New media PC / feedback welcome

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echn111

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Jan 30, 2007
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Hello,

I'm looking to order the parts to my new media PC tonight and looking for any feedback/suggestions.

I'm looking for a "do-it-all" solution to play Blu Ray, HD-DVD, DVD's and record media. This is going to be used as a DVD replacement in my living room and connected to a modern TV/receiver/5.1 speaker system and I care about picture and sound quality.

Thanks

EDIT: Final list of items purchased is (my original list didn't include a video card, a sound card, a diNovo keyboard; the original processor was an E6550, and my original proposal for a heatsink was a Zalman):

  • LG GGW-H20L Blu-ray Disc Rewriter & HD DVD ROM - OEM
  • Antec Fusion V2 Case 430Watt PSU
  • Western Digital Caviar SE16 500Gb 16Mb Cache Hard Disk Drive SATAII 300MB/s <8.9ms 7200rpm - OEM
  • Asus P5E-VM HDMI Intel G35 Micro-ATX 775 PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard
  • Intel Core 2 Duo E6750 2 x 2.33Ghz 4Mb Cache 1333 FSB Dual Core Processor
  • Scythe Mini Ninja Heatpipe CPU Cooler S478/LAG775, AMD S754/939/940/AM2
  • Auzentech X-Fi Prelude 7.1 Ch Soundcard PCI
  • Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 3850 Pro 256MB GDDR3 TV-Out/Dual DVI/HDMI PCI-Express - Retail
  • Logitech diNovo Edge Ultra Slim Keyboard
* I've already got the OS & memory
 
My suggestion is to make sure you get a very large HDD. 1 TB or so. You will eventually grow into backing up the HD disc movies, and you will need a lot of room for that.

I have a 36GB Raptor for the O/S and have a 250GB for music. I was ripping dvds to the 250, but realized that I need seperate drives for music and movies/ hd movies.
 
As far as i know the G35 only accelerates VC1 (and only deblocking/motion compensation), but doesnt accelerate AVC.

If i were you i would order a silent 2600/8600 to do this, of course you could test it out first and buy the GPU later. As far as ive read, the lower model (2400/2500/8400/8500) cards do accelerate AVC/VC1 etc but do so without post processing, which can lower the image quality.
 
TheAmerican said:
My suggestion is to make sure you get a very large HDD. 1 TB or so. You will eventually grow into backing up the HD disc movies, and you will need a lot of room for that.

I have a 36GB Raptor for the O/S and have a 250GB for music. I was ripping dvds to the 250, but realized that I need seperate drives for music and movies/ hd movies.
Click to expand...

Thanks. I'm initially getting a 500 Gig drive because I can get it for a cheap price and this is a first attempt at a media PC. But there's space for two drives so I'll probably add a 1TB in once I get a bit more experience in ripping HD movies.
 
Toytown said:
As far as i know the G35 only accelerates VC1 (and only deblocking/motion compensation), but doesnt accelerate AVC.

If i were you i would order a silent 2600/8600 to do this, of course you could test it out first and buy the GPU later. As far as ive read, the lower model (2400/2500/8400/8500) cards do accelerate AVC/VC1 etc but do so without post processing, which can lower the image quality.
Click to expand...

Well was looking to save some money with the G35, but not at the cost of decreased image quality. I take it we're talking about the 8600GT? If I end up getting a GPU and a sound card, I suppose there is not much advantage to getting the G35 board. I think I'll read up a bit on these GPU's.
 
take it we're talking about the 8600GT?
Click to expand...

Yep, as far as i read, the 8400GT provided acceleration but no post processing. The 8600GT provided both, which should give a higher quality image, in the HQV tests, it definetely scores more. Same for ATI where the 2400 provided acceleration but no post processing. In both cases it could just be a driver bug, but its probably related somewhere to the amount of shaders or performance of the cards (who knows?).

Either way it looks like you would have to purchase one, if you wanted to watch flawless AVC encoded video from HDDVD/Bluray

I have the same case as you, with a Scythe Mini Ninja cooler, it just about fits but does an awesome job on cooling the cpu, i got a lower speed cpu and i dont even need the cpufan connected, the temp hovers around 30oC. It really is a great case.
 
Well, if I'm going to have to buy a GPU (and a sound card), then for just a bit more money, I can get the new(ish) ATI 3850. Currently looking at the following :

- Novatech ATI Radeon HD 3850 Pro 256MB GDDR3 TV-Out/Dual DVI/HDMI PCI-Express (Novatech is the retailer).

Spec says "Hardware processed 1080p video playback of Blu-ray and HD DVDs" , "ATI Avivo HD Video and Display Platform", "Shader Model 4.1 Fully distributed design with 512-bit internal ring bus for memory reads and writes", "Microsoft® DirectX® 10.1 support"

What do you guys think?

This machine is looking a bit more powerful than I had intended but I suppose that's not a bad thing as I can probably use it for more than just watching HD-DVD's.
 
