Topic: HTPC first build help

[loft]

hi guys!

im new in the HTPC build and hoping for a big help from you guys.

this rig will be mainly used for:

- regular pc
- a little gaming
- decent home theater

htpc will be connected via HDMI to a pc monitor and a 40"tv

hope you can suggest a setup, budget is around 20k

Processor: 
MOBO:
RAM: 
Storage: 
Optical Drive:
Video Card: 
Casing: 

also, is there a shop that specializes on htpc setups?

thanks!

[cHess]

look at this link. You might be interested. http://www.pinoydvd.com/index.php/topic,181446.0.html

[defined]

try the richland or kaveri of amd...suitable for ht and games...

[tristan622]

I'm also building my HTPC. My suggestion is to pick Kaveri A88X chipset na mobo, with HDMI na at Hardware video decoder.

Meron nito available sa PC Express - MSI a88xm-e35 fm2+ Micro ATX php3,300

[Stagea]

- regular pc
- a little gaming
- decent home theater
hope you can suggest a setup, budget is around 20k

Something similar to this might work (prices from PC Hub):
Motherboard: Asrock H81M-VG4 PHP 2350
Processor: Intel Pentium G3240 PHP 2680
Graphics Adapter: Sapphire R7 260X 2gb PHP 5675
RAM Module: Crucial 4gb DDR3-1600 PHP 1830
Hard Disk Drive: Seagate 3TB Barracuda SATA PHP 4900
Enclosure & Power: Cooler Master CMP102 w/ 500W PSU PHP 2150
Total Cost: PHP 19,585

Just add an optical media drive if you need one.

[Stagea]

Slightly OT: Nvidia is joining the party with the GTX 960 featuring full hardware decode of HEVC upto 4k60p. This puts it ahead of the R9 285 in 4K HTPC capability (R9 285 offers a leading-performance H.264 decoder, but does not natively support HEVC).

[AC]

sir stagea is that the cheapest videocard that can do 4k as of now? hehe

[Stagea]

sir stagea is that the cheapest videocard that can do 4k as of now? hehe

It's the cheapest one that does hardware HEVC decode. A lot of graphics cards can output in 4K but you have to rely on software decoding for HEVC (they normally only support 2160p60 h.264 or 2160p30 h.264 in hardware). Fortunately, most 4K files are h.264 at this point; this is expected to change over time.

HEVC's uptake is slow because of the high processing requirements for encode/decode. Right now, a flagship Haswell-E is what's needed to decode 2160p60 in software without dropped frames. An i7 Haswell can only do 2160p30 or 2160p24 well. This is why hardware decode (or OpenCL decode if available) matters.

For a compact / low power HTPC build, AMD's Carrizo is expected to be the first CPU/APU that does 2160p60 HEVC decode well. Intel recently released a driver with HEVC acceleration for Haswell and Broadwell (ver. 15.36.14.64.4080), but Intel is currently stuck to 2160p30 over HDMI at this point (due to no HDMI 2.0 support) and even struggles with it using the current drivers (Intel now accelerates HEVC and VP9 on Core M and some other recent processors, but the ones I've used drop a lot of frames).

Slightly OT: For Media Tank/Player/Streamer people, Rockchip's RK3288 supports 2160p60 HEVC.

[AC]

sorry sir stagea.. too technical for me... hehehe wag po kayo magalit but di ko po talaga naintindihan
i have a gtx750 and an i5-3450... is that enough to do 4k? kahit playing videos lang? just curious if kaya na 4k sa system ko..

anyways.. di pala ok ngayon magbuo ng htpc no? was planning to make a simple htpc build pa naman consisting of just a j1900.. tapos wala nang video card... wala pa naman kami 4k tv.. but.. gusto ko lang sana futureproof as much as possible.. which is hard if may budget.. hehe

thanks

[Stagea]

sorry sir stagea.. too technical for me... hehehe wag po kayo magalit but di ko po talaga naintindihan
i have a gtx750 and an i5-3450... is that enough to do 4k? kahit playing videos lang? just curious if kaya na 4k sa system ko..

Your system can play and output 4k @ 30Hz at full quality when the video is encoded using H.264. It can also output 4k @ 60Hz with chroma subsampling (reduced color information) when the video is encoded using H.264.

What you might miss on are the capability to output 4k @ 60Hz with full color information, and the ability to natively decode HEVC (H.265). HEVC is a new codec that is twice as efficient as H.264 when it comes to compression (the same image quality can be delivered at half the bitrate). Because of the high data requirements for 4K resolution (especially at high frame rates like 60Hz), the industry is moving towards the HEVC format for distribution (whether via streaming or for the next gen 4K BD format).

Hopefully magkaron ng HEVC codecs that are accelerated using the stream processors ng GPUs for older model GPUs (yung mga walang native HEVC support) para kayanin ng less powerful computers.

anyways.. di pala ok ngayon magbuo ng htpc no? was planning to make a simple htpc build pa naman consisting of just a j1900.. tapos wala nang video card... wala pa naman kami 4k tv.. but.. gusto ko lang sana futureproof as much as possible.. which is hard if may budget.. hehe

thanks

It's okay to build an HTPC now, as long as you know the limitations of what you'd get to build. Palagi naman may bagong dadating.

[AC]

hehe.. thanks sir.. sana may lumabas sa sunod hvec processing na sinasaksak lang sa usb.. and sana available sa cdrking para di magastos.. hehe
thank you

[Stagea]

hehe.. thanks sir.. sana may lumabas sa sunod hvec processing na sinasaksak lang sa usb.. and sana available sa cdrking para di magastos.. hehe
thank you

I doubt that. For now, dedicated graphics is the solution (Geforce GTX 960 or the expected AMD Trinidad GPU).

AMD's CES demo was Carrizo performing UHD 60Hz HEVC playback with low CPU utilization, which is a feat at this point. Carrizo is expected in 2Q 2015.

Intel is likely to be behind in video format support until Skylake is released (expected 4Q 2015 or 1Q 2016).

You may be able to stretch your current rig for HEVC 4K playback as long as you run chroma subsampling and play no deep color files. DXVA can be utilized for partial acceleration of HEVC as long as deep color is not required. With some DXVA help, a desktop quad-core Sandy Bridge / Ivy Bridge / Haswell can handle 4k 60fps HEVC (minimal to no dropped frames).

Deep color would make most systems revert to CPU decoding, and that is very demanding (an i5/i7 clocked at 4.4GHz can only sustain about 25fps when playing back high bitrate deep color 4K videos).

As for a Bay Trail build, the fastest Intel-optimized HEVC decoder (Strongene) can only help the Bay Trail decode upto 1080p60 video in H.265/HEVC. It struggles with anything higher.