New to HTPCs, but just bought a crapload of parts... have some questions...

B

Brahmzy

Supreme [H]ardness
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Sep 9, 2004
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Trying to do this right and could use some advice. Here's what Ive got comin in the mail...
Some may be overkill or not enough. I realize I couldve gone the Zacate route and saved a bit wattage, but want this thing to be very fast in every way.

Silverstone HD05B
ASUS P8P67-M
Intel i3 2100
G.Skill RipJaws 2x2GB 1600/C9
ASUS nV GT520 Silent Fanless GPU
Hauppauge WinTV-HVR-2250 Dual-Tuner TV Card
1 120GB Vertex Turbo SSD (oldie layin around)
2 WD10EALX 1TB RAID0
Seasonic S12II 430W PSU
Samsung SH-B123L BluRay Drive
Rosewill Remote w/IR blaster
Harmony One (already have it)
IOGear GKM561R Keyboard/Trackball thangar

So here's what I'm hoping for - please help me if I need it!
1. OS will live on SSD. The RAID0 array will have the pause buffer and recorded shows on it.
2. I can stream my BluRay collection / music / vids etc. from a 4TB RAID 5 NAS in another room over a GBit line.
3. I'm going to use TMT 5 to handle the BD playback.
4. I'm going to be able to use the Hauppauge dual-tuner card to record / watch over-the-air HDTV and have full pause/rewind/ff, just like my old Motorola DVR.
5. I'm going to able to use JUST the HDMI output on the GT520 to my DENON AVR and be able to get full TV sound and bitstreamed TRUE-HD / DTS audio.
6. I can use the Harmony One to adopt the Rosewill Remote functionality for WMC.

Does all that jive? Or have I missed something crucial?
Also have these questions...

1. I think the Hauppauge card comes with software called WinTV. Do I want this or should I just use WMC.
2. What options/methods do I have to get my BluRay collection (small) onto disk. I'm don't want any compression as theres very few BDs and I've got tons of room on the NAS. So basically *how* do I get them onto disk?
3. Any potential performance issues streaming HD content from a R5 array over a gig link?
4. W7 x64 Ultimate good for all of this?
5. I don't need a sound card, right? I will get full functionality from the GT520 and its drivers?
6. Any way to get some EQ functionality should I need it? I'm a bit cloudy on how the sound is going to work, but I'm hoping it'll all come over HDMI without the need for the motherboard's toslink or onboard sound even enabled in the BIOS.

Thank you for any help/input. Hopefully I'm close here.
 
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Five of those parts choices are very questionable, are indeeed overkill, and/or really poor choice for the money. But it should work together. But hopefully no one else tries to emulate the build since it's not that good for the money, even for an Intel build.

To answer your questions:
1) Try both and see which one you like better
2) N/A
3) Wait, what R5 array are you taking about? You have a server with R5? Anyway, as long as you have solid NICs and a solid switch, you should be fine.
4) If you already have it, yes.
5) Right
6) N/A

As noted earlier, your planned usage scenario seems solid to me.
 
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Thanks for the response.
Also, I should mention most all of these parts I got major deals on, all with free shipping and from about 5 different websites to hit the sales and coupons, so total out of pocket isn't as bad as it looks. In some cases it was actually cheaper to buy the next step up due to a sale and/or free shipping.
 
Brahmzy said:
Also, I should mention most all of these parts I got major deals on, all with free shipping and from about 5 different websites to hit the sales and coupons, so total out of pocket isn't as bad as it looks. In some cases it was actually cheaper to buy the next step up due to a sale and/or free shipping.
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Well unless you got that PSU for like $50, it's gonna be a bad buy for the money. It's a good PSU no doubt about it but still overpriced IMO. As for the motherboard and video card, why not stick with the onboard video of the Core i3 2100? Hopefully you got those drives for less than $60 since you could have gotten the faster Samsung F3 1TB drives for $60. How much did you get the RAM for?
 
PSU's are one thing I do not skimp on - ever. I've built hundreds of PCs and have seen cheap PSUs take out motherboards, vid cards etc. An extra $10 or $20 is well worth it to me. Seasonics are among the best and quietest. I also like to run much more wattage than I need. Once I made that change of mind years ago all has been well and the systems I build stay happier.
 
Danny Bui said:
Well unless you got that PSU for like $50, it's gonna be a bad buy for the money. It's a good PSU no doubt about it but still overpriced IMO. As for the motherboard and video card, why not stick with the onboard video of the Core i3 2100? Hopefully you got those drives for less than $60 since you could have gotten the faster Samsung F3 1TB drives for $60. How much did you get the RAM for?
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If hes got the parts already, theres really no reason to grill the guy is there? I don't see any issue with anything hes got especially. Obviously with a p67 and a gt520 on the way the integrated video question is already moot. The seasonic might be kind of overpriced but its a quality psu, so no fault there

For your questions:
1: WMC
2: see Anh N.'s post
3: No
4: yes
5: no soundcard necessary
6: let your receiver handle it
 
