New to htpc and heavily considering buying a mini...

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prophetx2

Limp Gawd
Joined
Nov 27, 2005
Messages
201
I'm in search of something not too large and runs cool. I had a SFF previously and although it was neat to have something relatively small, the darn thing ran loud as heck.

Can someone recommend some cases and cpus to me that are less than say $729? Basically I won't need a tv tuner card, i'll be running mythtv on my file server. As far as horsepower goes, I'll need something strong enough to upconvert dvds with all the pretties and also something that can play 720p videos (potentially 1080p ones as well). Lastly, the case should be about the size of a typical a/v receiver.

I'm thinking something along the lines of a small cheap hd, 1gb generic ram, 3800x2 with some sort of matx board. Any suggestions?
 
What kind of TV do you have? More specifically, what video connection will you use? Do you already have a video card?
 
Upconverting in the "real" sense is a responsiblity of the CPU, what the video card does is very basic.

What I would be looking at:
MSI K8NGM2-FID (Seems like everyone is out of stock ATM), I'd use the onboard video.
http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=241193

Don't ever go with generic ram, thats a recipe for problems.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820145440

Maybe you'll like this case. I did a built with one and even though it had some problems I would most likely get one for a 6150 build or a built that used half height cards.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16811204005

You can also look through the cases here: http://www.pcalchemy.com/index.php/sort/4a/page/1/cName/htpc-cases

If you're looking for something decent and cheap: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16811204008

I'm working on a review of that one for HTPCnews, I should be done by the end of the week with it.

I think that if you're built something like a "highend" DVD player then a 80 gig HDD would be more then fine.

Upconverting with FFDShow is dependant on the CPU but it isn't multithreaded so you won't see a direct benefit with a dual core CPU over a faster single core but what you will see is a "smoother" experience with the dual core CPU.

I'm in search of something not too large and runs cool. I had a SFF previously and although it was neat to have something relatively small, the darn thing ran loud as heck.
Click to expand...
Cooling is something that you need to play alot of attention too for an HTPC which is why AMD's A64 is the perferred CPU for them, your craming alot of hot running parts into a small case so you'll have to be careful with the heat. A Zalman 7000 ALCU with some quiet case fans that you can undervolt.
 
jebo_4jc said:
What kind of TV do you have? More specifically, what video connection will you use? Do you already have a video card?
Click to expand...

Sorry, I just picked up a Syntax LT42HVI. I really liked the look of the tv and the colors were amazingly better than the entry level Sony's.

I have 2 HDMI ports, I'm hoping to either get native HDMI (the new x1600 looks very promissing) or just use a HDMI->DVI connector and a mini-jack -> mini-jack (I'll be using the applie hi-fi as the speakers as the stock ones are removable and looks ugly as all hell).
 
CrimandEvil said:
Upconverting in the "real" sense is a responsiblity of the CPU, what the video card does is very basic.

What I would be looking at:
MSI K8NGM2-FID (Seems like everyone is out of stock ATM), I'd use the onboard video.
http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=241193

Don't ever go with generic ram, thats a recipe for problems.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820145440

Maybe you'll like this case. I did a built with one and even though it had some problems I would most likely get one for a 6150 build or a built that used half height cards.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16811204005

You can also look through the cases here: http://www.pcalchemy.com/index.php/sort/4a/page/1/cName/htpc-cases

If you're looking for something decent and cheap: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16811204008

I'm working on a review of that one for HTPCnews, I should be done by the end of the week with it.

I think that if you're built something like a "highend" DVD player then a 80 gig HDD would be more then fine.

Upconverting with FFDShow is dependant on the CPU but it isn't multithreaded so you won't see a direct benefit with a dual core CPU over a faster single core but what you will see is a "smoother" experience with the dual core CPU.


Cooling is something that you need to play alot of attention too for an HTPC which is why AMD's A64 is the perferred CPU for them, your craming alot of hot running parts into a small case so you'll have to be careful with the heat. A Zalman 7000 ALCU with some quiet case fans that you can undervolt.
Click to expand...

Thank you very much! Heat is definately something I've encountered many times. I've checked that pcalchemy site and they have tons of cases that make the PC look more like a recieve (which is what I want). Are there any mini-atx boards that have built in DVI by chance? A video card is really not necessary since everything is going to be decoded by the CPU primarily anyways.. Better yet, what's a very cool running video card that has dvi that most people use in HTPCs?
 
CrimandEvil said:
Upconverting with FFDShow is dependant on the CPU but it isn't multithreaded so you won't see a direct benefit with a dual core CPU over a faster single core but what you will see is a "smoother" experience with the dual core CPU.

