Help me build an HTPC

[kaddy69]

I want to build an HTPC and I'm looking at spending about $600. I'm looking for the best system for the best price.

Here is what I thought I might use so far. These prices come from NCIX.

Antec NSK2400 New Solution mATX Desktop Case 2X5.25 2X3.5INT 380W ATX12V V2.0 Silver Black
$116.15

AMD Athlon 64 3700+ S939 Processor
+ EVGA NFORCE4 SLI mATX OEM Motherboard Bundle
(1 x EVGA NFORCE4 SLI S939 mATX Dual DDR 1PCI-E16 2PCI-E8 1PCI SATA 1394 Sound GBLAN OEM Motherboard
1 x AMD Athlon 64 3700+ Processor S939 San Diego 2.2GHZ 1MB L2 Cache 90NM E6 Retail Box)
$168.98

Corsair Value Select PC3200 1GB DDR400 CL3 184PIN DIMM Memory
$109.98

6800GT Video card
Approx $100 (RFD Buy & Sell)

Do I need a tuner? I'd like a remote!

Anyone help me out or have an recommendations

[[H]ackerK]

I want to build an HTPC and I'm looking at spending about $600. I'm looking for the best system for the best price.

Here is what I thought I might use so far. These prices come from NCIX.

Antec NSK2400 New Solution mATX Desktop Case 2X5.25 2X3.5INT 380W ATX12V V2.0 Silver Black
$116.15

AMD Athlon 64 3700+ S939 Processor
+ EVGA NFORCE4 SLI mATX OEM Motherboard Bundle
(1 x EVGA NFORCE4 SLI S939 mATX Dual DDR 1PCI-E16 2PCI-E8 1PCI SATA 1394 Sound GBLAN OEM Motherboard
1 x AMD Athlon 64 3700+ Processor S939 San Diego 2.2GHZ 1MB L2 Cache 90NM E6 Retail Box)
$168.98

Corsair Value Select PC3200 1GB DDR400 CL3 184PIN DIMM Memory
$109.98

6800GT Video card
Approx $100 (RFD Buy & Sell)

Do I need a tuner? I'd like a remote!

Anyone help me out or have an recommendations


Yes, you need a TV tuner if you want to use it to watch TV or act as a PVR. And I would suggest you get 2 tuner so you can record while watching another channel.

A MCE remote is also recommanded.

And you will need XPMCE or Vista (or you can choose to go w/ Linux)

[Kwirky]

I would suggest going with the XFX 7600GS - it has some HDTV acceleration (PureVideo) but the kicker is that it uses passive cooling, so less noise - currently $108 @ NCIX.

Be sure you get 2 sticks of 512MB memory (instead of one 1GB stick) - that way you can benefit from a using dual channel for extra performance - also $109.98 @ NCIX.

You're missing a hard drive from that setup - not sure if you had something in mind, but I'm impressed with the speed & silence of the Seagate 7200.10 drives, and would recommend them for a HTPC on those merits.

For the Tuner, if you want dual analog tuners, look at the Hauppauge Win TV PVR 500 - it has two tuners right on board, saving you a PCI slot.

[kaddy69]

Thanks everyone,

Any input on the CPU / MOBO???

[Kwirky]

Thanks everyone,

Any input on the CPU / MOBO???

I have no comment on the motherboard - reading the comments for it on NCIX don't seem positive, but I don't have any more info to offer beyond that. The CPU is a good choice - running one in my Staples-clearance Cisnet 8003B. Keep in mind that AM2 & DDR2 have become the dominant standards, and S939/DDR parts are already dropping in availability, so upgrading in the future may be a little more difficult.

[Amourek]

If you plan on playing H.264 content, you should consider a Geforce 7xxx or Radeon X1xxxx series card for hardware acceleration. As for a TV tuner card, anything using the ATI 550 Pro Theater chip would be sufficient.

Also I don't like the idea of building a new S939 build (it would make more sense if you have some extra DDR lying around), but the price on that eVGA bundle is hard to resist.

[ppl4golf]

I want to build an HTPC and I'm looking at spending about $600. I'm looking for the best system for the best price.

Here is what I thought I might use so far. These prices come from NCIX.

