Need thoughts/suggestions re; my HTPC build

[zoomahh]

So after over a year of visiting the stores to look at media players, looking online, and reading reviews, I've decided to build my own Home Theater PC. One thing that I found kinda irritating after reading through all that was the fact that in order to get a media player with a gigabit ethernet port, I would have had to spend over 400 easy.

I looked at apple tv, the Western Digital ones, ASUS o-play, and countless others that were in the $100 + or -.... but one thing that was common.....and that is none of them had a gigabit port. Now recently, there have been a few other media players out there offering gigabit, and playing a variety of media formats, one of them being from a company called MICCA ......but when you look at their warranty...it's limited 1 year, and they have no 1-800 or even offering a phone number...only an email...to me I smell a scam/fly-by-night business right there. Another one offered on amazon is the AIOS @ $89.99. Good price but the components, probably mediocre at best..... :rolleyes

In addition to that, my wife and I sat back to watch a movie last week .....and DAMN it if the Bluray we've had for about 6 years isn't playing anymore. Wouldn't even load up. So I decided to build my own HTPC from some spare parts from previous comp builds. Now my best reason for building my own media rig is mainly that if anything breaks/crashes whutev, I just replace the part. If any of the hdd's sheit the bed...I just replace the drive...no worries since I have all my media backed up on a D-Link DNS-323 nas box ;) In addition to the above, if after a while I find a component isn't measuring up, I just replace the part...so it's about as flexible as a horny female gymnast competitor in the Olympics :P I simply upgrade the part.

So here's what I have so far;
***I plan on using VLC media player, free BTW :) , and that will play any format I throw at it. So that will be the launching software I plan to use
***I have an extra copy of windows XP home, that will be the base software.
1. Socket 939 asus mobo with toslink fiber optic and gigabit ethernet
2. AMD dual core cpu @ 2.4 ghz
3. 2 gigs of highend corsair DDR ram running @ 2-2-2-6 timing
4. Video card- Asus HD 6770 with 1 gig of ram and HDMI out
5. 550W power supply
6. Main drive will be a Western Digital Raptor 10K HDD sata
7. Secondary internal drive will a Maxtor 250g hdd sata

Things I still need to get;
1. BluRay drive
2. Computer case...but I'll probably upgrade my gaming rig to a better case and use my Antec 1030B case for the media player since it's not flashy, has good ventilation, and has a black and aluminum outer shell so it will fit in with our decor.
3. Not sure if I should get a sound card or not since there is optical digital already onboard.
4. Wireless keyboard n mouse; to surf for the media I wish play from the comfort of my lazyboy chair

That's all I can think of right now. So if anyone has any thoughts, ideas, recommendations, links, etc, please let me know
Thank you for reading

[XTOTHEL]

Maybe you're a little over reacting to the no gigabit ethernet part? Why do you need it?

[Fuyuzora]

What about an APU? Fairly cheap, low TDP, and quiet if you get a nice cooler for it.

I'm running an A8-3850 for my HTPC (massive overkill, but I got it cheap from a friend) with a 100mm Scythe fan and it works great.

EDIT: Found an image summarizing my combo HTPC/fileserver build which I posted a while back in the "Latest Purchases" thread.

http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f360/bairdga/Misc/HTPC_Build.jpg

EDIT2: Reading comprehension fails me! I see the AMD processor is in your "stuff I already have" category! So disregard this message. :blush

[leungalv]

I would probably consider a new build based on the i3 core. If you're content with your build, I would still recommend windows 7, a larger hard drive and using Media Browser as the front end.

It's not really as "upgradeable" as you think. You're running a socket 939, DDR RAM, all of which can be said to be pretty much obsolete. Replacement parts would be just as expensive (if not more) for a part that is inferior to a new part at the same price.

I recently built a full blown HTPC built around an i3 processor for roughly $400. :) I can tell you the specs when I get back to Windsor.

[zoomahh]

I would probably consider a new build based on the i3 core. If you're content with your build, I would still recommend windows 7, a larger hard drive and using Media Browser as the front end.

It's not really as "upgradeable" as you think. You're running a socket 939, DDR RAM, all of which can be said to be pretty much obsolete. Replacement parts would be just as expensive (if not more) for a part that is inferior to a new part at the same price.

I recently built a full blown HTPC built around an i3 processor for roughly $400. :) I can tell you the specs when I get back to Windsor.

hmmmmm tell me more :)

[zoomahh]

What about an APU? Fairly cheap, low TDP, and quiet if you get a nice cooler for it.

I'm running an A8-3850 for my HTPC (massive overkill, but I got it cheap from a friend) with a 100mm Scythe fan and it works great.

