HTPC built from scratch!!!

[RickS]

Hi,

I would like to start purchasing parts to build a HTPC. If possible I would like to do it with the help of this forum only. Lex & Mats have provided a great place here, and, this is were I spend lots of time hangin around.

If it is possible I'd like to get specific brands and model no#s so as to not make any mistakes in buying the pieces required.

I have a FPTV with native resolution of 800x600. I may be going to a JVC D-ILA projector in the next year or so. My equipment rack is a middle Atlantic std 19" rack. Pricing would also help!

This from Jon in the Video Card thread:

1-Antec Black Rack case (options?)
2-ASUS A7V MB
3-Processor?
4-Ram (Type & amount 128-256?
5-Video card Jon (Radeon) Model?
6-HD IBM size? speed? 7200?
7-sound card? Would like to pass DTS/DD 5.1
8-OS Window 98SE ?
9-IR sensor?
10-key board(model IR)
11-mouse(IR) Want to get ccf for Pronto.
12-DVD ROM
13-Nic Card?
14-required software
15-any thing else required!!

I will try price out and buy the products locally if possible. This seems like it will be a learning experience for me as well as a fun project.

Thanks in advance!

Rick




The Home Theater
DVD Collection

[JonMarsh]

Further suggestions regarding your noble quest:

1: Antec IPC3480B, 4U high, black, 300W power supply

3: Athlon Tbird (socket A) 750 MHz or faster.

4: 128 MB PC133 RAM- more not needed for DVD; for gaming, the more the better.

5: Video card: DVD only, ATI Radeon LE 32MB, under $90; for gaming and DVD, either 32MB DDR or 64MB DDR, $150 to $225.

6: Relatively uncritical- HD speed not a factor in DVD playback. IBM is most reliable brand I've used; good results also with Quantum, Fujitsu. Several Maxtor's have died; don't buy them anymore.

7: Sound card: growing number of choices, including "audiophile" 24/96 card from Digital Connection. I use SB Live Platinum 5.1, for gaming support, DD output, fairly good decoding if you do it locally (with ATI Player)

8: Only real choices now for OS are 98SE and ME; driver compatibilities have caused me to unload ME from one test system I was running it on. WIN2K doesn't support DD output on SPDIF reliably. Also, many video drivers are ka-ka on WIN2K. Some are OK. Then, there's WIN XP, which reportedly will come bundled with a DVD player, a tweaked up Cinemaster product, customized by the microserfs. I'm signed up for the preview program, to evaluate, when that rolls out. It's really NT, with a much prettier face. Whether it's still a work OS in drag, or something really suitable for the home environment remains to be seen.

All for now- let's see some other suggestions from other forum members.

BTW, the ATI player for the Radeon, though slightly flawed and glitchy in some respects, is very good in some regards; if they get the kinks out in version 7.1 or 7.2, it could be killer.

Regards,

Jon




Earth First!
_______________________________
We'll screw up the other planets later....

[RickS]

Jon,

Thanks very much for the reply!

I will start the shopping process today. I will try to list the pricing that I'm given along the way. In Cdn & US funds.

Will your sound card pass the DTS bit stream?

Thanks
Rick




The Home Theater
DVD Collection

[Lexman]

Rick, should be able to pick up a 900 mhz fairly cheap now I would think. This seems to be a really good chip and not so fast a chip that it requires a hot ice factory to cool it. :B

Nice post Jon, I wish I had your advice when I was building mine. Or maybe I wish I had paid closer attention. But I seem to be split in a lot of different directions anymore, lol.

Lex

[RickS]

Jon,

I was looking at the All in Wonder Radeon 32 last night. Will this card be OK? It is $255 Usd-399 Cdn. I also found locally

AMD ATHLON K7-950 on ASUS A7V133 ATX (SOCKET A) VIA KT133A (ATA 100 RAID) W/O AUDIO $505Cdn or $328 Usd.

This place has some good pricing BCOM. Take the prices minus 35% to equal USD.

Let me know what you think!!!

Thanks
Rick




The Home Theater
DVD Collection

[rudee]

Jon,
1-what sw comes with the radeon le?

2-Any suggestions on where to start once my LE card arrives-

I'm runnin' a Sharp NV3 xga lcd proj. 4:3 native
750 Athlon/MSI K7 pro mobo
128 ram
Aopen slot drive DVD rom-really quite!
Monster MX400 sound-thinking about the fortis (sp?) with optical out
and of course, the Radeon LE

Windows 98SE (preferred) or ME- Have both

Right now I have PowerDVD 3.0 as my only player-

3-Should I get Windvd as well?

rudee

[Bing Fung]

Nice recomendations Jon!

