need help with htpc! please

[hslsrt-4]

having never had a htpc or even bought a pc in a while I need help.
i know what im looking for in a htpc but dont know the hardware to get it done,
if anyone is willing to help it would be greatly appreciated. this is my first build so i wanna get it right.
i wanna run just a single hdmi from this to my ht reciever then to the tv.
i wanna be able to burn,store and play blu-rays in 1080p with atleast 5.1 true-hd, dd, and dts.
im sure i want a cable card so i can watch and record tv. i dont know too much about them.
and ofcourse music and pictures. windows for the os
my budged is $1500

[Wicked Klown]

Welcome to the forums

Well you would need a blu-ray burner, (http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=2010100600%201696243420&name=Internal%20Blu-ray%20Burner&SpeTabStoreType=1) for the audio you would need either an Asus Xonar HDAV1.3 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16829132008&cm_re=asus-_-29-132-008-_-Product) or an Auzentech AZT-XFHTHD. (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16829156014&cm_re=auzentech-_-29-156-014-_-Product) Now are you looknig at going Intel or Amd, would you prefer add on video or on board? As for the cable card you'll have to wait for next year for them to start being sold, without having to go OEM i.e. Dell or HP. Are you wanting to go RAID or just an HDD per class as in one HDD for dvds and another for blu-rays.

[hslsrt-4]

i was looking to with amd, and as for video im up to all options as long as i running a single hdmi to my home theater. for the movies im prob only gona want to store blue-rays on hd as i dont own many dvds. i was thinking to go with 1tb for now.

[jimmsch]

It seeems the OP wants to use a single HDMI cable to his receiver. This would limit him to a video card that has audio decoder capabilities.

I recommend ATI HD 4xxx series for a high budget or HD 3xxx for lower budgets. I am not sue, but I think either series of cards are available passively cooled for a silent running HTPC. To me silence is important in HTPC, you don't want loud GPU fans humming in the corner while trying to watch a movie.

So, the audio will be coming from the video card, unless you will be willing to run 2 HDMI cables, in which case I still recommend those ATI cards, but if you have a separate audio card you disable (or just don't install) the audio portion of the ATI driver.

As for hard drives...I recommend getting at least two 1TB drives right off the bat, and get a smaller 80gb drive for OS and other apps. If you already have a bunch of Blu Ray movies you plan on ripping and storing the TB will fill up quickly. I reckon only 30-40 BluRay movies will fit on a 1TB drive unless you encode them somehow. Don't go RAID, it is too un-reliable.

Cable CARD...I don't know. Nowadays with interactive cable I find that if I miss a show I just go to the free on demand menu offered from my cable company a few days after it is aired and it is available to watch. The need to record TV shows is slowly becoming obsolete.

[Wicked Klown]

It seeems the OP wants to use a single HDMI cable to his receiver. This would limit him to a video card that has audio decoder capabilities.


This is untrue as the two sound cards can output sound from any video card with DVI out put. Each comes with a DVI to HDMI that you running from the output of the video card to the input of the sound car, then the output of the sound card to the input of the AVR. Also the AT 4xxx lines does not do true-hd audio. What it does do is Multichannel PCM (including the one decoded from HD audio codecs/DD/DTS)

[jimmsch]

I knew the ATI cards don't do true HD, but I didn't know the sound cards can work in unison with the video cards.

In that case will the DVI from the vid card just send the raw True HD signal to the sound card and allow it to give you the true HD sound that BluRay houses?

Does the video also pass through the sound card? This interests me.

Also...I still recommend those video cards, as for sound card, I believe the only choices are the two that the Klown recommended.

[Wicked Klown]

Oh yea the ATI is a good choice. I'm running a Sapphire 4830 HDMI in my rig. No the DVI from the video card would just carry video to the sound card. Then the sound card would add the audio and then send it to the AVR.

[jimmsch]

Isee, so the audio would work the same as it does now on my HTPC, but the video will be passed through the audio card in order to pass the whole package along to the receiver via one single HDMI cable. Now all I have to do is wait for the price on that Auzentech card to get cut in half and I can have true HD audio!!

Thanks for the input Klown I feel like I learned somethng today>

[glorp]

As I recall, you also have to use software that supports whatever card you use. The Xonar comes with a special version of ArcSoft TMT bundled but I believe the Auzentech needs PowerDVD9 which you have to buy. You can't just use any player and bitstream undecoded HD audio so factor that too.

[hslsrt-4]

if i have to run the hdmi out from the video card to the sound card and then to the reciever thats fine it still keeps it a single hdmi to the receiver.

[hslsrt-4]

well ive picked what i think will be a good setup for me. please tell me what you think.
motherboard. ASUS M4A79T Deluxe AM3 DDR3 AMD 790FX ATX
cpu. AMD Phenom II X2 550 Black Edition
ram. OCZ Gold 6GB (3 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3
hard drive. 1tb for now
video. SAPPHIRE VAPOR-X 100269VXL Radeon HD 4890
sound. ASUS Xonar HDAV1.3 Slim PCI
bd-drive. LG blue-ray burner.
power supply. 600w.
as for what i need for cooling i dont realy know?

[jimmsch]

It looks good! That will be quite a system! The only thing I question is the PSU.

I see you have spec out a 600 watt PSU, but you did not mention the manufacturer. This can be very critical. I know Corsair PSU's got good ratings, as well as many other brands. I would suggest a Corsair 520hx, or the 620 hx if you really feel you need the extra 100 watts (you really don't).

Check Jonny Guru website and read some of his reviews, also maybe make a post here in the PSU section to ask how many watts you really need.

Remember a high quality system like you have spec here really needs a high quality (not just high wattage) PSU. The PSU, if it gets fried, can fry everything else in the system with it.

[hslsrt-4]

yea thats realy all im down too know is the psu and case? thanks for all the help form all of you

[LandShark]

are you gonna play game on this HTPC? if not, no need for card like 4890! waste of power/money, and too much heat for small HTPC case.

also, what OS are you planning to run? unless you are planning to use 64bit OS, it's totally a waste of money to put 6GB of ram in it, and especially for HTPC, you don't really multi-task on it. just a good 3GB is fine.

what's the rest of your system? (AVR? speakers?) depends on what you have and what you are trying to achieve, you might or might not need/want the Xonar.

as for Bluray, if it's just for playback, and use for backup/rip (but why use your HTPC to rip it, not your main PC?), just a Bluray drive is fine, there's no need for a Bluray "Burner"!

as for PSU, get some good quality AND quiet is all I wanna say! Silverstone, Seasonic, etc., are some good and quiet PSU. but sometime, I just use the PSU that comes w/ the case, like Antec's Fusion HTPC case.

[burningcpu]

Good advice

[Wicked Klown]

If he is wanting to rip blu-rays he needs a 32bit OS. Last time I checked the programs out don't support 64bit. This is way I have one 64bit rig as I ahve 8gigs of memory in it and a 32bit OS for ripping my HD movies.

[hslsrt-4]

maybe im going overboard but i wanna do this right. what im hoping to acomplish is to build a htpc that i can store my music, pictures, and blue-rays on and run it into my avr reciever with an hdmi that has dd and dts, true hd. "i have polk tsi300 speakers full surround sound" 5.1. :bang head

[glorp]

The 4890 will be around 1% loaded when you are decoding 1080p and probably won't fit in any standard HTPC style case. The 4xxx series cards can easily do 1080p and if you're using a Xonar will do zero sound processing FWIW.