Building a HTPC from the remains of an old attempt

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k1114

2[H]4U
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I've decided to create a HTPC that will be used as a media center that is controlled via remote to play dvds, record and play tv shows, play music, etc, etc. I will have some decent startup money to spend on this in the immediate future, but it is definately a budget box.

Here is the current system I have for this:
--IBM Netvista case and 90 watt psu. Case is too small because it only allows half height PCI cards and does not allow you to use more than one ram slot with the motherboard im using.
--Radisys/Eudora P810 motherboard, accepts fc-pga, ppga, and tulation (yes, all three!) celeron and p3 socket 370 chips up to 1.6ghz. Has two sdram slots (max 1gb total) for ecc or non ecc ram, has 4 PCI slots, and has onboard video and sound. This board was originally aimed at being a small cheap server board but has great desktop use. Extremely tiny and awesome in that it is FlexATX and still has 4 slots! This board has no agp slot which is a pain, but not a real problem.
--Celeron 600/100 fc-pga 1.5v, not the greatest chip but you cant beat $6+ shipping for it. Lowest voltage of all the celeys in this range, runs amazingly cool with a small heatsink and extremely low speed fan.
--128mb PC133, running at 100mhz of course since the bus speed is 100mhz. I would like to upgrade this if I keep the mobo/cpu but I don't know if I will.
--16x BTC dvd-rom drive, got it on clearance for $9.90 and didn't have any other use for it so I placed it here. Not the quietest drive but not bad at all to start with.
--45gb/5400rpm Maxtor hard drive, noisy for a lower speed drive because it was one of the first ones of this size to come out and apparently noise wasnt an overall concern.
--NIC that has been cut up a bit to fit a low profile slot

The current system can do the following:
1. Surf teh intarweb
2. Thats about it

How I plan on upgrading:
1. Replacing the case. Right now i'm leaning towards the black TRT-100 for $53 or the Cooler Master ATX-620C-BX1 but i'm open to other options. What i'd really like to find is a nice low cost desktop case that looks good on an entertainment center and has full height PCI slots. Kind of a general statement, but it's to the point.

2. Getting a video card with tv-out. I am leaning heavily towards a GF4 mx420/440 with tv-out simply because they can be found cheaply in both PCI and AGP versions and have good quality tv output (the ones that use the on-chip encoder AFAIK)

3. Getting a TV tuner card with hardware encoding. I am under the impression that my current cpu/mobo/ram will be sufficient if I don't have to do any software encoding, and I am willing to go as far as buying a 700-933mhz P3 for it, but I don't want to change the whole combo unless absolutely necessary. That would be an upgrade for later on. The card i'm looking at is the Hauppauge PVR-250 retail, it has hardware encoding of MPEG-2 and excellent quality according to most reports i've read. Apparently this is the card to buy for the money.

4. Controlling everything by remote. I am under the impression the remote from the PVR-250 is compatible with at least a few of the major TIVO-ish programs out there, so there shouldn't be any problem using it for full functions.

5. Getting more ram. I don't think 128mb is going to cut it, and sdram is cheap.

6. A decent soundcard will come later on, maybe an audigy or TBSC, nothing major right away, onboard sound will be ok until this is up and running.

What I would like to know:

Any of this sound good? Opinions? Advice? Thoughts? I've been doing a lot of reading and it sounds fairly straightforward!
 
You may want to consider the PVR-350. Sure it costs a little more, but you could keep your onboard video, and it has hardware decoding as well.

You'll definitely want a 7200 rpm drive. You can get a maxtor 250GB 7200 from compussr fro $130 right now.

Leave your sound alone for now, for basic TV watching anything will be sufficient.

Leave CPU and mobo alone if you're goign to get a hw encoder/decoder. Add another 128MiB of RAM.

Looks decent for a cheap box. :)
 
Here's some suggestions, in rough order of importance:

-More RAM, total of 256 should be ok... though I disagree on SDRAM being cheap these days :)
-New hard drive, you'll be much happier with a nice quiet drive, plus anything new will be pretty snappy... I like Seagate (very quiet), but on a budget, get what you can... 120-160GB is affordable enough. IMO, 45 just doesn't cut it for a PVR system.
-PVR-250 is a good choice. As for the 350, it's a circumstantial thing... I wouldn't recommend it over the 250 though unless you want to spend a lot of time tinkering :)
-GF4MX output is... decent I suppose. I don't like mine, but it could just have a shitty encoder on it. Nice and cheap though. I've also heard FX5200 has good output.
 
I agree with everything kleptophobiac mentioned although if you want to off load the sound I'd look into finding a Live 5.1 card. Looks like it would make a good Myth box.
 
