Hello all,

Decided it was time to have a dedicated media PC for my home theater so I am hoping there are some of you out there that have some suggestions


Currently I am using our families main desktop with a 15 foot HDMI cable going to my Vizio.. and a optical going to my Harmon Kardon Amp. It works well but I want to move my PC to another level (replace the antique Celeron in the living room) so the need for a media PC has arose.

My goals are to have it fit in my home theatre setup... black case with a nice sleek look no bigger then my Harmon Kardon AVR. I am thinking Nmedia 2000B or Antec Fusion- anyone out there with experience with either ?

For CPU I think I am going to go with AMD2+ so I can base the build around the 780G chipset- The reviews I have read suggest this boards IGP does a great job at Accelerating Bluray and other MP4 material. I considered the G45 but there seems to be less Variety out there

CPU I would like to use a low end Quad Core (if intel) or BB edition X4 Phenom... it may be over kill for a media machine but I rather spend the extra cash on a CPU that can play 1080P MKV without breaking a sweet. The Intel Quad 8200 or X4 9950 seems to fit the bill.. anyone have any suggestions one way or another ?

I think I have decided also on the Asus Xonar HDAV HDMI 1.3.. it apparently can do bit streaming of the new DTS HD and Dolby TrueHD to newer Receivers (I plan on getting an Onkyo 606 shortly)and also can upscale and add other enhancements to the picture.. anyone use one of these ? Seems to be only one legit review I could find by a web site I had not heard of previously (elite bastards) so I am not sure if the 240 dollar cost is quite worth it.

I plan on getting a bluray drive- write not really a concern right now as the cost of media is crazy at the moment.. is there a paticular bran any of you prefer ? LG seems to be getting rather good reviews.

I want to have a minimum of 2 tb of storage... I am not interested in backing my media files up- anything truly important I have an external drive (finance docs, pictures, etc)


Anyone have anything to add ? I wanted to add also my experience level with PC builds is sufficient, I work in the IT field for a large frozen food company and have done many builds- just never one specifically for a 'HTPC', so I appreciate any collective advice I can get ! Thanks a lot guys/gals

Dave

I've upgraded Andrea's rig & it's now running as a HTPC & so far, no problems. In my view, a quad is not really necessary - I'm using an AM2 X2 6000+ (3.0ghz). However, I'm not certain about bluray as I don't have one yet & going to wait until the cost of the drives & media comes down.

If your going AMD then my suggestion would be the triple core Phenom 8750 for now
the 9950 is a bit of a power hog and may not work on some 780G boards
the next generation of AMD chips (Deneb) which will be more efficient will be coming out in January

As for Intel, Socket 775 is coming to End Of Life in the next year
so you miswell get a decent one if don't plan on upgrading by next fall

Whichever chip you buy I suggest getting an after market cooler for it (like Zalman's 9700 or 9500)

Thanks a lot guys.. I have done some more reading and I do not think the quad core AMD's is the direction I want to head in. I believe the Q8200 intel is the direction I will head in... just reading reviews on the 'perfect; bored right now for it. I would like www.ncix.com get in some 9200 chipsets.. I am not too excited about the G45 boards I have read about and are quite pricey.

For what it's worth, if you're not opposed to overclocking, the Q6600 is an overclockers dream. Mine is stable on ASUS P5Q series MB running at 3.4GHz (FSB=370; CPU volts 1.34; 24/7 BOINC load = CPU 50 degrees, MB 42 degrees with all stock cooling). I'm sure I could get more out of it if I tried, but to be honest I haven't even bothered. Reading the overclocking forums 3.4GHz seems to be the point where most people can get the chip to easily so I did the basic "set and forget" approach. I should really get around to finding out where it's "unstable", but I ran out of time when I initially set the system up and haven't gotten around to tinkering with it again. One day maybe...

Q6600 is an interesting option... almost the same price as the 8200.. looking at benchmarks and it appears the q6600 is faster- But part of the appeal from the 8200 is its power/heat to performance.... I have also been pointed to the Popcorn Hour A110 witch looks like it may fit the bill... so many options ;p

Appreciate all the suggestions so far... many things to consider