Building my HTPC - Any comments/concerns?

[Kelmino]

Well I'm pretty close on ordering my HTPC. This is my first HTPC, and thought I would come and let people look over it who are more versed in this field then I am.

Here is my build.

Western Digital Caviar Green WD10EACS 1TB SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM
Thought about going 1.5 TB or even going smaller and just doing external drives, but ended up deciding on this drive.

GIGABYTE GA-MA78GM-S2H AM2+/AM2 AMD 780G HDMI Micro ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail

G.SKILL 2GB 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Desktop Memory - Retail

AMD Athlon X2 4850e 2.5GHz 2 x 512KB L2 Cache Socket AM2 45W Dual-Core Processor - Retail
Figure the 4850e at 45w would be better then a 65W processor, and I figure this will be good enough to do what I need to do.

Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium SP1 32-bit English 1pk for System Builders DSP OEI DVD - OEM
Thought about using XP pro as I already have a key, but decided it would be money better spent just going with Vista

LG Black 6X Blu-ray DVD-ROM 16X DVD-ROM 40X CD-ROM SATA Internal Combo LG Blu-ray/HD DVD-ROM & 16X DVD±R DVD Burner Model GGC-H20LK - OEM
Thought about just going regular DVD drive, but figured what the hell might as well go for the gusto and get the all in one drive now.

LTS KIT-RCST100 Vista / XP Media Center Infrared Remote Control with Receiver
Is this just a waste of money? I picked it up because it was only 22 with a combo discount.

Rosewill R379-SM Black/ Silver 0.8mm SGCC Steel MicroATX Slim Case Computer Case PSU ATX12V Flex 300W Power Supply - Retail
This case on it's side should look nice and fit in on my entertainment center nicely.

Comes to a little under 630.00 after shipping and tax.

Some notes...

I will be buying a new TV within 6 months, currently I have a 32 inch HDTV (720p I think) and will be upgrading to a 57 or 61 inch 1080p DLP HDTV. I want to make sure I future proof this thing as much as possible.

I want to be able to play any music, DVD, HD-DVD, Blu-Ray on my TV. Also any content I already have on my HTPC such as various TV shows/movies that are in 720p or hopefully up to 1080p without any stuttering or slowness, or out of sync issues.

A few things I thought about adding but decided against it for now.

TV tuner card to record shows, but decided against this right now as I feel the price of this box is about what I want to spend.

An Extra 2 gigs of ram, but would that even make any difference? or just cause more heat in the box and do more harm then good.

Thought about a different case that would be easier to add expansion cards to in the future, or even add more internal HD storage

For the future.

I would like to add external storage for even more storage, I will be using the eSATA port on the motherboard for this.

TV Tuner card - a possible addition for the future, not 100% sure I will even use one of these that much

Audio card - At some point when I upgrade my sound system I plan on adding a nice sound card to the box for better quality 7.1 sound.


Will I run into any problems with this build down the road? will I have issues watching HD content on my HD?

Anyone see any problems with this build? have any suggestions for anything? or just plain o'le comments?

edit: forgot I'll need some sort of wireless network card, will a USB card be good enough? or should I just go ahead and put an internal wireless card in the PC?

Thanks in advance for anything you guys have to say.

 

[Mohonri]

The extra RAM won't do much for you--2GB is plenty. If you're looking to stream media, especially HD content, you'll be better served by sticking with wired ethernet. Otherwise, sure, you can go ahead and use a wireless card. Other than that, the build looks pretty solid.

 

[Dangman]

Rosewill R379-SM Black/ Silver 0.8mm SGCC Steel MicroATX Slim Case Computer Case PSU ATX12V Flex 300W Power Supply - Retail
This case on it's side should look nice and fit in on my entertainment center nicely.

Biggest problem with your setup is this case/PSU, specifically the PSU. It's an Allied PSU and the Allied company makes some of the shittiest PSUs in existence (next to Deer and Powerman). And by shitty I mean harmful to your PC shitty. Allied PSUs usually have poor voltage regulation meaning that it will rapidly alternate between extremely low and high voltages. That constant alternation will kill a PC given enough time.

So I recommend finding another case/PSU combo or at least a significantly better quality PSU. Look at the NSK1480 case. Same general look and layout as the Rosewill case but with a significantly better quality PSU. You can find that case used in the For Sale For Trade subforum.

 

[TheMostWantedPolishTwin]

I recently built HTPC based on the very same mobo and CPU, 2 gigs of RAM - runs perfectly on 42LG6000 through HDMI (I have a slight problem with the TV tho..).
I agree with Danny about the case and PSU - I myself got Tacens Theca case and Fortron PSU.. I never go for generic case/psu combo.

 

[Kelmino]

Thanks a lot for the concerns about the case, I'll probably end up switching out that case for another one.

Thanks everyone for your answers.

 

[Dangman]

Here's another good case choice:
Antec NSK2480 mATX case with Antec Earthwatts 380W PSU - $89 and Newegg Link for pictures