Author Topic: Building an HTPC asap, need some help (Read 5990 times)

projecthonda · « **on:** May 14, 2011 at 04:30 PM »

need a little help on building a budget wise HTPC for my dad, budget would be around 12k. cpu only.

i found a site which offers custom building online before ordering, im trying to mix out some parts and here are my two options for now:

1st set:

Processor: AMD Athlon II 250 (3.0G) X2 Dual Core AM3 (= Core 2 Duo 45nm)
Motherboard:nVidia GeForce 6100 Q-NV-GF6100 (256MB Integrated Extreme Video) Support Phenom - AM3
Graphic Display: Zotac 512MB nVidia GeForce 8400GS CRT-DVI-HDMI DDR3
Memory: 2GB DDR3 1333MHz Memory w/ Lifetime Warranty (1x2GB) w/ Heatspreader
Hard Drive: 500GB 7200RPM Hard Drive SATA 3.0 3X faster
Optical Drive: Samsung 22x Dual Layer DVD-RW Drive Sata
Media Drive: USB Card Reader
Keyboard: Shuttle XPC Wireless Keyboard and Mouse
Casing: Black w/ 700w PSU & Hi Def. Sound Support
Power Supply: Upgrade To Huntkey Green Power 400w PSU

2nd set:

Processor: Intel® Celeron Dual Core E3300 (2.50G) 800fsb 1mb CDC
Motherboard:Asus P5G41C-M Intel® G41 Chipset DDR2/DDR3
Graphic Display: Albatron 1024MB ATI HD5450 CRT-DVI-HDMI DDR3
Memory: 2GB DDR2 800MHz Memory w/ Lifetime Warranty (1x2GB)
Hard Drive: 500GB 7200RPM Hard Drive SATA 3.0 3X faster
Optical Drive: Samsung 22x Dual Layer DVD-RW Drive Sata
Media Drive: USB Card Reader
Keyboard: Shuttle XPC Wireless Keyboard and Mouse
Casing: Black w/ 700w PSU & Hi Def. Sound Support
Power Supply: Upgrade To Huntkey Green Power 400w PSU

will either of these work for HTPC?

im still open for other options around the budget and if you can post specs, i would truly appreciate it. will just run to a store and present the list lol.

setup would be 26" LCD TV with HDMI and Sharp tower speakers with red and white connection

connection will be like this if im thinking it right:

HTPC's HDMI output -> HDMI Splitter -> PC monitor with built in speaker (if there's available)
-> LCD TV -> Sharp tower speakers for audio

HDMI coming from VC of HTPC has audio and video already right?

TIA!

*btw, im running off to gilmore tomorrow to purchase one

paolorenzo · « **Reply #1 on:** May 14, 2011 at 09:22 PM »

Get a Zacate based HTPC na lang. Liit pa nang footprint, tipid pa sa kuryente. Currently one of the best HTPC solutions available.

P6000 Mobo/Proc/VC/LAN/Sound - http://www.tipidpc.com/viewitem.php?iid=9712801
P2300 4Gb memory - http://www.tipidpc.com/viewitem.php?iid=8367619
P2000 500Gb Sata3 HDD - http://www.tipidpc.com/viewitem.php?iid=9092362
P1650 miniITX casing with PSU - http://www.tipidpc.com/viewitem.php?iid=6261308

P11,950. May P50 ka pa para sa value meal. All quoted items come from a single seller pa. Sa kanila ka na lang pumunta sa SFDM, kesa makigulo ka pa sa Gilmore. Pero they need 1 day advanced notice yata.

Good luck sir.

Blackstar · « **Reply #2 on:** May 16, 2011 at 01:00 AM »

Quote from: paolorenzo on May 14, 2011 at 09:22 PM

Get a Zacate based HTPC na lang. Liit pa nang footprint, tipid pa sa kuryente. Currently one of the best HTPC solutions available.

