Looking to build a HTPC, what do you think of this setup?

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baldyguy

Limp Gawd
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May 30, 2002
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I'm thinking of picking up this motherboard for a HTPC setup. What do you guys think of this setup? I'm not looking to spend too much money. I figure that would be the bare minimum since it already comes with onboard video, onboard sound, and I have a spare 500GB hard drive. I will be hooking the HTPC to my Sony 52" XBR2 LCD TV.

I can always upgrade later but this will do for now. Priced out will run somewhere around $370. On the case, I've seen it on buy.com as low as $150, more or less. What do you guys think? This will be strictly a system for my media, nothing else. I've been really out of it in the PC building scene.


 
I use this board and love it. I haven't tested the Clear Video from the onboard Intel GPU because I have an 8500GT..but from the reviews, it will playback 1080p HD video with around 30%-40% CPU usage.
 
4gb performance ram? you don't need uber ram to decode anything... especially if you get a 8600 or better.
 
I was just thinking of buying it since it was a good deal. Unless there is another one out there for half the price for less RAM.

Falls Included said:
4gb performance ram? you don't need uber ram to decode anything... especially if you get a 8600 or better.
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baldyguy said:
Overall, do you guys think is a decent build for the price?
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The onboard video sucks so either pick up a video card or ditch Intel and go with a cheap X2 and a 780G mobo (which has a solid IGP for HTPC use).

Early reviews pegged the board as being pretty decent at 1080p playback but those files were either downloaded content (which is encoded at a low bitrate because, well, it'll take two or more days to DL a movie encoded at the same rate as a real BlueRay movie) or HD DVD movies (which aren't very stressful, the most stressful I've seen tend to peg the CPU at around 40-50% while playing back smoothly. H264 on the other will eat your CPU as if it was a baby) which means that the testing were either skewed or very flawed.

Either way, all the feedback I've been hearing from actually users is that the Intel's IGP is very hard to work with (from those that are hit by the current driver bugs), very choppy for H264 content (even with a decent CPU) and/or is plagued by image quality issues (it scores very low on HQV tests).

My suggest is to either skip the onboard for a video card (like Vader's 8500GT suggestion, I've got one and it's great) or go AMD if you need to use an IGP.

I can't believe that we're still suggesting to go AMD at this point; you'd think that Intel would have made enough progress since the NV's 6150 IGP to atleast have something out there that is comparable to NV and AMD (ATI)'s offerings.

(And no, NV's 7xx0 series mobos are down right TERRIBLE much less usable for an HTPC. I've got one and would never dream of using the IGP for HTPC use. The board is so damn gimped (by being a single memory channel controller) that it's barely able to do DVD playback smoothly.)
 
CrimandEvil said:
My suggest is to either skip the onboard for a video card (like Vader's 8500GT suggestion, I've got one and it's great) or go AMD if you need to use an IGP.
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Thanks for the suggestion. I have a TV that supports up to 3 HDMI sources. I'd like to utilize the HDMI onboard ports if possible. If not, then I'll go this route if I don't really notice a difference. My TV has one VGA port. No DVI. That being said, and from reviews that the onboard video may not be good, and say I do get this card. I would have to go with a VGA and use the DVI connector to connect to the 8500GT card.

Speaking of which, what do you think of this one? Seems like a decent deal...

BFG Tech GeForce 8500GT BFGE85256GTE Video Card


CrimandEvil said:
(And no, NV's 7xx0 series mobos are down right TERRIBLE much less usable for an HTPC. I've got one and would never dream of using the IGP for HTPC use. The board is so damn gimped (by being a single memory channel controller) that it's barely able to do DVD playback smoothly.)
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So, you're saying the motherboard that I was looking at is not a good mobo for the HTPC setup? The problem that I have that I'm thinking of getting the Antec Fusion case and it only supports Micro ATX mobo's. So that is why I was thinking of getting the motherboard. I saw the HDMI and I thought it might be perfect.

Do you think the CPU that (above) will suffice for my HTPC?
 
The mobo and the CPU are fine as long as you pick up a video card. Like I already said, you need to go with an AMD setup if you want to use the onboard video.
 
im running the p5e-vm hdmi board with the IGP and q6600 and there hasnt been any issues with my setup what so ever. everything seems to be running flawlessly...
 
Corsair5400 is cheap and will hit 1000MHz. Purevideo II decoder is a must.
 
Since 2600XT 512MB DX10 HDMI going for $59 in HOT DEALS, i would not buy 8500GT
 
annaconda said:
Since 2600XT 512MB DX10 HDMI going for $59 in HOT DEALS, i would not buy 8500GT
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Considering how poorly the 2x00 series cards do when it comes to something simple like MPEG2 playback I hardly see one for $10 less as a "hot deal." More like a fire sale on crappy technology.
 
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