Hannibal HTPC

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Oct 3, 2006
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Hey guys,

I am new to the HTPC world so I am not all that comfortable with building my own so I have been looking around for some pre-assembled units. I came across the Hannibal and I was just wondering if anybody here has had any experience with it or knows anyone who has. It has everything that I am looking for and at what I considered to be a decent price. Here is a link to their site.

http://store02.prostores.com/servlet/tvease/StoreFront

Thanks for the help.
 
I don't have experience with these guys, but I do know that Velocity Micro will be releasing there new line of HTPC's pretty soon. I made a thread in the Computers and Gadgets forum asking about pre-built HTPC's and got response from one of their guys about them.
 
The software looks interesting but the hardware is completely anemic, pathetic even.

Why they didn't go with a 6150 mobo and a 3200+ for the lowend config I'll never understand other then that it would cost alittle bit more which is outweighed by the fact that you'd have a better system.
 
You might be better off building something on your own. I'd go at least with a dual core and a HDCP compliant video card for 1080p viewing, especially for when it comes more prominent. 1080p files stored on your hard drive take up a lot of space and require quite a bit of CPU power. I'd recommend a single drive for your OS, and another one or two drives for video storage. (320gb or 500gb).

This is how I would build...

Either a AMD X2 3800+ 65w, or a e6300
7600GT fanless with HDCP
2GB RAM
(1) 160gb sata2 hard drive for OS
(1 or 2) 500GB sata2 for storage

Then, have a mobo with firewire, get a decent sound card with optical out for DTS/DD5.1 sound, etc. Have some tuner cards for HD/SD viewing.

Head on over to hdbits.org to check out some people's HTPC setups there and what you need to run 1080p stuff. Even if you don't have a 1080p compatible TV/monitor now, there is always the future. PM me if you need an invite to join.
 
w1retap said:
Either a AMD X2 3800+ 65w, or a e6300
7600GT fanless with HDCP
Click to expand...

Right now I don't think you can beat a Core 2 Duo CPU for HD playback with the Purevideo decoder. If you look at the nVidia Purevideo HD recommended specs they state an E6300 with appropraite video card is perfect for 1080p H.264 playback. Whereas you need a beefier Athlon 64 X2.

Also, I'm not big on the fanless cards. The heat is still inside the case so you need to make up for a fanless video card elsewhere, like better case cooling. I'd rather just put a quiet cooler on the video card and be done with it.

Thing is the OP doesn't feel up to building his own HTPC which is fine. So I would check out the Velocity Micro offerings once they are available.
 
Thanks for the reply's everyone. How difficult is it to build your own HTPC? I have never assembled my own computer so that is why I was looking for a pre-made. Also I like the idea that the Hannibal uses MythTV. Does MCE allow you the flexibility that MythTV does? I would like to burn some of the media that I record and I am unaware of whether or not this is permitted with MCE. Thanks for all the help guys.
 
valve1138 said:
Right now I don't think you can beat a Core 2 Duo CPU for HD playback with the Purevideo decoder. If you look at the nVidia Purevideo HD recommended specs they state an E6300 with appropraite video card is perfect for 1080p H.264 playback. Whereas you need a beefier Athlon 64 X2.
Click to expand...
Thats wrong; the X2 3800+ works just as well as the E6300 for playback. RIght now the only thing that really hampers it is if you are using an ATI or NV card (ATI has trouble with playback).

The "rumor" that you need a higher end X2 comes from PowerDVD's stupid "next gen DVD stress test" thing where it was completely broken for AMD CPUs.
 
CrimandEvil said:
The "rumor" that you need a higher end X2 comes from PowerDVD's stupid "next gen DVD stress test" thing where it was completely broken for AMD CPUs.
Click to expand...

I'm going by nVidia's hardware list for Purevideo HD.

Who the hell uses PowerDVD? :p
 
Minimum playback for 1080p x264 video doesn't require as beefy of a processor as you'd think. It all depends on the decoder you use. For the best performance, install Nvidia's Purevideo, CCCP Codec Pack, CoreAVC, and media player classic. For 1080p videos, disable the regular "libavcodec" codec for h264 playback, and use the CoreAVC codec in the MPC codec menu. Depending on the bitrate of the 1080p video, even some of the higher end single core processors can handle the video without a hiccup. .ts transport stream files take up more CPU usage though, and I'd recommend a dual core at minimum.

Also, you can install the nvidia purevideo decoder even if you have an ATI card and it still works. (in most circumstances)
 
valve1138 said:
I'm going by nVidia's hardware list for Purevideo HD.
Click to expand...
Last I looked (two weeks ago) they listed any dual core X2 as working fine.
 
Nice case but the videocard/processor/ram they give you (even as the configuration gets into the $2-$3k range) is downright scary.

Build a system around the Antec Fusion or NSK2400 and you'll be on the right path.
 
w1retap said:
Either a AMD X2 3800+ 65w, or a e6300
7600GT fanless with HDCP
Click to expand...
nVidia recommends the X2 4200+, and lists the X2 3800+ as the minimum, so I'd probably go with the X2 4200+ (65W).

And, there's no such animal as a 7600GT fanless with HDCP, at least not yet. I'd recommend a 7900GS with HDCP (since they cost less than a 7600GT with HDCP) and put a Zalman VF900-Cu on it.
 
Stereodude said:
nVidia recommends the X2 4200+, and lists the X2 3800+ as the minimum, so I'd probably go with the X2 4200+ (65W).

And, there's no such animal as a 7600GT fanless with HDCP, at least not yet.
Click to expand...
nvidia overrates things, just like they do their PSU requirements for SLi. :p But, the price difference isn't that much anyhow.

As for the 7600GT fanless with HDCP, I think I misread a statement about the NX7600GT-T2D256EZ (http://www.behardware.com/news/8149/fanless-hdcp-7600-gt-at-msi.html). Sorry about that. I realize it does not have HDCP.. I don't think... Product link:
http://www.msi.com.tw/program/products/vga/vga/pro_vga_detail.php?UID=742

But, there is a 7600GS which is fanless and HDCP compliant..also with HDMI. The Gigabyte GV-NX76G256HI-RH. :)
 
w1retap said:
But, there is a 7600GS which is fanless and HDCP compliant..also with HDMI. The Gigabyte GV-NX76G256HI-RH. :)
Click to expand...
However, nVidia does not recomment the 7600GS for Blu-Ray and HD-DVD playback. It also doesn't support the complete Purevideo feature set like the 7600GT and higher.
 
Stereodude said:
However, nVidia does not recomment the 7600GS for Blu-Ray and HD-DVD playback. It also doesn't support the complete Purevideo feature set like the 7600GT and higher.
Click to expand...
nvidia recommends a lot of things.
http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=2886

Our first glimpse of the processing power required to play HD content on the PC gave us a very good indication that Blu-ray movies using MPEG-2 should have no problem on a modern system, even without GPU acceleration. The Core 2 Duo E6300 is easily capable of playing back 50-60 Mbps MPEG-2 video at 1080p. Adding a GPU to the mix did make an impact, but the small boost in performance just wasn't necessary.
Click to expand...
 
I'm not worried about BR because the playback for 40mb/sec compressed x264 is not up to par on pc as of right now. The C2Dextreme+8800GTX even drops frames. Still, if you look at a lower end video card, and a conroe processor, it is playable just fine with a few dropped frames here and there. But, the question is, who would want to spend that much money on a BR player for PC with sub-par performance when they start putting the x264 compression on the disks for new movies.

Lets not stray too far off topic, lets try to help the OP.
 
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