Home theatre PC on the cheap.
Hi, its been a while and I'm out of touch with the latest hardware so need some advice or even if someone has the time to put together a build for a home theatre PC, or at least something that will work as a media centre.
The requirements are:
The budget is £550
It needs to be small if possible and have a ok looking case (a shuttle is perfect but not sure which one!)
Needs a BR player and be able to play HD media from the HDD
Needs an optical out to plug into an amp
Doesn't need multiple drives, I have a back solution already so no need to raid it up.
I already have two spare 8800GT's so it doesn't need onboard video or a video card
I have a spare Vista 64 Home premium edition so doesn't need an OS.
Thanks!
Re: Home theatre PC on the cheap.
I don't know/ think Blu-Rays will let you play the surround soundtracks over optical out as they aren't HDCP.
Re: Home theatre PC on the cheap.
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Terbinator
I don't know/ think Blu-Rays will let you play the surround soundtracks over optical out as they aren't HDCP.
If you just use AnyDVD HD you won't have to worry about HDCP.
Re: Home theatre PC on the cheap.
You can play surround sound over optical regardless of HDCP... but you still won't get HD audio, it will be downmixed to plain DD or DTS 5.1
Re: Home theatre PC on the cheap.
Did some builds for the OP
mATX from scan
http://img202.imageshack.us/img202/8851/scanr.jpg
Shuttle from ebuyer
http://img291.imageshack.us/img291/8774/ebuyer.jpg
This doesn't have Optical out, but you can add a sound card of your choice.
Mini-ITX from CCL Online
http://img704.imageshack.us/img704/6421/cclonline.jpg
+ this This blu-ray drive.
Re: Home theatre PC on the cheap.
Just to let you know that my 8800gt wont decode vc1 (which is almost all of my bd collection) outside of powerdvd or tmt3, it uses the cpu instead, I think because the older chips dont have that ability (VP1???), not sure if the current 8800gt's use a different chip which supports vp2/3.
Re: Home theatre PC on the cheap.
Thanks for the replies and the builds.
Re: Home theatre PC on the cheap.
I would just use an X4 630 with a cheap 780G/785G board.
The integrated graphics is good enough for blu-ray and the X4 gives you more raw power than the i3, in case you need software based decoding.
Using a 8800GT is just wasting electricity. The 8800GT in idle use at least 20W more than the integrated graphics.
My HTPC use 49W idle, 85W with x264 encoding @ 90% CPU and 99W with Prime95.