Hello,
I have been thinking about building myself a HTPC/NAS for quite some time now. So the other night, while going through spare parts and such it struck me again. I have two whole systems sitting here collecting dust. So my thought was to complement either of these with a new chassi and graphics card.
System 1
ASUS P5W64 WS Pro
Intel E6600 LGA775
6GB Corsair Ram
XFX 8800GTS 320MB
System 2
ABIT AN8 Socket 939
AMD Athlon 64 3500+
4GB Corsair Ram
PowerColor 8800GTS 320MB
I have a Corsair HX520 PSU, WD Green 2TB and a 320GB Seagate that will go with whatever setup I go with. Also the 8800GTS cards have to go as well, since they're not really quiet when they start to warm up, and they seem to do that really fast. But even if I could live with that, they have no HDMI.
For graphics I was looking at Radeon HD 5450 512MB or equivalent. For chassi I was thinking about Cooler Master Elite 360. It seems to be one of the cheaper mini-towers that can accommodate a full ATX motherboard.
This build will work as a HTPC and a NAS or some sort of file server. I mean to have it hooked up to a gigabit network and through HDMI to my a/v reciver. It will only be used to stream video to one tv, but I want to share files for all 4 computers in the house. I do not need it to capture TV or anything like that. I just want it to be able to stream files already on the computer, mostly HD content.
I am totally lost to what OS/software to use though. I just want it to work as smooth as possible. I hope that HTPC->reciver->TV, through HDMI will work? Having it set up like that I will be able to scroll through content with my reciver/tv right? As I am not sure I will have the computer in the same room as the TV, nor do I want to have tv-controller for the pc unless it's necessary in order to make it all work.
So what do you guys think? I have already pretty much decided to go with the intel system, but I thought I'd mention the other one just in case. Any thoughts about how to set it up and the hardware I was thinking about using? Also any suggestions on OS/software to use will be much appreciated. I am a windows guy in general, but I am open to suggestions.
Any help, pointers or ideas on this would be much appreciated.
I have been thinking about building myself a HTPC/NAS for quite some time now. So the other night, while going through spare parts and such it struck me again. I have two whole systems sitting here collecting dust. So my thought was to complement either of these with a new chassi and graphics card.
System 1
ASUS P5W64 WS Pro
Intel E6600 LGA775
6GB Corsair Ram
XFX 8800GTS 320MB
System 2
ABIT AN8 Socket 939
AMD Athlon 64 3500+
4GB Corsair Ram
PowerColor 8800GTS 320MB
I have a Corsair HX520 PSU, WD Green 2TB and a 320GB Seagate that will go with whatever setup I go with. Also the 8800GTS cards have to go as well, since they're not really quiet when they start to warm up, and they seem to do that really fast. But even if I could live with that, they have no HDMI.
For graphics I was looking at Radeon HD 5450 512MB or equivalent. For chassi I was thinking about Cooler Master Elite 360. It seems to be one of the cheaper mini-towers that can accommodate a full ATX motherboard.
This build will work as a HTPC and a NAS or some sort of file server. I mean to have it hooked up to a gigabit network and through HDMI to my a/v reciver. It will only be used to stream video to one tv, but I want to share files for all 4 computers in the house. I do not need it to capture TV or anything like that. I just want it to be able to stream files already on the computer, mostly HD content.
I am totally lost to what OS/software to use though. I just want it to work as smooth as possible. I hope that HTPC->reciver->TV, through HDMI will work? Having it set up like that I will be able to scroll through content with my reciver/tv right? As I am not sure I will have the computer in the same room as the TV, nor do I want to have tv-controller for the pc unless it's necessary in order to make it all work.
So what do you guys think? I have already pretty much decided to go with the intel system, but I thought I'd mention the other one just in case. Any thoughts about how to set it up and the hardware I was thinking about using? Also any suggestions on OS/software to use will be much appreciated. I am a windows guy in general, but I am open to suggestions.
Any help, pointers or ideas on this would be much appreciated.
