Cost effective way to upgrade my HTPC

[m4rky]

Hi, I want to upgrade my aging HTPC so I can play HD content on my new 37" HD ready TV.

I want to spend as little money as possible (say < £250)

What I currently have:

• NXT Duet System Case
• Soyo K7V Dragon+ mobo
• AMD Athlon XP 1800+ CPU
• Silverado cooler
• 2GB RAM
• ATI 9600 Pro AGP GFX card
• 500GB SATA HD
• DVD ROM

What I want after the upgrade:

• HD Video Output via HDMI to my TV
• Audio Output via SP/DIF to my AV Receiver
• Blu-ray player
• Run Windows Vista Media Center
• Ability to Hibernate/Resume properly every time!!!
• As quiet as possible

I guess I need to buy:

• Motherboard
• CPU
• Cooler
• RAM (2GB?)
• Blu-ray player
• GFX card?
• PSU? Not sure if my old standard ATX one is compatible with new motherboards

Any ideas on possible components??

Thanks, Mark

[kungpo]

Have you tried any HD content on your PC as it stands? Is your TV 1080 or 720? IF the graphics card has DVI out, then you can get a DVI-HDMI convertor pretty cheap.

A dual core pentium, Radeon 2400 HD should suffice as far as CPU and graphics are concerned, coupled with a basic uATX board (mine has an ASUS P5K, e4300, 2GB ram, 2400 HD) and plays back 1080p fine.

[Webby]

CPU: AMD 4850e - &#163;40
Motherboard: Asus 780G - &#163;48 - Has an SPDIF header o idea what connector you will require, the Gigabyte board &#163;58 has an optical SPDIF output on the back. You are basically looking for a motherboard with either a 780G or 8200 chipset.
RAM - 2GB Corsair DDR2-800 - &#163;28
Bluray player - LG GGC-H20L - &#163;67 (reads bluray and HD-DVD, writes DVDs)
No need for a graphics card
PSU - Enermax Pro82+ 385W - &#163;40 (old one may be fine though)
CPU Cooler: How tall can it be? either way you should be able to find something for less than &#163;25

Total cost with PSU and Cooler (at &#163;25) comes in less than &#163;250

Looking at the NZXT Duet I would say the PSU will be fine no need to change it, and you can probably fit a Scythe Mini Ninja (height 115mm) but you will need to do a bit of measuring if from the current MB you have 125mm to the inside of the case you should be fine. Also It will take a full ATX motherboard the are a few 8200 chipset boards in the ATX form factor which may have what you need. This Abit board for example fulfills your requirements http://www.ebuyer.com/product/146836 as does this Gigabyte board http://www.ebuyer.com/product/145884

[m4rky]

Have you tried any HD content on your PC as it stands? Is your TV 1080 or 720? IF the graphics card has DVI out, then you can get a DVI-HDMI convertor pretty cheap.

A dual core pentium, Radeon 2400 HD should suffice as far as CPU and graphics are concerned, coupled with a basic uATX board (mine has an ASUS P5K, e4300, 2GB ram, 2400 HD) and plays back 1080p fine.

I haven't bothered trying any HD content on my existing PC. Its nowhere near powerful enough to run Windows Vista so I guess it would struggle with Blueray etc.

My Plasma is 720p and 1080i.

[SiM]

You can play HD in Windows XP...

Look at my HTPC thread for some ideas. It might be worth getting some second hand components or what Webby suggested looks good too.

[m4rky]

Looking at the NZXT Duet I would say the PSU will be fine no need to change it, and you can probably fit a Scythe Mini Ninja (height 115mm) but you will need to do a bit of measuring if from the current MB you have 125mm to the inside of the case you should be fine. Also It will take a full ATX motherboard the are a few 8200 chipset boards in the ATX form factor which may have what you need. This Abit board for example fulfills your requirements as does this Gigabyte board

The case didn't come with a PSU, but I can't remember if I bought a new one or used one out of another machine (it may be getting on for 10 years old!!!)
The only way of checking would be to take the PC apart I guess.