EDIT: Found an image summarizing my combo HTPC/fileserver build which I posted a while back in the "Latest Purchases" thread.

http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f360/bairdga/Misc/HTPC_Build.jpg

EDIT2: Reading comprehension fails me! I see the AMD processor is in your "stuff I already have" category! So disregard this message. :blush

DUDE you have 2 x 2t hdd's in your setup ??!! saaaweet :). ANd I'm LUVIN that solid state drive as well. Saw a 120 G for like less than 100 so that might be an option for the main drive

[zoomahh]

Maybe you're a little over reacting to the no gigabit ethernet part? Why do you need it?

If you have to ask, then maybe you should read this article http://www.pcworld.com/article/173129/upgrade_to_gigabit_networking_for_better_performan ce.html , and revise comment.

And to reinforce my "why", it's also because I already have cat-6 cabling in my home when we had it built, because it was only a $180 upgrade (from cat-5 to cat-6), at the time (MUCH cheaper to have it done when the house is being built) so it was a no brainer IMHO.... and to settle for a 10/100 media player would be such a waste of high grade cabling and other components I already have....it would essentially be the "choke point" in my network. PLUS all my other components (router, my comp, wifey's mac pro, house cabling, my nas box) are all gigabit. So hence my thirst for having the "fastest network I can get" idea ;)

[zoomahh]

I would probably consider a new build based on the i3 core. If you're content with your build, I would still recommend windows 7, a larger hard drive and using Media Browser as the front end.

It's not really as "upgradeable" as you think. You're running a socket 939, DDR RAM, all of which can be said to be pretty much obsolete. Replacement parts would be just as expensive (if not more) for a part that is inferior to a new part at the same price.

I recently built a full blown HTPC built around an i3 processor for roughly $400. :) I can tell you the specs when I get back to Windsor.



I agree with the Windows 7 thing, given it's newer software....good advice thanx

[gabbygenier]

i wouldnt bother with old parts, for the price of new parts these days thats what id do. you dont need anything too crazy since its just a HTPC.

also there are lots of nice cases for descent prices that are for HTPC, something that you dont need too big of.
http://www.canadacomputers.com/index.php?cPath=6_110

as for the gigabit, i have a patriot box office and as long as my switch was gigabit, i was able to stream 12 gig blue ray rips from my pc with no lag at all for them. wireless was a different story though haha.

another option would be one of the micro boards for the 1155. you can get an I3 for them and they are tiny so you can get a nice small case. tehyre prefectly fine for HTPC, weve sold lots of them at CC for that reason
http://www.canadacomputers.com/product_info.php?cPath=26_722&item_id=038344

also, the onboard video from the 1155 cpus will be plenty enough to do HD and blue ray

[XTOTHEL]

If you have to ask, then maybe you should read this article http://www.pcworld.com/article/173129/upgrade_to_gigabit_networking_for_better_performan ce.html , and revise comment.

And to reinforce my "why", it's also because I already have cat-6 cabling in my home when we had it built, because it was only a $180 upgrade (from cat-5 to cat-6), at the time (MUCH cheaper to have it done when the house is being built) so it was a no brainer IMHO.... and to settle for a 10/100 media player would be such a waste of high grade cabling and other components I already have....it would essentially be the "choke point" in my network. PLUS all my other components (router, my comp, wifey's mac pro, house cabling, my nas box) are all gigabit. So hence my thirst for having the "fastest network I can get" idea ;)

The purpose of this HTPC is for streaming media off of your network drives/computers, I think most of the media you stream will not saturate the 100mbps, of course there are other factors and your speed won't actually be exactly 100mbps, but I think it's way more than enough for 1080p 24fps videos. Of course this might change if you have people transferring 10gig files all the time.

Also it wouldn't be a bottleneck since it is an end node for your network and nothing really goes "through" it. I do understand your "I have the tech, I should use it" mentality. I have cat 6 in my house as well, but the ease of wireless overcame that. All the desktops on the network are wired and I made sure the rest of the house is covered with wifi.

There is also the fact that you will have the physical HTPC right by your TV, some people don't mind, I personally try to keep the TV area as uncluttered as I can. I use my iPad with Air Video (http://www.inmethod.com/air-video/index.html) (server installed on my PC upstairs) + http://store.apple.com/ca/product/MD098ZM/A?fnode=3a and stream 1080p no problems over wifi to my TV.

As for your build, unless you don't mind the size of the box, there is really nothing wrong with it. You could try looking for a micro atx mobo with onboard and hdmi out (I have one or two of those in my basement that I'm not using), then get a smaller form factor case.

[zoomahh]

Hmmmmmmm this gives me more options...
Thanx Gab, thanx xtothl. :)

I guess I have to do a bit more research as the articles I read on 10/100 n gigabit may have been misleading
Great info!!