Cooling is something that you need to play alot of attention too for an HTPC which is why AMD's A64 is the perferred CPU for them, your craming alot of hot running parts into a small case so you'll have to be careful with the heat. A Zalman 7000 ALCU with some quiet case fans that you can undervolt.
Click to expand...
QFT
IMHO, undervolting a single-core A64 is the perfect CPU for an HTPC. How much multitasking will this HTPC do? Mine does none.
If you already have a video card to use, you might consider a socket 754 mATX board and a 3700+ CPU or something similar.
 
That MSI board I linked too have DVI. Most people use a 6600, the 7300 GS just came on the scene and might make for a decent video card and the 7600 GTs look very promising.
 
jebo_4jc said:
QFT
IMHO, undervolting a single-core A64 is the perfect CPU for an HTPC. How much multitasking will this HTPC do? Mine does none.
If you already have a video card to use, you might consider a socket 754 mATX board and a 3700+ CPU or something similar.
Click to expand...
Or a Turion64. ;)
 
prophetx2 said:
Thank you very much! Heat is definately something I've encountered many times. I've checked that pcalchemy site and they have tons of cases that make the PC look more like a recieve (which is what I want). Are there any mini-atx boards that have built in DVI by chance? A video card is really not necessary since everything is going to be decoded by the CPU primarily anyways.. Better yet, what's a very cool running video card that has dvi that most people use in HTPCs?
Click to expand...
If you are going to be using DVI, the motherboard Crim linked to above would be a good bet. The geforce 6150 motherboards usually have built in DVI capability, and I think the MSI board is no exception.
The geforce 6xxx series and above and the radeon x1xxx series and above are the best choices for HTPCs ATM, because they perform hardware video acceleration and filtering, which offloads some work from the CPU.
Have you decided on front-end software?
 
awesome. I might go with a single core, dual core was only something I've been thinking about but if a 3700 has no issues playing 720p/1080p media, i won't hesitate.

The motherboard you linked is awesome if it has dvi. One less component = less heat. I think I have an idea of what I want to build.


I have friends that use myth that absolutely love it. Geexbox looks great too. Obviously the front end software will be something I will have to play with and will have to get gf approved =)
 
CrimandEvil said:
Just so you know FFDShow is Win only.
Click to expand...

yeah i've been readin the in's and out's of all the software. It's seriously giving me a headache. Are there ANY programs out there that resemble XBMC? Honestly if XBMC was ported to xbox360 right now, i'd buy the xbox360 even though I don't play games. XBMC was awesome, simple enough for my gf and played everything i needed.
 
MediaPortal is an out growth of XBMC, it's nice but it seems to be one of the more difficult to setup (I tried messing around with it and didn't much like it).

You might want to look into Meedio as it's a pretty powerful/easy to use frontend system but IMO I like Xlobby and Zoomplayer especially for things like a DVD jukebox. Starting out with Xlobby feels alittle overwhelming but it's easy to config once you start messing around with it. Navigation is pretty simple and a new skin can make it even easier.
 
CrimandEvil said:
MediaPortal is an out growth of XBMC, it's nice but it seems to be one of the more difficult to setup (I tried messing around with it and didn't much like it).

You might want to look into Meedio as it's a pretty powerful/easy to use frontend system but IMO I like Xlobby and Zoomplayer especially for things like a DVD jukebox. Starting out with Xlobby feels alittle overwhelming but it's easy to config once you start messing around with it. Navigation is pretty simple and a new skin can make it even easier.
Click to expand...

I want to thank you and give everyone a status update. I eventually found a really good deal on a used intel mac mini and decided to roll with that. I couldn't really build a HTPC that was cheaper than the 500ish that I paid for a mac mini and have it be practically dead silent, itx form factor, 720p, and the hardest thing of all....BUILT IN DVI! Closest I could find was a matx board, but all the cases were HUGE and potentially loud.

So anyways my current setup.

intel mac mini 1.5 core solo
- runnning xp pro
- mce 2005 remote (waiting on this)
- hdmi->dvi (waiting on this)
- mediaportal
Syntax lt42hvi

I tested the setup on my 2405fpw and it works perfectaly. My move to my apt is in May so i'll get pictures of the setup if people are interested. Thanks for all you good advice and thank you for recommedning mediaportal. It's definately the most xbmc like and thus will pass the gf-test. I dropped the mythtv idea since I realized that we barely really watch TV that we want timeshifted. Worse comes to worse we just dl the episodes and then purchase them once they become avail on dvd(anything worse than 480p upconverted looks horrible anyways)
 
prophetx2 said:
i'll get pictures of the setup if people are interested.
Click to expand...

very much so, and a commentary on what your opinion is after it is all installed.
 
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