No point in getting the 3850 unless you actually plan on gaming on it. Either way you still need to get a sound card (no, don't even bother with HDMI on a PC. Look at the "TrueHD" thread for the reason why). Just pick up a 8600GT (that supports HDCP), an Xfi XtremeGamer sound card and ditch the crappy Zalman heatsink and get a Scyth Mini Ninja instead.
 
Ok - lost the Zalman and replaced with the Scyth Mini Ninja. Since I seem to need to get a sound card, might as well get a good one so I've decided to go for an Azentech Prelude since many people claim that it is a "better quality X-Fi". ( Maybe it even comes with the relevant cables?) Still looking at the ATI 3850 because if I have to get a video card, I might as well get a reasonably powerful one and having the option of playing the occational game on a large TV isn't such a bad idea.
 
Since I seem to be spending more money than I had intended...

does anyone have any views with regards to the Logitech diNovo Edge Ultra Slim Keyboard? It looks pretty good and would fit well in my living room but is rather expensive.
 
The diNovo Mini looks good as a remote control and keyboard.

Anyway, after making one minor change (went for an E6750), I've just submitted my purchase order and am expecting all the parts midweek. Hopefully I'll have everything assembled in time for the weekend, when I visit my local Hi-Fi shop and pick up my new 5.1 surround sound system, and connect everything together.

Thanks everyone!
 
Still looking at the ATI 3850 because if I have to get a video card, I might as well get a reasonably powerful one and having the option of playing the occational game on a large TV isn't such a bad idea
Click to expand...

Im not sure how much heat a 3850 gives off, but if you want a nice quiet media center (mine is pretty much silent), then having a powerfull card is a no-no. Everybody has different tastes, but i couldnt stand the whir of a small fan on a GPU in my HTPC.
 
As a new gen card, the 3850 runs quite cool for it's power.

There is a completely passive version of the card. Link

Unfortuntely if that fan is annoying, I could replace it with my Zalman fan.

What case did you use for your media centre? The only one I found that looked reasonably quiet was the Antec Fusion - all the others, inlcuding the large zalman cases, used noisy 92 and 80mm fans.
 
I used the Antec Fusion case you mentioned, with a Scyth Mini Ninja and E2160.

I chose the case after trying to get the most silent media center i could, whilst having something that would fit in with the rest of my stuff and not look like it was a computer.

It really is a great case, however i make a few modifications to make it quieter

- Replaced the PSU fan with a quieter one.
- Replaced one of the 120mm fans on the side with a quieter one.
- Removed one of the 120mm fans and replaced it with the blanker that comes with the case
- Didnt bother putting the CPU fan on the heatsink.

As it comes its pretty much silent, but doing the above gets it to completely silent (at least for my ears). Even though the cpu has no direct fan on it, it typically hovers around 30oC and maxes about 35oC whilst watching HD stuff. Intels TAT can sometimes get it to 40oC. Which is perfectly fine and great as it was another fan (and source of noise) removed.
 
It seems to be the only HTPC case that handles 120mm fans. I was looking at more expensive cases but none of them seemed to compare with the Antec Fusion. I'm a bit surprised by this but sometimes you don't get what you pay for.

I think I've still got some silicon fan holders and other sound dampeners lying around, so I'll make a few modifications to try to keep the sound down. I'll probably end up replacing or undervolting the the fans as well, although I'll need to monitor temps before I see if I can take the CPU fan off and go passive (will probably undervolt the CPU to keep temps down).

BTW, new plan for my potentially noisy GPU: I'm getting the Arctic Cooling Accelero S1 for a completely passive cooling solution for my GPU. It's surprising ly affordable for a passive GPU heatsink. The folks on SPCR forums have been trying it out on the 3870 so should be great for the lower powered 3850 I'm getting.

http://www.arctic-cooling.com/vga2.php?idx=138
 
To be honest, you might not need to make any mods, it really depends on how anal you are about noise. I setup mine in a different and very quiet room so i could hear the noise, however it would have certainly got drowned out immediately by any noise from TV/Movies/Music being played from the box.

The 120mm fans that are on the fusion all have a 3 step switch for deciding how slow/fast you want them to go and the PSU comes with a fan that steps up as it gets hotter. So its more than possible that you will able to run without changing anything.
 
echn111 said:
It s
BTW, new plan for my potentially noisy GPU: I'm getting the Arctic Cooling Accelero S1 for a completely passive cooling solution for my GPU. It's surprising ly affordable for a passive GPU heatsink. The folks on SPCR forums have been trying it out on the 3870 so should be great for the lower powered 3850 I'm getting.

http://www.arctic-cooling.com/vga2.php?idx=138
Click to expand...

Good luck fitting that into the Fusion case; it's too tall to fit.
 
Yeah I found out. I just ordered the Zalman VF1000 to replace the GPU heatsink.
 
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