Media Centre PC

[res6jya6]

Hey everyone!

Among my many other numerous projects in the office here... I was also hoping to build a Media Centre PC for use on the main flat screen in the living room.

I know exactly which processor I want to use, which type of RAM, etc...

But I was wondering if anyone had any suggestions for

1) Audio Card that supports full 7.1 surround

2) Video Card that supports 1080i HDMI

I've been looking around NewEgg and some other Audio/Video websites, and nothing really seems to stick out.

 

[neckthrough]

1). I've been using a Chaintech AV-710 and I'm pretty happy with it. It's cheap, and outputs SPDIF, so I don't have to worry about the quality of its DAC. If you're going to use an optical out into a receiver too, I think the only two issues you need to keep in mind are (a) if the card has SPDIF out, and (b) how good the driver support is on the OS of your choice.

2). Any card from from Nvidia's 8-series, 9-series or GTX-series, or ATi's HD-xxxx series should work if you're only going to use the card for audio/video. If you need acceleration for gaming as well, then the more money you spend, the more performance you'll get. If you don't care about gaming, then even the cheapest cards in NV and ATi's recent lineups have dedicated accelerators for HD video so you shouldn't have to worry.

Many modern video cards have direct HDMI output as well, *and* they allow you to feed an SPDIF signal from a header on your sound card (the sound card needs to have this header) into the video card. The video card combines the audio + video signals and outputs both through HDMI, so you don't need to run a separate SPDIF cable into your receiver. I don't have any first-hand experience using this feature though, so I don't know how well this works in practice.

 

[lsiberian]

This post needs to be moved to the HTPC section!!!

 

[lsiberian]

Hey everyone!

Among my many other numerous projects in the office here... I was also hoping to build a Media Centre PC for use on the main flat screen in the living room.

I know exactly which processor I want to use, which type of RAM, etc...

But I was wondering if anyone had any suggestions for

1) Audio Card that supports full 7.1 surround

2) Video Card that supports 1080i HDMI

I've been looking around NewEgg and some other Audio/Video websites, and nothing really seems to stick out.

Is this your first rodeo cowboy?

CPUs you have 2 ways to go.

Intel or AMD(I prefer AMD for personal reasons) Remember to maximize cache and cores for your budget.

Motherboards(I prefer Asus for their reliability In my experience.)

Ram. Max this out even at the cost of a lesser chip. Ram is the heartbeat of a system

Video Card. Nvidia all the way. IMO.

HD: Western Digital and Maxtor have both served me well. If your looking for speed then Intel has some insane solid state drives, but I prefer storage over speed. So I usually get a slow hard drive with lots of room. They have less heat issues. Tend to be more reliable and in reality RPMs are insignificant for overall performance(IMO). The seek time is the long part not the rotation.


Once you have that you can add the Asus 7.1 card or something similar and should be gtg.

 

[krzywica]

If your Receiver is capable of HDMI audio processing then I would most certainly get this card as it does both audio and video over HDMI without the need for any extra hookups or a stand alone audio card. Plus it is passively cooled so you don't have to worry about noise at all. And it also has native HDMI so you don't have to fiddle with adapters. I have one in my office PC and it is excellent! If you want something capable of gaming I would suggest an HD 4870 or better.

Nvidia cards are very good but they currently do not offer any GPU that has on board audio processing.

Take a look at the links in my sig for more detailed info about building an HTPC.

Oh also if you prefer newegg.....

 

[ChunkyDark]

If you haven't already check out avsforum thread on HTPC. Lot's of great info there. http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/forumdisplay.php?f=26

Have you considered just buying a MB that will take care of the sound and video? Several are available that do a great job at this.
Personally I have gigabyte GA-MA78GM-S2H. Without adding a separate video or sound card it allows me to watch blu-ray and even do 3d gaming. The bonus is it only draws around 50 watts. Compare that to my old p4 which while gaming is drawing > 200 watts.

One word of caution there has been a bug with AMD/ATI motherboards and Yamaha receivers. It was resolved awhile back for me with updated drivers, but I'm using Windows 7.

 

[jinjuku]

If you are going with an HDMI receiver then get a video card that will do your audio over HDMI also.

