Build HTPC

[SteveG]

I'm thinking of putting together my own computer, for use with the new Immersive PC card, which I am beta testing. I used to take apart and upgrade my Macs all the time, and have a practical background in electronics, including working a lot on audio equipment, but have never put together a PC from scratch. It seems a fairly straightforward task, but I'd like the opinion of those whohave done it, and of my choosen components.

I'm thinking about using an Intel motherboard, probably the D845GBVL, because I've been told that they are extremely reliable. Other possible choices are the Gigabyte GA-8IGXP, because of its many features at a low price, and the Asus P4B533-V. I'd use a 2.4 or 2.53GHz P4, 512MB DDR, a Radeon 7500 or 9700, a Pioneer 106s DVD drive, one or more Seagate Barracuda IVs, a quiet power supply (such as one of those Enermax 350W whisper dual fan numbers), Zalman cooling products for the CPU and Radeon processor, and an M-Audio 24/96 or some such.

Any comments would be welcome.




Steve Goff

[Lex]

Steve, building a PC from scratch isn't that difficult really, if your electronics friendly.

You might also consider an Avalon chip with an Asus 333 mobo, nice combo. Should come in less than Intel.

Points of interest to watch on the mobo, is making darn sure that the board set screw spacers line up perfectly with mobo holes. It's a major gotcha producing no boot situations. Amazing what a difference 1 screw placement can make.

My own opinion with this All in Wonder board, is that the PC won't be replacing my interlaced players any time soon. Picture just not that great. I hope to use it to do some over air recording, but as yet, haven't experimented...

Goodluck,
Lex

[SteveG]

My own opinion with this All in Wonder board, is that the PC won't be replacing my interlaced players any time soon. Picture just not that great. I hope to use it to do some over air recording, but as yet, haven't experimented...

Lex, the board I'm beta testing is not an ATI All in Wonder, but the new Immersive HOLO3DGRAPH, a full length PCI board that is designed to accept Component, S-Video, Serial Digital Interface (SDI), and Composite video inputs. The big deal about this board is the inclusion of the Faroudja/Genesis Microchip FLI2200 deinterlacing chip, with DCDi deinterlacing for video-sourced material. The color decoder is the highly regarded Philips SAA7118, and the board includes an FPGA that can route the 480i stream to Dscaler and/or DxVA , for cool processing under DirectX 9.0.

I'll probably be able to talk about the quality of the picture soon, when Immersive releases testers from the NDA.




Steve Goff

[Lex]

Ahh, well, it sure sounds like the whole enchalada. I was just giving you my only point of reference.

Go for it!

Lex

[Steve Goff]

Anyone?




Steve Goff

[Bing Fung]

That sounds like an interesting board Steve.. Is it just for video output?

Anyway, you are on the right track buy going with the Asus DDR solution. the Gigabyte is probably good as well, however my experiances with Asus Mb have nothing but praise, this things are as rock solid as their reputation.

Seems you have it all set, so just make sure you have good memory, and a strong power supply. Your power supply is a good choice as is the SG Barracuda harddrive. I don't have any experiance with the Zaltman cooler, however I do know it is used in quiet PC projects.


Building a PC is realy simple and the only time it can get hairy is when to install what and how to run this or that.

Here is a basic primer

Tomshardware also has a 2 part series that should get you going.

And as always post here as you move along and there should be somebody home to help




Bing

[Steve Goff]

Thanks, Bing. I've recently read the Toms articles. It does seem easy. I'll let you all know how it comes along. The board is just for video input (film or video based) and deinterlacing, with scaling and output handles by the graphics board. It is laike a Faroudja scaler on a PC card.




Steve Goff