Planning new htpc (1 Viewer)

[mbuzina]

This is my whish list. Any comments on it? How to make it cheaper (I know, drop the SSD is a big one):


* Gigabyte GA-A75M-UD2H, AMD A75, mATX - 88,32 €
* 8GB-Kit Corsair Vengeance PC3-14900U CL9 - 81,59 €
* AMD A8-3850 APU mit AMD Radeon HD 6550D Grafikeinheit, Sockel FM1, boxed - 113,67 €
* Antec Fusion-R Media Center schwarz, mATX - 129,53 €
* OCZ SSD Agility 2 120GB 8,9cm (3,5") - 160,71 €
* Western Digital Caviar GreenPower 2TB SATA II - 62,99 €
* be quiet! Pure Power 350 Watt / BQT L7 - 37,33 €
* LG BH10LS30 Blu-Ray Brenner bulk - 76,64 €
* Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64-Bit (SB-Version) - 73,47 €
* Hauppauge WIN TV HVR-2200 DVB-T - 112,07 €

Any comments? Up to now I wanted to wait for the AMD A8-3800, but noone can tell me when it will be out, so I am starting to plan with the 3850 (35 W more power, might undervolt it a bit).

Any comments on the prices (from hardwareversand.de)? Comments on the SSD (I have no experiance with the SSDs, I will probably go for a smaller one (60 Gb should be enough), so please recommend me a good one. Is the HD ok for Media Storage? TV card is supported well I think (all 4 Tuners). Power Supply OK? Recommendations for coolers?

Thanks!

 

[mm1352000]

To me it looks like a reasonably well balanced system for the price.
You might be able to save a little money on the RAM, but not a lot I guess. The tuner is well supported. Do you intend to use the regular HDD for timeshifting?

 

[mbuzina]

The 8GB Kit was just 6€ more than a proper 4GB. For the Llano the DDR3 1800 is best since GFX & CPU both use the same mem.

I was planning on using SSD for TimeShift (to improve channel switching & reduce noise).

If you know the tuner, is it possible to feed analog cable (still got that) and DVB-T at the same time? It has only one connection for antenna.

 

[mm1352000]

If you know the tuner, is it possible to feed analog cable (still got that) and DVB-T at the same time? It has only one connection for antenna.

Yes, it should be possible. I have cards with similar chips as used on that card, and they accept OTA analog and DVB-T from one cable. Also *many* people in NZ use that card without problem. I guess the trick for you would be combining the analog signals from cable with the OTA DVB-T. I'm not sure how the best way to do that would be, although I guess you could just try a diplexer for a start. As long as the combining is possible, one tuner can definitely be used for DVB-T while the other tunes analog at the same time. One of the tuners *may* even support FM.

 

[jameson_uk]

I would spend a little more on a good quality psu. Also even though more RAM is not much more money it is not needed and will cause more power usage and therefore more heat; not much I know but it does add up.

 

[xetic]

AW: Planning new htpc

You can use the Ram for Timeshift like Ramdisk?!
I think it is a nice system. I would buy the same system later...

 

[mbuzina]

xetic: True, I could use RAM. I have to check if that gives me enough buffer. When I have it all, I will report of course.
jameson_uk: are the be!quiet not good? What would you suggest (I chose 350W since most PSUs run efficiant when having 50% load).
mm: I will try a deplexer. I hope FM will work, would be nice (esp. recording).

 

[xetic]

AW: Planning new htpc

I have twice the same be!quiet NT in my Systems and i am really happy...very quit

 

[Peter2]

Hi cuty! ;-)

Configuration seems ok to me, just the SSD: I've read about issues with them in a dutch forum.
One user had 2 malfunctioning within a month and without any signs. Another user had similar problems.

Just wanted to inform you about this.

EDIT: Have you seen this SSD Versus HDD: Power And Performance : Best SSDs For The Money: May 2011

 

[xetic]

AW: Planning new htpc

Thanks for the link...

The Intel SSD 320 with 40 GB space are really interesting but the space is a little bit to small ...