Rick, click on my web page below and go to NCIX or PCCanada for the parts. They are usually the best prices I have found in Canada.

I buy most of my parts from NCIX, but mt last combo was from PC Canada.

shipping is usually 3 days.




Bing

[RickS]

Hey, Bing!

Thanks for the info!!! I was wondering if you were going to come over for a visit. I have been shopping at both those sites today thanks to your recommendation a few pages back. Also, looking at http://www.softonline.com. Very good shipping prices within Canada. I have found the supplier for the case (Antec IPC3480B+303X SKU 186823) in Canada which is Ingram Micro. I just need to find a dealer that will sell it to me for a decent price.

Rick




The Home Theater
DVD Collection

[JonMarsh]

I'm one of those spoiled people that lives in the bay area, and can walk into places and buy good stuff at fairly reasonable places.

I realize this won't help you much in Canada, but for the record:

Locally I buy from Central Computer, a nice Chinese family run chain in the Bay area- unlike places like Fry's, some of the people are actually knowledgable, and they just sell computer stuff- no twinkies, refrigerators, or Playstations. Plus, they're less expensive than Fry's. Central's current price for a Radeon LE is about 89.95.

http://www.centralcomputer.com/

I've had a lot of good luck with this Southern Cal vendor for stuff like Hard Disks, Fujitsu Magneto Optical Drives (never build without one), and a variety of guchmo's. There current price on a full Radeon 32MB DDR is $148, for example.

http://www.computers4sure.com/

BTW, I value reliability, fast shipping, and accurate reporting of stock status over having the absolute rock bottom lowest prices, just so you know where my prejudices lie.

Regards,

Jon




Earth First!
_______________________________
We'll screw up the other planets later....

[RickS]

Jon,

It looks like the ATI DVD player is very close to being a complete package. It would be nice if we could get DTS out of the player. I have ordered the case. The price was $339.00 Cdn $220.00 Usd. The rest of the products seem to be similar in price anywhere I look so I do agree with you that the local computer store is knowledgeable and priced well. The case should be here next week.

I am going to purchase the All-in-Wonder Radeon 32 card. I am looking forward to comparing the HTPC to the Crystal Image processor that I'm currently using with a Sony DVP7700.

Thanks for the help!! Much appreciated


Rick




The Home Theater
DVD Collection

[Bing Fung]

Rick, I looking forward to hearing about your results.




Bing

[RickS]

Bing,

I'm looking forward to this project. It's nice to know that there are quite a few people at this forum with vast computer knowledge.


Rick




The Home Theater
DVD Collection

[Trevor Schell]

Hey Rick!,,Good luck with this project. I will be following your progress and might do the same thing,,Maybe!




Trevor
My HomeTheater S.E.
Sonically Enhanced
C5

[JonMarsh]

The Radeon is spoiling me, and may force across the board upgrades- the 2D video quality is definitely a notch up from the GeForce on my NEC flat panel display, so now I want one for the desktop, too. Fortunately, the VE dual head version is pretty inexpensive, even at the mall! ($129).

Is this a plot by all you Canadian guys to get the US to run a trade deficit with Canada via Video Cards? ;-)

Love the way DVD's look on the Radeon.

BTW, the ATI 7.1 player, though maybe not perfect in some peoples system, has been flawless so far in mine.

Regards,

Jon




Earth First!
_______________________________
We'll screw up the other planets later....

[RickS]

Jon,

Glad to hear that the 7.1 player is working well. I wonder how long it will be before it will support DTS?

Rick




The Home Theater
DVD Collection

[Bing Fung]

Jon, it is a plan

I have been holding out for a Geforce 3, but by the time the apps are written to take advantage of the chip, it will be time to by the 2nd gen Geforce 3. So I have really been pondering the Radeon 64MB DDR, the price is so good on that, how can a person lose? $300 CDN

Currently using a Matrox G400 Max, very beautiful 2D and DVD image as well...




Bing

[RickS]

Well today finally!!




My local parts store here has the Athalon 1.2 cpu on for $40.00 more than the 1.0. Should I go for the 1.2??? The price really isn't a concern.

