HTPC recommendations

[bstuds]

Just starting my first HTPC and needs some advice on the various parts. I will us the box primarily for watching and recording DVD's watching TV and listening to music. I plan on hooking the system up to my existing stereo and HDTV set. What I have so far:

A-OPEN MX4SGI-4DN2 865G W/A,V,L,S,M-ATX
INTEL P4 2.8GHZ 1MB 533MHZ S478
SilverStone LCO3 Case

I am open for all suggestions.

 

[darkninja67]

How is that Silverstone case? I was looking at them and Coolermaster.

 

[Schro]

I'm a fan of the Coolermaster ATC-620 Series cases, I havn't seen the silverstone in person....

My current setup, if it helps, is the following:

Hardware:
Shuttle SN45G (using soundstorm via optical out to receiever)
AIW Radeon (original- now called 7200)
Athlon 1700+ clocked @ 2.0Ghz
256mb ram (will be bumped to 512- snapstream needs it)
120gb wd jb + .5tb network storage
Liteon DVD ROM

Software:
XP Pro
Snapstream Beyond TV 3 (much better than the ATI software- I used the ATI software for nearly a year before switching to this)
myHTPC front end

The major weakness w/ snapstream is its unwillingness to be used as an entire 'media center', hence my use of myHTPC....

I hope this help- if you have any q's, let mek now

I could probably get by with less processing power than what I have- say the 1700 @ stock would be more than enough to run this.

 

[bstuds]

How is that Silverstone case? I was looking at them and Coolermaster

The case in my opinion is great. It has the looks and definately the performance is there. So far has the room I need, but we will see as more hardware is added.

 

[bstuds]

I'm a fan of the Coolermaster ATC-620 Series cases, I havn't seen the silverstone in person....

I notice that you didn't have a sound card listed, any reason why?

 

[valve1138]

Plug for the Antec Aria case, as you have a mATX motherboard.

'Egg has them.

 

[Schro]

I notice that you didn't have a sound card listed, any reason why?

I did mention it- Soundstorm audio, provided by the nForce2's southbridge, the MCP-T, which has a dolby digital encoder. I run an optical line from that into my receiver (denon w/ surround sound). I'm quite happywith its quality, as the ac3 audio that i have stored can be passed out in excellent quality.

Thats the whole reason I picked that particular box- it had the encoder, and the optical out jack was on the back- there isn't really any good aftermarket soundcards with optical out on them, and I wasn't in much of a mood to make my own for an MN31N or other mATX nF2 board.

The disadvantage to all other chipsets is that they don't have the DD encoder, which isn't much of a big deal for _most_ things.....

To answer your question about VC's, consider what you will be doing with it first of all, and second, what your budget is. Most will agree that the best capture cards on the market are the Hauppauge PVR 250/350 series, but will set you back ~150-200 + a remote and + a video card, whereas the All-In-Wonder Radeon 9x00 will take care of all of those functions for a much more reasonable price.

The only reason to jump past a 9600 series VC is if you plan on doing some heavy duty gaming, or post processing on DVD's, otherwise, something like my'7200' w/ 32mb of ram is sufficient, at least until DX9 based overlays are introduced in the software market (very bling bling). I'm a huge ATI fanboy (and have been since I got my AIW Rage Pro (8mb), which is still chugging away in my server....)

What sort of inputs does your tv support?

 

[CrimandEvil]

You can find 250MCEs for around $115, if you go with an AIW your going to need a faster processor though

Another reason to just jump pass a 9600 series now is because the 9800Pros are getting so cheap now and will be the best balance between gaming and HTPCs.

Going for cheap: 7500 and greater, Geforce4 MX or higher (the FX series seem to have a very good image)

 

[Schro]

Looking at this again, you don't mention that you want PVR functionaliy- just DVD's and music. If this is the case, I'd go for the cheapest ATI card you can find with S-Video out, which you have on your panel. I would also invest in a VGA -> Component adapter for better video quality. If you do want PVR functionality cheaply, i'd do the AIW 9000, even though it takes a slightly strong processor to run- just about anything you can buy new these days is sufficient though.

 

[bstuds]

Looking at this again, you don't mention that you want PVR functionaliy- just DVD's and music. If this is the case, I'd go for the cheapest ATI card you can find with S-Video out, which you have on your panel. I would also invest in a VGA -> Component adapter for better video quality. If you do want PVR functionality cheaply, i'd do the AIW 9000, even though it takes a slightly strong processor to run- just about anything you can buy new these days is sufficient though.

Perfect, that's exactly what I've been waiting to here. Now if you can clear one more thing up for me. I need your advice on what kind (sound card) and what extra I would need to connect the HTPC to my reciever and not sacrifice sound quality.Also I've changed boards:

INTEL 865PERLK 800FSB W/A,L,SATAR

 

[Schro]

Perfect, that's exactly what I've been waiting to here. Now if you can clear one more thing up for me. I need your advice on what kind (sound card) and what extra I would need to connect the HTPC to my reciever and not sacrifice sound quality.Also I've changed boards:

INTEL 865PERLK 800FSB W/A,L,SATAR

My vote would be to goto an AMD based platform- with Soundstorm audio (compliments of the nF2 chipset)- the only onboard dolby digital encoder available. (Read: get the SN45G + and AIW like me)

However, with what you are doing, it won't make a huge difference either- DD encoding is most useful when you have a non-encoded source or positional audio in games- DVD out is typically a straight AC3 dump to the receiver- the soundcard makes no difference. For MP3 playback, the quality of the codec makes the difference- since these are 2 channel audio, the encoder serves no purpose. For onboard audio, Realtek's ALC658 is one of the latest and greatest that you can get, but is usually only seen on A64 mobos... The ALC650 is quite adequete for most too- it depends on how picky you are and who you ask. Chipzilla's Azalia audio is rumored to be good, but with a recall of the chipsets, I doubt you'll get your mitts on it anytime soon.

Another option to consider, if you're not buying an AIW type solution, is a board based on ATI's RS300 chipset- just as fast as springdale, with excellent onboard graphics. Pair this with the VGA -> component adapter, and you're in business.

I'm great at adding more confusing choices, aren't I?

 

[bstuds]

My vote would be to goto an AMD based platform- with Soundstorm audio (compliments of the nF2 chipset)- the only onboard dolby digital encoder available. (Read: get the SN45G + and AIW like me)

However, with what you are doing, it won't make a huge difference either- DD encoding is most useful when you have a non-encoded source or positional audio in games- DVD out is typically a straight AC3 dump to the receiver- the soundcard makes no difference. For MP3 playback, the quality of the codec makes the difference- since these are 2 channel audio, the encoder serves no purpose. For onboard audio, Realtek's ALC658 is one of the latest and greatest that you can get, but is usually only seen on A64 mobos... The ALC650 is quite adequete for most too- it depends on how picky you are and who you ask. Chipzilla's Azalia audio is rumored to be good, but with a recall of the chipsets, I doubt you'll get your mitts on it anytime soon.

Another option to consider, if you're not buying an AIW type solution, is a board based on ATI's RS300 chipset- just as fast as springdale, with excellent onboard graphics. Pair this with the VGA -> component adapter, and you're in business.

I'm great at adding more confusing choices, aren't I?

confused: and I thought I was confused before your last email. I can see where you are heading, but at this point I don't want the headache of changing boards and processors. Maybe on my next build I will try and amd setup. What is a good software for catologing movies?