Brahmzy said:
PSU's are one thing I do not skimp on - ever. I've built hundreds of PCs and have seen cheap PSUs take out motherboards, vid cards etc. An extra $10 or $20 is well worth it to me. Seasonics are among the best and quietest. I also like to run much more wattage than I need. Once I made that change of mind years ago all has been well and the systems I build stay happier.
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I totally agree. But to be clear: I wasn't about to recommend cheap shitty PSUs. When I said that Seasonic was overpriced, this is what I meant:
$50 - Antec NEO ECO 400C 400W PSU
$64 - Antec NEO ECO 520C 520W PSU
$76 - Antec NEO ECO 620C 620W PSU
$82 - Antec Truepower New TP-650 650W PSU

All of the above PSUs are Seasonic made. So you're not gonna see an appreciable decline in quality with any of the above PSUs. Since you get more power with the above PSUs (well except for the first), I don't see a reason for the Seasonic 430W unless you're really paranoid about Seasonic made Antec PSUs.

Activate: AMD said:
If hes got the parts already, theres really no reason to grill the guy is there? I don't see any issue with anything hes got especially.
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Meh, just making sure that if other people see this thread that they know those parts aren't the optimal choices. The parts he chose were fine from a quality perspective. But from a price to performance perspective, he could have done better. But I'll stop the "grilling" I guess.
 
Thanks again for the feedback all - I've kinda got a thing (a slight paranoia) about Antec PSU's - I've had 3 wreck some systems and i kinda sworn them off.
I do realize the NEO ECOs are grood PSUs - different than past offierings for sure (went through 4 of the original NEOs alone(RMA nightmare after another)). Kinda switched to the *good* Corsairs and the Seasonics.
I probably would've been fine with a NEO ECO and I probably need to revisit some of the paranoia - especially with Corsair pulling some of the crap they've done lately. Just had to RMA my AX1200 for a bad PWM fan controller! I won't even talk about their CX line.

Thing about PSU's is it's gotten to the point that there is no real name out there that can be fully trusted in any particular month since vendors change so often. Seasonic is on of the few that, at least in past history, has always remained solid, and for the most part the seasonic-built PSU's from the other vendors.

As far as the drives go, got 'em for $60/ea and that's another personal preference. Just another paranoia. Never had a WD go out on me in almost 20 years and I see Samsungs fail almost weekly at work. Hopefully these won't be the first. Still have 30+ WD6400AAKS's running strong in many systems.

Anyways, back on track.
That's a real pisser AnyDVD HD is so dang expensive - I would think the best way to buy it would be with the 3yr maintenance? It looks like they upgrade the freaking thing monthly. I'd hate to have to repurchase at month 13 because a new BD comes out and I can't rip it...
 
It all looks like very solid choices for a pleasing htpc. My only suggestion is to not raid the hard drives in raid 0, that'll just be wasted space and the speed increase won't affect anything for htpc use. I use a single 160gb 2.5" drive which I use for recordings/pause function and it'll record 2 HD streams in high quality with no problems. If I were you, I think I'd just use a single drive for recordings.

I like using 7MC for everything, which is just tv and movies for me.
 
Brahmzy said:
Anyways, back on track.
That's a real pisser AnyDVD HD is so dang expensive - I would think the best way to buy it would be with the 3yr maintenance? It looks like they upgrade the freaking thing monthly. I'd hate to have to repurchase at month 13 because a new BD comes out and I can't rip it...
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You get automatic updates as a license holder so no worries about that
Danny Bui said:
Meh, just making sure that if other people see this thread that they know those parts aren't the optimal choices. The parts he chose were fine from a quality perspective. But from a price to performance perspective, he could have done better. But I'll stop the "grilling" I guess.
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fair enough, i definitely wasn't thinking of other people using this to base their future builds on, and it definitely doesn't fit in with my vision of the "ideal" htpc (esp from a price/performance view), but gotta give advice based on what hes got right? :)
 
If you're going to get AnyDVD HD, might as well get it with the lifetime upgrades. You'll be pissed in 37 months otherwise ...

If you're using TMT 5 you shouldn't need to use AnyDVD HD - in theory TMT 5 should be able to playback any encrypted BD (if updated as needed). There are a number of programs that will rip an encrypted image of the BD, which you could then mount with VirtualCloneDrive. In practice, I think you're best off having AnyDVD HD as well ...

BTW, it looks like a solid (if somewhat excessive, but you know that) build to me, able to handle anything that would be thrown at an HTPC (and then some).
 
Cool, got TMT5 for $79 with the coupon code and got AnyDVD HD... ouch - no coupon there that I could find.
 
Danny Bui said:
Meh, just making sure that if other people see this thread that they know those parts aren't the optimal choices. The parts he chose were fine from a quality perspective. But from a price to performance perspective, he could have done better. But I'll stop the "grilling" I guess.
Click to expand...

Most people aren't going to listen no matter how dubious and not-as-well-planned-out-as-they-thought hardware choices, especially after they already bought everything. I've mostly stopped bothering (which might explain why I'm still here and not banned yet lol).

Anyways, OP, you've already dropped a good chunk of cash on this you might as well get something you'll need for PC Blue ray playback: AnyDVD.

Seriously, it's well worth the cost to have it and headache free BR playback.
 
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