building my first HTPC

ddd · Post by **ddd** » Tue Sep 11, 2007 1:48 am

I would like to build myself a HTPC for living room. that means that it has to be as quiet as possible and not "too ugly"

I will use my HTPC for watching HD movies (I just bought FullHD LCD TV), listening music, watch pictures and other stuff.
I'm looking for a case like Antec Fusion (any other sugestion would be appreciated, but keep in mind that I'm from Europe-Slovenia, which means that there is not a huge selection and still not a lot of online stores will ship their merchandise to our country).
I haven't decided on graphic card (looking for something like gigabyte gv-nx76t256d rev.1) and I'm still looking for good motherboard.
I think that creative X-Fi XtremeMusic should be enough (although I'm not sure it has COAX or optical out .
What kind of processor should be enough for watching FullHD movies (I read that it has to be at least AMD X2 4400 (I don't know for Intel)? Should be 2 GB of ram enough?

Thank you for your advices!

ddd · Post by **ddd** » Wed Sep 12, 2007 11:35 pm

OK, let's say what is the minimum (processor, graphic card, memory) for warching 1920x1080 HD movies? Would be AMD X2 4200+, 2 GB memory, ati 2600/ geforce 7600 enough?

Zurxel · Post by **Zurxel** » Thu Sep 13, 2007 2:27 am

I think you should buy a 8600GT since it has full hardware acceleration of most HD-material. With this graphics card you won't need a powerfull processor for playback of HD-material. There is a good article compairing Nvidias 8600 cards with AMDs HD 2600 cards at the Anandtech website.

Good luck with your build!
/ Zurxel

JoeWPgh · Post by **JoeWPgh** » Thu Sep 13, 2007 2:42 am

If you're planning to watch HD movies, you need to make sure your graphics card is HDCP compliant. The ATI 2600s are, but it's a little more scattered on the nvidia front. I seem to recall reading that there are one or two versions of the 7600 which are, but the majority are not. If I was going to use nvidia for HTPC today, I'd probably be looking at the 8xxx series.

The Fusion case would be perfect if it was 1/2 inch taller. If you read through the forums, you'll see that some have installed 'up and over the top' heatpipe cooled cards without modification, while others have not been so lucky. I have no experience with them, but going on spec'd dimensions, most Silverstone cases are tall enough that graphic card/cooler clearance shouldn't be an issue.

As for a minimum CPU? It makes my head swim. The more your graphics card offloads video chores from the CPU, the less CPU you should need. But, separating fact from hype can be murky. The only constant seems to be, like everything else in the computer world, the recommended minimum goes up every year.

Drexl · Post by **Drexl** » Thu Sep 13, 2007 4:08 pm

I'll tell you what, there is no point in buying an expensive X-Fi sound card if all you will be doing is sending the Dolby Digital/DTS digital bitstreams as S/PDIF from the computer to a receiver. Most basic cards (or even onboard sound) can do that, and the quality will be the same. The X-Fi is for gaming and adding special effects to the sound that you won't want to mess with on an HTPC.

Now, what I don't know about is playing the lossless multichannel PCM audio that BDs and HD DVDs are capable of. S/PDIF cannot do this, and I don't know if there is a digital solution to this yet in the PC world.

bonestonne · Post by **bonestonne** » Thu Sep 13, 2007 4:12 pm

if you need RCA outputs, go for an M-Audio card...yes, they're not cheap [unless you're very lucky] but they've got RCA inputs/outputs, and its very very high quality.

i have the Audiophile 24/96, its excellent for both playback and editing.

ddd · Post by **ddd** » Thu Sep 13, 2007 11:12 pm

while I was looking for sound card I found the auzentech sound cards (according to some reviews these are "best" out there) so probably I'll buy one of them (there are even some quite cheap on ebay.
regarding case I looked also for some silverstone's cases (which BTW look really nice and they're really well built but also not so cheap). what I find nice in fusion case is also the power supply which should be just enough for htpc.

but I still haven't decided on graphic card (I think I'm going for nvidia) http://www.gigabyte.eu/Products/VGA/Pro ... uctID=2577
but I'm not sure if it will fit in the case.