Strange, I have heard the output on the gf4 mx series was really good :( Now i'm confused again about what card to get for video output... The PVR-350 doesn't seem like a good option because it only ouputs mpeg2/4 video, thus I won't have any display unless I use sagetv (I think sage is the only one that has mpg2 support?) and I can't use the system for normal tv out uses (emulators or similar programs) later.

I guess now the idea is trying to finda good quality tv-out card, i'm fairly certain I will be going with the PVR-250. My immediate budget is going to be around $210, which should cover the case, video card, ram, and maybe a cheap audigy/live sound card, and i'll work a couple extra days next week to make the cash for the pvr-250.
 
The GF4 MX has good tv out, so does the FX series. If your going WinXP then yes the 350 can not output the desktop and only MPEG2/4 video and SageTV but you output fine under Linux (I hear there is a workaround for it on Win but I haven't read anything on it).
 
I plan on going with win2k or winxp (2k is less memory intensive in my experiences with it, but im not sure on program compatibility) but i'd eventually like to expand this box to other uses, so i'll be getting a gf4mx / gf fx card for sure. Also i've only got PCI slots and gf4 mx420/440 cards with tv out are rather inexpensive.

So right now the final list appears to be:

case (still deciding, budgeted $90 for it)
gf4 mx440 w/tv out - $48
hauppauge PVR-250 - $130
audigy or similar sound card - $30
ram (128mb more to make 256mb pc133) - $20
hard drive (will keep current one for a while then upgrade) -$later

Immediate total would be around 318, i've got 225 coming today and i'll be able to grab the last peice (the tv encoder) next week, the main stuff I plan on ordering as soon as tomorrow (monday). I'll either not upgrade the cpu/mobo at all or upgrade the processor, yesterday a p3 733 (IIRC) went for around $14, my mobo supports all celey/p3 socket 370 chips (yes, all of them!) so an upgrade from my current cpu wouldn't be expensive at all.
 
You'll want to get the fastest or so P3 you can find for cheap then. :D
 
I got myself a better idea :D

My son uses a 2.0 celey system with a matx mobo (dude, its a dell!) for playing low end games and all that, and it happens to have a half height compatible pci video card in it! So what i'll do is put that video card in my flex atx system and just gank his computer and put a card with tv-out and the hauppauge in it. He can play his games on that for now, and i'll build up a new system over time and eventually give him back his (he is 3, he has no concept of anything but point and click ;)). What this will allow me to do is use it as a PVR/TIVO now and get a feel for what i'm doing and what I need. All I need to buy upfront is a tv out card and the PVR-250 :D

System Specs:
Celey 2.0 w/intel matx mobo (integrated everything, 3 pci slots)
40gb 7200rpm seagate hard drive
256mb pc2100
cd-rw and dvd-rom
SB 512 PCI
 
Nice, all I'll say is get a larger HD (250GB is getting cheaper ;) ) and another stick of memory.
 
I think this is my final list for the system:

Celey 2.0 / Intel Mobo / 256mb PC2100 - ($0) already have
60gb 7200rpm hard drive, dvd-rom, cd-rw, PSU, all other normal parts - ($0) already have
XFX FX5200 128mb/TV-Out/PCI - ($69) I could also go w/a MX440 PCI for around $19 less.
Hauppauge PVR-250 w/SageTV 2.0 ($160) saves some $, alone sage is $60 and the card is $140

That puts me at a cost of $229 (or less if I go mx440) to have it up and running (which works cause i'll have 225 to put towards this tomorrow). The only downside is that the case will be ugly and i'll be stuck with a SB512 PCI for the sound. Also 256mb of ram is sufficient but by no means optimal for the task at hand (or so i've been told). These items can/will be upgrade later to the following:

HTPC case, ($95 or more) I love the look and the price of the cooler master ATC-600, but the Ahanix D.VINE 4 is fucking hawt (comes with the LCD and all for 200)
Another 256mb pc2100 - ($~35)
TBSC sound card - ($~30)
Big ass hard drive ~200gb+, i'd guess no more than $75 if I catch a decent FW deal.

So I could have it not only functional but exactly where I want it for a total of the base $229 + 245 = $464. Not exactly cheap for a TIVO, but it should perform well and will be really cool to work with. Also I can upgrade the system a bit later and the main expensive parts (case, pvr-250, etc) will still stay up to date in a manner of speaking for quite some time. My future plans (when I get a house) will be to get a damn good projector and use this as the base for all media operations, at which time i'll likely upgrade a bit more unless I decide I like it where its at.
 
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