What's Your Setup?

spartacus93

Seen as ever other forum had one of these we may as well make one!

Me, not very high tech but it does the job perfectly.

Hardware

Amd Sempron 2200+
768Mb Ram
2 x Internal 160Gig HDD
1 x External 160Gig HDD
Ati 9550 128mb with TV Out
Hauppauge PVR150
8x DVD Burner
Belkin 802.11g card
Wireless Mouse, and Microsoft Remote
Thermaltake Mozart Aluminium HTPC case
Noisy PSU :mad:
Canon Photo Printer

Software

Microsoft Windows Media Centre Edition 2005
My Movies Plug-In
Loadsa Codecs
Real VNC (so i can control computer under the telly from any computer in the house, so there's no need for a monitor if i want to do anything other than MC activities.)

I Can

Play Music
View Photos
Copy photos from camers, print or store them
Record TV
Watch Videos
Watch sotred DVDs
MSN

8T8

Hardware

AMD Athlon 64 3000 or 3200+ (cant remember)
1GB Ram (Cheap stuff re-used from former PC)
2x Western Digital 400GB HDD (splashed out for these babies)
Integrated GeForce 6150 graphics + Purevideo
Gigabyte GeForce 6150 & nForce 430 motherboard with onboard HD-Audio
ATI Theatre 550 Pro (Not pleased with this plan to change to Hauppauge PVR150)
NEC 3500 8x DVD Burner (Re-used from former PC must get BenQ or Pioneer drive for quieter operation when playing DVDs)
Netgear USB 802.11g
Wired mini keyboard & mouse + Microsoft Remote
Silverstone SG01 HTPC case (Not the newer evolved version, still a fine upgraders case)
Tagan Easycon 430W PSU (pricey but very quiet & nice with no cables to mess things up)
Cat5e wired connection to my home network which makes the WiFi redundant now.


Software

Microsoft Windows Media Centre Edition 2005
My Movies Plug-In with entire DVD collection on HD
FFDShow + CoreAVC

Television

Samsung LE-26R41BD (26" LCD 720p HDTV)
Inputs;
Composite
Component
HDMI
VGA
S-Video
2xScart (1xRGB)

Have HTPC plugged into VGA connection and it works great as it treats it just like a computer monitor so no need to mess with the resolution settings.

Overall very pleased with the system though it was quite a while before it took the above shape, I first had a demo version of MCE which I trialled on an old system which got me hooked. So I bought MCE and built a first system with a low profile case with some of the above components which gave me quite a headache at first due to some stupid mistakes I made not only that the PSU failed in that system a few weeks after so I was really annoyed as it was a custom job and not easily replaced.

Round 2 I wasn’t going to make the same mistakes again so I went for the upgrader’s case and beefed up the hard drives, got a high quality PSU and got a proper wired connection to my router & main PC and its been flying along every since.

zAbbo

Hows that mozart case, I'm planning to build soon. Oh and you do know you can use the built in Remote Desktop instead of RealVNC

spartacus93

zabbo wrote:

Hows that mozart case, I'm planning to build soon. Oh and you do know you can use the built in Remote Desktop instead of RealVNC

Class!, I only got it today. Its a very nice looking machine, comes with 3 silent fans and it's very well put together. Got it on Komplett, cost around 125ish.

I didn't know about Remote Desktop, have been using Real VNC for ages so never thought of changing. Cheers, ill give it a shot.

Do build soon, I couldn't live without mine!

subway

dell gx240 sff case [almost totally silent]
p4 1.8
512mb sdram
geforce fx5200
hauppage 150
180gig hdd

total initial outlay 220 euro :P

recently added 250gig hdd so now have total of 400gigs / 220 hours of tv recording availble

software
google maps
pandora
mceweather
vnc

soSolid

I've got an HP MCE PC:

Pentium 4 540 (P) HT 3.2 GHz:
800 MHz Front side bus
Socket LGA775
Intel 915P
Asus PTGD1-LA MoBo (HP name Puffer-UL8E)
2.5 Gb PC3200 DDR SDRAM
Maxtor DiamondMax 11 500Gb SATA internal (upgrade - fairly noisy)
300Gb HP Personal Media Drive USB 2
2 x 160Gb HP Personal Media Drive USB 2
16x DVD(+/-)R/RW DL drive
DVD-ROM drive
Wireless LAN 802.11b/g
ATI Radeon X300SE 128Mb DDR PCI-E
Hauppauge MCE500 PVR Dual Tuner TV card
SB Audigy 4
10/100 LAN
9-in-1 (4 slot) Memory card reader
Compact Flash I
Compact Flash II
SmartMedia
Memory Stick
Memory Stick Pro
MultiMediaCard
Secure Digital (SD)
Micro Drive
XD Picture Card
HP Wireless Keyboard and Mouse
XP MCE 2005 SP1 UR2
HP MCE Remote

Have it about 18 months now, and it's been excellent, except it's now a bit noisy since I replaced the internal 160Gb with a Maxtor 500Gb. Sh1tloads of recording space.

Never look back...

hshortt

No masses of hardware specs from me, a straight forward 3Ghz, 1GB RAM, DVI Graphics card connected to Pioneer 43inch (that's right 43!) via DVI-HDMI cable. Resolution of 720p or 1080i depending on my needs.

MCE 2005, I don't use the PC for anything else works so well even the wife can use it. Remote control interface only, no keyboards, mice or monitors.

I did use an external soundblaster so I can connect via optical cable to my amp for 5.1 sound.

Great system, very reliable, auto up-scales to desired setting, picture quality is stunning on DVDs and perfectly watchable on NTL.