P6000 Mobo/Proc/VC/LAN/Sound - http://www.tipidpc.com/viewitem.php?iid=9712801
P2300 4Gb memory - http://www.tipidpc.com/viewitem.php?iid=8367619
P2000 500Gb Sata3 HDD - http://www.tipidpc.com/viewitem.php?iid=9092362
P1650 miniITX casing with PSU - http://www.tipidpc.com/viewitem.php?iid=6261308

P11,950. May P50 ka pa para sa value meal. All quoted items come from a single seller pa. Sa kanila ka na lang pumunta sa SFDM, kesa makigulo ka pa sa Gilmore. Pero they need 1 day advanced notice yata.

Good luck sir.

+1
very cost efficient and power efficient ng zacate based htpc. very capable of playing your hd content pa...

lncc63 · « **Reply #3 on:** May 16, 2011 at 04:51 AM »

Ganyan bro ang HTPC ko pero Gigabyte E350 yung mobo. Seems to be ok. I really like the speed of the SATA3 drive. Haven't had a chance to appreciate the USB3 since I don't have any USB3 devices but it should be very beneficial when I do.

Tried playing GTA with it but the performance was very very poor. Movie playback was excellent.

seymorebutts · « **Reply #4 on:** May 16, 2011 at 07:51 AM »

Quote from: lncc63 on May 16, 2011 at 04:51 AM

Ganyan bro ang HTPC ko pero Gigabyte E350 yung mobo. Seems to be ok. I really like the speed of the SATA3 drive. Haven't had a chance to appreciate the USB3 since I don't have any USB3 devices but it should be very beneficial when I do.

Tried playing GTA with it but the performance was very very poor. Movie playback was excellent.

i just finished building mine but using asrock e350/usb3, total cost was 10500, cpu only.

total power consumption @ 75watts, cpu with 500gb caviar blue sata3, etrayz, gigabit switch, zyxel modem, 18.5 led monitor.

dm1179 · « **Reply #5 on:** May 16, 2011 at 09:04 AM »

^75W for the CPU only?

Stagea · « **Reply #6 on:** May 16, 2011 at 09:32 AM »

Quote from: dm1179 on May 16, 2011 at 09:04 AM

^75W for the CPU only?

I think that's total, including the switch, modem, monitor, etc.

seymorebutts · « **Reply #7 on:** May 16, 2011 at 09:36 AM »

Quote from: Stagea on May 16, 2011 at 09:32 AM

I think that's total, including the switch, modem, monitor, etc.

opo, total po

nerveblocker · « **Reply #8 on:** May 17, 2011 at 06:06 AM »

I suggest that instead of getting a DVDRW drive, go for a BD combo drive.

projecthonda · « **Reply #9 on:** May 18, 2011 at 07:30 PM »

got a good setup from tpcHQ. i3, 4gb ram 2x2gb, 1gb vc ati, 500gb hdd. connected to lg 32" led tv using hdmi cable. quite satisfied on the performance. saving up for additional 1tb hdd and some cpu coolers and a good psu

Tavus · « **Reply #10 on:** May 22, 2011 at 06:58 PM »

Get ati video cards 4000, 5000 and 6000 above. They can decode basic optical audio through hdmi, it also works if you have ati dvi to hdmi adapter.

i know 5000 and nvidia gt460 series can bit stream master audio. really.

Tavus · « **Reply #11 on:** May 22, 2011 at 07:29 PM »

dude read this guide here from avsforums
if you have an intel cpu, the newer core i3 sandy bridge you might no need a video card because it has a build in video card on its mother board. kinda handy right if you just want to watch movies right?

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1302559
cheers

aceaceace · « **Reply #12 on:** May 27, 2011 at 09:11 PM »

finally saw a gigabyte zacate mobo in the flesh.. grabe ang liit nga! maski htpc matx case, parang overkill pa rin haha. looking forward into building an htpc with this soon

dm1179 · « **Reply #13 on:** May 28, 2011 at 01:02 PM »

^first time mo siguro makakita ng mini-ITX board. same size lang yan tulad ng dati, 170x170 mm.

aceaceace · « **Reply #14 on:** May 29, 2011 at 10:03 AM »

Quote from: dm1179 on May 28, 2011 at 01:02 PM

^first time mo siguro makakita ng mini-ITX board. same size lang yan tulad ng dati, 170x170 mm.

yes! it's been a long while since i got into computer hardware again.

