HTPC Question

[The G-Man]

So, I just found out I am going to have a sum of money coming back to me after school starts. I want to build a HTPC (home theater pc). Here are some things I know I want it to have:
HDMI video card
Blu-Ray Drive
At least 1 TB of HD space
Win7


What I have been slacking on is what kind of processor and motherboard?
The last computer I bought was a laptop back in March and well frankly for that, I wanted small and light and it works great.

What I am going to do with it:
Hook it up to an HDMI receiver
Play music
Archive Blu-ray movies on it
Use Netflix instant streaming
You tube
Maybe some games

[Accrdwgnguy]

PS3 does all that, for cheap money. And it has games son

[EJX_Michael]

PS3 does all that, for cheap money. And it has games son

He has a good point...

What's your price range? I may piece something together on newegg for you.

[The G-Man]

PS3 does all that, for cheap money. And it has games son

I already have a PS3 holmes!
But I don't like how you can't really have playlists of music and such. iTunes keeps my music organized much better than the crap that is on PS3. And I am aware that you can stream from a PC to PS3.

He has a good point...

What's your price range? I may piece something together on newegg for you.

I am thinking in the $500 RANGE, it can be more, haha. But I don't need a case, however I am going to need a power supply since my old trusty 460w one died last year, and since I have not used my desktop, lol.

I am also thinking about a TV tuner card so I can have some DVR functionality too.

[The G-Man]

ooo. Look what I found....
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16856119016

Put that in the room with the TV and have all my storage on my revived desktop. I would still want to upgrade that thing though because it still has SATA 1.5 gb/sec

[Law Grandeur]

PS3 does all that, for cheap money. And it has games son

go to stagevu.com and try watching a movie..oh wait i forgot the ps3 cant because its still pretty damn limited. the ps3 is good but but not all that and a bag of chips!





get a dual core that lets you upgrade to a quad whenever you want! my bro just built his and its fantastic.

[Masamune]

I have to say $500 is tight for everything you listed. Bump that to about $700 though and it's doable. If you need to purchase a copy Win7 then I'm going to stick you with home premium since you get Windows Media Center. How big is the case you have? The build I put together is designed around small form-factor and the mATX board I picked should hold you pretty well for some time. 380w on a good PSU should be plenty of power. I'm also sticking you with a standard wireless keyboard/mouse combo since my first choice, the logitech diNovo is prohibitively expensive.

Antec EarthWatts Green EA-380D Green 380W Continuous power ATX12V v2.3 / EPS12V 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Active PFC Power ... $44.99

Crucial 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1066 (PC3 8500) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model CT2KIT12864BA1067 $47.99

AMD Athlon II X2 245 Regor 2.9GHz Socket AM3 65W Dual-Core Desktop Processor ADX245OCGQBOX $58.99

ASUS M4A78LT-M LE AM3 AMD 780L Micro ATX AMD Motherboard $64.99

AVerMedia AVerTVHD Duet - PCTV Tuner (A188 - White Box) MTVHDDUWB PCI-Express x1 Interface - OEM $49.99

LG Black Blu-ray Disc Combo SATA Model CH10LS20K LightScribe Support - OEM $69.99

Western Digital AV-GP WD10EVDS 1TB SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal AV Hard Drive -Bare Drive $79.99

XFX HD-567X-YNFC Radeon HD 5670 (Redwood) 512MB 128-bit DDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card ... $89.99

Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 32-bit 1-Pack for System Builders - OEM $99.99

Logitech 920-000264 Black Cordless Ergonomic Desktop Wave $69.99

Subtotal: $676.90

Your biggest costs:

What I am going to do with it:
Hook it up to an HDMI receiver
Play music
Archive Blu-ray movies on it
Use Netflix instant streaming
You tube
Maybe some games

I went ahead and got the 5670 becuase it'll do most games on medium settings at 1080p resolution. Cut gaming out and you can go down to a HD 5550 costing only $65.

You've saved $35.

If you already have a copy of Win7 then remove the copy I added in there. Or you could use MythTV or some other Linux variant for free as well. Kiss games goodbye though...

You've saved $100.

Ripping blu-ray movies is going to destroy your HD space pretty fast. Depending on the number of Blu-ray movies you have, you could move down to a 500GB HD and later add more HD's as the space becomes more necessary. It costs only $55.

You've saved $25.

All in all on my build you could shave $160 off and come damn close to your $500 range. It comes down to decisions and expectations. A be all, do all PC is going to get expensive, fast. Anywho, this is just what I managed to put together, I'm sure someone is going to call foul on something I have on this list.

All prices and products pulled from Newegg.com.

