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HTPC build - recommended components
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11-08-2009 12:47pm#1
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Where are you getting the case from and for how much? Haven't seen hide nor hair of the MicroFusion since release
That "ultimate" system is ridiculously expensive! :eek:
Can you survive on onboard audio or do you need a sound card? More importantly, are your home cinema speakers active or hooked up to an amp with a spare TOSLink optical-in to hook the HTPC up to? If you only have a decent set of speakers and no amp you'll need an amp card, and there's only one I can think of that's otu there. That would also decide your choice of mobo, as it comes with one. But for some retarded reason said mobo has zero PCI slots so a PCI tuner card is out of the question.
Also, are you satisfied with Sky's channel selection vs. FTA? If there's FTA channels you want to record from Sky won't let you :mad: Only answer is a DVB-S tuner card for recording those channels (Sky+ lets you watch them fine, its when you need to live-pause/record that its acts the ass!) and I haven't seen many DVB-S cards for PCIe... plus you need a spare LNB on your dish to run a co-ax down from into the card
Finally, is there anything you want to do with this system other than HD playback and the odd bit of web browsing? Doubt you'd want to do any gaming on this system but if you (or another user) did I'm afraid the option is off-limits pending a total system redesign (as you'd need a full-height case like the Fusion to accomodate a graphics card)
HDMI+Amp build minus cards and case:
If you didn't know the DIVA bit includes both the motherboard and the sound card/amplifier. And said mobo has onboard graphics that should be more than up to the task, including hardware HD acceleration. CPU is weak, but still ~3 times more powerful than Atom :P Atom's so weak it can't really manage hardware HD acceleration - pretty hilarious considering that its not the piece of hardware even doing the accelerating!
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Thanks a million fo the feedback solitaire - I'll try answer your questions.Where are you getting the case from and for how much? Haven't seen hide nor hair of the MicroFusion since release
Elara I hope - see here
That "ultimate" system is ridiculously expensive! :eek:Can you survive on onboard audio or do you need a sound card? More importantly, are your home cinema speakers active or hooked up to an amp with a spare TOSLink optical-in to hook the HTPC up to? If you only have a decent set of speakers and no amp you'll need an amp card, and there's only one I can think of that's otu there. That would also decide your choice of mobo, as it comes with one. But for some retarded reason said mobo has zero PCI slots so a PCI tuner card is out of the question.
Right, I've no speakers/amp nor had I considered them, even though the guy in Hardly Normal did try push a ****ty €140 cinema system on me.
I suppose, I thought I'd just push sound from the PC through the TV speakers for now and work on something better later. To answer your question then, I'd like to have the option for a sound card.Also, are you satisfied with Sky's channel selection vs. FTA? If there's FTA channels you want to record from Sky won't let you :mad: Only answer is a DVB-S tuner card for recording those channels (Sky+ lets you watch them fine, its when you need to live-pause/record that its acts the ass!) and I haven't seen many DVB-S cards for PCIe... plus you need a spare LNB on your dish to run a co-ax down from into the card
Recording from Sky box to the PC is a complete nice to have - not a show stopper at all. If its an easy add-in later on, good, if not, no big deal. Spare LNB ports is no problem - I've an octo-lnb on the dish with ony 6 used.Finally, is there anything you want to do with this system other than HD playback and the odd bit of web browsing? Doubt you'd want to do any gaming on this system but if you (or another user) did I'm afraid the option is off-limits pending a total system redesign (as you'd need a full-height case like the Fusion to accomodate a graphics card)
Gaming isn't a priority, however, I'd like a fairly decent graphics card all the same - I have this mental block that I need a fairly powerful card and CPU to push proper HD. I'd hate to invest in a system that struggeled to play a full HD MKV move (all 40-50GB of it) - you know, stuttering and stalling. Maybe I'm completely off the mark with the card and CPU - so correct me if I'm wrong.HDMI+Amp build minus cards and case:
If you didn't know the DIVA bit includes both the motherboard and the sound card/amplifier. And said mobo has onboard graphics that should be more than up to the task, including hardware HD acceleration. CPU is weak, but still ~3 times more powerful than Atom :P Atom's so weak it can't really manage hardware HD acceleration - pretty hilarious considering that its not the piece of hardware even doing the accelerating!
Thanks again for taking the time to post - I appreciate it.0 -
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AFAIK the MicroFusion comes with a wee remote for the preinstalled iMon
SwampThing wrote:Right, I've no speakers/amp nor had I considered them, even though the guy in Hardly Normal did try push a ****ty €140 cinema system on me.
I suppose, I thought I'd just push sound from the PC through the TV speakers for now and work on something better later. To answer your question then, I'd like to have the option for a sound card.
Bear in mind if you don't buy an amp or home theatre or a (naff-quality) active speaker set you'll need an amp card, and the only reasonably priced one comes with its own motherboard
A sound card gives better sound, but the result still needs to go through an amp of some sort!Gaming isn't a priority, however, I'd like a fairly decent graphics card all the same - I have this mental block that I need a fairly powerful card and CPU to push proper HD. I'd hate to invest in a system that struggeled to play a full HD MKV move (all 40-50GB of it) - you know, stuttering and stalling. Maybe I'm completely off the mark with the card and CPU - so correct me if I'm wrong.
If you want to game then low-profile is out of the question. The closest thing to a low-profile graphics card is the HD4550 as Galaxy's LP 9600GT/9800GT never made it across the pond And unless you get a HD4670 or actually manage to find a HD4770 (and those hen's teeth while you're at it 
) the card will push system TDP and power requirement way up. Although things only start to get really ugly if you need a card and the amp card.
