My HTPC...You're Opinions Please!!!

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jpnelson83

Gawd
Joined
May 13, 2002
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Okay, I had the idea of doing this with some of my old hardware before the forums went down and am picking it back up again. Originally I was planning on using my 8500AIW and an Audigy card but have decided that that might not be such a good idea. So I found a Shuttle mATX mobo that has the MCP-T southbridge so I can do pure digital out. I've pretty much decided on the Huppage Win TV-PVR250MCE for recording and stuff and then a Radeon 9600 non-pro for display purposes. I'm going to be reusing an Athlon XP 1900+ for my processor and I'm gonna have to get 1GB of PC2100 (preferably mushkin) RAM. I already got a case off of ebay and I'm going to use a regular DVD-ROM drive (Lite-on). I've got an 80GB maxtor drive lying arround that I'll use for the HDD and I'm not planning on using a floppy drive. I can get data off the thing using either a network or an external drive. I now give to you my new HTPC and ask for your constructive criticism and pointing out of things I may have looked over.
 
Thats pretty good, why the 1 gig of memory though? Most HTPCs don't need more then 512 so I was just wondering.
 
Sounds like you have all your bases covered and plenty of room to upgrade if/when you feel like it. I'd suggest looking at some king of remote control system. Either the Girder route, or the SnapStream Firefly, some of the Hauppauge packages include one but I'd do my homework first.
 
Yea, go stick with only 512 ddr for the ram. Also, I'm putting up a vote for the Girder remote control package.
 
jpnelson83 said:
<<>>So I found a Shuttle mATX mobo that has the MCP-T southbridge so I can do pure digital out. <<>> and ask for your constructive criticism and pointing out of things I may have looked over.
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Extremely satisfied with the same mobo myself, but it is missing one thing...an optical bracket/port. You'll have to purchase it seperately, try shuttle.com for prices and references. Newegg usually has them under "mobo accesories" but they are currently out of stock. Theres a chance another brandname bracket will work but i'm not entirely sure. Some of these front panel multifunction devices might have a viable optical port.

You might want to throw a mini heatsink or fan on the southbridge (mine gets bitchin hot and it can affect audio quality). Also: the northbridge heatsink needs more thermal paste since shuttle barely puts any on. Its an otherwise perfect mobo for htpc's imho.

Edit: Shuttle linkies:
A little expensive but you get the ideahttp://us.shuttle.com/buy.asp
Cheaper possible alternatives: http://www.censuspc.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=CTGY&Store_Code=C&Category_Code=MBA001
 
I was gonna go with 1GB becasue...why not? but if you guys are saying 512 will be enough I'll do that instead (cheaper that way :) ). As for the digital out stuff, I have a TOSlink backpane that I got with my current Gigabyte motherboard, do you guys think that would work? And thanks for the Heads up on the remote, I was just planning on using an IR keyboard/mouse thing but I would prefer a remote.
 
jpnelson83 said:
I was gonna go with 1GB becasue...why not? but if you guys are saying 512 will be enough I'll do that instead (cheaper that way :) ). As for the digital out stuff, I have a TOSlink backpane that I got with my current Gigabyte motherboard, do you guys think that would work?
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Kinston value has had some killer ram prices lately, check out the [H] deals forum. Also, 2 x ddr dimms (dual channel) gives a big performance boost when onboard video is being used. And I'd be willing to bet the gigabyte bracket will work fine.
 
jpnelson83 said:
I was gonna go with 1GB becasue...why not? but if you guys are saying 512 will be enough I'll do that instead (cheaper that way :) ). As for the digital out stuff, I have a TOSlink backpane that I got with my current Gigabyte motherboard, do you guys think that would work? And thanks for the Heads up on the remote, I was just planning on using an IR keyboard/mouse thing but I would prefer a remote.
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512 mostly because the other 512 would be (pretty much) going to waste doing nothing, 1 gig is great for a gaming rig because most games now like to work with that kind of space but an HTPC is going to be just sitting there doing nothing for like 60% of the time, unless your planning to play HL2 on it you don't need the extra 512mb. You got a pic of that backplane?
They use one of two plugin types, If I remember correctly Shuttle uses a 6 pin design.
 
Since you mention recording, my only additional comment would be to consider more hard drive space (maybe a large, quiet storage drive) and possibly another tuner card. I run into a lot of scheduling conflicts with one tuner personally. Depending on the quality you record at, you are looking at possibly 3GB/hour, and the space goes pretty fast at that rate :)
 
Storage is being taken care of externally. Thanks again for the RAM opinions. I may go with dual tuners in the future but at this point I think I'm going to go with just one. You know...budgets and all that :mad: oh and I'll get that pic for you.
 
Okay, here you go.
dscf0225.jpg
 
If you're comfortable with and understand the risks of refurbs, newegg has two refurbed NF2 matx igp mcp-t mobo's (yea soundtorm) that i posted right here

With refurb mobo's i suggest you build and test them right away, since newegg carries a 15day warranty. The mobo's are still warrantied by the mfr (a big +) but their service reputations vary. Shuttle has a good service rep from what i understand.
 
perhaps more importantly, what display are u using, receiver, speakers..theres more to a home theater pc than just the pc...
 
hehehe...well for the time being I'm just going to hook it up to a regular tv. I'm planning on taking it to college with me so I might need to get a monitor or something else once I get there. For sound I'll prolly just use some wireless seinheiser headphones I plan on getting for my dorm room. Later on in life I'll get an Onkyo digital reciever and a decent TV or possibly a projector that will take compnent. I plan on building this and then keeping it for at least 6 years before building a new one with a possible upgrade of the CPU and RAM.
 
i understand as i just graduated from UF and integrated my pc with my ht. You really dont need more then svid out and on board audio. I use a sdtv and picture quality is pretty crappy, Im going to save up for a dlp one day, once u start outputing HD signals or upconverting then u need to get fancy.
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It looks like that cable won't work, your manuel should have the pin layout on page 37 so you could get the parts from like Radioshack and build on yourself or look around some more (or just get it from Shuttles site) for another one.
 
Question directed at CrimandEvil, have you thought about putting zalmans passive chipset heatsinks on your north and southbridges? If not I'm thinking that they should be adequate. Opinions? One onther question. Which HSF are you using? I was thinking about the ALX-800 with an 80mm stealth fan. Do you think that would work?
 
Well my northbridge can get pretty hot and I (personally) tend to stay away from passive coolers but I think it would atleast work. It's just mostly a personal preferance with them I think. Like I said before (was it this thread?) I just took the heatsink off of an old GF2 MX and that is passive and working fine, the ALX on the northbridge? or are you asking about my cooler? I'm still using the stock northbridge cooler but I'm thinking of going for the NB-1, I have an okay cooler on the CPU not much for anything other then replacing the stock AMD cooler I got it because it's pretty damn quiet and this heatsink is going into my HTPC soon after I get a SP-97 :D but yeah the ALX is a really nice cooler on the cheap, it was the one I was going to get but it was $25 at Newegg plus $5 shipping (I see that it's now $20 with free shipping- I'd jump on that if I were you). I've heard in a few HTPC forums that the Stealth fans were a little "whiny" but I haven't gotten one so I can't attest to that. I'm looking at getting some Papst Ultra-Quiet 80mm fans later for when I get around to making my case, the most quiet fans I've ever hear without going totally passive cooling, but they cost a pretty penny ($18.95).
http://www.quietpcusa.com/acb/showdetl.cfm?&DID=8&Product_ID=109&CATID=7

I haven't gotten one yet because I just modded my case to use a 92mm Enermax as an exhaust and I've noticed that its pretty quiet and also pulls in air as well.
 
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