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Advice on Building HTPC

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onefstsnake

Member
Joined
Nov 20, 2007
Location
Fburg, VA
Well Ive been thinking about building an HTPC for a few months now.
I have a 40" LG LCD and want to be able to browse the internet, play BD DVD's, and play a few games every now and then.

I already have a decent set of speakers and sound card.

I was thinking of a AMD based micro ATX setup. Not sure if it would be better to use onboard video or a separate PCI 2.0x16 card.

Nothing fancy. Maybe something sub $700 range.

Thanks for the help and advice!
 
Entirely depends on your resolution. Is the LCD 1080p or 720p?
For 1080p, you really want a dedicated PCI-E card...but nothing outrageous. My HD 4550 plays all 1080p perfectly fine and its like $40. 720p should be fine on any integrated chipset that is made for HTPC's -- 780G/790GX etc...

My BE-2300 + DFI Lanparty JR 790GX + HD 4550 works A+

You could build one for a lot less than $700! You don't need crazy hardware. The BE-2300 is only 1.9GHz.
 
My HD3200 plays 1080p just fine as well, no need for discrete graphics for that,

However you did say gaming, for that you will want a discrete card, 4770s are cheap, and 4850s if you can get one with a decent cooler for cheap.

Any of the newer AMDs will run real cool and supply plenty of 2D power for an HTPC, go quad at least if you are going to be reencoding DVDs/BDs to your HDD
 
So the ATI cards work better in HTPC's than Nvidia cards?

Im looking at the Regor 250 cpu. Ive been out of the loop for a while as you can tell by my sig lol.
 
I have a Athlon II 250 in my HTPC. It runs cool and does everything i need it too. I don't re-encode Blu-Rays or DVDs on the HTPC though. I use my main tower for that.
 
So the ATI cards work better in HTPC's than Nvidia cards?

Im looking at the Regor 250 cpu. Ive been out of the loop for a while as you can tell by my sig lol.

Depends on OS.

I have given up on ATI when it comes to Linux as AMD seems to have gotten the idea that ATI + Linux should be as least functional as possible while still "working".

Nvidia + Linux = almost the same as Nvidia + MS.
 
hmm. For the cost of the Phenom II X4 might as well go Intel lol.
Now if I use onboard video that should slow down the processor correct?

So would a 9800GT be adequate?

Im thinking a NV250 might be a bit big for an HTPC.

As far as an OS Im liking the reviews of Windows 7. But a retail version wont be out till sometime next year...
Might have to settle for Vista MCE
 
Ok so how does this sound?

Phenom 905e Deneb $194

MSI 785GM-E65 AM3 AMD 785G HDMI Micro ATX AMD Motherboard $89

XFX PVT98GYNF3 GeForce 9800 GT 512MB 256-bit DDR3 HDCP Ready $99

G.Skill 6GB DDR3 1333 $119
 
I chose the Quad as I like to run DC software and fold (9800GT) if you do not fold or crunch the 705 could save you some cash and the yield would be close to the same. Also there is a chance that a 945 could run at these low V but there is no guarantee.
 
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