I have seen the Seasonic S12-430 on ebay for £35 so this looks like a good quiet choice.

As for the CPU cooling I will probably see how quiet the stock AMD cooler is first and then try the scythe if its too loud.

Finally of those two boards you mention the SBIT didn't have a SP/DIF connector so thats out.
What would the advantage be of getting the nVidia powered Gigabyte over the AMD one that I originally thought of??

[m4rky]

You can play HD in Windows XP...

Look at for some ideas. It might be worth getting some second hand components or what Webby suggested looks good too.

Although I would dearly love to choose XP over Vista (I have Vista on my Work PCs and it drives me mad!).
I have seen various issues with HD in XP that people have only "solved" by going to Vista.

Also, I really like the way Vista MCE looks over XP MCE.
Though this may not be as big an issue now as I have been looking at using Media Portal!

This project has gone from a simple, I'll just buy a bluray drive and processor, bish bash, job done, to a total time consuming investigation!!

[SiM]

Never had a problem with XP with Blu-ray, HD-DVD or ripped (legally homemade of course ) HD files. I don't use MCE though because MP is much better

[m4rky]

Never had a problem with XP with Blu-ray, HD-DVD or ripped (legally homemade of course ) HD files. I don't use MCE though because MP is much better

No MCE, really??? Thats interesting.

I thought Media Portal needed MCE??

With Media Portal over XP do you get the cool DVD/Video browser/flipper??
Does this also work with Audio/MP3 as well?

Finally what do you use to play blu-ray?
I was thinking of getting ArcSoft TotalTheatre for full integration with MCE, and it has better audio support.

[SiM]

I use PowerDVD which I have integrated into MP

You can get different skins for MP too, I think they have something like you described... I will find some pics for you

Audio support sucks at the moment... afaik there is no software or hardware support for the lossless HD audio codecs yet
(there is some HDMI passthrough sound card coming out soon, but is it worth £100+?)

Edit: The top right one is like you want?

[m4rky]

[QUOTE=SiM;1535053]I use PowerDVD which I have integrated into MP

You can get different skins for MP too, I think they have something like you described... I will find some pics for you

Audio support sucks at the moment... afaik there is no software or hardware support for the lossless HD audio codecs yet
(there is some HDMI passthrough sound card coming out soon, but is it worth £100+?)

Edit: The top right one is like you want?QUOTE]

Oh.. yesss... thats what I mean :-)

Though I have only seen the Monochrome skin and that looks very similar.
Can only imagine how good that looks on a big screen.

My current Media PC is hooked up via a Scart to my CRT running at 920x560 interlaced! nice...

[s_kinton]

I use PowerDVD which I have integrated into MP

You can get different skins for MP too, I think they have something like you described... I will find some pics for you

You've got me interested in media portal now, I currently use VMC.

Does it accept any tuner? I have a Pinnacle Dual DVB-T Pro
What format does MP record in?
Would it play the DVR-MS files I've already recorded?
How does it get guide data?
Can it make use of teletext/red button? MHEG?
Any other big advantages or disadvantages over VMC?

I'd most definitely have to add a new skin, the standard one looks like MCE 2005

[SiM]

you are better off asking that in the mediaportal forums... I don't use the TV recording facility...

[s_kinton]

you are better off asking that in the mediaportal forums... I don't use the TV recording facility...

No worries. I realised they've got a load of information on their site. I'm gonna give it a try alongside VMC to see which I prefer.

To answer my own questions

Does it accept any tuner? I have a Pinnacle Dual DVB-T Pro
I has an official list, but should work with any

What format does MP record in?
DVR-MS. With built in decoder

Would it play the DVR-MS files I've already recorded?
Yes

How does it get guide data?
Straight from the DVB

Can it make use of teletext/red button? MHEG?
Not sure

[m4rky]

Does it accept any tuner? I have a Pinnacle Dual DVB-T Pro
:

Ive just had a quick look for you and it does:
http://www.team-mediaportal.com/manu...d_TVCards/DVBt