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IDEAL HTPC 100FSB (whaddoyathink?)

386 Views 4 Replies 3 Participants Last post by  xcel, 
G
I have been doing some reading about the issue and I came to the following conclusions as the perfect system for a 100FSB user...


1. Hardware

- Processor: Pentium or Athlon? I went for the Pentium 1Ghz 100Mhz FSB, because it's cheap (under 200USD) and works on my existing Slot 1 motherboard... noone has reported improvements in playback quality from 1 to 1.7 Ghz, till then, I'll stick with it...

- Motherboard: Asus Slot1, rock solid, but others I guess could be as good, I never had a problem with it

- HD: dual disc with a decent RPM and access speed (40Gig drives seems to give a good speed-performance-cost relationship)

- Videocard: ATI Radeon All in Wonder... everyone seems to complain about drivers issue for the Radeon VE version, I had none, but I didn't have a chance to really tweak it. Radeon or Radeon 8500DV technology? Any improvements in video quality? Nothing reported yet that I could find... Reasons why I went for the All in Wonder solution:

a) no need for a dedicated TVcard; I will connect my VHS recorder to it, so I can watch on PC and project satellite channels (two different systems) and old VHS'.

b) apparently the SPDIF output for the AIW outputs DD and DTS... to be tested

- Soundcard; weather it does or not, I want the best for audio reproduction to output to my Denon 3802 and my KEF Q55.2 6.1 surround system. Apparently only one choice: M-Audio Audiophile 24/96, with the correct voltage. Other cards will work, but the sound purity from this little gem seems to be the best.... you should notice it when run it through a decent amp & speakers

- RAM: where is the limit? Can anyone report improvements between 256Mb and 512Mb? I stuck with 256 for now.

- Case: does it matter?

- Screen: CRT or DLP.... we don't even want to start here.. wrong forum (NEC LT150 is what I would say... eheheh)

- Mouse and keyboard? Wireless is the way to go, I would go for Logitech cordless mouse & keyboard. IR control is easily possible with a $35 IRMan and Girder (free) SW... Takes a little setting up but the whole box can be Pronto controllable... (for HTPC)

- DVD drive Pioneer 114, firmware makes it region free, looks cool but is a tad noisy...

- DVD writer Panasonic LF-D311, writes on DVD-R and DVD-Ram disks, ideal for your little hobbies that require 4.7Gb of space on one disk (425$). Specs:

2.6GB/5.2GB/4.7GB/9.4GB DVD-RAM Disc Write/Read

DVD-R (4.7GB General) Disc Write Capability



Software:

- Operative System: Windows? Which Windows? I am going to stick my neck out here, and say that I have Windows XP and no problems with it for now... will let you know

- DVD Player sofware: ATI for DD movies, WinDVD for DTS.... great debate about those two... ATI best picture, WinDVD best sound... can't comment on that yet, read more about it here
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...0&pagenumber=1

- ATI MultiMedia Center

- YXY (programme for aspect ratio)

- latest version of Microsoft DirectX

- DVD Genie to change the region on your DVD player

- PowerStripTM Software for Display Timing and Resolution Control (just for the Radeon VideoCard)

- Dscaler for line doubling (expecialy for those that use HTPC with a projector)


Please could you provide us with some feedback in terms of what I am missing, and in general, can HTPC be built better than this? Let's be realistic, naturally there are more expensive components, but how much more performance do you get out of them?


Looking forward to your replies...


Roland of Gilead
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Quote:
Originally posted by gnollo
I have been doing some reading about the issue and I came to the following conclusions as the perfect system for a 100FSB user...


...some text deleted to save space...


- DVD writer Panasonic LF-D311, writes on DVD-R and DVD-Ram disks, ideal for your little hobbies that require 4.7Gb of space on one disk (425$). Specs:

2.6GB/5.2GB/4.7GB/9.4GB DVD-RAM Disc Write/Read

DVD-R (4.7GB General) Disc Write Capability

Instead of the Panasonic LF-D311, I'd suggest the Pioneer DVR-A03. It does cost a little more (a bit less than $600) but it will write (and read) DVD-RW, CD-R, and CD-RW as well as DVD-R. I don't recall offhand if it can read a DVD-RAM, but it cannot write them.


-Andy
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Yep, you are right, but is it future proof?

I have read that DVD Ram is planning to "uncase" their media, so it can be played on normal dvd players.... this would make their discs more widespread and cheaper... they are the only one that produce 9.4GB discs (a 2sides 4.7Gb) after all...

Isn't it worty to buy a separate cd writer that can write at a higher speed, and that overburns 99+ CD's, like the Mitsumi 4808, with 2x, 4x, 8x, 16x speeds, that can write on 98:05 minutes of data on a 99+ disc, see link:
http://www.disc4you.com/news/99min.html

All in all, you might be spending the same money with the A03, get a slow writing application on CD (see specs for the A03), and it wouldn't be future proof....


DVD-R A03

Write Support

4X and 8X CD-R

4X CD-RW

1X and 2X DVD-R (General Use)

1X DVD-RW


The cost of the Mitsumi 4808 TE CD-RW 16X10X40 is 70 dollars...
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Quote:
Originally posted by gnollo
Yep, you are right, but is it future proof?

I have read that DVD Ram is planning to "uncase" their media, so it can be played on normal dvd players.... this would make their discs more widespread and cheaper... they are the only one that produce 9.4GB discs (a 2sides 4.7Gb) after all...
I think that the Pioneer is about as future proof as one can be right now. My understanding is that DVD-RAMs don't use the same wavelengths, file systems, or encoding as DVD-Movies, so they can't be played on normal, standalone DVD players. I know that the DVD-RWs created by the Pioneer can be played on my Toshiba 2700 DVD Player at least, and I'm sure that the DVD-Rs will also, and that's what I was looking for.

Quote:


Isn't it worty to buy a separate cd writer that can write at a higher speed
Probably, if you have a drive bay open to put it in. In my case (no pun intended) I had to remove my either my CD-Writer or my DVD-ROM drive to install the DVD-R, and I chose to remove the CD-Writer so that I can copy DVD-R data discs if the need arises.

Quote:


All in all, you might be spending the same money with the A03, get a slow writing application on CD (see specs for the A03), and it wouldn't be future proof....
The Pioneer is a little slower than my old CD-Writer, but it isn't terribly slow. I usually save CD writing for when I'm going to be doing something else (not on the PC) anyway, so it doesn't matter to me. For some people it might be more of an issue.
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Hi Gnollo:


___You are spending more for slower HTPC HW if you look at a 100 MHz FSB based board today. The PIII EB’s at 1 GHz are much less expensive in a FCPGA format than they are in a SECC2 E format as well as you have a lot more choices in terms of MB’s to choose from. I have to many other posts to look up currently to help you out with the whole shooting match but many of us have posted to this forum literally hundreds of times on the HW and setup. Please just hang around and read for a few more days so that you are a bit more comfortable with your selections to date. We have way over the top performance w/ 1 GHz + T-Birds and PIII CPU’s today but that may very well change in the near future ;)


___Good Luck


___Wayne R. Gerdes

___Hunt Club Farms Landscaping Ltd.

___ [email protected]
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