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project_dog

· Schaw Flapping Pus
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Discussion starter · #1 ·
Anyone here have a Home Theater PC? I'm thinking about building one. But I havent built one for a long time, Would someone here give me some pointer what motherboard and CPU's. All I know I want to run a ATI 4350 video card. My plan is to download and copy Blue Ray dvd and play some games.

Thanks, Brian
 
#2 ·
The first thing I would like to know is whats your budget?

And I really like AMD products they are a bit cheeper and offer great products in some cases the highest quality products like the ATI Radeon HD 5970.

When I buy computers or stuff like that you have to know its going to have a lifespan untill it becomes outdated or surpased by a cheeper product.

Usualy that takes 2-3 years but that time frame is speeding up.

The AMD 780-790 motherbords are great imo and for the money are the best deal for the 790FX you can get one under 200$

The Phenon and Athelon x4 processors hands down.
 
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#4 ·
Which OS do you plan on using? If you are even thinking about a linux OS (mythbuntu is really nice), stick with a motherboard with an nforce chipset and nvidia graphics. AMD/ATI are being dicks about drivers, nvidia has essentially made theirs open.

I used to be an AMD fan, but Intel's new multi-core processors look like they will be bad ass for things like video encoding, and I believe they will generate less heat which is good for quiet, small HTPC installs.
 
#5 ·
want a brainless move? buy an xbox 360 or a ps3.

don't hate, just listen. both of these consoles can be had for $200-300 out the door, have 120gb HDDs on the base models(easily upgradable), and some come with bigger hard drives. both can stream media instantly over your network, both can have external drives plugged in to read media off of, and both have great video cards and hdmi right out of the box.

why build something that somebody already is mass producing for less money? oh yeah, you can browse the web, get instant streaming netflix, and play games off of as well.
 
#7 ·
jk. I'll do it now.

ZOTAC IONITX-D-E
4GB DDR2 SDRAM
500GB 5400RPM HDD
CT10N Slim SATA Blu-ray Drive
Some sort of Bluetooth Dongle
Wi-02 Mini-ITX Case

should use around ~50ish Watts of power. Really low power due to the Intel Atom w/ ION, also passive cooling, not much heat coming out of it. Very little noise too. Still in the process of seeing what I want. But that's about what I'm thinking.
 
#8 ·
i don't understand the point of all of this if the ps3 does all of those things and more already?

there used to be a time when htpcs were cool, necessary, and worth every penny spent on them. now? blown away by the price/performance ratio of a mass-produced entertainment system. there is nothing your htpc can do that my ps3 can't.

i am not boasting about how amazing something is out of the box, but when you factor in time, performance, price, convenience, reliability, features... i can't see something performing well enough to justify the price difference. oh yeah, and my ps3 came assembled and functional. if any part of it breaks, i send it back.
 
#9 ·
If you want a single unit for dvr/time-shift, the ps3 is hard to beat. If you want a media system with a centralized backend for serving media throughout your home, recording many channels at once or even more advanced stuff, the HTPC is the way to go. Its also more fun for those of us who like to tinker.

Btw, the PS3 has blueray for that $300 price tag and has been cracked to run a linux OS, so you could put an actual mediacenter OS on it.
 
#10 ·
larstrak said:
i don't understand the point of all of this if the ps3 does all of those things and more already?

there used to be a time when htpcs were cool, necessary, and worth every penny spent on them. now? blown away by the price/performance ratio of a mass-produced entertainment system. there is nothing your htpc can do that my ps3 can't.

i am not boasting about how amazing something is out of the box, but when you factor in time, performance, price, convenience, reliability, features... i can't see something performing well enough to justify the price difference. oh yeah, and my ps3 came assembled and functional. if any part of it breaks, i send it back.
Click to expand...
The reason is because I'd much rather have a PC. The thing is, I'm paying about ~$500 when you look around and get deals. The most expensive thing on my list is the Blu-Ray drive. Plus the PS3 using about 3-4x the Watts that my system will end up using. Plus I have a 360 anyways. But I'd much rather have something dedicated to my media.

This is kind of the reason why I store nothing on my Hard Drives, but I store everything on my Network Attached Storage? Why? Because I have shit load of Hard Drive space on it, plus I'm using old PC parts to run it, rather than throwing it away. Plus I have the convenience of SSH tunneling to it. Setting it up to do whatever I want. If you want to know what I use, check out FreeNAS. Dude wants to know about a HTPC then so be it.

OP, check out a show by Revision3 called HD Nation. :) I think you'd enjoy it. It's exactly about what HD and HTPC etc.
 
#13 ·
the only thing it doesnt do is record tv.

p.s. at full load, the ps3 slim uses 95 watts. a ps3 slim at 50 hours of max load per week, will only cost you $50 more per year in utilities than your htpc... assuming it never goes above 45 watts.
 
#18 ·
Rods59rt said:
You don't need to hack consols any more.TVersity is all you need and a home computer and ps3 or 360.
Click to expand...
x2

I have an old gateway desktop, Pentium 4 3.0 1 gig ram running xp. It just sits in a closet and use TVersity to stream to my 360. No lag. I download HD shows and movies and stream with no issues.

I tried integrating the pc without the xbox and the interface is so nice through the xbox already there was no point. You don't need to use a wireless mouse/keyboard this way either. If you need to change anything, just RDP from another computer and then tversity will update the menu on the xbox.

Kevin
 
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