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EndersShadow

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Dec 27, 2008
Messages
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I apologize for this being a long post but I want to try and get this all down and out of my head before I lose it :p.

I am planning on building a HTPC that will be used for light surfing, blu-ray, tv tuners and just about nothing else. Based on the price point I am going AMD with this build. It does what I need and its not as expensive as Intel (not that it isn't worth the cost there just is no performance value at this price).

I am going to list off my speaker equipment just for reference. I currently I have a 5.1 receiver but will be upgrading to either a Onkyo 606 or a Yamaha V663 to do 7.1 in the near future. (Feel free to weigh in on either though that isn't the goal of this post). I have two Polk Monitor 60's as my fronts, two Monitor 40's as my rears, a Polk Audio CS2 as my center and will be getting a Polk PWM125 shortly to round it all out.

All the parts I will be purchasing are below as are reasons explaining why I choose them. All of this will be run using Vista Ultimate 64bit. Please let me know what you think/if you see any problems, if I am spending too much on a certain part, etc. I come here to post stuff like this because this site is way better at giving specifics than most I frequent :D

Case:
SILVERSTONE LC10B-E
What can I say, its got room for 6 Hard Drives....:D

Mobo:
ASUS M3N78 PRO
I need this mobo because I plan on having two dual tuners that are PCI-E x1 and its one of the few boards that has that, plus HDMI that can support 7.1 LPCM.

Tv-Tuners
Hauppauge WinTV-HVR-2250
While I would need two antenna's I can record up to four shows at once and isn't that the point (while it might be overkill)

PSU:
OCZ ModXStream Pro
You gotta have a modular psu IMO otherwise you have to many cables everywhere and with a tight space already...not good

CPU:
AMD Athlon 64 X2 5400 I might be going overboard here as most builds seem to like the 4850e but I figure for ten bucks why not. I should have the power since their is no GPU (besides onboard)

Memory:
Kingston HyperX 4GB
Once again might be spending too much on the brand/type but I want 4 gig so I can allocate the onboard GPU at least one gig of it

Blu-Ray/HD-DVD Drive:
LG Blu-ray/HD DVD-ROM
Have one already and it rocks!

Hard Drive: (getting 5 :D)
Seagate Barracuda 1.5TB
1.5 Terrabytes with 32Mb cache and 7200 RPM 3Gb/s...Go big or go home...nough said.

CPU Cooler: (need help deciding)
SILVERSTONE NT07-AM2
Its small and doesnt make much noise....
OR
Scythe "NINJA MINI"
Could prob go with passive cooling on this and have no noise :D

As stated above any thoughts/suggestions are welcome. I dont assume to know everything yet, thats why I read HardOCP :p
 
what OS are you planning on using? because i don't believe dual tuners works in windows as of yet.
 
Vista Ultimate 64bit will be the OS of choice. Vista will support up to four tuners by default if you have Windows Media center (which the Ultimate version does). Link
 
So are you playing on playing ONLY OTA TV and Blu-ray? No xvid avis or x264 mkvs/mp4s?
 
NeilFarted said:
So are you playing on playing ONLY OTA TV and Blu-ray? No xvid avis or x264 mkvs/mp4s?
Click to expand...

What are xvid avis or x264 mkvs/mp4s? I am not up on my acronyms. I am going to guess they refer to diff types of computer files, but beyond that I am out of my element (why I post here, so I learn what I dont know)
 
EndersShadow said:
What are xvid avis or x264 mkvs/mp4s? I am not up on my acronyms. I am going to guess they refer to diff types of computer files, but beyond that I am out of my element (why I post here, so I learn what I dont know)
Click to expand...
it's codecs and file formats. i don't know if you do or plan on downloading any videos and watching them on your HTPC.
 
NeilFarted said:
it's codecs and file formats. i don't know if you do or plan on downloading any videos and watching them on your HTPC.
Click to expand...

I had thought about it farther on down the line, but as I dont know where to go to do that, I wanted to start simple and go from there. I have more than enough space for it. I will also store my MP3's on the HTPC as well.

Also found a post here (that I blanked I put up, about dual tuners in Vista)
 
yea, you might want to consider 32 bit vista instead. Do you have any particular reason for choosing a 64bit OS? Codecs are a bit of a nightmare on 64bit Vista.
 
NeilFarted said:
yea, you might want to consider 32 bit vista instead. Do you have any particular reason for choosing a 64bit OS? Codecs are a bit of a nightmare on 64bit Vista.
Click to expand...

I have a already have the install disc :D. If it is that big a deal I am sure I could get the 32bit, I have run into a few codec issues now that you mention it, but as stated before wont really be getting too hard into downloading shows, etc. And if I do I have other machines with editing software I can convert with if need be (Premier, After Effects).
 
EndersShadow said:
I have a already have the install disc :D. If it is that big a deal I am sure I could get the 32bit, I have run into a few codec issues now that you mention it, but as stated before wont really be getting too hard into downloading shows, etc. And if I do I have other machines with editing software I can convert with if need be (Premier, After Effects).
Click to expand...

Yes, go with V32 instead. Far less nightmares, it's actually pretty straight forward when using V32.
 
  • xvid is a codec. Probablly the most popular codec on the internet right now, used to convert dvd quality to video to a less than a gig file.
  • divx also a codec. Precursor to xvid (notice they are spelled backwards). Unlike xvid, divx is proprietary owned codec
  • both of these video formats are stored in a container shell known as avi (which is the most common form of container shell for videos).
  • Mpeg 4 part 2. Type of collection methods used in the compression of video. DivX, Xvid, and Quicktime 6 are based off Mpeg4 part 2.
  • h264 is a codec and is probably one of the best for high quality video with a small amount of storage space. It gives you xvid quality video with half the bitrate. Very cpu intensive to create as well decode. Newer graphic cards as well as the integrated graphic series of nvidia 8000 and newer and ati radeon 3000 series or newer can decode this video natively with very little use of the cpu.
  • x264 is an encoding library for the creation of h264 content. It is released free under a general gpl licensing format.
  • Mpeg 4 part 10. More advanced type of collection methods than Mpeg 4 part 2 for the creation and decoding of video. Used with h264, blu ray, hd dvd, and quicktime 7.
  • MKV is a open source free container file format. Used to combine lots of files such as multiple video streams, audio streams, and subtitle streams and put them in one easy to use file.
 
And your point is? :rolleyes:

We all know it's not very hard to cut and paste from Wiki.
 
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