Assassin's Simple/Beginner HTPC Buying Guide - Page 7

Assassin,

I'm going to use your guide to build an htpc, but while I save up, I'm thinking about throwing in a video card in my custom built whs box and trying out sagetv media server. It seems that any ati 5400 series card would do the trick. Any particular recommendation for a cheap htpc card?

Can't speak to the cost benefit of the SSD as I'm a noob also. I've partitioned and it was even easy for me.

Sorry. Should have given more details. I have a dual core (not core duo, or i series; it is an e5200 I think) intel processor in a shuttle box with no hdmi out. I need to have hdmi out to make the setup easy (since it is temporary, and just to experiment).

Awesome. Thanks!

I think for HTPC use an SSD is a luxury, not a need (as Assassin says). It's main benefit is speed of booting and program launch. BUT how often are you really doing any of that on an HTPC? Depends on your use but 7MC is just always running for me and go to a web browser once in a while and that's it. Reboot maybe every 2 weeks or so. None of that justifies the extra expense of an SSD in my opinion. Now as a main PC or gaming PC? Yea, I'm all over an SSD if I can afford it.

As for partitioning a hard drive, Windows install walks you right thru it. On my 1.5 TB drive I did a 75 gig C drive and the rest as a D drive. So Windows and any programs go on C. 7MC DVR recordings and all media go on D. On a more "typical" PC I'll usually do a C drive for Windows only, D drive for all programs and games and then an E drive for data. But for a dedicated HTPC I'd rather keep it simple.

Thanks guys. I think you confirmed the way I was leaning after thinking about it some more. Really nothing but a luxury for an HTPC as bonscott87 mentioned.

I hope this question is considered on-topic for this thread.

I've seen in another thread on AVS that most people find Netflix playback inferior on an HTPC compared to standalone blu-ray players, ps3, etc.

I was really surprised by this. However, I wonder if it has to do with the horsepower of the HTPC, or if it is just a generally accepted fact that the Netflix experience on an HTPC is inferior to a standalone box (I saw 1 mention of less available HD content on PCs vs. dedicated boxes).

Since I've never built an HTPC before, and I'm considering building the one recommended in this thread, I thought I'd ask...how do you find the Netflix experience with a core i3 HTPC? I don't consider this "low end" (it is recent tech, just not max clock speeds), but maybe a higher end CPU is necessary to get a Netflix experience similar to that on standalone boxes.

Thoughts?

Thanks!

Let me first add my thanks to Assassin and others who have helped out in this thread. I have just started to think about an i3 build and the suggested components are really close to what I was coming up with on my own.

A few questions:
1) Does that suggested nMedia case have an LCD? It appears to. If so, what does it display? For this case (or others with LCD), what do they display and how are they configured?
2) What does the silver knob on the case control?
3) I saw a mention of the i3 having trouble with XBMC (due to DXVA). Can anyone elaborate? Does it mean watching videos with XBMC/i3 will be horrible or is it something that only affects some specific type of video, bitrate, etc?

About the only thing making me consider XBMC over Win 7 MC is that (as far as I have been able to find) there is no way to view Hulu and Comedy Central shows like Daily Show and Colbert Report from within MC. I don't want to have to exit MC to launch a browser if I can help it. XBMC has a couple plugins that very nicely integrate Hulu and other online content.

4) Any pros/cons to using a 5400rpm 2.5" HDD? A friend has a WD Scorpio he bought and never used that I could have. I don't need a lot of local storage in the HTPC since I have a NAS.
5) Any other suggestions for a case with integrated IR receiver? I see the Antec Microfusion but not crazy over the silver, and really don't think I need or want an LCD.

Too bad I missed the Shell Shocker yesterday on Newegg, I might have just jumped on it and figured out the rest of the components as I go!

Thanks!

+1 to hear our resident experts chime in on the DXVA issue that others have mentioned. Is it a horsepower issue, or an instructions issue with the i family of processors. What is the real world impact of this "issue"?

Overclocking results for the i3 540 & ASUS mobo...

Sticking to stock voltages, I pushed the BCLK from 133 to 200, overclocked the CPU from 3.06Ghz to 4.01Ghz, and the iGPU from 733Mhz to 900Mhz.

Just got done running Intel Burn Test and FurMark at the same time, its purdy stable!

Real Temp recorded a max die temp of 69C

Thanks for the quick responses. I realize that there are plenty of different cases out there, but like the one you suggest, and the price is reasonable too!

I agree with you about not needing/wanting an LCD - just one more distraction.

