lowest requirements for a HTPC?

[dgr]

lowest requirements for a HTPC?

Hi

I'm after a HTPC, to do:

• streaming divx
• winamp of say a few thousand albums (on a massive hdd)
• watching tv off a pci digital tuner (nebula digitv, pci)
• recording tv to mpg2 on said card
• burning mpg2 to dvdr
• outputting HIGH QUALITY suond to an amp via digital connection
• outputting HIGH QUALITY graphics to an lcd at 1280*768
• having windows xp and style xp (or similar) installed

thats it - no need for gaming, no need for playing dvds or cds (thats what my hometheatre will be for).

anyone to provide minimum specs? its becuase it MUST be quiet and insider intelligence says that the hush ATX WILL NOT BE READY IN THE NEXT FEW MONTHS (at least to consumers, and with a spec worth using...)

I'll probably house it in a coolermaster 600 case or an antec oveture (thuogh the former is preferable). If i do this, i would want the psu to be an enermax (with fans turned ALL the way down), no gpu fan, no (ok maybe 1) case fan. and a big ass cpu heatsink, liddle fan.

case would be this:
Coolermaster ATCS-600-VX2 Desktop Frosty Green
http://web6.scan.co.uk/Products/Info.asp?WPID=21342

in which case ase psu would be:
350W Enermax EG365AX-G-FMA II PSU with Manual Fan Control/Temp Control 2Yr
http://web6.scan.co.uk/Products/Info.asp?WPID=57429

[dgr]

[dgr]

[dgr]

to help you out, i was thinking:

cpu - amd xp2400 (can i go lower?)

cpu cooler - Coolermaster CP5-8JD1F-0L Upto XP3200+ Silent Skt A Heatsink & Fan
http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/produ...duct_uid=48547

motherboard - standard amd mATX with ieee1394, usb2, lan, DECENT digital audio output (maybe soundstorm?) unless i use a pci audio card.

gpu - Sapphire Radeon 9200 DDR TV-Out DVI-i 64MB Lite Retail Box
http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/produ...duct_uid=48464
nb - no need for great fps (no games...) and its got to be fan free...)

hdd - 200gbish, say Western Digital WD200BB 200gb UIDE 100 7200rpm
http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/produ...duct_uid=40467

dvd writer - Pioneer 4x DVD DUAL R/RW IDE BURNER
http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/produ...duct_uid=50126

RAM - 2 * Twinmos (on Twinmos) 256mb Ddr333 Pc2700 Cl2.5 = 512mb
Memory
http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/produ...duct_uid=56644

ANything I've missed?

[dgr]

MB:

so little choice:

must be matx, must have usb2, so maybe:

Epox 8KMM3I SKT A KM400 DDR400 MATX 8x AGP Sound/Video/lAN/USB2.0
http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/produ...duct_uid=51355

or

Asus A7N266-VM-SE SKT A MATX Sound Lan Motherboard
http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/produ...id=48103#pinfo

or

MSI KM4M-L SKT A 8x AGP Onboard Video/sound/lan ATA133 MATX CPU support Up to XP 3000+ (FSB333) Retail Box
http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/produ...duct_uid=51278
http://www.msi.com.tw/program/produc...il.php?UID=475

or

MSI K7N2GM-L (Onboard IEEE 1394, 10/100 LAN, up to fsb333)
http://www.msi.com.tw/program/produc...il.php?UID=437
http://www.savastore.com/products/pr...6&pid=45&tid=3


decisions, decisions....

[Allen]

I would of thought that was a bit overkill... You can pick up an M-ITX Epia ME10000 for about £110 which includes a 1GHz processor which is passively cooled and has onboard graphics that I hear are good enough for DVD playback. Onboard sound is provided by the VIA VT1616 6 channel AC'97 Codec. Dunno if that's good enough sound quality for you though but it should suffice.

You could then get a TV card that includes hardward MPEG2 encoding like Hauppauge's WinTV-PVR250 for about £100 which you could use for capturing.

Then just add your HDD and RAM as suggested below and you will have a very silent HTPC good enough for what you want. Also, that board can be placed in a much smaller and sexier case too.

[dgr]

hi

i did consider an epia system, but the 1ghz equates to a max of maybe a 700mhz p3? i have a 700mhz p3 and i'm not sure if it would do what i've said above? will it drive a res. of 1280*768 (native for a 30'' philips lcd)?

also digital optical out is a necessity, i will be inputting to a decent (think £1000) surround system and would prefer to decode the signal there rather than on a cheapo MB.

cheers for the advice.

dgr

[directhex]

well you could do all that on a duron 1600 with 256mb ram quite comfortably.

dabs value radeon 7000s give a superb picture, we have on in our htpc (which was made a little more haphazardly than it sounds like you want)

[Allen]

Hmm, would an Extigy (or other external equivalents) be out of the question then if you needed optical out?

Maybe an mATX would be better then as you'd get more features and also have more PCI slots for a decent internal sound card if the onboard wasn't good enough...

But if I were you, I'd still consider the PVR-250, I've heard good things about it.

[Enverex]

Just a note: That LCD would be either 1024x768 or 1280x1024, not 1280x768.

[td5]

That system spec would be fine for years of HTPC use.

If its going in the living room, http://www.silentpcreview.com/ to get it quiet

[dgr]

Originally posted by Enverex
Just a note: That LCD would be either 1024x768 or 1280x1024, not 1280x768.

no, it most certainly is 1280*768

dgr

[dgr]

Originally posted by Big_Al

But if I were you, I'd still consider the PVR-250, I've heard good things about it.

thanks for the tip but the tv tuner MUST be DVB. and i've read good reviews about the nebula.

dgr

[dgr]

Originally posted by directhex
well you could do all that on a duron 1600 with 256mb ram quite comfortably.

dabs value radeon 7000s give a superb picture, we have on in our htpc (which was made a little more haphazardly than it sounds like you want)

hmm, i'll have to consider those specs.

btw does the 7x series output to a resolution of 1280*768? my 9700p does, hence my decision to get a 9200.

dgr

[directhex]

well the 9200 isn't a 9000 series, it's an 8500

by the look of the ati website, the 7000 doesn't do 1280x768 :/

[directhex]

then again, bt the website neither does the 9200

or the 9600. well THAT's not a useful resource is it now.

i'll get accurate info on the 7000 by tomorrow hopefully