HTPC died, need to replace quickly.

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Alright, my trusty HTPC has seem to bite the dust (Biostar T-force 7050, AMD 4000+, 2 gigs of ram, 2TB across several hard drives, Happagauge(sp?) HVR1600 and 250). For the past couple of days it has been hardlocking on me, and today it really loves to hang at the post screen. Since I am already having withdrawal, I need to get this replaced asap. Since I already have several hard drives, 2 gigs of ram, a dvd rom, etc, I'm just going to go for the things I need and a few improvements. Since I have been out of the loop for a while, I desperately need some recommendations for solid, inexpensive hardware. I am basically looking for a new motherboard/processor combo, but would also like to upgrade my video card and psu while I am at it. I don't do any gaming, this is pretty much a server that is exclusively used for HDTV/SDTV/MPEG and Divx videos. My budget would be in the $300-400 dollar range, preferably cheaper. Since I do alot of encoding, I figure I should get a decent processor. For the video card, I am lost. I want one that will be able to do all the hardware encoding/decoding I will need for all my tv purposes, but I don't need it to be over the top for gaming really. For the motherboard, I am just looking for something with 4 or more sata ports and 3 or 4 pci slots. Lastly, I think I will probably need a psu in the 400 watt range because of the 4 hard drives I have. Any recomendationf or the 4 things I need?

Cliff Notes:
-Old HTPC looks like it's a gonner.

-Need recommendations for a motherboard, processor, video card and psu.
-300-400 budget, exclusivly used as a server/htpc.
 
Well, good news is that today's IGP chipsets do a good job for HTPC so you don't really need a GPU card.

I, myself am using the MSI Media Live Diva with 5.1 amp card included ($200 at Newegg). Bundle it is a dual core 45W or 65W quad core and you have a killer system, ready to go. The audio amp on this thing absolutely ROCKS! I replaced my Denon with this solution and it works great.

For a little cheaper solution, the Gbyte 780G platform is very popular with the HTPC crowd.

In any case, these will do 1080p, Blu Ray, etc. all without a discrete card. Most of the content uses Hardware Acceleration in the IGP to off load work on the CPU. Dual core CPU should suffice in most cases. Perhaps a 5400+ will do nicely.

Also, the MSI board has 128MB of sideport graphics memory for a little bit better performance. Most IGP boards don't have dedicated GPU memory.

For PSU, Corsair's PSUs seem to be nice and quiet. A 450 or 550W supply should be more than enough.
 
AMD Athlon X2 4850E CPU - $60
Gigabyte GA-MA78GPM-DS2H AMD 780G mATX Motherboard - $95
Antec True Power Trio TP3-430 430W PSU - $50
---
Total: $205 plus tax and shipping

The above is all that you really need for your needs. However if you're willing to put up with the increased heat and energy usage and since you do "a lot" of video encoding, you might be better off with this low power quad-core:
AMD Phenom 9150E 65W CPU - $140

And if you plan on having 8+ hard drives in your system. get this PSU instead:
Antec Earthwatts 650W PSU - $65

EDIT: I really should start typing faster. Crim beat me to it..
 
Thanks for the quick reply guys! Couple more quick questions though...

Videocard: I am currently using onboard on my 7050 and am not impressed with it. I am hesitant to try it again since when I got the 7050 I was told it can handle HDTV just fine, but that has not been my experience. I understand that onboard video has probably made significant advancements in the 2+ years since I built my current HTPC, but I want to be able to watch HDTV/HD video while encoding video and that seems to be my downfall.

Processor: would I really see any use for a quad core? I am currently using a dual core and I don't think xp, beyond tv or auto gk (the 3 main programs running on the system) even really use the 2nd processor. Sorry for being vauge before, but by alot of video encoding, I mean that out of a 24 hour day, the HTPC probably spends at least 14 of it encoding video. Combine that with my onboard video, I feel that my processor is maxed out.

Since I am already upgrading here I am now considering upgrading to vista as well. I have never had the chance to try MCE as my media center software so I am apprehensive to spend $100 on a piece of software that I may not even like. The thing pulling me towards this idea is that fact that I have an xbox360 that I wouldn't mind using as an extender. I am currently using Beyond TV which fits my needs pretty well. The PVR and TV functionality is pretty good and it is pretty easy for me to encode a movie in divx and add it to my media library. Is Vista worth the upgrade yet or should I stick with my tried and true?
 
VMC is dead simple, pretty much. Thats it's main selling point and if you need something like that then go for it but look at it as an OS upgrade and a potential PVR upgrade. Vista makes enough improvements (for an HTPC) that makes it a good choice.

The 7050 is a good choice for SD content, HD content is a toss up among what software you use. Some software will use too much resources or doesn't work with it properly, what BIOS you have, driver versions, etc.

Either way, the 7050 is limited to mostly SD content for the most part. The 780G IGP has more muscle behind it that it can handle HD content just fine. Your apps aren't multi threaded AFAIK but they can be assigned to a core and XP should be balancing the load across both cores. Vista is a much better improvement on this though.
 
+1 for a 780g board, however the new C2D nvidia IGP boards look good as well, 9300/9400
 
intel's new boards and CPUs work in tandem to decode media pretty efficiently.

however the built in graphics, though revamped, leave much to be desired in the 3d dept.
 
Alright this is what I am thinking about going with:

GIGABYTE GA-MA78GPM
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128341

AMD Phenom 9600 Agena 2.3GHz 4 x 512KB L2 Cache 2MB L3 Cache Socket AM2+
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103244

Antec Three Hundred Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811129042

Antec EA650 650W ATX12V Ver.2.2
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371015

Total: $323 after shipping


I went with the gigabyte board that had 128 megs of integrated video memory because I thought it would be worth the 15 dollar difference. If windows XP balances the load across the 2 cores, I figure 4 @ 2.3 GHz would give me a better speed improvement (from my X2 2.1 Ghz) than an X2 @ 2.8GHz. I'm still a little unsure about this one so I am open for suggestions. Lastly, I went with the 650 watt PSU and new case, because I do have 4 hard drives currently connected to a 430 watt psu all crammed in a media center case. I think this is even some of the cause of my lockup problems. Any last opinions? The only thing I am still unsure about is the processor...

EDIT: I'm also really thinking about throwing a copy of Vista in there too. My question is, can you run another media center program in conjunction with Vista Media Center? If I could use Beyond TV simultaneously with VMC, I'm sold. The problem with upgrading to VMC is how much converting, renaming and adjusting to a new program is involved. Especially when my girlfriend is quite happy with Beyond TV. IIt would be perfect to have the ability to use Beyond TV so she doesn't have to change, and also have VMC running in the background so I can stream to my xbox.
 
I'll recommend you my HTPC's exact specs:

Gigabyte GA-MA78GM-S2H
X2 4058e
Corsair VX450
Any case, pick what you think looks good
 
Looks like a great set up to me.

You might consider the 65W processor just to keep the power down and the system a tad cooler.

However, that set up should perform nicely.

Though, I do think Vista is better for HTPC, but that is just a personal opinion. XP is less of a resource hog than Vista though.

Overall, I think you will be very happy with that set up.
 
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