Rick




The Home Theater
DVD Collection

[JonMarsh]

If the 1 GHz CPU's at your store have the "AXIA" product code prefix, they'll overclock readily to about 1.4 GHz. If you dont' want to fool around with shorting the multiplier connections on the CPU so that it is programmable by the MB, just spend the money.

I'm planning on building another test system for XP soon with a 1.2 GHz Athlon, which will become my next gen desktop, and my current 600 MHz Athlon will get handed down to my duaghter. Her PC will become my dedicated audio test PC.

Those Antec Rack cases are really sweet; ThomasW is enjoying the one I built for him; it definitely passes the "stuff is stuff" test! You don't need to use most of the fans in it, though, with a desktop style MB! ;-)

BTW, note elsewhere the fun and games I had getting Radeon VE's to install. The key seems to be letting Windows detect it again and install the software for VGA/PCI driver, even though you may have already selected and set that up before removing the other card. Go figure why that would be a big deal; probably only Bill Gates knows for sure. The results are sweet, I watched "The Matrix" again last night, all the way through, even though I had only been intending on demoing a couple of sections and checking the 7.1 player for how it handles the Matrix authoring. The image and story sucked me in... to the Matrix....



Regards,

Jon




Earth First!
_______________________________
We'll screw up the other planets later....

[RickS]

Jon,
I'll pick-up the 1.2 and MB tommorow. Also, was looking at the Liteon wireless key board? If I use this will the IR receiver work fine for a pronto program?

I have also found this article interesting when trying to make a choice on a DVD drive.

The Chroma Upsampling Error

Thanks
Rick




The Home Theater
DVD Collection

[KennyG]

That case is beautiful...but where do the DVDs insert?
Which audio card did you get?

[RickS]

Hi,

The door on the right opens up and the bays are behind it.The door can be removed as well. I'm going to order rthe M-Audio card from Digital Connection

Rick




The Home Theater
DVD Collection

[KennyG]

Yes, if you hadn't order your audio card yet I was going to suggest M-Audio's card...excellent card 5.1 & DTS (as you know)
Mine's been glitch free.It is the older Delta Dio 24/96, I understand their new card is even better!
DO NOT skimp on your power supply, if you do you will be sorry. (lock-ups, stutters, dropped frames, etc)
Where did you order that case, I'm about to move my guts into a better case, my white tower is a sore spot.

[Bing Fung]

Nice case Rick, the HTPC is shaping up nicely.

Nice choice on audio card.




Bing

[RickS]

Kenny,
Glad to hear that is a good sound card. The one thing about building this PC is that once I get it up and running I don't want to be tweaking endlessly....cross my fingers. I bought my case in Canada. The best price I could find on the net was here
I'm wondering if I should get the copy of PowerDVD with the sound card for the extra $10.00?

Bing,
I'm sure you'll be involved with this project sooner or later.

Rick




The Home Theater
DVD Collection

[RickS]

Just wondering what you guy's would order for DVD-Rom Drive?

Rick




The Home Theater
DVD Collection

[JonMarsh]

I've had good results with Hitachi, Sony, Pioneer and ACER DVD ROM drives; the new Pioneers supposedly are a bit noisy (14X). I've had firmware difficulties in the past with Toshiba drivers, but I suspect there current ones are pretty good, but no first hand knowledge. I'd stay away from off brand drives unless you're feeling lucky.

-Jon




Earth First!
_______________________________
We'll screw up the other planets later....

[RickS]

Jon,

I was looking at the slot load Pioneer black face model. It is 16X drive so I hope it isn't to loud..hmmm. Even though my equip is behind a plexi glass door.





Rick




The Home Theater
DVD Collection

[RickS]

Busy day today!! Purchased the following:

CPU AMD Athalon 1.13GHz
Motherboard Asus A7V133A
M-audio sound card
DVD drive Pioneer black slot load 16x
Black floppy drive
Liteon Airboard wireless IR keyboard
Hard Drive IBM Deskstar 60 GB 7200 Ultra ATA100
Video card Radeon AIW 32mb
Ram 256MB PC133

It should start rolling in here in a few days.

Rick




The Home Theater
DVD Collection

[Bing Fung]

Thay's going to be one hell of a HTPC :E

Nice and clean equipment closet Rick... I LIKE IT!




Bing

[RickS]

Bing,
I'm really looking forward to this project! But, I'm sure there will be a few glitches along the way.

I was looking at a D-link wireless network so I can hook up all my computers on the ADSL line. I will need the net connection for driver downloads anyway.