Antec NSK2400 New Solution mATX Desktop Case 2X5.25 2X3.5INT 380W ATX12V V2.0 Silver Black
$116.15

AMD Athlon 64 3700+ S939 Processor
+ EVGA NFORCE4 SLI mATX OEM Motherboard Bundle
(1 x EVGA NFORCE4 SLI S939 mATX Dual DDR 1PCI-E16 2PCI-E8 1PCI SATA 1394 Sound GBLAN OEM Motherboard
1 x AMD Athlon 64 3700+ Processor S939 San Diego 2.2GHZ 1MB L2 Cache 90NM E6 Retail Box)
$168.98

Corsair Value Select PC3200 1GB DDR400 CL3 184PIN DIMM Memory
$109.98

6800GT Video card
Approx $100 (RFD Buy & Sell)

Do I need a tuner? I'd like a remote!

Anyone help me out or have an recommendations

I second not to go with 939 unless you're refurbishing a bunch of parts. You can consider a mATX boards with onboard video, can always get a video card down the road that hardware decodes heavy duty stuff as they will be widely available even for low-end card in the future :~)
2x512mb is good, as is a dual core CPU. Large HD, DVD-RAM drive, card reader would be nice also.

I run WinXP PRO in my HTPCs, so the remotes I have with TV cards are not 'full-function' so to speak. But the wireless mouse takes care of the rest.

I have 4 TV card/devices all does hardware encoding except the TV2000
(Hauppauge WinTV PVR-150 & PVR-USB2, Leadtek WinFast PVR2000 & WinFast TV2000)
IMHO, hardware encoding is a must if you're into recording anything.
Best quality of the ones I have is the PVR2000 but it doesn't change channels on set-top-boxes. Hauppauges are just a tad less in video quality and remote doesn't power on/off pc, otherwise they are great.

[kaddy69]

Can anyone recommend a good motherboard and CPU?

I'm guessing AM2 as the Conroe's might be to expensive for my budget.

How does this board look:

ASUS M2NPV-VM mATX AM2 GE6150-NF430 1PCI-E16 1PCI-E1 2PCI SATA2 Video Sound GBLAN 1394 Motherboard (http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=18778&vpn=M2NPV-VM&manufacture=ASUS)

or should I spend the extra money for the Conroe.

[Kwirky]

Can anyone recommend a good motherboard and CPU?

I'm guessing AM2 as the Conroe's might be to expensive for my budget.

How does this board look:

ASUS M2NPV-VM mATX AM2 GE6150-NF430 1PCI-E16 1PCI-E1 2PCI SATA2 Video Sound GBLAN 1394 Motherboard (http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=18778&vpn=M2NPV-VM&manufacture=ASUS)

or should I spend the extra money for the Conroe.

That would be the ideal motherboard - the 6150 has some HD acceleration, and it would provide a good upgrade path.

Pair it with some of this RAM: http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=18585&vpn=VS1GBKIT667D2&manufacture=CORSAIR&promoid=1008 @ $129

Add this CPU: http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=14416&vpn=ADA3200BPBOX&manufacture=AMD&promoid=1008 $76

That's $309 for AM2 vs $277 for S939 (CPU, RAM & Mobo)

However, keep in mind this way you don't have to buy a video card and it's not as bad as it seems - you could use the difference for a faster CPU or a bigger HD instead.

[masterc]

I highly recomend the Theatre 550 tv tuner, as others have posted. There are some in the BST for ~ $65, without remote. The bundled remotes are pretty limited anyways.
I use a ATI remote wonder with a Dinovo keyboard. It works well together. But if you are using MCE and a set top box, get one of the MS media center keyboards and remotes, with the IR blaster. NCIX usually has these on sale every few weeks.
You don't need a high end cpu if you are just using it as a PVR. I have a socket A 1800xp running fine. I'm currently using my old S754 3400+ and it works very well.

[jollyeskimo]

I highly recomend the Theatre 550 tv tuner, as others have posted. There are some in the BST for ~ $65, without remote. The bundled remotes are pretty limited anyways.
I use a ATI remote wonder with a Dinovo keyboard. It works well together. But if you are using MCE and a set top box, get one of the MS media center keyboards and remotes, with the IR blaster. NCIX usually has these on sale every few weeks.
You don't need a high end cpu if you are just using it as a PVR. I have a socket A 1800xp running fine. I'm currently using my old S754 3400+ and it works very well.

Definitely +1 on the Theatre 550-based tuners, best analog tuners with mpeg encoding and fm radio for the money.

Personally I wouldn't spend the money on those MCE-specific keyboards and remotes, as any Logitech keyboard can be programmed with Uberoptions to do anything that the MCE keyboards/remotes can do, including the MCE green button. I've got my Logitech S510 keyboard and remote programmed to do just that, and it beats the heck out of having to use those MCE-specific keyboards and such. But then again, I don't use a set-top box, so the IR blaster is absolutely useless for me.