FrancisD · « **Reply #15 on:** May 31, 2011 at 10:43 AM »

Cute ang mini itx lalo na pag maganda design ng case

Sana may mag DIY - sculptured case siguro with a mixture of wood and the like - parang those italian branded audio components. That would be cool

For the Intel i3 - you get better video from a separate card.

For the zacate - its great for playback but it cannot run all post video processing / enhancing features of AMD / ATI.

Tavus · « **Reply #16 on:** May 31, 2011 at 05:57 PM »

Quote from: FrancisD on May 31, 2011 at 10:43 AM

Cute ang mini itx lalo na pag maganda design ng case

Sana may mag DIY - sculptured case siguro with a mixture of wood and the like - parang those italian branded audio components. That would be cool

For the Intel i3 - you get better video from a separate card.

For the zacate - its great for playback but it cannot run all post video processing / enhancing features of AMD / ATI.

No need for a video card man if your just going to watch movies. Assassin's guide says you only use 10% with 1080p material. You do not get better video quality with a separate video card.
Hdmi is just digital and digital out, in other words you only get the signal or no signal at all. Well there maybe a tiny difference but won't notice it.
You will only see a difference if you play games.

save your money and get a good mobo with hdmi for a core i3 sandy Bridge h67 or an amd zacate mobo.

if you can wait longer you can get an AMD llano APU, which has on the die AMD 6670 video card build in the chip.

aceaceace · « **Reply #17 on:** May 31, 2011 at 10:01 PM »

Quote from: Tavus on May 31, 2011 at 05:57 PM

No need for a video card man if your just going to watch movies. Assassin's guide says you only use 10% with 1080p material. You do not get better video quality with a separate video card.
Hdmi is just digital and digital out, in other words you only get the signal or no signal at all. Well there maybe a tiny difference but won't notice it.
You will only see a difference if you play games.

save your money and get a good mobo with hdmi for a core i3 sandy Bridge h67 or an amd zacate mobo.

if you can wait longer you can get an AMD llano APU, which has on the die AMD 6670 video card build in the chip.

not in a rush, im actually on the look out for those new AMD fusion chips. i've been reading mixed reviews on zacate regarding 1080p playback (mostly positive reviews), maybe the next gens would be have clear-cut positive reviews:)

Tavus · « **Reply #18 on:** May 31, 2011 at 10:22 PM »

Bit tech say its coming out in june:
http://www.bit-tech.net/news/hardware/2011/03/08/amd-bulldozer-and-llano-details-purportedly/1

jerix · « **Reply #19 on:** Jun 16, 2011 at 05:55 AM »

Thinking of building my HTPC for movie viewing and video editing po. CPU only i already have a new dvd internal player and 750gb internal HD.My budget is 20k-- patulong po. thanks

nerveblocker · « **Reply #20 on:** Jun 16, 2011 at 08:19 AM »

Quote from: jerix on Jun 16, 2011 at 05:55 AM

Thinking of building my HTPC for movie viewing and video editing po. CPU only i already have a new dvd internal player and 750gb internal HD.My budget is 20k-- patulong po. thanks

Quote from: jerix on Jun 16, 2011 at 05:55 AM

Thinking of building my HTPC for movie viewing and video editing po. CPU only i already have a new dvd internal player and 750gb internal HD.My budget is 20k-- patulong po. thanks

Bro, Going the HTPC route eh? Best decision although I cannot help you with specs and all that jazz. Mine is just a dual core AMD package with 2GB RAM, an ATI HD5550 and a Lite On BDRom and it plays everything flawlessly. BD playback is even better than my PS3.

Just need to load the right software to play your files. I just suggest that you get a dedicated video card and a BD drive for your HTPC to have a play-all package. And probably a PC remote control to add icing to the cake.

jerix · « **Reply #21 on:** Jun 16, 2011 at 06:30 PM »

Doc Mel Thanks for your inputs. My actual budget is 20k. I hope somebody can list down items with some prices too.

