Building a new HTPC

My current HTPC (insert laughter here) is a mashup of spare parts I had laying around a couple years ago. The current specs are:

2.4Ghz celeron
768mb pc2100 ram
80gb hard drive
Chaintech 5.1 sound card
TV Tuner (don't even remember the brand...)
GeForce 6600GT video card

I have it hooked up to a 37" LCD HDTV 1080i w/ HDCP via a dvi-to-hdmi cable. I've downloaded a couple 720p videos and tried to play them but it just refuses to play them... I don't know if its the processor, ram, or video card that is holding it back. I think this thing is past updating and I may need to build a new HTPC, but I really don't want to spend much on it.

Functionality I want:
Playback of downloaded 720p/1080i movies
Music Jukebox (anyone have suggestions - good software for this?)
Playback of ripped DVDs from my personal collection (again, any good software for organizing all of them?)
File Storage (Network Storage for backups from other PCs in the house)

I have seen prices of 500GB and 750GB hard drives falling a lot in the past couple of months, even some around $80 and $130 respectively. I'd probably get 2 or 3 of them for this machine. I also already have a CD/DVD burner I could put in it, so I do not need that. Eventually I will get a blu-ray drive once the prices come down. I got burned on the HD-DVD drive I have so I'm holding out for a while... I really don't need the name brand top of the line stuff, so please don't suggest anything ridiculously absurd.

Also, if all of this could be fitted into one of those "slim tower" desktop cases, like the one pictured here: http://www.zdnet.com.au/story_media...aunches-vostro-range-for-small-business_5.jpg
that would be awesome... It would fit right into a spot in my entertainment center. The only drawback of getting a small case like this is that it may be hard to find low-profile sound cards/video cards/etc.

Any thoughts are appreciated!

Heck, I just built (well, repurposed into) a HTPC this week, and my hardware isn't much better than yours--in fact, it's slower in some ways (GF6200). And so far it seems to handle a fair amount of at least 720p just fine. However, the format of the video you downloaded is likely in some format that your current video card can't accelerate, so it gets dumped on the CPU, which can't handle the load.

I was going to suggest getting a Radeon HD3450, since that would handle all your video-decode-acceleration needs, but judging by the hardware you have, it doesn't look like you have an AGP slot. There are HD3850's with an AGP interface, but they are more expensive and way more powerful than you need.

If you're looking to build a new HTPC, your best bet is to get the Gigabyte 780G-based motherboard and an X2 5000+ or so. The 780G has all the video acceleration you'll need for everything up to and including BluRay. So no need for a discrete video card, which would add heat, noise, and expense, and possibly not fit in a slim case. Add RAM (1GB is enough for XP, 2GB for Vista) and a hard drive, and you'll be set. You ought to be able to re-use your sound card if you want, as well as the tuner.

For software, you've got plenty of options: XP MCE, Vista MCE, MythTV (on linux), MediaPortal (Win), GB-PVR (Win), and SageTV and BeyondTV, to name a few. Out of all those, I've only done a little bit with MythTV and MediaPortal, and found that if you put each album in its own directory, it's not hard to select a full album to play.

The files are in a "mkv" format. The current motherboard does in fact have an AGP slot, which is what the current video card is in. I'm wondering why your 6200 has no problems but my 6600GT can't do it...

Thanks for your suggestions!

Rdizziedog said:

The files are in a "mkv" format. The current motherboard does in fact have an AGP slot, which is what the current video card is in. I'm wondering why your 6200 has no problems but my 6600GT can't do it...

Thanks for your suggestions!

Click to expand...

I think he means that the 720p video files you have are in a format that loads your CPU very heavily, whereas his are in a format that doesn't.

omz said:

I think he means that the 720p video files you have are in a format that loads your CPU very heavily, whereas his are in a format that doesn't.

Click to expand...

That's exactly what I was trying to say. MKV, like AVI, is just a container, not a format per se. So the video content could be encoded in any of a zillion codecs.

You will need a faster processor (ie dual core) most likely if you plan on playing 1080p x264 encoded videos. 720p x264 should run fine on a single core, but it will have to be faster than a 2.4ghz celeron.

you need codecs i forget the specific pack i use but you need them