HTPC questions
Posted: Tue Sep 15, 2009 1:09 pm
Since my parents recently got a new Full HD TV and there is no true HD input sources hooked to it yet, I got idea to build a HTPC to remedy that problem. I already have few ideas and few surplus components that I would like to use, but there is few conflicting wishes. These componets are:
- Terratec Cinergy 1200 DVB-C PCI card
- Sapphire Radeon HD 4670 Ultimate PCI-E graphics card
- Scythe Ninja+ CPU cooler
- Samsung HD501LJ 500 GB SATA HDD (or actually I have two of these)
The problem here is that I would like to build this computer in small form factor, but the three first components above are rather big. And stricly speaking eliminating these may not be end of the world, since first the display device is indeed a TV and there is also Humax DVB recorder hooked to it, so the tuner card may not necessarily get that much use, although might still be handy since it would allow that one could eg. watch telly and browse Internet at the same time. I also suppose modern integrated GPUs may suffice and the reason this Sapphire graphics card is not in use at the moment is that I fed up fighting with ATI fglrx Linux drivers, thus I am bit unsure if these drivers even work any better under Ubuntu (the primary OS candidate for this new HTPC) than Debian "sid". Then only thing why I would like to reuse the CPU cooler and HDD(s) is to save few euros.
So, I seek other opinions on the situation:
1. should I scrap the idea of small computer or seek savings by using old components?
2. if I leave out the big CPU cooler and perhaps the graphics card too, are there any good ITX motherboards with PCI slot and GPU with good video acceleration and Linux drivers? Something based on Geforce 9400 I guess. And what sort of small cases I should I look into if I want that full height PCI slot and 3.5" HDD (and perhaps also "normal" 5.25" optical drive)?
And I guess it is obvious that in any case, this setup should be a quiet one...
- Terratec Cinergy 1200 DVB-C PCI card
- Sapphire Radeon HD 4670 Ultimate PCI-E graphics card
- Scythe Ninja+ CPU cooler
- Samsung HD501LJ 500 GB SATA HDD (or actually I have two of these)
The problem here is that I would like to build this computer in small form factor, but the three first components above are rather big. And stricly speaking eliminating these may not be end of the world, since first the display device is indeed a TV and there is also Humax DVB recorder hooked to it, so the tuner card may not necessarily get that much use, although might still be handy since it would allow that one could eg. watch telly and browse Internet at the same time. I also suppose modern integrated GPUs may suffice and the reason this Sapphire graphics card is not in use at the moment is that I fed up fighting with ATI fglrx Linux drivers, thus I am bit unsure if these drivers even work any better under Ubuntu (the primary OS candidate for this new HTPC) than Debian "sid". Then only thing why I would like to reuse the CPU cooler and HDD(s) is to save few euros.
So, I seek other opinions on the situation:
1. should I scrap the idea of small computer or seek savings by using old components?
2. if I leave out the big CPU cooler and perhaps the graphics card too, are there any good ITX motherboards with PCI slot and GPU with good video acceleration and Linux drivers? Something based on Geforce 9400 I guess. And what sort of small cases I should I look into if I want that full height PCI slot and 3.5" HDD (and perhaps also "normal" 5.25" optical drive)?
And I guess it is obvious that in any case, this setup should be a quiet one...