help building htpc

H

HelpfulWife

n00b
Joined
Aug 15, 2012
Messages
6
I need some help building a htpc and was hoping I came to the right place. I have the following parts:

HDD is a solid state 1.8" Intel X-18M. There is no need for an DVD/Blu ray drive.

Fan is Intel E41759-002 Socket 1156 Copper Core/Aluminum Heat Sink & 3.5" Fan w/4-pin Connector up to Core i5 2.66GHz

I have a CPU but all I know is it's an i5 and will fit the board

Intel dh67cf motherboard

Intel (?) 80GB SATA hard drive

What else will I need to put this thing together? I think I just need a case, memory, and tv turner card. Any suggestions? I don't need a blu-ray player. Since I already have one.

Thank you for all your help!
 
What's your budget?
What country are you located in?
Did you want a HTPC style case?
Are you reusing a PSU or do you need a new one as well?
By have, you mean you own those parts already?
Did you want to record OTA content or content from your cable service?
 
Why is your storage so small? Where do you plan to keep the multimedia files? 80GB would fill up in a flash!
 
Budget: the cheaper the better but would like quality parts. Ideally under $500
Location: US
HTPC style case: I don't really care the case style, though the smaller the better
PSU: I am assuming power supply - we don't have one
Have part: yes, I already own the parts sitting in a closet waiting to be put together
Recording: OTA content only would be fine

Storage is so small because currently that's all we have that was given to us for free. We would upgrade if we thought we need more, but we aren't the type of people who keep an episode or video after we watch it once. Any recommendation would be helpful
 
For the PSU, case, and RAM, I recommend the following:
$34 - G.Skill Value Series F3-10666CL9D-8GBNT 2 x 4GB DDR3 1333 RAM
$45 - Corsair 430CX V2 430W PSU
$60 - Coolermaster Elite 120 Advanced mITX Case
----
Total: $139 shipped.

As for the TV Tuner, I'm a little out of date on those parts. I would highly recommend getting a large sized drive simply for the extra storage and less wear on the SSD:
$130 - Samsung Spinpoint F4 HD204UI 2TB 5400 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive
 
the tv tuner card you get depends on how you get your tv - through a standard antenna? cable? satellite?
Also if you plan on recording tv on this machine i would recommend getting a 1tb driver or 500gb minimum because it will fill up very quickly, especially if you plan on recording hdtv
 
You should also think of a remote controller or long-range wireless keyboard/mouse combo. Look for bluetooth like wireless devices because the regular desktop wireless keyboards don't work further than 3-5 feet. Most often the tv card comes bundled with a remote.
 
fuzzypiglet said:
the tv tuner card you get depends on how you get your tv - through a standard antenna? cable? satellite?
Also if you plan on recording tv on this machine i would recommend getting a 1tb driver or 500gb minimum because it will fill up very quickly, especially if you plan on recording hdtv
Click to expand...


Currently we get our tv through cable.
 
HelpfulWife said:
Currently we get our tv through cable.
Click to expand...

If you want to watch encrypted channels on cable, you will need a cablecard. I'm not sure if only subscription-only channels like HBO is encrypted or even the regular channels are that way.

When I had my regular tuner card, I could see most channels and even on-demand channels! However, the pain was that Comcast would randomly change locations of channels because they were supposed to be accessed through the TV Guide. People on this forum probably know more about the latest on what's the best way of doing this these days. There is some info in this thread.
 
Considering we only get basic cable through comcast, we could probably survive using just a regular tuner card. I just don't know what to look for when buying one.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top