HTPC - many questions

chabsey

I'm beginning the process of researching the purchase of a HTPC setup. I'll be building it myself and also buying the TV to suit my needs. I thought I'd post just to see if people think the numbers I have in mind are actually do-able.

TV-wise I've got a fairly small room and currently have a 28" CRT TV which I was thinking of replacing with a 32" Samsung or Sony Bravia TV. Of top level importance is that whatever TV I get it be able to show PC content clearly. By this I mean I want to be able to browse the net / use it *almost* like a PC monitor, so the text would need to be legible and clear. I know a monitor would be clearer so it's not perfection i need, just a clean clear readable display that you'd use for web and gaming.
I estimate this TV will cost about 700 - 750 euros.

The main use this TV will have will be for viewing downloaded content. TV channels available = RTE 1,2 and TV3...on analogue so not that bothered about them. Recording content from TV? Nice but not something I really really need. My house is networked (wired not wireless) so onboard ethernet will suffice.

The PC. I would like to occasionally play games on it so am thinking of spending about 200 euros on a graphics card that could play Crysis, Bioshock etc, not with all bells and whistles turned on but not bad detail either.

CPU, not sure on this one, was thiking about 200 euros would suffice? Intel or AMD....not sure.

HDD - 500GB to 1TB - 200 euros.

RAM - 2 gig - 100 euros.

Case - Not sure, region of 200 euros on a nice looking Antec or similar (looking for full not micro ATX for maximum ease of expansion).

Keyboard / mouse - 150 euros, want a nice slim one keyboard. wireless.

Mobo - not sure, 150 euros?


Am I missing much? total = about 1700 ~ 1800.

Seem reasonable?

mathias

The antec fusion is a nice case so bear with me , thats matx , but upping to full atx will be a lot more expensive , I'll tag that on at the end.

Motherboard , ram and processor all together , = 255

http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.aspx?sku=321080

Nice case that will look good under the TV

http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.aspx?sku=340088 = 172

Graphics card with passive cooling so no noise , = 87

http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.aspx?sku=338549

This card will play most games but dont expect miracles , Crysis is very demanding and any card that can handle it wouldnt be suitable for a HTPC as it would drown out the sound of the TV.You need to keep that in mind.

Keyboard mouse , again here , the range your looking for is about 10m and these are thin on the ground. Its not pretty but it does a great job for a HTPC. = 138

http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.aspx?sku=313151

Hard drive , no point spending a fortune , this will do the job = 97

http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.aspx?sku=327715

DVD , your going to want one anyway , so here ya go , I picked this one cos its quiet , = 60

http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.aspx?sku=337990

so far thats 255 + 172 + 87 + 138 + 97 + 60 = 809 leaving you about 900 or so for a nice TV ,

Id recommend one of these ,

http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.aspx?sku=341595

or one of these

http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.aspx?sku=331575

Connect using HDMI and the picture will be crystal clear , guaranteed.

Now if you want to go the full atx route , then the antec case is out , so id recommend this , I have one myself , = 297

http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.aspx?sku=319268

and then of course you have to change the motherboard ram cpu kit so Id recommend this , = 289

http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.aspx?sku=343653

So full ATX is going to cost about 170 euro more , and change the colour of the DVD to suit the case of course ,

so there you go , relatively within budget , very nice system that wont be noisy and will do everything you listed. All quality components as well.

As with all lists like this I probably missed something but there should be enough here to get you started.

chabsey

Excellent reply, haven't had a chance to follow all links but thanks for spending time and effort on such a full response, much appreciated. As is the heads up on the graphics card noise, it's annoying though as the whole gaming at HD res in games like Crysis is a real selling point of the whole thing for me, but I accept your point. Time to re-read your post fully, thanks again!

WetDaddy

With regard to the HDD: If you've got the cash spare after budget, consider going with 2 x 500GB disks and put them in RAID 0 (or even 3 x 500GB and put them in RAID 1 + 0), providing your motherboard will support RAID.

Sounds like overkill, but as Loyd Case of ExtremeTech.com calls it, the "Spousal Acceptance Factor" must be weighted more on HTPCs than regular PCs. If your significant other / co-habitant start to use the HTPC with frequency and begin to depend on it, then a sudden death and loss in all your media could be a miserable affair for not just yourself.