Rick




The Home Theater
DVD Collection

[KennyG]

I'm also using the slot load Pioneer, and don't like it. Not that it doesn't work well, it does. I just don't like to have to "slide" my disc into that slot, and when it spins up it is very noisy.
Thanks for the site with the Case...looks like it might be on hold...projector upgrade.

[RickS]

Well....now I'm wondering if I should change the DVD since it's not being shipped until the end of the day out of CA. Hmmmmm???? Seem's like the only other option with a black face is Toshiba 12X. Jon had mentioned concerns with Toshiba....hmmmmm??
Kenny, once the disk spins up is the operation quiet?

Rick




The Home Theater
DVD Collection

[Bing Fung]

Rick, I have a Slot Load Pioneer 104s (10x), and find it's not that loud. Mind you this is all comparative, maybe Kenny is use to super quiet drives, and I'm comparing to a 48x creative drive which is very loud.

Jehan said on the TTP that he was looking at the Pioneer 106s, 16x drive and thought it was loud. I think he bought a Panasonic.




Bing

[RickS]

Bing,

Thanks for the reply but, the drive has shipped already so I'll let you know what is sounds like when I get it. I feel like we should be flipping the page here.

Rick




The Home Theater
DVD Collection

[KennyG]

It's kinda strange sometimes the htpc seems to send the DVD drive into a higher speed, that's when it is loud. If it runs at "normal" speed it's quite, but when it cranks up to get very loud. I wish there was some way to limit the DVD drive to single speed.

[Bing Fung]

Flip! heheh!

Rick, I would buy another Pioneer, and did consider upgrading to the 106s. Still, I'm very happy with mine.

Kenny, would adjusting the read ahead speed to minimum, solve the constant wind-up?




Bing

[Bing Fung]

Whaaa?!?!?!

No flip??

LEX!




Bing

[Lexman]

Haha Bing, you guys are tooo much.

Rick, after 37 posts, don't you think it's time to upgrade processor's? :B

Great PC project and awesome equipment enclosure! Are you fan cooled back there?

Lex





<A HREF="http://www.catcables.com" <IMG SRC="http://www.htguide.com/lexman/other/sm_logo.gif"

[RickS]

Bing,
Nice Flip!!! Old habits die hard! :B

Lex,
The rack backs into the utility room with furnace, hot water heater etc. The equipment is open on three sides and never seems to get warm.

Rick




The Home Theater
DVD Collection

[Jehan]

Bit late to the thread, but looks like you've got some great components there Rick - certainly goes above and beyond a 'decent' HTPC spec

The Pioneers are quite loud IMHO, and the slot load while looking quite cool does add to the trouble of removing discs if there is a power outage etc. The Toshiba drives are very quiet and perform very well for DAE etc. However, let us know how the rig performs.

[KennyG]

Bing, I'd like to try adjusting this "read ahead" to minimum, but how do I do it?

[Bing Fung]

Kenny, open "control panel", and then open "system"

Once inside select "hardware" and / or "device manager",

You will see a directory tree of all your installed components.

Select "DVD/CD Rom drives" and you will see your installed drives.

Right Click on the "Pioneer drive" and select "Properties", you will get a window with tabs like General, properties, Advanced settings, Drivers.

Click, click on one of those and you should get a window with a slider that controls read ahead speed.

This may not be verbatim but it will place you in the proper area. I'm running w2K and as such, it does not have this control as in Win 9X, ME




Bing

[RickS]

Well....I have got quite a few parts in today!

Just a few concerns CPU Fan?? Not overclocking! The quieter the better!

I ordered: AMD Athlon CPUs w/266MHz FSB
AMD Athlon (T-Bird) 1.133 GHz OEM

The chip reads:
AMD Athlon
A1000AMT3C
AVIA 0111EPFW
Y6157851450
@@1999 AMD

Is this a 1.13 like I ordered?

TIA
Rick




The Home Theater
DVD Collection

[Bing Fung]

Good news on the equipment arrival Rick,

Sorry i have to take off to the doc, but seen you post and thought maybe I should try to help somewhat.

based on this guide, it looks like you have a 1000 MHz C chip and not the 1.133 you may have ordered.

Read about it here

http://www.merc100.com/socketa_ocpg3.htm

I'll be back later and help you sort through it, OK?




Bing

[RickS]

Thanks! Bing!




The Home Theater
DVD Collection