[heed316]

Just trying to get a feel for if this will work for my needs. I used to have a htpc about 5 years back, but I switched to a tivo when more and more HD came into the picture. Now that ceton is around, and cablecards can be put in PCs I'm getting back into the htpc realm. I'm not going to be doing any gaming on this, possibly some ROMs, but no PC gaming.


Anyways, I currently have:

TV Tuner: Ceton InfiniTV 4 ($269 on sale. I already have a cablecard in my Tivo, which hopefully will make the transition easier with Comcast...)

SSD: Kingston V100 64GB (got it from Amazon for $50 after rebate, just hoping it holds up as the reviews are iffy. Using it as the OS drive)


That is what I have now. What I currently have in my Newegg and Amazon carts are the following:

PSU: Antec EarthWatts Green EA-380D Green 380W ($44.99)

RAM: G.SKILL Value Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3 (on sale for $34.99)

MOBO: ASRock H61M/U3S3 LGA 1155 Intel H61 ($74.99)

CPU: Intel Core i3-2100 ($124.99)

HDD: Western Digital 2 TB Caviar Green WD20EARS ($75.99)

Case: SilverStone GD04B ($79.61)


I still need to decide on what to do for a remote. I still use my crappy Snapstream Firefly remote that I've had forever, but I'm looking for something a bit newer and more powerful than that. I plan on using WMC for watching and recording TV as that is all that works with the Ceton. How will this setup work for that? Trying to decide on if I should use XBMC with this or not, as I have used it for years now and really like the interface. However, I have never used WMC and it looks like it can be just about as good as XBMC. Anyways, any input on this would be appreciated. Thanks!

 

[jeffkro]

Pretty sure you will need to use WMC for recording TV shows with your Ceton card. XBMC does not have this functionality.

 

[Zon2020]

Do you live near a Micro Center? I posted this in the "HTPC Component Deals" thread earlier today:

BTW, Microcenter has renewed it's "$40 off a compatible motherboard with the purchase of a 2nd generation Core processor."


They already have by far the lowest prices on these processors. So you can buy a $99 i3-2100 or a $179 i5-2500K and get $40 off an already discounted motherboard. Heck, you can get a Biostar H61MH and the i3-2100 for a combined $120.


This is the greatest deal for builders that I know of.


They also have Corsair XMS3 2x2GB DDR3-1600 CL9 SDRAM for $24.99 after rebate and a Hitachi Coolspin SATA III 1.5tb hard disk for $49.99 after rebate.


$195 total for an i3-2100, H61 mobo, 4gb ram, and a 1.5tb hard drive is a pretty good start on a pretty nice system. Add a case, PSU and Windows and you're ready to go. (oh, they have a Thermaltake V3 mid-tower case for $27.99 and an Antec Earthwatts 380 for $39.99 - $263 plus Windows for the whole system. Why exactly would anyone buy an Atom or e-350 system or a nettop?) Just better have a lot of stamps for all the rebate submissions.


By the way, I think you'll like that GD04. I certainly like mine. You probably don't need more than 4gb of ram, though.

 

[heed316]

Unfortunately, the nearest microcenter is over 80 miles away...and the reason for the 8gb was because it was on sale. Probably better to get some real good 4gb rather then just decent 8gb since I doubt I'll ever need 8gb in this.

 

[jeffkro]

So long as the ram is 100% stable