[The G-Man]

I have to say $500 is tight for everything you listed. Bump that to about $700 though and it's doable. If you need to purchase a copy Win7 then I'm going to stick you with home premium since you get Windows Media Center. How big is the case you have? The build I put together is designed around small form-factor and the mATX board I picked should hold you pretty well for some time. 380w on a good PSU should be plenty of power. I'm also sticking you with a standard wireless keyboard/mouse combo since my first choice, the logitech diNovo is prohibitively expensive.

Antec EarthWatts Green EA-380D Green 380W Continuous power ATX12V v2.3 / EPS12V 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Active PFC Power ... $44.99

Crucial 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1066 (PC3 8500) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model CT2KIT12864BA1067 $47.99

AMD Athlon II X2 245 Regor 2.9GHz Socket AM3 65W Dual-Core Desktop Processor ADX245OCGQBOX $58.99

ASUS M4A78LT-M LE AM3 AMD 780L Micro ATX AMD Motherboard $64.99

AVerMedia AVerTVHD Duet - PCTV Tuner (A188 - White Box) MTVHDDUWB PCI-Express x1 Interface - OEM $49.99

LG Black Blu-ray Disc Combo SATA Model CH10LS20K LightScribe Support - OEM $69.99

Western Digital AV-GP WD10EVDS 1TB SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal AV Hard Drive -Bare Drive $79.99

XFX HD-567X-YNFC Radeon HD 5670 (Redwood) 512MB 128-bit DDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card ... $89.99

Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 32-bit 1-Pack for System Builders - OEM $99.99

Logitech 920-000264 Black Cordless Ergonomic Desktop Wave $69.99

Subtotal: $676.90

Your biggest costs:



I went ahead and got the 5670 becuase it'll do most games on medium settings at 1080p resolution. Cut gaming out and you can go down to a HD 5550 costing only $65.

You've saved $35.

If you already have a copy of Win7 then remove the copy I added in there. Or you could use MythTV or some other Linux variant for free as well. Kiss games goodbye though...

You've saved $100.

Ripping blu-ray movies is going to destroy your HD space pretty fast. Depending on the number of Blu-ray movies you have, you could move down to a 500GB HD and later add more HD's as the space becomes more necessary. It costs only $55.

You've saved $25.

All in all on my build you could shave $160 off and come damn close to your $500 range. It comes down to decisions and expectations. A be all, do all PC is going to get expensive, fast. Anywho, this is just what I managed to put together, I'm sure someone is going to call foul on something I have on this list.

All prices and products pulled from Newegg.com.

Thanks for that. I have Win7 covered, thanks to MSDN.
I actually don't have any BLuray movies yet, I just want to start a collection.
Only 2gb of memory though? I was thinking of at least 4?

[F22HB]

2gb of ddr3 ram at 1066mhz is going to be plenty. I think people tend to always go memory crazy, but they forget to look at the speed and timing which you will really be able to "feel". Go from 2gb to 4gb and you probably won't be able to notice much difference, but go from 1066mhz to 1600 or 1800 and you certainly will, not to mention different timings.

[Masamune]

Thanks for that. I have Win7 covered, thanks to MSDN.
I actually don't have any BLuray movies yet, I just want to start a collection.
Only 2gb of memory though? I was thinking of at least 4?

Well that depends on a couple things as well. I only picked up 2GB because that allowed me to remain close to $500 after taking money out. But if you stick with Win7 32 bit then you should get 2x1GB sticks and 2x512MB sticks for a total of 3GB. If you do 64 bit, which is advisable in most instances, you'd be better served with 2x2GB sticks and 2x1GB sticks for 6GB of memory. Purely a money saving technique really, because unless you do serious video editing you don't really need more than 6GB. In my case, I have XP with 3GB of RAM and I never, under any circumstances, dip below 1GB of RAM free. So actual usage numbers, to me, indicate that there is a gross misconception about how much RAM people really need. Win7 is a bit more memory hungry than XP, but even still more RAM would allow you to multitask a little easier as well as encode video a little easier.

TL;DR: get 3GB for 32 bit Win7, get 6 GB for 64 bit Win7.

2gb of ddr3 ram at 1066mhz is going to be plenty. I think people tend to always go memory crazy, but they forget to look at the speed and timing which you will really be able to "feel". Go from 2gb to 4gb and you probably won't be able to notice much difference, but go from 1066mhz to 1600 or 1800 and you certainly will, not to mention different timings.

Excellently said. I totally agree.

And lastly, extremetech just put together an article that outlines how they made an HTPC. Theirs is built on Mythbuntu so you can skip most of those steps, but all in all it's a good read.