Guide to Building a HTPC, Workstation and Server - Page 164

I may just be ignorant (confirmed many times) but I need someone who knows computers to verify this is indeed the case.

I put my new HTPC together over the weekend and it uses the new Zotac Geforce 9300 motherboard. The last PC I built was years ago and it didn't even have SATA so it is somewhat new to me but I thought I understood it. Basically, I wound up plugging my SATA cables into any available SATA input on the motherboard. I thought they were pretty much plug and play. I have two DVD drives and one hard drive. On my first boot the hard drive wasn't detected? After an hour of messing with cables and trying to determine where the issue was I think I figured it out but it makes no sense to me!

There are three banks of two SATA inputs on the motherboard giving me a total of six inputs. The BIOS only sees the first two giving me a Master and Slave for IDE Channel 0 and 1. IDE channel 2 isn't even visible so SATA inputs 5 and 6 appear to be useless.

I read the entire Zotac motherboard manual and nothing alluded to this. The crazy screenshot in the manual even displays an IDE Channel of 1, 2, and 3 all with Masters and Slaves. Could it be that I need to flash the firmware on the BIOS? This thing is brand new.

Can anyone make heads or tails of my experience here. Is there indeed something wrong or is something here common knowledge that I'm just not aware of. Any guidance is appreciated.

Wow, interesting. Could the chipset have anything to do with it? Or do you think it's software based maybe? I was thinking about going with this setup since the board features fit my needs more:

• GIGABYTE GA-EP45-UD3P
• Intel Core 2 Duo E7300
• Scythe Mini Ninja
• HIS H467QT512P Radeon HD 4670
• A-DATA 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR2 800
• LG GGC-H20L

Already have Zalman HD160 case and PSU.

So I think I'm gonna go the AMD route after some recommendations.
What do you think of the GIGABYTE GV-R485OC-1GH Radeon HD 4850 1GB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFire Supported Video Card? It is only 179.99 after mail-in-rebate and has 1gb of memory and is overclocked to 700mhz?

Thanks,
Mike

I feel like an idiot. I've never even heard of AHCI mode but I'll be researching it now. Thanks for confirming my ignorance

I had the same difficulty figuring it out. You aren't alone.

thanks, no. This is a retail SKU of Vista. I have used it before on other systems without a problem

After some research I learned that neither of those cards are capable of mLPCM via HDMI. So I need to stick with DD/DTS for now, while I wait for the new version of the Xonar.

Only one request left? What would recommend as the best card to play HD DVD, Blu-rays, etc? The GForce 9500GS or the ATI 3850?

Thanks

Ren,

I pieced the below together based on your recommendations. Want to have a capable gaming machine while having BR and HD playback. Does the below look good? Is anything missing other than keyboard? I will not be recording any OTA HD as I'm military and moving to Japan for a couple of years. Receiver is older 5.1 with component video only. Purchasing Thanks for your help!

Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD6400AAKS 640GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive

ENERMAX MODU82+ EMD625AWT 625W ATX12V Ver.2.3 SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Modular Active PFC Power Supply

GIGABYTE GA-EP45-UD3P LGA 775 Intel P45 ATX Intel Motherboard

Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 Wolfdale 3.0GHz LGA 775 65W Dual-Core Processor Model BX80570E8400

ZEROtherm BTF90 92mm Silent UFO CPU Cooler

LG Black Blu-ray/HD DVD-ROM & 16X DVD±R DVD Burner SATA Model GGC-H20L

Antec Black Aluminum / Steel Fusion Remote Max ATX Media Center / HTPC Case

SAPPHIRE 100259L Radeon HD 4870 512MB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFire Supported Video Card

OCZ Reaper HPC Edition 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model OCZ2RPR800C44GK


Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium SP1 64-bit English for System Builders 1pk DSP OEI DVD

ESET NOD32 Antivirus Home Edition V3.0

Sorry just to double check only the onboard graphics with the Nvidia GeForce 8200/8300 chips support 7.1 LPCM over HDMI ?

If using a mobo with AMD 780G/790GX then you need a seperate GPU card like the Radeon HD 4xxx.

I was hoping for an onboard AMD Radeon that would support 7.1 LPCM over HDMI ?


Thanks.

Ok, how about a Phenom II they are out next month?]

I will look in to the GeForce 9400+Pentium Dual Core.

This is a minefield there are so many different options and configurations and many different motherboard I just get lost.

The other thing I've been wanting to do is have a 7" touch screen on a case or better mounted on a wall. However on my last attempt with a Moneual htpc case with touch screen, I could get both Windows Media Center on both screens using Ultra Mon software and the Nvidia settings in clone mode, the 7" touch (monitor 1) was 800 x 600 and the HDTV (monitor 2) was set to 1920 x 1080 resolution. However the HDTV itself reported only running at 720P and not 1080P as the resolution settings on the computer suggested.

There is this problem of having the different screens at different resolutions still.

There looks like 1080p touch screens coming out now see here.
which would presumably resolve this issue.

Would the HD Redeon 4670 and the onboard GeForce chips run two monitors ok in this kind of setup.

It really is mysterious that 24p works for some and not others. At first I was thinking it might be because of the 780 chipset's ability to do ATI hybrid graphics, but that's restricted to 3400 series graphics cards.

I was emailing the Silverstone company regarding there cases and mentioned this problem with the Sound Graph IR and they said "Thank you for your provide this information for us.

We will contact the Sound Graph and asking them if there is any way to fix this problem."

Not sure if they will actually fix it but you never know.

Cheers. I e-mailed SoundGraph about this directly but didn't hear back from them.