Check out this Radeon 3450 based Asus at Newegg for $21 after rebate (plus shipping)

Don't worry about looking for 7.1. All you need is 5.1 and your receiver will mix the rest. There is no discrete 7.1 tracks out there. Everything is 5.1 and then the receiver handles the 7.1 or even 9.1.

 

[res6jya6]

Hey, thank for the posts everyone!

I've been building computers forever... however, this will be my first HTPC...

I'm sticking with an Intel processor, as they are what I have come to know and love

I'm thinking of the Core i7 2.93Ghz or the Core2 2.83Ghz

Want to cap out at either 4 or 8 GB RAM

Now I just need to check out all of the video cards / sound cards that were suggested

 

[jinjuku]

Hey, thank for the posts everyone!

I've been building computers forever... however, this will be my first HTPC...

I'm sticking with an Intel processor, as they are what I have come to know and love

I'm thinking of the Core i7 2.93Ghz or the Core2 2.83Ghz

Want to cap out at either 4 or 8 GB RAM

Now I just need to check out all of the video cards / sound cards that were suggested

I REALLY recommend going with one of the 45Watt AMD Athlon X2's. Get the E series like the 5050e for $59. You can run this fanless with a heatsink like the Scythe SCNJ-2000.

Going with low power parts makes it much easier to silence the rest of the machine.

 

[krzywica]

I REALLY recommend going with one of the 45Watt AMD Athlon X2's. Get the E series like the 5050e for $59. You can run this fanless with a heatsink like the Scythe SCNJ-2000.

Going with low power parts makes it much easier to silence the rest of the machine.

I would agree that it is harder and more expensive to cool high performance CPU's than "energy efficient" low wattage models, however it is not that hard these days. Offerings from Thermalright make it a lot easier to keep even overclocked quad cores very cool. My Q8200 runs very cool at 3.0GHz and the cooler is completely silent.

 

[jinjuku]

I would agree that it is harder and more expensive to cool high performance CPU's than "energy efficient" low wattage models, however it is not that hard these days. Offerings from Thermalright make it a lot easier to keep even overclocked quad cores very cool. My Q8200 runs very cool at 3.0GHz and the cooler is completely silent.

I often view a HTPC as not having to be:

1. An expensive proposition
2. A high performance proposition

My approach is a low cost / good performance machine. I don't do much gaming so I don't have to make those types of compromises (one of them spending $$ to get high performance parts to run cool, silently).

 

[krzywica]

I often view a HTPC as not having to be:

1. An expensive proposition
2. A high performance proposition

My approach is a low cost / good performance machine. I don't do much gaming so I don't have to make those types of compromises (one of them spending $$ to get high performance parts to run cool, silently).

Surely...if you don't game, there is no reason to fork over lots of money for tons of expensive hardware. Heck I would certainly not put Windows on a HTPC.....the only reason I run WIndows on my HTPC is because I game. There a much much better alternatives to Windows when you start doing media center stuff. Linux makes quite a few custom built OS's for just that purpose. You could run Geexbox on virtually any box and have excellent performance. I am currently testing it in a Virtual Machine for one of my buddies that wants an interactive jukebox for his basement bar and it runs flawlessly with 1 CPU and 512MB of memory.

 

[lsiberian]

If your Receiver is capable of HDMI audio processing then I would most certainly get this card as it does both audio and video over HDMI without the need for any extra hookups or a stand alone audio card. Plus it is passively cooled so you don't have to worry about noise at all. And it also has native HDMI so you don't have to fiddle with adapters. I have one in my office PC and it is excellent! If you want something capable of gaming I would suggest an HD 4870 or better.

Nvidia cards are very good but they currently do not offer any GPU that has on board audio processing.

Take a look at the links in my sig for more detailed info about building an HTPC.

Oh also if you prefer newegg.....

Wow dude that's nice.

