[SamuearlJackson]

Hi all,


I'd appreciate some comments on the components below for my first HTPC build. My needs are:

Watch, record and playback OTA television

Watch and rip DVD and Bluray


I do not have an HD audio capable receiver currently. When I want to upgrade this I will likely add a graphics card, but I won't be doing this for a while. After I get things initially setup I will likely add another hard disk (e.g. 1.5 TB WD Green) or two, or three...


Components:

nMEDIAPC Black HTPC 5000B Micro ATX Media Center / HTPC Case $59.99

CORSAIR CMPSU-400CX 400W Compatible with Core i7 Power Supply $39.99 AR

GIGABYTE GA-MA785GMT-UD2H Micro ATX AMD Motherboard (combo w/ memory) $142.98 AR

OCZ Obsidian 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (in combo above)

AMD Phenom II X2 555 3.2GHz Socket AM3 80W Dual-Core Desktop Processor - C3 Revision $101.99

Western Digital Caviar Blue 500GB 3.5" SATA 3.0Gb/s Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive $55.99

AVerMedia AVerTVHD Duet - PCTV Tuner (A188 - White Box) $64.99

LITE-ON Black 4X Blu-ray Reader SATA Model iHOS104-06 $55.79


Total comes to $521.72 plus shipping.


I guess I've left off a remote and wireless keyboard & mouse combo. Any recommendations for these? I don't want to spend the world, but the wife acceptance factor is important.


Everything seem suitable/reasonable? Is the WD Blue a decent choice for the OS hard disk? I'll probably record OTA television to this disk and add the WD Green for DVDs and Blurays later.


Cheers for any advice,

Sam

 

[justinm0424]

Looks good. I would reccomend the 8x bluray drive thats $85 shipped right now. Also I have that a188 white box card and it works great but i've had some problems with it not finding the tuner and having to reset for it to pickup. I'm assuming it's because i might move my pc around and since the cards connected to the cable it looses connection to the MB. My case has those easy lock pci slot things that are pretty loose and doesn't allow for the card to be screwed in.


I would also suggest buying a 2tb drive since they're close to $150 and will last you a while. dvd's are around 6gb and you're going to want to start ripping them now.


I'm assuming the mobo has onboard HDMI?


For keyboard mouse combo i'd suggest a cheap bluetooth keyboard then upgrade to the dinovo edge. I have the edge and it's amazing but pricey. I believe the keyboard is one of the most important factors as you'll be using it a lot and needs to be easy for friends to be able to control.

 

[mike 01hawk]

Looks good. I have that same blu-ray drive.


I use this remote, love it, worked right out of the box with no fiddling: http://www.amazon.com/Company-MediaG...qid=1267047368


I'm using a M$ Radio Frequency Mouse, if I need to type anything I'll use windows on screen keyboard. Figure I'd just need to put key words in for Youtube or Hulu.


What OS/Front end are you gonna use?


I've had great success with: Win7 + Media Browser + Shark007 codec pack.

 

[SamuearlJackson]

Thanks for the comments.


I'll use Windows 7 (with Mediabrowser + Shark007 codec pack in all likelihood).


Yes, the motherboard has HDMI output (Radeon 4200 onboard).


I can't find a cheap bluetooth keyboard & mouse combo on newegg. This RF combo is cheap and apparently has decent range:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16823217014


I like the look of the remote mike.


The Samsung Bluray drive is a good option. Thanks for pointing that out justin. It also does DVD burning.


Cheers,

Sam