AIUI there may be an insurmountable reason for the lack of support. Apparently most of the MCE buttons can be emulated using a standard HID driver (as they have equivalent keyboard short cuts?) - which is how iMon apparently works.

However the triple tap SMS style stuff and coloured buttons seem to be implemented using something specific to the MS USB IR receiver driver, and not a standard HID interface? (AIUI there are no keyboard shortcuts equivalent to the coloured keys - so iMon can't send those codes as key presses?)

hi renethx,everybody,
i have been reading this thread for long time.while going throough newegg for tv tuner cards i stumbled upon this asus tv tuner card which is analog(which is the only available type in india),ntsc,atsc,fm tuner,media center remote and the ir reciever,dual tuner.

ASUS My Cinema-PHC3-100/NAQ/FM/AV/RC TV Tuner Card PCI Interface - Retail

i am not allowed to post links as first post.
can you tell me what do you think about it?

also i want to know how do you grade hitachi deskstar drives for storing the recorded tv shows.they are pretty cost effective here in india.

what do you advice regarding this Deskstar P7K500 hitachi drive?

i am just upgrading an old machine (2yrs old) to work as htpc for recording standard def.cable tv and dvd playback.
its compaq presario desktop,3.0 ghz pentium 4 ,2 gb ram ,ati xpress 200 chipset,vista premium and 160 gb seaget.
please help me in this.

Isn't India a PAL country rather than NTSC? I was under the impression that India used 625 line 50Hz (aka 576/50i) PAL B for OTA transmission (i.e. VHF PAL?) and any set-top box etc. will output PAL composite 625/50Hz with a 4.43MHz subcarrier.

I think that you may have issues with that card - as India and the US use very different analogue TV systems. India uses a system similar to that used in parts of Europe.

In the US NTSC-M is used OTA, with different line standard (525 lines 60Hz), different chroma standard (NTSC 3.58MHz subcarrier) and different sound offset from vision.

An analogue, NTSC M only, capture card will be of no use in India if you are capturing PAL OTA broadcasts or PAL output from a set-top box.

One of the European Hauppauge analogue cards (they do a PAL B/G/I model) might be a better bet - as they should support PAL B broadcasts - and have good driver support. Something like the PVR-150 PCI card is a good choice I believe - though I'd check with the Hauppauge people to see if they have experience of working in India? (Just in case there are local issues. If India uses stereo sound then there are a couple of ways of doing this with PAL B/G - NICAM digital and Zweiton analogue for example)

I'd suggest looking for a card with PAL B/G support (B and G are essentially the same PAL standard but for VHF and UHF transmission respectively). These are the standards used in countries like Germany, Austria, Italy, Belgium etc. Australia also uses PAL B/G for analogue TV. Steer clear of anything aimed at France or Russia - as they use SECAM which is not compatible.

The UK, Ireland and Hong Kong use PAL I, which is not compatible with PAL B/G. However almost everything sold in capture card terms is now PAL B/G/I compatible (as it was easier to make a dual-standard card than two versions)

thanks for reply.it will be hooked to airtel digital direct to home set top box and i think it has normal output as in co axial output .can that axial output be seen by this card of asus?

can this card capture video from component cable?

I would be very surprised if your airtel box didn't have a PAL B coax output or a PAL composite/S-video output.

As a result - having looked at the Asus website it is clear that this card WON'T work with a PAL device, just an NTSC one.

Asus make PAL compatible boards as well - but I doubt NewEgg stock them - as NewEgg are in the US and the US doesn't use the same TV system as India (and most of Western Europe!)


No - the only mainstream component capture card is the Hauppauge HD PVR, which is designed for capturing component HD.

in the product manual,i found this image




with this can i capture video from tv out

Sorry - you aren't understanding my point.

The video output from your airtel receiver will be PAL - that is the format used in India.

The Asus card you found is designed to accept NTSC video - that is the format used in the US. This means that the Asus card you have found will not be compatible with PAL video output from your Airtel box. Asus make different cards for PAL - but I don't know if NewEgg stock them.

You need a capture card that will accept PAL video for use in India - whether you use Coax, composite or S-video inputs.

PAL and NTSC (and there is a third format - SECAM) are all separate standards - and any receiver or TV card needs to be in the same standard to work together.

You need a PAL TV card to accept the output from a set-top box in a PAL territory, just as you need an NTSC TV card to accept the output from a set-top box in an NTSC territory.

India is PAL. The US is NTSC. They don't work with each other.

I am in the process of building the mid-range AMD/AMD HTPC. I have a question about ripping my SD dvd's. I have not done this before and I wondered what the best approach to do this is. I have read a lot of posts about different ways but wondered if there was a post or thread out there that explained the best approach to use. I have an LG BD drive on it's way as well.
Thanks.

I have spent a couple of hours reading through this thread but I am still kind of unsure as to what I need. I will only use my HTPC for music, DVD, Blu-ray storage and playback. I have Dish HD and PVR in 2 rooms so I am not looking to use it for a TV tuner or recorder. I am also not looking for a gaming rig as I dont play as much as I use to and if I do I would just use my PS3.

My main goal is to have one location for all of my movies/music and have the ability to access those movies/music any where in the house (currently 3 rooms). HD is very important to me so I need a system that will be able to play all of my blu-ray back-ups to all of my TV's, without buying 3 different blu-ray players. I think I am set on one of the low-end budget HTPCs in this guide (maybe AMD/AMD), but the thing I am hung up on is... Will I need 3 HTPCs or can I use one HTPC and buy media extenders for the other rooms? Will I be able to watch 3 different movies at the same time? I know I will need to add alot more storage but I am not sure if I want to invest in a large home server at this time.

I am pretty ignorant when it comes to computer components and what is good or bad so any specific help is appreciated.