I use remote desktop for management if needed, and MS SyncToy for transferring pictures, music and video files (Sopranos Season 6) over to it.

Cheers
Howard

MR DAZ

Just on the Mozart case..

I have it aswell i'll throw up a post later with the spec.. i got the vfd and the remote with it....it really is a class piece of kit,

quozl

MythTV running on Ubuntu Linux.
VIA SP13000 1.3 ghz motherboard with mpeg2 decode/mpeg4 acceleration + Onboard spdif 5.1 sound.
Pvr500 twin tv tuners/mpeg2 encoders.
RF remote control.

In a Tranquil T2e aluminium media pc case with heatpipes, so there's no fans at all. Very quiet although I can hear the hard drive spin if the rooms silent.

Can record two channels at once, do all the usual windows MCE stuff, plus some other niceness due to it being a Linux box. Such as remote control from work over a web-interface, the ability to modify it to do what I want like fetch real time dart time table information for my local stop, download torrents, etc.

I really like MythTV

SouperComputer

well thats another MythTV fan so.

Any pics of your rig?

My rig, well TBH I dont really have one, as such. Its always "in development"

The current setup is:

Client:

Fortron Source PSU with 120MM fan (quiet)
Gigabyte Mobo with passive NB cooler
Thermalright XP120 CPU cooler
P4 1.7 @ 2.0Ghz
512Mb PC2700
1x 40Gb 2.5" Hitachi
1x 300GB Maxtor
Haupppage PVR150
Hauppage "Framegrabber" card, cant remember chipset
MCE, MythTv, GB-PVR and Mediaportal depending on my needs\mood


Server:

P3 550Mhz
400ish MB RAM
PATA Controller
GB Ethernet
Clarkconnect Linux V3.2 (FC 2 based)
Slimserver and Samba installed
2x 400Gb Seagate
1x 300Gb Maxtor

That said, the setup will probably change again next week!

MR DAZ

Right me setup..


Hardware

Abit AA8 Dura Max mobo skt 775
Intel 2.8ghz skt 775
Zalman Super flower cooler
X300 64mb pcie card from a dell system
Ultra Quiet power suply gold series
500gig sata Hitachi deskstar
LG dual dvd writer 16x
Mozart HTPC case with VFD and remote

Software
MCE 2005

At the moment i dont have a tv card, but i'll be getting that soon....So i use it to watch divx movies and tv shows (all of which are my own and converted for easier access )
Its connected up to my Samsung 32" Lcd telly in the sitting room


BTW Congrats on this forum...i really think it was needed.

lotas

Okey dokey. where do i start with my system?

Hardware:

Dual AMD Athlon 2Gz
1Gb ram
total of 320Gb hdd (hit the limit at 120Gb hdds, working on an upgrade system)
2 Haupauge PVR150 TV Cards
Creative Audigy 2NX USB2 Sound

TV:
32" Philips HD LCD TV

AMP:

Yahama 5.1 Souround amp with 525w speakers (total) and 300w sub

TV signal:

2 NTL Digiboxes hooked up though component/composit (which one is which i never remember) to the PVR150s.

the computer acts as my main workstation, pluged into 2 17" monitors. i have an XBox 360 Premium acting as an extender. its pluged into the TV using a HD cable and into the amp using an optical connection.

Just for laughs, there is a second media center down stairs. thats an Athlon 64 3200+ with a gig of ram and about 500gb hdd space. thats pluged into a bog standard 28" not widescreen TV. that again has 2 digiboxes connected to it. Finally, there will eventually be a third Media center in the house, which again will have 2 digiboxes, but will only be connected to a 17" LCD monitor.

I am thinking of upgrading the MCE in my room (the dual Athlon) or at least getting a dedicated box, so i dont have one box doing everything. thats something to think about over the comming months.

PS: all systems run Windows Media Center edition 2005

PPS: the system in my room is quite loud. i did not try make it quite. there is a dell poweredge server, a dual opteron box and an other server (somewhere) and they make quite enough noise, so i dident even try. the speakers / headphones drown out the noise of the fans, mostly...

donspeekinglesh

Hardware:
An Accent case from QuietPC, and this PSU.
3.2Ghz P4 with 1Gb RAM.
40Gb HDD (for OS and such)
200Gb HDD (for downloads)
400Gb HDD (for TV recordings)
250GB external USB2.0 HDD (for movies)
200GB external USB2.0 HDD (for complete TV series and music)
PVR-150 connected to a Sky box via coax (will upgrade that soon)
PVR-500 connected to NTL basic.
MyBlaster for controlling the Sky box.
Snapstream Firefly RF remote.
DVD-burner
MS bluetooth Wireless Desktop for the odd time when I need to go to Windows (only use the mouse though).
connected to 32" Phillips Widescreen via s-video, and from there to an LG surround system.
Software:
MS Windows XPpro
Snapstream Beyond TV4 and Beyond Media.
the DVD Library plugin for Beyond Media.
XMLTV for the EPG.

The system sits under the TV and is connected to the router so it's fully connected to the broadband.
It's fairly quiet - not really noticable when watching TV. Took a while to get the picture quality right, but it seems okay now. Will upgrade the Sky connection to a s-video link at some stage.
Can do all the standard media centre type things with it. Great machine.

ffocused

Advent DHE500 HTPC (rebadged Artisan)
Dual P4 2.6Ghz
512MB RAM
500GB HD
DVDrw+-RAM

connected to:

37" LG37RZ55 LCD

Sony STR-DB780 5.1DD/DTS home cinema reciever

Sky digibox with UK FTV card

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and the rest:

Sky+ (awaiting delivery of Sky HD)

Panasonic DMRE85 HDD/DVD Recorder