Luminair · Post by **Luminair** » Fri Sep 14, 2007 9:54 am

1) You don't need HDMI because DVI and digital audio (optical or not) are the exact same thing except with less hassle
2) You don't want/need HDCP unless you're playing bluray/hddvd
3) Video cards only process hd video decoding when using certain players (powerdvd and windvd), and even then, when I checked last month that software had no ability to decode commonly downloaded hd file formats (mkv x264)
4) Dual core CPUs of today have poor core throttling, so even if you're only using one core to decode the video, the other core is sitting there making heat
5) You need a mighty fast CPU to decode 1080p x264 (264 is harder to decode than other hd standards like VC1 which is found on many hddvd/bluray disks). Probably something around a 2ghz Core2Duo would do it.
6) I don't know of anyone who has done testing to find out exactly how fast a CPU you need to decode 1080p x264 with the different software decoders. (CoreAVC is faster but less accurate than ffdshow)
7) You don't need a special sound card for digital audio out. They all send the exact same digital signal as cheap on-board digital out. Expensive sound cards exist for their analog sound processing abilities -- something that goes unused by digital audio output.
8) It doesn't matter whether you use optical out or coax out for digital audio. They both do the exact same thing. Optical is actually worse in most cases because it has a shorter max cable length and is more prone to damage from bent cables or dust on the in/outputs.
9) Good luck figuring anything out with so much misinformation out there.

puddnhead · Post by **puddnhead** » Fri Sep 14, 2007 1:16 pm

Luminair wrote:2) You don't want/need HDCP unless you're playing bluray/hddvd

He said he wants to watch HD movies. that pretty much means he's gonna want bluray or dddvd. And also that some of your other points don't apply, such as not neeeding HDMI ...

Luminair · Post by **Luminair** » Sat Sep 15, 2007 7:07 am

puddnhead wrote:
Luminair wrote:2) You don't want/need HDCP unless you're playing bluray/hddvd
He said he wants to watch HD movies. that pretty much means he's gonna want bluray or dddvd. And also that some of your other points don't apply, such as not neeeding HDMI ...

I watch HD movies all the time and I don't have bluray or hddvd or HDCP or HDMI... 0_o

ponken · Post by **ponken** » Sat Sep 15, 2007 7:54 am

Luminair wrote: 3) Video cards only process hd video decoding when using certain players (powerdvd and windvd), and even then, when I checked last month that software had no ability to decode commonly downloaded hd file formats (mkv x264)

I have been watching H.264 compressed mkv files with decoding on my GFX (10-20% cpu load) using powerdvd and a matroska filter and also renaming the files to .avi (maybe that can be avoided somehow).
I had a problem though with the player stopping or starting fast forward suddenly at places, but that might have been problems in the video file.

puddnhead · Post by **puddnhead** » Mon Sep 17, 2007 2:31 pm

Luminair wrote:I watch HD movies all the time and I don't have bluray or hddvd or HDCP or HDMI... 0_o

Look, I know that not every last 1080p video in the world exists only on bluray or hddvd. But let's be realistic, any commercially produced 1080p movie is going to be released on those formats -- and only those formats -- for the forseeable future. Anyone who wants to watch "Full HD" movies is gonna need to get one of those drives eventually (You ain't gonna get 180p on plain old DVD). Why play word games about it?

autoboy · Post by **autoboy** » Mon Sep 17, 2007 4:10 pm

You can find 1080p movies online for download. It is not entirely legal, but you CAN so you don't have to have HDCP. Still, it would be dumb not to get HDCP nowdays.

Here is what you need:
8600GT passive. Best HD video card because the drivers are much more stable than the better hardware wise 2600pro.
2.5ghz athlon or 2.2ghz Core 2
500GB HD or more
Antec Fusion case - awesome
Mini Ninja
2GB ram
Don't need sound card because you are using digital out and a sound card would be a waste of money because digital out bypasses the soundcard.