[leungalv]

You should check out avs forum if you haven't done so already :-)

[gabbygenier]

if you think about it really. a blue ray disk is what, usually 50 Gigs, (quad layers are 128Gigs). movie is half hour long. that would be half a gig a min. if you have a good network switch and computer streaming and receiving the data you should have no issues with streaming that. and thats not condensed in any way. even with the wifi, i can stream an 8gig blue ray rip with no issues.

if you are having issues with streaming then i would suggest getting a better switch. theres a reason why some are 5 times the price of others other then functions in them. really, even having your house wired with cat6 (10gig/s) is overkill for almost any user out there. cat5e (gigabit) will do plenty enough. and to use the ability and speed of cat6 youll need to spend a lot of money on equipment.

[tmpz]

Use XBMC for watching videos.

[zoomahh]

You should check out avs forum if you haven't done so already :-)

Thanx dude, and no I haven't, just on lunch at work and I already booked a few articles to read at home. Nice find dude, appreciate it :super smiley

[SirWanker]

Do I sense an IT p!ssing contest here?
If you have the CAT6 infrastructure, why not use it?
I do not have that luxury so my frugal home theatre set-up consists of:

re- purposed Dell Latitude D620 with 4GB RAM

Windows 7 & VLC


Seagate 120 GB external drive
15yr old JVC Boombox RV-B99
3yr old Samsung 42" LCD

Load up the hardrive with media and I'm good to go. Although there is no surround sound, the bass from the RV-B99 is more than adequate.
I'm getting too much lag with the wireless connectivity due to the location of the router in relation to the media room. Plus I did not want to, well too lazy & cheap, to purchase & experiment with a wireless extender.

Cheers

[zoomahh]

Ya I will DEF be using it. As soon as I have enough parts to put my rig together, ima start doing the bit torrent thing to amass my collection. THEN it's cat6 all the way baby ;)

[XTOTHEL]

Do I sense an IT p!ssing contest here?
If you have the CAT6 infrastructure, why not use it?
I do not have that luxury so my frugal home theatre set-up consists of:

re- purposed Dell Latitude D620 with 4GB RAM

Windows 7 & VLC


Seagate 120 GB external drive
15yr old JVC Boombox RV-B99
3yr old Samsung 42" LCD

Load up the hardrive with media and I'm good to go. Although there is no surround sound, the bass from the RV-B99 is more than adequate.
I'm getting too much lag with the wireless connectivity due to the location of the router in relation to the media room. Plus I did not want to, well too lazy & cheap, to purchase & experiment with a wireless extender.

Cheers

I don't think anyone's pissing on anyone here. People are just giving solutions and suggestions. No one's pointing fingers and going "OMG YOU'RE SO WRONG LOL".

Specs indicate that the D620 you have only uses a/g...I suspect that contributes to your problem as well (combined with the poor signal coverage you talked about).

[leungalv]

Do I sense an IT p!ssing contest here?
If you have the CAT6 infrastructure, why not use it?
I do not have that luxury so my frugal home theatre set-up consists of:

re- purposed Dell Latitude D620 with 4GB RAM

Windows 7 & VLC


Seagate 120 GB external drive
15yr old JVC Boombox RV-B99
3yr old Samsung 42" LCD

Load up the hardrive with media and I'm good to go. Although there is no surround sound, the bass from the RV-B99 is more than adequate.
I'm getting too much lag with the wireless connectivity due to the location of the router in relation to the media room. Plus I did not want to, well too lazy & cheap, to purchase & experiment with a wireless extender.

Cheers

Monoprice has a cheap N router that you can add on as a repeater ... approximately $20 :) I'm using one, it's not bad ... basic router

[m_bisson]

I didn't see it being addressed, but skip the soundcard. Use the HDMI on your videocard for audio out and let your receiver do the decoding.

Also, use your DNS-323 for the storage and just stream over your network. This lets you throw in a SSD for windows and whatever software you need for htpc without the noise/heat of a HDD. I also download directly to my DNS-325. This lets me access the media from anywhere (even my phone) without having to turn a PC on first.

Speed shouldn't be an issue either.. I can write to the network drives at about 35mb/s and read around 60-70mb/s. That's much faster than any media you'll be streaming.

[leungalv]

Ok so as promised, here's my build:

HARDWARE:
Intel Core i3-2105 $135
Shuttle SH67H3 $150
Corsair XMS3 4GB (2x2GB) $32
WD20EARX 2TB hard drive $105

TOTAL PRICE ALL TAX IN: $422

SOFTWARE:
Windows 7 Professional
Shark007 codecs
Media Center front end

All cables also purchased from monoprice