Hello Everyone,
First post but I had to speak out!
I set out to build a HTPC 6 months ago with a mixture of new and second hand parts as I am about to buy a HDTV and wanted Bluray and HD-DVD playback and HD satellite viewing/PVR stuff.. Budget of £500 or less..
And I finished it thanks to the guys on THIS forum.... I read all the guides you posted, read all the problems you came across and the numerous experiences that people have had building HTPC...
You guys saved my bacon on MANY occasions and helped me to understand all the variations in Hardware and Software selections..
So I just had to thank everyone here, as I have lurking around for months reading everything!
I ended up with :-
Antec Silver HTPC case
Gigabyte 630i Motherboard
Intel E6600 Cpu (on ebay for £50!)
Hauppage S2 Sat card
2gb OCZ 800mhz RAm
Xpertvision ATI 3850 card with native HDMI port
Liteon Bluray ROM drive (only damn Silver drive on the market!)
Pioneer DVD-RW silver drive
Maxtor 250gb Main drive (OS and games etc)
Maxtor 200gb Second Drive (PVR recording)
Bluetooth Keyboard/Mouse + WinXP Pro and PDVD8 Ultra.
AnyDVDHD.
I tested it all on Sunday and watched Pirates of the Carribean on Bluray on my spare 17" TFT...Now I need to buy the 37" HDTV!!!
I picked up an Xbox 360 HD-DVD drive and have been busy converting HDDVDs into Bluray ISO's (HDDVDs where going for £4.93 included postage at ilovefilm.com)...
Cheers, And hopefully I can now contribute to these forums and help people myself...
--Alec
First post but I had to speak out!
I set out to build a HTPC 6 months ago with a mixture of new and second hand parts as I am about to buy a HDTV and wanted Bluray and HD-DVD playback and HD satellite viewing/PVR stuff.. Budget of £500 or less..
And I finished it thanks to the guys on THIS forum.... I read all the guides you posted, read all the problems you came across and the numerous experiences that people have had building HTPC...
You guys saved my bacon on MANY occasions and helped me to understand all the variations in Hardware and Software selections..
So I just had to thank everyone here, as I have lurking around for months reading everything!
I ended up with :-
Antec Silver HTPC case
Gigabyte 630i Motherboard
Intel E6600 Cpu (on ebay for £50!)
Hauppage S2 Sat card
2gb OCZ 800mhz RAm
Xpertvision ATI 3850 card with native HDMI port
Liteon Bluray ROM drive (only damn Silver drive on the market!)
Pioneer DVD-RW silver drive
Maxtor 250gb Main drive (OS and games etc)
Maxtor 200gb Second Drive (PVR recording)
Bluetooth Keyboard/Mouse + WinXP Pro and PDVD8 Ultra.
AnyDVDHD.
I tested it all on Sunday and watched Pirates of the Carribean on Bluray on my spare 17" TFT...Now I need to buy the 37" HDTV!!!
I picked up an Xbox 360 HD-DVD drive and have been busy converting HDDVDs into Bluray ISO's (HDDVDs where going for £4.93 included postage at ilovefilm.com)...
Cheers, And hopefully I can now contribute to these forums and help people myself...
--Alec