 

[jinjuku]

Surely...if you don't game, there is no reason to fork over lots of money for tons of expensive hardware. Heck I would certainly not put Windows on a HTPC.....the only reason I run WIndows on my HTPC is because I game. There a much much better alternatives to Windows when you start doing media center stuff. Linux makes quite a few custom built OS's for just that purpose. You could run Geexbox on virtually any box and have excellent performance. I am currently testing it in a Virtual Machine for one of my buddies that wants an interactive jukebox for his basement bar and it runs flawlessly with 1 CPU and 512MB of memory.

I played around with Myth TV about a year ago. Microsoft has done a really good job at setting the benchmark for a Media PC UI.

 

[res6jya6]

Well, I know that a Media PC doesn't have to be completely powerful, and I am not a gamer. The thing I need the high performance processor for is encoding videos to h264 for my iPod... normally it takes forever -_-'

I use this great program called iPodifier, and it will take any DVR file and convert it to high quality for your iPod...

I'm not all too concerned with energy usage/noise... those are the least of my worries

I do appreciate the suggestions to get an AMD processor... but I do have my heart set on one of the two that I suggested earlier. That way, I also have some le-way in regards to the processing power of the computer, should I ever come to need it for some CPU intensive task.

 

[krzywica]

Well, I know that a Media PC doesn't have to be completely powerful, and I am not a gamer. The thing I need the high performance processor for is encoding videos to h264 for my iPod... normally it takes forever -_-'

I use this great program called iPodifier, and it will take any DVR file and convert it to high quality for your iPod...

I'm not all too concerned with energy usage/noise... those are the least of my worries

I do appreciate the suggestions to get an AMD processor... but I do have my heart set on one of the two that I suggested earlier. That way, I also have some le-way in regards to the processing power of the computer, should I ever come to need it for some CPU intensive task.

If you are doing encoding then the more CPU cores the better. The best encoding CPU's to date are the I7's. However a C2Q or Phenom II will be just about as fast and cost you half as much or less.

 

[jinjuku]

Well, I know that a Media PC doesn't have to be completely powerful, and I am not a gamer. The thing I need the high performance processor for is encoding videos to h264 for my iPod... normally it takes forever -_-'

I use this great program called iPodifier, and it will take any DVR file and convert it to high quality for your iPod...

I'm not all too concerned with energy usage/noise... those are the least of my worries

I do appreciate the suggestions to get an AMD processor... but I do have my heart set on one of the two that I suggested earlier. That way, I also have some le-way in regards to the processing power of the computer, should I ever come to need it for some CPU intensive task.

That is why I have another PC...

 

[res6jya6]

That is why I have another PC...

Since the HTPC would be the DVR, I want to install the iPodifier software directly on it... that way the episodes that I choose will be encoded to H264 and then saved on a network drive that I can access with my lower-power laptop elsewhere, and then finally uploaded to my iPod.

That isn't the least of it either... I hope to get a lot of hi-def video available to the HTPC, thus requiring that extra edge of power that the i7 2.93Ghz would offer. Later on in time, I would also have a pretty powerful PC to use in a different application should I choose to replace the HTPC with something different.

 

[10010011]

Quite frankly the golden age of the HTPC has come and gone.

With cable moving everything (besides local networks) to encrypted digital tiers requiring digital boxes, the little ticks Comcast plays with their clear QAM channel numbers and SDV looming on the horizon. It pretty much makes a PC tuner more hassle than its worth.

The few cablecard PC tuners are outrageously expensive or can only be purchased preinstalled in a complete system.

Devices like Tivo, Xbox, and the many networked media players do a much better job of DVR and music streaming media playing and are more cost effective. Not to mention easier for the nontechnophiles (like wives and family members) to operate. No operating systems, drivers to hassle with, data bases to maintain, program guides to find or hack, not to mention the wurring of PC fans 24/7 in the living room.

Believe me I am a computer junkie and have crunched the numbers before buying a Tivo-HD. For $500 I got a Tivo-HD with a lifetime subscription.

The Tivo is a DVR of course but it also plays MP3's from a networked PC, does Netflix streaming, Amazon Un-Box movie downloads, pod-casts, Tivo-cast (love the Onion network). I can transfer recordings to a PC then convert and burn them to a DVD...

Sure $500 gets a lot of PC these days but the only thing an HTPC is really useful for is Netflix users to build a pirate movie library on their hard drives.