WetDaddy

Two more things just came to mind. They might be amateur suggestions, but they're things I encountered after I'd made all my purchases and mid-build:

1. I cannabalised an old DVD drive from an old Dell my parents were throwing out. Dell always seem to make fairly quiet PCs (largely due to the low-end components in their run-of-the-mill models) and that includes the drives, as far as I've found. Not only that, but *hypothetically speaking* very often it's easier to flash the firmware of an old model back to RPC-1 version. Couple this with DVD Region Free and then you can play your imported DVDs, if that's of concern to you. It saves money, and you may even find yourself upgrading to HDDVD or a BluRay drive in the future, so if you have one lying around, consider it.

2. I have the silver Antec Fusion case. Not sure if they resolved this issue, but I had to mount an external USB IR receiver because there's no space to mount it internally behind the VFD as Antec claimed (read: lied; they eventually retracted it from advertisements). Doesn't bother me too much, but the black box aesthetic is nice when building a HTPC. Not sure, perhaps the Zalman already covers this. Also, I kinda wish I had space for more than the maximum 2 drives which is holds, but that mightn't be an issue for you.

3. If you're running Windows MCE, consider grabbing an old modem from somewhere. You can hook up caller-ID to the OS (and you can with LinuxMCE and lots of other OSs, I'm sure) which is good if you're watching a movie and the phone rings - Will I bother answering?

4. Make sure that you get a motherboard with a GigE NIC, if you want to move data or stream HD across your network. It's a no-brainer really, most boards have GigE capability now, but just be careful anyway. The less add-on cards you've to buy, the better!

5. Oh, and you'll want a remote: http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.aspx?sku=309575

That's about it. Like I mentioned, this might all be really obvious to most people, but I just thought I'd throw my 2c in!

mathias

The Zalman case I linked to above comes with the IR receiver built in and an MCE remote , just in case you decide to go with that.

WetDaddy

mathias wrote: »

The Zalman case I linked to above comes with the IR receiver built in and an MCE remote , just in case you decide to go with that.

Nice

Conar

Folex wrote: »

With regard to the HDD: If you've got the cash spare after budget, consider going with 2 x 500GB disks and put them in RAID 0 (or even 3 x 500GB and put them in RAID 1 + 0), providing your motherboard will support RAID.

Hey Folex.
Probably just a typo but you'd need 4 disks for RAID 1+0.

Also, with regards to the Antec Fusion.
I recently built a HTPC for my sister and they had 2 comments about the case.
1. Too big. Its almost the ame size as a normal tower on its side.
2. They now include an infrared receiver on the front, but if your case is at ground level then it doesn't work well. It almost needs to be face on to pick up the remote commands. They've changed over to using the receiver that came with the hauppauge tv card and that works much more effectively.

mathias

1. Too big. Its almost the ame size as a normal tower on its side.

Any decent HTPC case is going to be this size , they are all about the size of a standard AV receiver , and they need to be , otherwise you have no upgrade potential and you limit yourself to crappy onboard graphics , sound , and expensive low capacity laptop hard drives.

Conar

mathias wrote: »

Any decent HTPC case is going to be this size , they are all about the size of a standard AV receiver , and they need to be , otherwise you have no upgrade potential and you limit yourself to crappy onboard graphics , sound , and expensive low capacity laptop hard drives.

Not neccessarily.
A lot of people myself included would use a SFF desktop which take 3.5" drives and have AGP/PCI-Express slots for GPU's.

I just mention it in case it may affect someones thoughts on what they buy.

I gave my sister and her husband the dimensions before I went ahead with the order but they were still a bit shocked with how large the chassis is.
I'm not sure what you mean by a standard AV receiver but if you mean Sky box, DVD player, stack system unit etc I assure you its a hell of a lot bigger.

mathias

I'm not sure what you mean by a standard AV receiver but if you mean Sky box,....

Im talking something like an Onkyo 605 , about 40 cm wide , 40 deep , and approx 15-20 cm high.

If your going to fit quality cards and a sufficient amount of hard drive space in there , then thats what it needs to be , any slimline ones Ive seen dictate the size of expansion cards and limit hard drive space ( mine has 2TB and it needs it) . I have over 4000 albums and all my DVD's on there , plus a quality soundcard with optical out , Dual tuners etc etc . Plus super quiet cooling fans dont come small !!

WetDaddy

Conar wrote: »

Hey Folex.
Probably just a typo but you'd need 4 disks for RAID 1+0.

You're right, Conar! I actually meant RAID 5. Some people might think that's overkill, but given the speed and redundancy, it'd be a sweet setup for a HTPC!