[kaddy69]

Here is what I got so far from memory express:

Processor : AMD Athlon 64 3200+ w/ 512K Cache (Socket AM2) 1
$99.95

Motherboards : Asus M2NPV-VM w/ Geforce 6150, DualDDR2 800, Audio, Gigabit Lan, 1394, PCI-E x16 1
$99.95

Memory : Corsair ValueSelect 1GB PC2-5300 Dual Channel DDR2 Kit (2 x 512MB)
$159.95

Case : Antec New Solution Series NSK2400 Desktop w/ 380W Power Supply
$114.95

Hard Drives 1 : Seagate 320GB Barracuda 7200.10 SATA II w/ NCQ, 16MB Cache
$114.95

Total: $589.75


Any changes? Local place so there is no shipping charges. Is it worth the extra $20 for the AM2 Processor? Ram is also more expensive from memory express.

I will look at getting a 550-based tuner after the system is setup.

[ppl4golf]

Here is what I got so far from memory express:

Processor : AMD Athlon 64 3200+ w/ 512K Cache (Socket AM2) 1
$99.95

Motherboards : Asus M2NPV-VM w/ Geforce 6150, DualDDR2 800, Audio, Gigabit Lan, 1394, PCI-E x16 1
$99.95

Memory : Corsair ValueSelect 1GB PC2-5300 Dual Channel DDR2 Kit (2 x 512MB)
$159.95

Case : Antec New Solution Series NSK2400 Desktop w/ 380W Power Supply
$114.95

Hard Drives 1 : Seagate 320GB Barracuda 7200.10 SATA II w/ NCQ, 16MB Cache
$114.95

Total: $589.75


Any changes? Local place so there is no shipping charges. Is it worth the extra $20 for the AM2 Processor? Ram is also more expensive from memory express.

I will look at getting a 550-based tuner after the system is setup.

I have one of these M2NPV-VM mobo, almost RMA'd it (I encourage you to search for recent threads about it + the Asus forums for its notoriety...)

After weeks of frustration/testing/configuring...it has been running fine with a bunch of cheap parts :
Sempron 2800+/512MB 667 Kingston value ram (had Corsair
VS before but RMA'd/40GB IDE HD scrapped from my old PC/old small form factor case/DVD-RAM.
The only thing that still wouldn't do is to 'software' encode any video with the Leadtek TV2000 card. It works well with the Hauppauge USB2 however.

It is a great all-in-one solution that I put in the bedroom with a 27" LCD TV/monitor. Onboard video & sound are both good. System is fairly quiet even in my cramped SFF case. It is also a 'mobile desktop' I can easily take anywhere and it can do any display you can think of.

If you go with this board, I do suggest a 'Plan B' in case something goes wrong, there are indeed a lot of strangest incompabilities issues.

[ppl4golf]

Here is what I got so far from memory express:

Processor : AMD Athlon 64 3200+ w/ 512K Cache (Socket AM2) 1
$99.95

Motherboards : Asus M2NPV-VM w/ Geforce 6150, DualDDR2 800, Audio, Gigabit Lan, 1394, PCI-E x16 1
$99.95

Memory : Corsair ValueSelect 1GB PC2-5300 Dual Channel DDR2 Kit (2 x 512MB)
$159.95

Case : Antec New Solution Series NSK2400 Desktop w/ 380W Power Supply
$114.95

Hard Drives 1 : Seagate 320GB Barracuda 7200.10 SATA II w/ NCQ, 16MB Cache
$114.95

Total: $589.75


Any changes? Local place so there is no shipping charges. Is it worth the extra $20 for the AM2 Processor? Ram is also more expensive from memory express.

I will look at getting a 550-based tuner after the system is setup.

The Cosair seems expensive, when I RMA'd mine, it was only $129.

[Lil Big Mec]

Personally I would go with an Asus P5LD2-VM/C and an E6300. Far more powerful than the 3200+ and if you want to go Hi Defenition in the future you're gonna need the power. It's a good motherboard and has some overclocking potential too, although there are no true overclocking mATX Conroe motherboards. They all suffer from no working PCI-E lock.

[baboo]

Antec NSK2400 New Solution mATX Desktop Case 2X5.25 2X3.5INT 380W ATX12V V2.0 Silver Black
$116.15

I have a HTPC with the Antec case, it gets overheat pretty easy. you might want to consider getting a chasis fan or a cooling system...:cheesygri