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Theoretical HTCP Build.

B

bastage

Pics of your wife?
Joined
Mar 4, 2010
Messages
12,874
Background: I have 2x Tivo HD's that are coming up & need a renewal of the tivo sub, that I really dont want to pay for. When I bought them I knew that as soon as a cablecard tuner hit the market I would be dropping them & moving to a htpc & well that has happened so its time to part ways. The biggest hurdle will be convincing the boss (my wife that is) that we need to upgrade. So this needs to basically have "just enough" hardware to do whats needed. I will worry about upgrading later.

1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing? etc
HTPC using Ceton InfiniTV 4 CableCard tuner & needs to playback BlueRay
2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included?
No Budget as this thread is to combine the colelctive Genius's of the GenHard forum to see what I need to convince my wife I "have" to get
3) Where do you live?
Idaho. All parts will be net ordered
4) What exact parts do you need for that budget? CPU, RAM, case, etc. "Everything" is not a valid answer. Please list out all the parts you'll need.
Case, CPU, Mobo, hard drive, MCE compatible remote, PSU, BR player & Whatever else I am forgetting
5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? Please be especially specific about the power supply. List make and model.
None
6) Will you be overclocking?
Negative
7) What size monitor do you have and/or plan to have?
1080p Plasma
8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?
As soon as the wife is convinced, But will have to be done by mid sept as thats when my Current Tivo Subs expire
9) What features do you need in a motherboard? RAID? Firewire? Crossfire or SLI support? etc.
If using onboard video then I need HDMI out w/ audio support
10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license? If yes, what OS? 32bit or 64bit?
Negative

Biggest concerns are Price, Noise, & Power in that order.


Edit: also please include the cost of any software that will be needed like the BR playback software if the drive does not include it
 
A prelim build:
$59 - AMD Athlon II X2 245 CPU
$100 - Gigabyte GA-880GM-UD2H AMD 880G HDMI mATX Motherboard
$82 - G.Skill F3-10600CL9D-4GBNT 2 x 2GB DDR3 1333 RAM
$50 - XFX HD-545X-YNH2 Radeon HD 5450 512MB PCI-E Video Card
$56 - Western Digital WD5000AAKS 500GB 7200RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive
$60 - Lite-On iHOS104-06 Blu-ray Reader SATA Drive
$110 - Antec NSK2480 mATX case with Antec Earthwatts 380W PSU
$55 - Arcsoft Total Media Theatre 3
$100 - Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit OEM

---
Total: $672 plus tax and shipping

Some notes:
- Didn't go with a Core i3 build for the same price since there's apparently a problem with the Core i3 and 24p:
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1264277

- That motherboard was the cheapest but still good quality mATX motherboard I could find that had two PCI-E x16 slots (one for the GPU, one for the tuner)

- Recommended RAM spec for the Ceton tuner was 3GB. So went with 4GB and a 64bit OS.
 
Danny Bui said:
- That motherboard was the cheapest but still good quality mATX motherboard I could find that had two PCI-E x16 slots (one for the GPU, one for the tuner)
Click to expand...

2 things with this. 1st do you think that I will actually need a stand alone card or would the on-board 4250 be enough? Also that card is only PCIe 1x so does having the extra bandwidth help at all?
 
While the onboard HD 4250 is capable of encoding/decoding HD video, it still uses the motherboard's resources (namely, the processor) to "efficiently" perform these tasks. With a discrete video card, you can offload the encoding/decoding tasks onto the video card.

The PCI-E x1 tuner card will fit and can work off the second PCI-E x16 slot, which actually runs at x4 bandwidth. Then again, you also have a x1 slot above both of the x16 slots.
 
bastage said:
2 things with this. 1st do you think that I will actually need a stand alone card or would the on-board 4250 be enough? Also that card is only PCIe 1x so does having the extra bandwidth help at all?
Click to expand...

If you only need 2.1 audio (possibly 5.1) via HDMI, then the onboard 4250 would be enough. If you want 7.1 LPCM or bitstreamed audio, then the dedicated card is needed.
 
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