Yeah, somehow I missed this - thanks (again!). Now if you can find a way for me to integrate Colbert Report and The Daily Show into WMC somehow, I'll be in business and have no real need for XBMC.

I know it seems silly to base a media software decision on just a couple shows, but those are the two main shows from cable that I *really* want to integrate into an HTPC.

Edit: The same person who wrote the Hulu desktop integrator for WMC also has one for XBMC integration. So in theory I could use WMC for everything except Daily Show and Colbert and switch into XBMC just for those. Seems a little funky, but I guess it would work!

Anyone tried the SilverStone Case GD05B?

http://www.amazon.com/SilverStone-Al...4805503&sr=8-1

I was about to pull the trigger on it at amazon but after reading some of the reviews I decided to hold off and try to confirm. The two that most concern me are:

1) The location of the power supply makes it very far from the P4 PSU connector on the motherboard.

2) That you can't install a DVD drive in this case without blocking the CPU fan.

I get what you're saying, but staying with stock voltages keeps the temp increases to minimum... couple that with a the Big Shuruken CPU cooler, its still running just as quiet as at stock speeds.

Not overclocking a CPU, thats crazy talk!!!!



ETA: I'td be silly not to at least OC the iGPU from 733Mhz (i3 default speed) to 900Mhz (i5 default speed) as it's the same exact iGPU, Intel just lowered the clock speed on it for the cheaper i3's.

Netflix is inferior on PC's for one simple thing: Silverlight. Has nothing to do with horsepower, pretty much any PC will run laps around a dedicated box in terms of horsepower. But Silverlight stinks and Netflix also does not allow a lot of their HD to stream via the PC and no 5.1 either.

Having said that, a couple days ago my wife was sick and watched Aliens (gotta lover her) streaming from Netflix. It was in HD and looked really good. No artifacts and no "stuttering". Call me impressed so MS may have tweaked Silverlight recently to make it better.

Yep, Hulu Desktop integration works great with that plugin. Been using it almost a year now.

As for Comedy Central, there are a couple things you can do. You could use Playon which will then integrate into WMC via the VMC PlayIt plugin.

IF Daily Show is available via RSS feed then you could simply ad that RSS feed to Media Browser and it'll be right in there.

Also check Boxee. I think it pulls in the Daily Show feed as well but I haven't checked it in a long time. The same people that do the Hulu integration also do a Boxee integration plugin.

Looks pretty similar to my Silverston GD04B I have. LOVE that case. I posted pics earlier in this thread but here is another link to my build I did a year ago: http://picasaweb.google.com/bonscott87/HTPC#

1) Shouldn't be an issue.
2) Also shouldn't be an issue. Stock cooler for an i3 is plenty short enough. If you must do an aftermarket cooler then just make sure it's less then the height Silverstone recommends.

On the Silverstone site it looks to me that the GB05 is just an updated version of the GB04 and has a different front panel. http://www.silverstonetek.com/produc...pno=GD05&area=

Good suggestion on PlayOn. Although it adds cost, looks like it might even be useful to stream some of this content direct to my TV (Sony with DLNA). So could I install the PlayOn SW directly on the HTPC? Would the i3 system Assassin suggested have the horsepower to run PlayOn and XBMC and/or WMC together?

Thanks Assasin for the good recommendations and thanks everyone for a lively discussion.

I am about to build an i3 based HTPC. The sticking point for me is that I think it would be beneficial to have USB 3.0 on the motherboard. The recommended Gigabyte motherboard has USB 3.0 but quite a few people on Newegg and elsewhere are complaining about stability issues. I don't see a micro ATX motherboard from ASUS that has USB 3.0.

Right now I am thinking of buying the ASRock H55M/USB3 R2.0 motherboard or sticking with the recommended Asus P7H55-M PRO that does not have USB 3.0.

Anyone have an opinion? Will it be important to have USB 3.0 in the future?

Thanks.

Will you want/need to copy huge amounts of data back and for from an external device like a thumb drive or hard drive?

I use another machine to manage my media, so I don't need it on my HTPC.

I'm really liking the look of the nMediaPC 5000B (as recommended in the OP) and the Silverstone GD04B (as recommended by someone else in this thread).

However, initially I was planning on not installing any optical drive. Does that mean I would have a gaping hole in the case? Or can that little cover be installed somehow without the drive? I do have a extra DVD burner I could install I suppose. Does that cover just attach to the optical drive with double-sided tape or what? So if I added a BD drive later I could just swap the cover onto it?

I think the DVD drive I have is an old IDE, not even sure if it would hook up to these newer motherboards!