Multimedia PC - What spec?

[Devilfish]

Well I eventually got round to buying the components. Just need to wait on them coming in now and get stuck in.

ANTEC FUSION V2
AMD Phenom? quad Core 9350e, Socket AM2+, 2.0MHz
Gigabyte GA-MA78GPM-DS2H, AMD 780G Motherboard with onboard HDMI and 7.1 audio
Zalman CNPS9500-AM2 AMD Aero Flower Cooler
1TB Samsung Spinpoint F1 SATA2 7200RPM 32MB cache
Corsair 2GB PC2-8500 C5 XMS2 Dominator (2x1GB)
LG GGC-H20L Blu-Ray/HD DVD-ROM, DVDRW SATA Black Retail Kit

[davemac82]

Hi folks,

I'm thinking about getting an HTPC for the living room but I'm unsure what spec to get?

Will be wanting to play HD movies, etc., probably use it as a normal PC too as well as recording to hdd.

Also, been having a look through ebay but not convinced...does anyone know any websites to browse?

Cheers

may i reccommend this m8 all from ebuyer.com
just built one a couple of weeks ago and runs a treat!!

Antec NSK 2480 MATX Desktop Case Black & Silver - With 380W EarthWatts PSU - Ebuyer
ASUS P5VD2-VM SE P4M890 Socket 775 onboard VGA 6 channel audio mATX Motherboard - Ebuyer
Intel Pentium Dual Core E2180 2GHz Socket 775 800MHz FSB L2 1MB Cache Retail Box Processor - Ebuyer
LG Electronics Blu-Ray & HD-DVD-Rom Combo 16x DVDRW Black SATA - Retail Box With Software - Ebuyer
Samsung HD502IJ SpinPoint F1 500GB Hard Drive SATAII 7200rpm 16MB Cache - OEM - Ebuyer
OCZ 4GB (2x2GB) DDR2 800Mhz/PC2-6400 Memory GOLD DUAL CHANNEL Unbuffered CL5(5-5-5-18) - Ebuyer
Hauppauge Win TV Nova-S Plus Digital Satellite Card TV And Radio Card PCI - Ebuyer


all of this for only ?328 quid including delivery, as far as i know pentium cpu's do not build up as much heat as amd's and are more reliable in media centre pc's. If you.ve already got a tv card thats you saved ?42 and if you wanna stick with 2gb ram rather than 4 theres another ?26 saved you got yourself a media centre for ?260 BARGAIN goodluck devilfish

shit a bit l8 me thinks

[Devilfish]

Yeh m8, I've already ordered it but thanks anyway.

I've already got a tv card and I'll be using Vista 32bit so no need for 4GB ram.

I know my spec is more than I need but I really bought to future proof it a little as well.

[Devilfish]

Damn it!

Everything came in this morning except the case!

Stupid Amazon and their expected delivery of 26th September 2008!!!!!

[davidharvey75]

Serves you right Mr Fish!!!
Only kidding, I'm just extremely envious!

Don't post on here when you have completed the build ..........cause you might hear a knocking at your door.!!

[Devilfish]

Or you standing at my front window with your tadger in your hand!

Still to get a nice wireless keyboard, there's so many out there. Want one with a trackball for media centres, etc. Oh and I forgot to buy thermal compound for the cpu fan, d'oh! Will need to go to maplin and pay through the nose for that!

[Devilfish]

AAAAGGGGGHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!1

Amazon have cancelled my order because they're out of stock! Mutha Fckers!

[shady77]

Keysonic Wireless Keyboard with Touchpad - Cheap at Ebuyer not used myself, but reviews say its good. they discontinued the ?19.99 one i bought

[chrisistheking]

when choosing the hdd i would go with a samsung F1 1TB they are amazingly fast and beat all the western digital drives including most of the raptor drives. You can pick them up for around 75 - 85 quid

[Devilfish]

I ended up going for the 1TB Spinpoint, a better motherboard (same as in first page but with onboard sideport memory for graphics), and went for the 2.0GHz AMD Phenom Quad core instead of the dual core. Got it all in and working sweet. Blu-ray is amazing and my rapidshare account is already max'd out downloading HD movies .

I've got some pictures and I'll write a wee review when I get a chance.

Thanks everyone for their suggestions and advice.

[sivhead]

The spin points are quieter and its quietness you need to go for in a HTPC, so good choice. Just curious. do you intend on having a dvb-c or dvb-s2 card in your htpc. Or are you not going to bother ?

[westkill]

im still thinking of the best way to build a media centre for my lounge at home
ive got a good idea what i need
the only thing trouble in me is the sound card with decent speakers with 5.1 0r 7.1 with wireless rear speakers
which has optical ports so i can wire up my dreambox and ps3 for the sound if possible
at the moment i have a fairly good amp with floor standing speakers 5.1 fully wired but want to minimize the size of them with good sound

any ideas please for a
mobo
blue ray drive
ram x2
hdd 500gb
processor
and a black case
im on a budget of about ?350
thanks westkill

[Devilfish]

How about this...

Scan Computers UK: Gigabyte GA-MA78GM-S2H, AMD 780G, S AM2+, PCI-E 2.0, DDR2 1066MHz, SATA II, SATA RAID, HDMI1.3, ?ATX - ?59
Scan Computers UK: AMD Athlon 64 X2 4850e AM2 Dual Core 2.5GHz, 512KB x 2 Cache, Retail - ?54
500GB Samsung Spinpoint F1 502IJ SATA2 7200RPM 16MB cache - Aria Technology - ?42
AriaNet Elite 2GB PC2-8500 CL5 (2x1GB) - Aria Technology - ?32
LG GGC-H20L Blu-Ray/HD DVD-ROM, DVDRW SATA Black Retail Kit - Aria Technology - ?67

The case will be a personal choice because of obvious reasons. Have a google for 'htpc case' you will get a few sites. Overclockers.co.uk have a few too but have a look at this site KustomPCs - HTPC, Gaming, CarPC, Cooling and Modding Products in the UK ! they are in Ayr so I just picked the case up personally but I think you are further away.

Watch out, some cases come with a PSU and no media remote control and other have a remote and no PSU. You want at least a 450W power supply. The mobo has onboard HDMI so you won't need an additional graphics card which keeps the power of the supply down. If you can get a case with everything for ?100 then that's ?354.

You'll also need a keyboard, this is the one I got.

I also bought a better CPU fan (?30) but the cpu comes with a fan but I wanted it to be extra quiet.

[westkill]

thank you df will have a proper read of it alll later , lokks good
thanks for your time looking this all up

[birkenhead]

What OS are you going to us, funny.... over the last two weeks in work, been playing MythTV.... WOW, and WOW again.... its a must, trust me it really is a must for a HTPC, picked up old (IBM) Intelistation for free, 1.7mhz and bought a DVB-S (?21), DVB-T (?1.20p) , both from the bay, done a scan today, and started to play,was able to pause and record live TV, it also as a web interface... truly brilliant, the web interface very similar to dreambox and was able to broadcast across the corp network, with full multiple streaming of various movies, MP3's etc.... a true web media server, you have just got to try it to believe it.

Setting up was breeze, i used MythTV Ubuntu 8.04, found it very responsive, easy to setup, the great plus was it found all the hardware straight away and plugging in the DVB cards was also very easy, it as a back office for MythTV were you setup the DVB cards then scan the channels.

Now looking to setup the additional files for the sat side of things and possibly for CS client, Newcamd, gbox etc....

if anyone as got any info in area.... please.