how bout this for my htpc?

[kidicarus74]

hey all... building an HTPC to hook up to my 61" Samsung DLP TV i just got and was wondering what everyone thinks:

Silverstone LASCALA 10 Black ATX Desktop Case
SAMSUNG 16X DVD Drive Black
Maxtor 80GB 7200RPM SATA Hard Drive
Geil Platinum Series Dual Channel 184 Pin 512MB(256MBx2) DDR PC-4000
ABIT "AG8" i915P Chipset Motherboard
Intel LGA 775 Pentium 4 520 2.8 GHz Processor
SAPPHIRE ATI RADEON X600 PRO Video Card

I've already got a main gaming rig (the one in my sig) so i won't be doing too much hardcore gaming on it but i would like to be able to fire up HL2 or Doom 3 every once in a while for some big screen gaming, even if the resolutions and settings aren't fantastic. I will however be using it as a dedicated game server (CS:S, HL2DM, CoD, etc) at times and it will always be my file server (with my 2 300 gig maxtors in it as well) in addition to it being an HTPC. My 8x dvd-rw will go in this rig and that dvd-rom drive will be put in my gaming rig... so, comments, suggestions? anything is appreciated

 

[IDversusEGO]

looks nice to me. I usually recomend that HTPCs be dedicated, as they are rather sensitive

 

[CrimandEvil]

Very nice (although I have problems with that P4). Are you doing TV on it? For alittle better gaming you might want to get a 6600GT (or a 9800 Pro equivalent) though.

 

[kidicarus74]

no, no tv... here's the rest of my home theater:

-Samsung 61" Widescreen DLP TV
-Denon 7 Channel Receiver
-Sunfire Digital Audio Processor
-4x 1800 Watt Definitive BiPolar Loudspeaker Arrays (for front and rear R and L channels) -(each w/ a 250 watt built-in active sub)
-1x 600 Watt Definitive Center Channel Active Loudspeaker
-3x 250 Watt Defintive Pro Studio Monitors (for mid L and R and Rear Center channels)
-Denon DVD player
-Sony 400 disc CD changer
-Series 2 80 hour tivo
-Modded Xbox
-2 Monster AC Digital Power Filters
-2x Denon 2 channel 1000 watt speaker signal amplifiers

i'm really just looking for an HTPC setup that can playback my assloads of media files as well as perform some other odds and ends functions (like stated in my previous post)...

why do you have problems with the P4? i picked that cause if i ever decide i want to upgrade it'll just be a drop in setup, and with this i get the benefits of PCI express and hyperthreading (since i'll probably do a lot of couch surfing while encoding dvds or file serving, etc.)...

 

[CrimandEvil]

Oh! Very nice stuff.

why do you have problems with the P4? i picked that cause if i ever decide i want to upgrade it'll just be a drop in setup, and with this i get the benefits of PCI express and hyperthreading (since i'll probably do a lot of couch surfing while encoding dvds or file serving, etc.)...

One word: heat

No one but OEMs would recommend the use of a Prescott P4 (they pretty much have too), the older but much better Northwood are what most recommend for a P4 system. Other then that AMD is the new fav for alot of HTPCs because of their much lower temps, power draw and great performance.

You can't easily upgrade from it's horrid heat output without jumping ship.