On the other hand, decent HD-capable video is more than enough for everything else and you'd be mad to spend more than €30 on a discrete video card for this purpose. Whether you really need one is another matter - I was sticking with AMD chipsets for a reason; their onboard HD3X00 is almost always enough to handle even the most demanding hardware decoding.
As for CPU... I only put that basic one up in the assumption you won't be doing anything very CPU-intensive. If you have hardware HD acceleration then that won't tax the CPU (much). IIRC benchmarks had a HD3100 doing tons of work and even an old Sempron CPU wasn't maxing out (and thus skipping).
The catch is that many common 1080p .mkv files have a non-standard arrangement of reference frames that break L4.1 acceleration. If you've been downloading tons of 1080p .mkvs off the net you won't be able to use hardware acceleration on the non-standard ones Which means that a nicely overkill CPU might still be a good defensive move - if the HD3X00 can't catch it the CPU will have enough raw grunt to run it in software. There's a few good CPUs that run on 65W, but they tend to be pricey - €100 for a 2.5GHz Phenom2 tri-core and a little under €150 for the 65W quad. The Q9550e is the crown jewel of HTPC CPUs but its very rare and darn expensive to boot (>€200) Sadly no sign of the budget AM3 quads yet - a 45W X4-605e (2.3GHz quad) sounds just the ticket 
Also, this might be a good cooler (being so flat and so quiet), but I'm not 100% sure if it will be neccessary if the stock cooler behaves itself 0 -
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I've got a nice little HTPC system based off the Zotac Ion mini-ITX board with a Pentium E5300.
It will play any video as long as you offload h264 decoding to the integrated GPU. VLC only supports the use of its single-threaded software decoder so frequently trips up on any system, especially with 1080p videos.
You could start with a system similar to this:
You will just need to add hard drive(s) and an optical drive to the build.
The case above will either take
2x3.5" drives, 1x2.5" drive and 1 slimline optical drive OR
1x3.5" drive, 1x2.5" drive and 1x5.25" optical drive0 -
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That sound card is really gaming-oriented. It might have slightly higher quality than onboard sound but its not worth the €60+ extra - we're not talking audiophile-grade sound here. For most people onboard sound will suffice; if it doesn't on a HTPC then you're stuck paying big bucks for an Asus or Auzentech card if you want/need a quantifiable increase in sound quality. If you really need the silly synth features you get on the X-Fis then get a €20 Audigy and hack the drivers...
I've already discussed the issue with amplification, which makes the above argument pretty irrelevant. If you need an amp card (i.e. no external amp) then there's only one option available. But if you can hook the HTPC up to an amp then try to keep things simple and get a card with optical-out - most HTPC-oriented mobos come with said port for the onboard. Then just run a wee TOSLink cable over to the amp
That's a mighty cheap HD4550 for sure. But its not hugely neccessary if you have onboard HD3x00/HD4200/9300GS already on the mobo. If you're not gaming then those are all you need. And if there's an issue with a MKV file that prevents the GPU from processing it then the CPU is about to get b****-slapped no matter how powerful your graphics card
I didn't know there were so many issues with non-standard .mkvs floating around. I'd recommend a 65W Phenom2 for that reason. Getting a 65W C2Q is even more expensive and then you're stuck with an nForce mobo or a seperate graphics card, as the Intel chipsets suck. With a Phenom2 just drop into an AM2 or AM3 mATX mobo and the chipset does the rest :P
Example (obviously minus case/PSU):
Do you need the BluRay drive? And do you need a TV card?0 -
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CPU to catch any .mkvs or other HD media files that decide to play silly buggers and not work on the HD4200.
Mobo because a DIVA is an utter waste of money if you're not wiring up any external speakers up to the PC.
Memory because its cheap (and is it me or are all DDR prices rising?).
Graphics (or lack thereof) because you won't need any more than the onboard video for HD playback and if you're not hooking it up to an amp or speakers then you only need the 2ch stereo sound your TV has so LPCM-Over-HDMI is a waste of time.
I doubt the speakers on the TV are good enough to make a sound card even useful. If you're not going to be adding five good-quality external speakers and a sub you don't need the added sound quality even if you could notice the improvement a sound card could add to a fancier HTPC setup. Of course, if you do intend to buy a decent-quality 5.1 passive speaker set in the future you still need the DIVA for its sound/amp card thingy. Just swap it for the current mobo (and watch the price fly up!). 0 -
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You only need the DIVA if you want to add (decent!) passive (i.e. no amp!) 5.1 speakers to the system. If you're getting an amp, or an active speaker set, or not adding any then its €100 down the drain for no good reason.
On the other hand, if you are getting a set of decent HT speakers then I can't recommend the DIVA enough. It may seem pricey but the cost of a decent sound card and external amp can add €300-600 to a HTPC build. None of that BS with the DIVA. It has a sound card and amp built-in And from what I've heard the DAE-3 chip is easily equivalent to an audiophile-grade card like the Xonar or the Auzentechs. People keep gushing about it Even the X-Fi Titanium can't hope to come close to that kind of quality :P
Just bear in mind that the DIVA has no DVI port (only VGA and HDMI) and no PCI slots (so any attempt to add WiFi or a TV tuner will have to be via PCIe or USB).
On other matters: do you or do you not need a BluRay player? Adding one drives up the price and prevents you from burning DVDs (no space for a second drive on the MicroFusion IIRC) but its still a common and neccessary piece of kit on a HTPC. And I'm not sure if you should get too weak a CPU given the GPU acceleration issues I've heard. 99% of the time the HD3200 would be enough but for the other 1% you could end up with massive stutterring with an old Athlon CPU. Sadly the 45W Athlon2s still aren't out yet - a cheap 2.3GHz tri- or quad-core would do nicely.0 -
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