Building An HTPC, Need Some Suggestions

[Polygon]

I just bought a Core i7 to upgrade my main rig so I decided it was time to build an HTPC and retire my X-Box 360. So, right now I have RAM, MOBO, CPU, and HDD.

DFI LanParty LT P35-T2R
Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600
Zalman CNPS8500
4GB (2x2GB) Mushkin Black XP2-6400 4-4-4-12
Seagate 750GB or 400GB

So, I need to figure out the rest. Here are some parts that I've been looking at.

PSU: PC Power & Cooling Silencer 470.

I used this on my last computer and I liked that is was pretty quite. I want a good quiet PSU so any other suggestions you could give me would be great.

Video: HIS Radeon HD 4670.

I like this card because of the passive cooling and it has some grunt in case I want to play some of my games.

Sound: HT Omega Striker.

This is overkill and I know it. I'm having trouble finding a card the specifies that the tosslink and digital coax outs will pass through and not do any processing which is what I want. Do you have any suggestions that aren't overkill but good quality.

Also, yes, my mobo has onboard sound but it uses an expansion slot rather than being on the mobo itself. I lost the expansion slot and I've looked at every different way to do this and I think just getting a new sound card is the easiest.

I've got the rest figured out.

 

[jinjuku]

That is going to be a hard rig to keep silent... Since you have almost everything else, my recommendation would to be installing one of the Radeon 5XXX series cards.

This way you can bitstream your audio over the HDMI connector to your receiver. This is assuming that you have a receiver capable of HDMI. You won't need a separate sound card this way.

 

[jinjuku]

Well, that Yammy receiver is without HDMI so you are back to a sound card.

Are you going to be in the market for a receiver anytime soon?

 

[Polygon]

Yeah, no HDMI on my current receiver. I'm in a small place right now and I plan to be moving out here in the next six or seven months and I won't bother with upgrading until then. After that I'm sure I'm going to to end up buying an entirely new main rig.

As for the HTPC, I should be able to keep it quite. The case I'm getting uses a couple of 120mm fans and I found some really quiet ones. I'm also going to throttle back the CPU to keep temps down and the mobo has a fan control in it and the HSF stays pretty quiet as a result. I'm sure I can make it silent compared to my 360 which is loud as hell.

So, yeah, I am stuck with a sound card for now so any suggestions would be great.

 

[jinjuku]

Yeah, no HDMI on my current receiver. I'm in a small place right now and I plan to be moving out here in the next six or seven months and I won't bother with upgrading until then. After that I'm sure I'm going to to end up buying an entirely new main rig.

As for the HTPC, I should be able to keep it quite. The case I'm getting uses a couple of 120mm fans and I found some really quiet ones. I'm also going to throttle back the CPU to keep temps down and the mobo has a fan control in it and the HSF stays pretty quiet as a result. I'm sure I can make it silent compared to my 360 which is loud as hell.

So, yeah, I am stuck with a sound card for now so any suggestions would be great.

Nothing but rave reviews for that sound card. However if you are using the digital out than the DAC's in the receiver are what counts... So you may be better off with a lower priced sound card from the likes of Creative or Turtle Beach.

 

[GlocksRock]

I have a soundcard for sale if you are interested. It's a diamond audio card and has digital coaxial out, it is what I used before I got a card with HDMI and it works great. PM me if you are interested.

 

[Polygon]

Nothing but rave reviews for that sound card. However if you are using the digital out than the DAC's in the receiver are what counts... So you may be better off with a lower priced sound card from the likes of Creative or Turtle Beach.

Yeah, and that's exactly my main question. I like that card but I'm looking for a cheaper one that people know is good that does pass through for sure. A lot of them don't list if they do or not.

Then again, a friend of mine just told me that no matter what all of them pass through the digital coax and toss link. Is this true?

I have a soundcard for sale if you are interested. It's a diamond audio card and has digital coaxial out, it is what I used before I got a card with HDMI and it works great. PM me if you are interested.

Let me check if I have an open coax on the back of the receiver and I'll let you know.

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

...I plan to be moving out here in the next six or seven months...

Six months will be here before you know it.

I would upgrade everything (receiver & HTPC) at the same time.

CPU, RAM, MoBo, HDD -- already have.

Gotta have HDMI receiver, ATI 5000 series HDMI card, and Blu-ray reader or writer.

It's not too important, but also explore the possibility of a HTPC case that looks more like an audio component so that it could fit right into your audio rack.

