb and a 500 gb for storage)

It's a little overkill for a server, but, it's nice to have when the wife is on the other one.

This also feeds video's to my son's PS3, which is hooked up to a Sony 36" Wega (the heavy a## CRT).

Thanks to these forums and to this one...MediaPortal Install Guide - Page 4 - AVS Forum.....I was able to get things running pretty smoothly. I was also impressed at the picture quality with my wireless powered Toshiba

Next on the agenda, another front end for my son's Sony/PS3 setup. The PS3 is a nice machine, but, it can't play DVD files and the conversion process takes bit. I've read that you can install VLC player in PS3, my son won't let me near it.

take care

pete

 

[rekenaar]

Hi Pete and a warm welcome to you

Everything looks great, even your temporary perch .

Does not look like you have a TV Card now. Is that planned for the future? Your backend should make a nice TVServer.

I just hope you are happy with the WLAN. I have quickly thrown mine away. But there are users who are happy with it.

Good luck and keep us posted.

 

[slowtwitch]

Thanks for the welcome. as for the TV card, I really don't watch TV shows, that much. I basically built this to watch DVD's. I don't know how many times we rented DVD's and never watched them. Also, my youngest son has a collection of about 500 dvd's, that he has ripped over time.

As for the wlan, I'm already looking at a possible path for some cat 6 to make it's way to the back of that computer. Fortunately, I did wire the rest of the house. I don't know why I didn't do that one...must have been a senor moment



take care
pete