HTPC - Advice Needed

Daith

Hi all,

I'm looking at getting a new PC and was thinking about a media center. My budget is around €1000.

I was looking the Komplett Vitsa Build and came up with this but I'm not to sure how quiet/suitable this would be?

I would like to be able to connect my PC to my Sony Amp for audio. My amp can take two digital coax and two optical inputs. I'm not really looking to play games on it except some Mame roms and some older games.

I'm interested in possibly recording from Sky+ to the box. Is that just a case of buying a TV card with S-Video in? What about controlling SKY+ from the PC? Any suggestions for the card?

APLUS Case Qubic, Black Midi tower (Without PSU) URL="https://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.asp?sku=309319&CKS=PCW"]info[/URL

NorthQ 4775-400, ATX 400W Silent, 140mm Fan, 12-17dBA, 4xSATA, PCI-E, 20/24pin URL="https://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.asp?sku=307837&CKS=PCW"]info[/URL

ABIT AB9 QuadGT, P965, Socket-775, GbLAN ,ATX, 8xSATAII, DDR2, Firewire, PCI-Ex16 URL="https://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.asp?sku=330522&CKS=PCW"]info[/URL

Intel Core 2 Duo E4300 1.8GHz Socket LGA775, 2MB, BOXED w/fan URL="https://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.asp?sku=330167&CKS=PCW"]info[/URL

Corsair Value S. PC5300 DDR2 2048MB Kit w/two matched Value Select 1024MB URL="https://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.asp?sku=313834&CKS=PCW"]info[/URL

Gainward GeForce 7600GS 256MB Passive, PCI-Express, DDR2, "BP7600GS-256-TV-DVI" URL="https://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.asp?sku=323510&CKS=PCW"]info[/URL

Samsung SpinPoint T166 500GB SATA2 16MB 7200RPM URL="https://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.asp?sku=327715&CKS=PCW"]info[/URL

NEC DVD±recorder AD-5170 IDE Black OEM DVD+R/+RW/DVD-R/-RW (Dual layer) URL="https://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.asp?sku=325546&CKS=PCW"]info[/URL

Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium Eng OEM DVD 32bit

Thanks

mathias

okay , to start off with that motherboard is overkill ( and overpriced ) , for your needs anyway ,

Have a look at this upgrade bundle , according to my math this gets you the same processor , ram and a good enough motherboard for around 90 -100 euro less .

https://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.asp?sku=312028

That comes in at 440 , your motherboard processor and ram come in at 530.
That saves you 90 euro.

The stock fan on the processor is going to be noisy , so you'll need one of these , these are whisper quiet. They are also very easy to fit.
The Graphics card is already passive so with this the noise in your build should be minimal.

https://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.asp?sku=314208

For great sound , try this , it has optical in and out and will be far superior to any Mainboard chip.

https://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.asp?sku=309631

Besides that , the only other thing I would change is the case , as thats not going to look very well with your amp and TV , but nice HTPC cases are a tad expensive so I'll leave that up to you.

If you do want to go down the route of a nice case that will fit with your amp have a look at this ,
https://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.asp?sku=322568

Its custom designed for quietness
The issue here is that it only takes matx boards , so you would have to change your motherboard to a mATX

And you have a really nice unit that will be quiet , fit in with your hi fi

DemoniK

For TV from Sky box - then pretty much anything with S-Video input will do. Controlling the Sky box isn't so easy though

Also consider the following case
https://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.asp?sku=315872
Silent Fans, good ventilation, LCD, Remote & takes ATX boards.

Personally I find the NEC DVD drives extremely noisey! Would suggest the LG or at a push the Samsung drives.

On the hard drive - do you really need the hard disk capacity. The T-series drives from samsung aren't as silent as the P-series. Either get the 250GB P120 or I would recommend the hitachi w(320GB), for which you can download the little app from their website and tune the heads to balance noise with performance.
https://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.asp?sku=325870

The ABit Mobo is really good - but you can save quiet a few € by going for a 945 chipset board such as the ABIT IL9 PRO, or Asrock Conroe945PL-GLAN which are both passivly cooled. Main downside is lack of RAID or second PCIe.

Also - save your money with Vista and go with XP. It may not be the latest and greatest - but does the job and well. Also importantly, a lot of drivers, games, etc. already exist and work well. And on the software front, check out mediaportal, a v.good free media center software.

And finally, on the PSU. I'm not familiar with the NorthQ - looks pretty good. But would recommend looking for something which has modular connectors. This allows you to reduce the amount of cabling in the box, and hence increase airflow. My favourite is the Be Quiet! Dark Power Pro 600W URL="http://www.computeruniverse.net/"]info[/URL. You can't get it on komplett.ie, but this website in germany http://www.computeruniverse.net/ is great value if you're buying quite a bit.

8T8

Personally RikD I'd disagree and go with Vista MCE on a new build as that's where the development of MCE will further evolve and the OEM version of XP MCE is actually more expensive than the Vista Home Premium OEM, there isn't a lot of issues with Vista most tuners are supported from what I gather & video codec support is not an issue, old games on the other hand I'm not so sure but depends really on how popular they where & if they were tested under Vista (3D graphics card drivers are still in a rough shape but that has little to no bearing on Vista MCE).

The quietest drives are are Plextor drives due to the fact they have a utility which can govern the speed of the drive in its firmware so you can set it to run at a fixed speed.

NorthQ are terrible PSU's very low quality, get Tagan, Seasonic or Akasa.

I'd go with the upgrade kit mathias picked out you have no need for the expensive Abit board for the tasks you outline.

For MAME I'd also get a gamepad the Windows Xbox 360 ones are pretty good but Komplett don't sell them anymore it seems still local game stores might have them.

As the others have pointed out the case isn't really a HTPC case the Antec fusion is a highly recommend case but you will need a mATX board so the cheaper upgrade kit is a no go, you also won't need a PSU as it comes pre-fitted with one.

A motherboard like this Gigabyte 945 or 965 if you really want the 965 will do the job.

If recording from Sky+ with an s-video out all you need is a MCE compatible tuner with an s-video input like this one* + the MCE remote which comes with the IR blaster for controlling the Sky box.

*Vista drivers available at this link.

Daith

Cheers for the advice. Will have another look. Though the case itself doesn't bother me that much. Though the case mathias pointed out does indeed look nice!

Daith

Hi,
I've just got back to this and am looking at following.

Thermaltake Bach Silver w/medialab URL="https://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.asp?sku=315872&s=sc"]info[/URL

312028 Upgrade Kit Intel Core 2 Duo E4300, URL="https://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.asp?sku=312028&s=sc"]info[/URL

329043 Samsung SpinPoint T166 320GB SATA2 URL="https://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.asp?sku=329043&s=sc"]info[/URL

330707 Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium Eng

308878 Tagan i-Xeye 420W, Dual Fan, Blue [https://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.asp?sku=308878&s=sc]

314208 Thermaltake Blue Orb II CPU Cooler, [https://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.asp?sku=314208&s=sc]

309631 TerraTec SoundSystem Aureon 7.1 PCI, URL="https://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.asp?sku=309631&s=sc"]info[/URL

323510 Gainward GeForce 7600GS 256MB Passive,

323375 AVerMedia AVerTV MCE 116 Plus,

Thoughts? Will it all work together?

8T8

Yeah no problems with that though according to Terratec their wont be a Vista driver until April for the soundcard.

Not sure if there is a stock driver present in the OS with that card.