 

[Polygon]

Six months will be here before you know it.

I would upgrade everything (receiver & HTPC) at the same time.

CPU, RAM, MoBo, HDD -- already have.

Gotta have HDMI receiver, ATI 5000 series HDMI card, and Blu-ray reader or writer.

It's not too important, but also explore the possibility of a HTPC case that looks more like an audio component so that it could fit right into your audio rack.

Yeah, but look at my sig and the sad set that's in it. It can't even do 420p and I'm sick of using this X-Box for the media center. There's no way for me to hook up the HTPC to it and be able to see anything for crap.

I don't mind buying a new T.V. and using this one in my bedroom when I get the new one and upgrade the rest. The HTPC shouldn't need to be upgraded.

As for the case I think I've decided on the Zalman HD503:

I would have gotten the HD501, but no built in IR receiver. The HIS card suddenly isn't available so I had to pick out another one. And the BD-Rom I picked out is out of stock. Oh well, I need to go audition some T.V.s first anyway.

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

Yeah, but look at my sig and the sad set that's in it. It can't even do 420p and I'm sick of using this X-Box for the media center. There's no way for me to hook up the HTPC to it and be able to see anything for crap.

I don't mind buying a new T.V. and using this one in my bedroom when I get the new one and upgrade the rest. The HTPC shouldn't need to be upgraded.

As for the case I think I've decided on the Zalman HD503:

I would have gotten the HD501, but no built in IR receiver. The HIS card suddenly isn't available so I had to pick out another one. And the BD-Rom I picked out is out of stock. Oh well, I need to go audition some T.V.s first anyway.

Very NICE HTPC case!!!

I LIKE!

 

[GlocksRock]

Very nice case indeed, I like it a lot.

 

[Polygon]

Yeah, I was going to get an Origen AE case but then the one place I found selling them for a decent price went under. Then I found a really cool case here in the U.S.

HeatSync 7000.

It's still a little spendy but I love using the case as a heat sink for the GPU and CPU. Then the Zalman came out and it's the best looking case for the price I think. I can't stand any of the cases on Newegg.

 

[fredk]

For a power supply you could look at a 450w Corsair vx. Its very quiet and 80+ efficient. Could also look at Seas power supplies as they OEM a lot of the high efficiency quiet power supplies including the Corsair I mentioned.

 

[Polygon]

For a power supply you could look at a 450w Corsair vx. Its very quiet and 80+ efficient. Could also look at Seas power supplies as they OEM a lot of the high efficiency quiet power supplies including the Corsair I mentioned.

Thanks for the suggestion. That saves a me a bit of cash.

 

[mike29892]

I would also reccommend at maybe looking at some boards with built in video. Some boards come now with optimized for 1080p play back and can allow you to avoid a video card saving you some money. Seems like a lot of newer microATX mobos have this.

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

I would also reccommend at maybe looking at some boards with built in video. Some boards come now with optimized for 1080p play back and can allow you to avoid a video card saving you some money. Seems like a lot of newer microATX mobos have this.

Well, if you don't care about the HD Audio codec DTS-HD MA & Dolby TrueHD, then that's okay.

Otherwise I would definitely get one of the new ATI Radeon 5xxx series Graphics/Audio cards.

Some of those integrated MoBo may have 1080p picture, but the HDMI audio may be very limited. For example, one of my MoBo has integrated Audio/Video/HDMI w/ 1080p Video, but the HDMI is only 2.0 AUDIO!!!

It even says so on the owner's manual. So without a graphics/audio card, I was limited to only 2.0 Ch sound, not even 5.1 DD or DTS!!!

 

[Polygon]

Besides, for the price that it would cost for another MOBO I'd exceed the cost of a video card and sound card. Plus I'd have the hassle of trying to get rid of my current MOBO.

Here's the list of stuff I went with:

MSI R4350-MD512H Radeon HD 4350 512MB 64-bit GDDR2 PCI Express 2.0 x16.

It says it does 5.1 over the HDMI and I don't need to worry about DTS-HD MA & Dolby TrueHD since I don't habe HDMI on my receiver.The next one will when I move out and buy a new rig. Then I just would need to get a new card for the HTPC if it doesn't support DTS-HD MA & Dolby TrueHD.

Turtle Beach RIVIERA 5.1 Channels PCI.

CORSAIR CMPSU-450VX 450W ATX12V V2.2.

PLEXTOR Black 8X BD-ROM.