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Thread: So who here has built a successful HTPC?

  1. #17
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    That was an interesting article on THG and has got me back to pondering a HTPC. This is my current shopping list but I'm having trouble sourcing the cooler to go onto the 3000+... (this is currently sourced from two different websites so you may find different prices elsewhere)

    MSI RS480M2-IL ATI XPRESS 200g mATX PCI-Express Motherboard £64.95
    AMD Athlon 64 3000+ £74.95
    GeIL 1GB (2x512MB) PC3200 £64.95
    Samsung SpinPoint P 250GB SATA-II £70.75
    Panasonic UJ845B Slotload DVD-RW £89.00
    Low Profile Media Case - Matt Silver £49.00
    Flexible PCI Riser Cable for Eve / Media Case £9.50
    Compro VideoMate DVB-T300 Digital & Analog TV £54.95
    Microsoft Windows XP Media Centre 2005 £69.95

    Total £548.00

    I'm a torn over the system as I have two choices, either an internal tuner or a better graphics card. The board includes a X300 which should be fine for DVD, and general PVR usage but it seems a waste having a great gaming cpu in a PVR.

    Let me know what you think.
    Nick

  2. #18
    I eats food da_ging's Avatar
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    • da_ging's system
      • CPU:
      • E5200 @ 3.75Ghz
      • Memory:
      • 4GB kingston HyperX 8500
      • Storage:
      • 2*WD640gb in Raid 0 +500gb 32mb seagate
      • Graphics card(s):
      • BFG GTX 260 Maxcore OC2
      • PSU:
      • Corsair 650w TX
      • Case:
      • Stacker 831 black
      • Operating System:
      • XP Pro
      • Monitor(s):
      • 23" fujitsu 3230t LCD 1920*1080
      • Internet:
      • 8mb
    http://www.silverstonetek.com/products-lc18.htm

    or more realisticly in my price range im thinking of getting either http://www.silverstonetek.com/products-lc16m.htm or http://www.silverstonetek.com/products-lc14m.htm

    no need to piddle around with small componants or worry about heat with them either being full atx

  3. #19
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    Quote Originally Posted by da_ging
    or more realisticly in my price range im thinking of getting either http://www.silverstonetek.com/products-lc16m.htm or http://www.silverstonetek.com/products-lc14m.htm

    no need to piddle around with small componants or worry about heat with them either being full atx
    I see your point... hmm I wonder what the total price with a 14m would be. Its a real shame the LCD sticks out on the 14m, it would be much nicer with a completely flat front panel.

    Nick

  4. #20
    mmh
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    Personally of the 16m and 14m i would go 16m, it doesnt LOOK like a computer, you could have something looking like that ina high end hi-fi media center, thats, more like what i would want in my stylish lounge, rather than the 14m, where it looks like a computer with a bit of brushed metal stuck on the front and an LCD stuck on.
    : RFNX Ste | : stegough | www.stegough.com

  5. #21
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    I have a bit of news in case anyone else is trying to build a HTPC with the Hiper case. I have finally found this site http://www.cheetahit.co.uk/catalog/p...roducts_id=876 who have the coolermaster cpu cooler which should work with that case.

    Its taken a lot of hunting but it seems you can get almost everything from scan apart from that cooler.

    Nick

  6. #22
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    If using freeview/digital feed, avoid Mythtv. Its pants, compared to Media Center (MS) which shocked me considering its an open source project.

    The Mpeg2 demux interface crashes if you accidentally pass a channel thats encrypted. DVB-T support is slow reacting.

    It cant stream the MPEG2 to a file when recording, insists on re-encoding it into someting else which doesnt compare to the original stream in quality! Media Center does that without an issue.

    The interface is 1 screen one session, e.g. you cant go through menu's whilst music playing to record something on the guide.

    Unless you apply a patch to Myth, you have to find out what frequency the first mutliplex digital stream is on, which can take a while and a lot of poking around.

    It has no intelligence, e.g. drop a DVD in there and it wont offer to play it. Nor can it realise that a whole DVD full of AVI's just arrived and offer to copy it over.

    Guide data is hit and miss too. And dont get me started on having to modprobe and hack lsmod data just so it loads the right driver.

    In this case, Media Center edition XP blows big BIG holes into Mythtv linux solution. Never thought i'd say that

  7. #23
    Ant
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    I have just finished building mine... well last week. I used the Silverstone Lc11 http://www.silverstonetek.com/products-lc11.htm . (I couldn't justify spending the extra on the LCD version.) Fits in really nicely with my other AV equipment. Also, I haven't had any cooling issues yet.

    Only problem I have at the mo, is getting the output to the TV 100% flicker free. I'm using a 6200 with s-video to connect up, and it flickers just enough to annoy me when watching things with bright backgrounds. Will get it sorted out in the end I'm sure.

    Other than that, its working very well.

    Ant

  8. #24
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    Quote Originally Posted by javalord
    If using freeview/digital feed, avoid Mythtv. Its pants, compared to Media Center (MS) which shocked me considering its an open source project
    I wonder if MythTV will ever support this new card http://pressen.terratec.net/modules....rticle&sid=266

    I really would rather have a linux HTPC but Windows always seems to have better quality drivers. It takes a while for linux to catch up and when it does it generally takes twice as long to configure. Oh well, £75 isn't bad for XP MCE

    Nick

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