WCES Ryan's HTPC system

[WCES Ryan]

I can't believe I haven't posted in this forum yet. Normally I'm such a whore for these types of things. Anyways, here's the HTPC setup that I am currently running. It changes often, but these seem to be some up to date pics.

Specs:
Asus A8N-SLI Premium
Opty 170 running at 2.4ghz
2gb OCZ ram
OCZ 520w PSU
7900GTX 512MB
Soundblaster X-Fi Fatali1ty
Hauppauge PVR-150
Hauppauge PVR-500
(2) 250GB drives
(2) 750GB drives
500GB drive
1000GB drive

Connected via DVI-HDMI cable and digital coax cable to the Onkyo TX-SR705 receiver. The receiver connects via HDMI to the Westinghouse TX-47F430S. Also connected are the Sony PS3 and Toshiba HD-A35, both obviously using HDMI. Control for everything including the HTPC is courtesy of a Logitech Harmony 880.

Sound comes from all Wharfedale speakers, using Diamond CS center, Diamond 9.0 mains, Diamond 9.5 rears and Diamond SW150 sub. I installed a bit of raceway in front of the fireplace to hide the wires. Everything of course is Audyssey calibrated.

The HTPC front end that I am using is MediaPortal. I'm using My TV Series plugin for episode management, and My Films plugin for movies. I update the films database using Ant Movie Catalog. All of the info for each film is scraped from IMDB so there is a ton of metadata for organizing and searching the collection. I think right now I'm just shy of 400 movies, so it is very handy. It's all running on XP Pro.

I've no real plans to upgrade right now, but if anybody has any ideas on what would be good, let me know . Comments are of course welcome as well.

Below is the business end of the room. The HTPC itself is the tower you see towards the left. It began it's life as a normal desktop, hence why it is connected to a normal monitor and peripherals as well. As I'm fairly new to the HTPC thing, I haven't gone as far as building a dedicated HTPC yet, or at least buying a case for my system. The plan would be to buy whatever hardware I need to have both an HTPC and a desktop system. On the right is a nice collection of 80-ish high def movies and a few PS3 games.

Basic shot of my living room:

Receiver, HD-DVD player, center channel and PS3 in my cheapo TV stand.

Rear speaker hidden behind my chair:

Raceway:

 

[cnealjr]

Nice setup! How is your soundfield with your rear speakers being at floor level behind the seats?

 

[WCES Ryan]

Thanks

The stage isn't *too* bad, given the placement of the rears, but it could be worse. When I am watching something with surround sound, I definitely get some rear fill effect, but it's obviously doesn't sound as far back as I would like it to. It sounds like I am sitting right at the back of the action, instead of in the middle. I can live with it though, I am currently living in a basement apartment anyways, so I'm not able to always crank it up as loud as I like, so that kind of minimizes the effect.

 

[Mac[X-D]]

Nice Set-up