My desktop just conked out, hence this will be an emergency purchase. Ill go first for the basic HTPC setup with that budget.

lncc63 · « **Reply #22 on:** Jun 16, 2011 at 07:23 PM »

Quote from: jerix on Jun 16, 2011 at 05:55 AM

Thinking of building my HTPC for movie viewing and video editing po. CPU only i already have a new dvd internal player and 750gb internal HD.My budget is 20k-- patulong po. thanks

I've not tried video editing with our Gigabyte E350 but I'm pretty sure the 6 Gbps SATA will be a big thing with video editing because of the higher I/O speed. Your hard disk has to be capable of 6 Gbps though. Adding effect however requires CPU power. While the E350 has dedicated hardware for video decoding, I'm not sure how it will do with the number crunching involved in adding effects. It does do sufficiently well enough with encoding which is also CPU intensive but I am a patient person.

nerveblocker · « **Reply #23 on:** Jun 16, 2011 at 10:33 PM »

Bro, you might want to try the Xtreamer ULTRA HTPC. Pasok sa budget mo.

FrancisD · « **Reply #24 on:** Jun 17, 2011 at 01:47 PM »

Best HTPC results usually come from a good video card. Even the E350 does not score high enough in HQV tests to challenge discrete video cards. Also E350 does not do all post processing video improvements from AMD drivers. You need post processing if you use larger LCD screen specially when using DVD resolution and lower.

You can get an Asrock board, Sempron and an HD 5450 and get excellent results. This would be better than E350 based systems if video quality is what your after and not power efficiency. This should come in on your budget. The dual core semprons can also power win7 much better than atoms.

blake · « **Reply #25 on:** Jul 06, 2011 at 08:38 PM »

what do you use for keyboard? is it wireless?

or do you use remotes?

nerveblocker · « **Reply #26 on:** Jul 06, 2011 at 11:07 PM »

Quote from: blake on Jul 06, 2011 at 08:38 PM

what do you use for keyboard? is it wireless?

or do you use remotes?

If you are just going to use it for media files like an NMT, a PC remote would suffice. Other than that, I think that a wireless keyboard with mouse function is needed.

As long as you are using a front end media center like XBMC, the PC remote is fine. Outside of your media center, I think a wireless keyboard with mouse function should be used.

mojako · « **Reply #27 on:** Jul 07, 2011 at 01:18 AM »

Can these Zacate based HTPCs play 3d 1080p 17gb mkv files?

Kasi yung dual core e2160 ko hingalo eh... overclocked it to 2.5ghz, hingalo pa rin even though I have 4gb of ram and I have an ATI 5750 vid card. Had to upgrade my processor to play the large mkv without hiccups. I knew i had to upgrade when i saw na 100% CPU utilization yung PC ko when i play the mkv.

What about these dual core semprons?

firestorm · « **Reply #28 on:** Jul 07, 2011 at 02:19 AM »

Quote from: mojako on Jul 07, 2011 at 01:18 AM

Can these Zacate based HTPCs play 3d 1080p 17gb mkv files?

Kasi yung dual core e2160 ko hingalo eh... overclocked it to 2.5ghz, hingalo pa rin even though I have 4gb of ram and I have an ATI 5750 vid card. Had to upgrade my processor to play the large mkv without hiccups. I knew i had to upgrade when i saw na 100% CPU utilization yung PC ko when i play the mkv.

What about these dual core semprons?

nope the zacate based HTPCs can't play 3D 1080p full SBS (3840x1080) mkv files flawlessly because the cpu is slower than 2.5ghz which you already have problems with. what software player are you using?

Thanks.

blake · « **Reply #29 on:** Jul 07, 2011 at 04:41 PM »

Hi

ok po ba tong mobo/cpu for HTPC

http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=3681#sp

or eto
http://www.asrock.com/mb/overview.asp?Model=A330ION