New HTPC Suggestions Wanted

[Hdale85]

I'm Building a new HTPC for the projector I'm planning on getting. Eventually I will be adding an HD-DVD rom and BD-Rom drive. Any suggestions or changes I should make to this please let me know.

SAPPHIRE 100166L Radeon X1650XT 256MB GDDR3 PCI Express x16 HDCP

AuzenTech XPlosion 7.1 7.1 Channels PCI Interface Sound Card

CORSAIR CMPSU-520HX ATX12V v2.2 and EPS12V 2.91 520W Power Supply

CORSAIR XMS2 1GB (2 x 512MB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 675 (PC2 5400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model TWIN2X1024-5400C4

ASUS P5W DH DELUXE/WIFI-AP Socket T (LGA 775) Intel 975X ATX Intel Motherboard

Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 Conroe 2.4GHz LGA 775 Processor Model BX80557E6600

Western Digital Caviar SE WD1600JS 160GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive

The HD-DVD rom will probably come from an XBox 360 HD-DVD addon unless they release a pc one for the same price. The BD-R will come later when prices drop. For DVD I'll be useing one of these.


Sony VAIO XL1B2 200 Disc DVD/CD Burner Media Changer for Windows Media Center 2005 PC's

[aud19]

Well, and this is just my own opinion and bias, but I tend to prefer Nvidia cards (they seem to have better video processing IMO), alsp try to get a fanless version of a vid card with a HS.

I generally prefer M-audio cards...but that one seems to have good specs...

Corsair = good RAM :T and the 12cm fan PS's are nice :T

I only use Asus mobo's so :T but I'm an AMD man sorry

Skip the WD HD's, go Seagate Barracuda they're un-noticeably slower but MUCH quiter and better quality IMO... and get the 320Gb drive it's the best GB/$ right now I believe.

[Hdale85]

Yeah I just don't need a lot of hard drive space. I was origionally intending on backing up all my dvd's to hard drive and run them off there. But then I found that the changer had dropped in price A LOT. That PSU is supposed to be very quiet and efficient. And the reason I went Intel is because the AMD's all only have 2Mb of cache and I've heard the Core 2's are extremely nice and they are priced very well now. I will have to look into the Nvidia cards. I just want it to have HDCP for BD-R and HD-DVD

[aud19]

Trust me you can never have enough space and the 320Gb drive is CHEAP

I haven't been keeping up on my processors much lately but AMD's have pretty regularly outperformed Intel's even with "lesser specs"

[Vinny]

WD's HD gave me some experience of hot and noisy, I would not pick it for a HTPC. I would take Seagate Cuda over it unless I have some serious speed to deal with some programs for small amount of size. Barracuda has 160gb if you want it too, but I would pay $30 more for another 160gb to get to 320gb.

Antec has a new series called NeoHE for PSU, they use 80mm fan instead and claiming 18db noise for operation. And Corsair didn't remind me it has any business with the PSU. And they are charging for 120 for it..... I would not take the risk.

Conroe's fine...... but you probably don't need 6600 for a HTPC. Just go for 6400 is fine unless you have too much money to spend

Good choice for the sound card too. It still rocks especially music. But watch out for switching back to original signal for not letting the card to affect the signal

[maximumshow]

I personally really like western digital HDDs, but Seagate are great as well. If you go with either one you should be happy, although WD tend to be less expensive and have a 3-5 year warranty depending on the model.

I have no experience with the corsair PSUs, but I would stick to a good brand who specialize in PSUs design. I personally like Enermax.

[Kevin P]

I would recommend Seagate Barracuda or Samsung Spinpoint drives instead of WD. They run cooler, and MUCH quieter. The Barracudas have 3 or 5 year warranties now, I believe too.

My desktop has two Samsungs in it, and my Linux firewall box has a Barracuda running 24/7. I never hear so much as a peep from any of these drives. Very quiet.

[Vinny]

I would recommend Seagate Barracuda or Samsung Spinpoint drives instead of WD. They run cooler, and MUCH quieter. The Barracudas have 3 or 5 year warranties now, I believe too.

My desktop has two Samsungs in it, and my Linux firewall box has a Barracuda running 24/7. I never hear so much as a peep from any of these drives. Very quiet.

Seagate's fixed their warranty for 5years since the first generation of Barracuda series came out :T

[Rich Gibson]

Sorry if I missed discussion on the case. I've spent a lot of bucks working towards a Windows HTPC. I've since moved to the MAC world for heavy duty digital image processing, however in building a NAS server I came across the Antec p180 case ($159) and am very impressed with its performance. It uses 120mm fans and runs very quietly. I have 3 TB running a gigabyte network which means LOTS of drives yet fan outlets of the box are cool.

I purchased a Mac Mini for some humble HT stuff and can run dvd streams across the LAN perfectly using this NAS server. I wish they'd made this case sooner. I can file transfer just under 2gb per minute.

Thanks, Rich

[Kevin P]

Nice case Rich. I like Antec cases, I used the P160 for my Phantom Stalker I and II, and will be using an Overture II in my Phantom Myth HTPC box.

What do you have in your NAS box? That's my next project after the HTPC. Both my HTPC and the NAS (actually more of a traditional file server than a true NAS) will be Linux based.