Well the format war is essentially is over and it is time to upgrade my poor single core HTPC to something modern and usable for anything above SD content.
I have the majority of my build done (will post it below) but am having some issues selecting a motherboard.
I currently run digital coax from my motherboard into my receiver for SPDIF pass through.
I would like to keep Nvidia as the chipset but am not find a single motherboard with SPDIF as the SPDIF output over optical. I have nothing against optical but since its only going 3 feet converting the audio to light and back when I already have a straight pass through cable is annoying.
I dont need to have HDMI out of the board but it would be a plus. I do plan to do a little bit of gaming so I am looking at some medium range video cards to run my DVI cable to my tv through.
Any suggestions as to a motherboard that matches those needs? I know you need the rest of the specs and those are posted below:
CPU : Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 Kentsfield 2.4GHz LGA 775 Quad-Core Processor-----I am an AMD man personally but am not as pleased with their quad offerings at the moment. I also do not plan to OC this sucker unless I get a new TV stand (Doubt my wife would go for that )
Current motherboard idea : EVGA 132-CK-NF78-A1 LGA 775 NVIDIA nForce 780i SLI ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail
Any other suggestions for a good motherboard? I noticed some 790i out there but wasnt sure if it mattered. DDR2 vs DDR3 doesn't matter aside from costing more. (would prefer DDR2 for that reason this is already pretty pricey ) I also am not very familier with this brand... Its rated well but how have you guys found them?
I saw that a lot of the Intel chipsets have the HDMI and such out (not much with Digital Coax) but I have not been a fan of their chip sets of old, how are they now? I have no aversion to buying another optical cable but for such a short distance I know its not going to benefit me anymore than Digital Coax which I already have.
The ram will be 4 gigs of DDR2 (most likely) corsair XMS etc etc...
Video card option : I am not final about this, I know I said light gaming but I might enjoy TF2 or Crysis / whatever on the TV once in a while for giggles. Adventure and RTS games I know I will enjoy on it. For basic use I am looking at : BFG Tech BFGE88512GTSE GeForce 8800GTS (G92) 512MB 256-bit GDDR3------If I go higher end for it I might just upgrade my main rig's card and put my 8800GTX OC into the HTPC.
Power Supply: CORSAIR CMPSU-520HX 520W ATX12V v2.2 and EPS12V 2.91 SLI Certified CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS-------I have never been a huge lover of Modular stuff due to older issues with them but have heard good things about modern ones. I am banking towards modular at this point do keep airflow inside the HTPC case good and clean.
Optical ROM (unless something better and comparable price wise comes out) : LITE-ON Black 4X Blu-ray DVD ROM SATA
Case : Antec Aluminum Veris Fusion Black 430 Micro ATX Media Center / HTPC Case with IR receiver-----------Will be interesting to see how the IR setup works and I have never tinkered with the LCD display stuff so it should be fun.
As far as hard drives go I am debating quite what I will do, once I finalize the HTPC more I might have enough to rebuild the current one as a mini server with a bunch of hard drives. So most likely just a 2 - 400 gig hd for this system.
Overall I know the build is a little over kill for just an HTPC with basic / higher gaming use. But I do plan to keep this one for a good ammount of time, ontop of using it for some network rendering and such. I dont plan to do any DVR or tuning inside the HTPC at this point. Eventually maybe but that probably will not happen until after I build the server for main storage and such.
I might be missing something but I am at work and typing this up between calls lol so let me know if you need more info
Thanks for any feedback or suggestions!
(Edit crappy work monitor really hosed how that ended up displaying I will try to clean it up lol.)
I have the majority of my build done (will post it below) but am having some issues selecting a motherboard.
I currently run digital coax from my motherboard into my receiver for SPDIF pass through.
I would like to keep Nvidia as the chipset but am not find a single motherboard with SPDIF as the SPDIF output over optical. I have nothing against optical but since its only going 3 feet converting the audio to light and back when I already have a straight pass through cable is annoying.
I dont need to have HDMI out of the board but it would be a plus. I do plan to do a little bit of gaming so I am looking at some medium range video cards to run my DVI cable to my tv through.
Any suggestions as to a motherboard that matches those needs? I know you need the rest of the specs and those are posted below:
CPU : Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 Kentsfield 2.4GHz LGA 775 Quad-Core Processor-----I am an AMD man personally but am not as pleased with their quad offerings at the moment. I also do not plan to OC this sucker unless I get a new TV stand (Doubt my wife would go for that )
Current motherboard idea : EVGA 132-CK-NF78-A1 LGA 775 NVIDIA nForce 780i SLI ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail
Any other suggestions for a good motherboard? I noticed some 790i out there but wasnt sure if it mattered. DDR2 vs DDR3 doesn't matter aside from costing more. (would prefer DDR2 for that reason this is already pretty pricey ) I also am not very familier with this brand... Its rated well but how have you guys found them?
I saw that a lot of the Intel chipsets have the HDMI and such out (not much with Digital Coax) but I have not been a fan of their chip sets of old, how are they now? I have no aversion to buying another optical cable but for such a short distance I know its not going to benefit me anymore than Digital Coax which I already have.
The ram will be 4 gigs of DDR2 (most likely) corsair XMS etc etc...
Video card option : I am not final about this, I know I said light gaming but I might enjoy TF2 or Crysis / whatever on the TV once in a while for giggles. Adventure and RTS games I know I will enjoy on it. For basic use I am looking at : BFG Tech BFGE88512GTSE GeForce 8800GTS (G92) 512MB 256-bit GDDR3------If I go higher end for it I might just upgrade my main rig's card and put my 8800GTX OC into the HTPC.
Power Supply: CORSAIR CMPSU-520HX 520W ATX12V v2.2 and EPS12V 2.91 SLI Certified CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS-------I have never been a huge lover of Modular stuff due to older issues with them but have heard good things about modern ones. I am banking towards modular at this point do keep airflow inside the HTPC case good and clean.
Optical ROM (unless something better and comparable price wise comes out) : LITE-ON Black 4X Blu-ray DVD ROM SATA
Case : Antec Aluminum Veris Fusion Black 430 Micro ATX Media Center / HTPC Case with IR receiver-----------Will be interesting to see how the IR setup works and I have never tinkered with the LCD display stuff so it should be fun.
As far as hard drives go I am debating quite what I will do, once I finalize the HTPC more I might have enough to rebuild the current one as a mini server with a bunch of hard drives. So most likely just a 2 - 400 gig hd for this system.
Overall I know the build is a little over kill for just an HTPC with basic / higher gaming use. But I do plan to keep this one for a good ammount of time, ontop of using it for some network rendering and such. I dont plan to do any DVR or tuning inside the HTPC at this point. Eventually maybe but that probably will not happen until after I build the server for main storage and such.
I might be missing something but I am at work and typing this up between calls lol so let me know if you need more info
Thanks for any feedback or suggestions!
(Edit crappy work monitor really hosed how that ended up displaying I will try to clean it up lol.)