Best budget HTPC build for Feb 2009...?

[Bodegus]

So... I've been doing a bit of research and am trying to build a "budget" top of the line HTPC. Here is what I came up with. As future proof as possible... and still affordable. I'll be ordering everything next week.

Mother board
GIGABYTE GA-E7AUM-DS2H LGA 775 NVIDIA GeForce 9400 HDMI Micro ATX
Newegg $129.99 (on board solution! big space saver)

Case
APEVIA Black SECC Steel / Aluminum X-MASTER-BK/500 ATX Media Center / HTPC Case
Newegg $69.99 gets the job done and sub $100

Tuner - (not big on DVR abilities, but need the one channel to work well!)
AVerMedia AVerTV Combo PCIe MCE ATSC/NTSC/QAM Tuner Card
$109.99

Proc
Intel Pentium E5200 Wolfdale 2.5GHz
Newegg $72.99 This should be able to do it all?

Ram
Kingston 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800
Cheapest 2x2gb kit

HD
Western Digital Caviar RE WD2500YD 250GB
Newegg $39.99 - I have a 5 TB server that will host most of my media
I want to partition this into 4 or 5 chunks to have different testing environments

Bluray and HDDVD
LG Black Blu-ray/HD DVD-ROM & 16X DVD±R DVD Burner
Newegg $114.99

Network
GIGABYTE GN-WP01GS PCI Wireless Adapter
Newegg $16.99 - I want an internal solution

Total $625

 

[LandShark]

it looks fine. if I really have to pick, I'll opt for bigger HDD since HD recording takes up lotta space (4-8GB/hr depends on your recording software and setting). so a single NFL game could take up to 20+GB!!

 

[JamesXP]

I have a 5 TB server that will host most of my media

*cough*

 

[LandShark]

*cough*

saw that. but you DO NOT record any shows over a network tho! whatever HDD space you have on the server is just for the storage use. but you'll still have to record the TV shows onto the HTPC's HDD first! and with only 250GB space, you'll be consisently moving the recorded shows from the HTPC to the server. and it looks like he'll be using a wireless solution for his home network, if so, then good luck when moving 10s of GB of data over a wireless network!

 

[JamesXP]

ok, you got me...

 

[LandShark]

ok, you got me...

 

[Bodegus]

I haven't hard any trouble streaming high def over wireless yet...

How about an N solution? Enough bandwidth?

 

[LandShark]

I haven't hard any trouble streaming high def over wireless yet...

How about an N solution? Enough bandwidth?

the so-called HighDef is a very loose term imho. it's more about the bitrate of a video file. you could find some high resolution video from the net (720 or 1080 res), yet there bitrate is very low. thus it's suitable for downloads and will have no problem to stream over a wireless network. however, if the HighDef that you are talking 'bout is (or near) Bluray quality, then a wireless G will not be good enough for sure!

my house is wired gigabyte network, with a G wireless for my laptops. but I haven't try to stream any Bluray over a wireless connection tho.....

but my real point or reason is, you'll most likely be transfering the recorded TV shows from your HTPC to your server for storage purpose (given only 250GB HDD), it's just a pain and will take forever to transfer GBs of data over a wireless G network.

 

[Bodegus]

G wireless = 54mbps
Bluray movie
1080p video = 40 mbps
8 channels of PCM (1.5mbps) = 12 mbps

2 mbps to spare!

 

[LandShark]

G wireless = 54mbps
Bluray movie
1080p video = 40 mbps
8 channels of PCM (1.5mbps) = 12 mbps

2 mbps to spare!

remember 54mb is the theoretical max speed, good luck to get even half of that in real world/house unless you are sitting a couple feet from the router (and the server needs to be a couple feet away too in order for it to have the max speed too!)

 

[n0irsmurf]

So I have a question, you said that a single football game takes around 20GB to record.... how much does it take on like a dedicated Tivo? Is it really that much?

 

[Bodegus]

Find your service provider below (bitrates listed)
divide bit rate by 8200 (to convert to gigabytes/sec)
Times 10,000 seconds (3 hours = 10800 seconds)
that is your file size

ATSC = 25 gigs per football game
Digital cable = 21 gigs per football game
DirectTV and Dish = 13 gigs per football game

ATSC HDTV MPEG2 1920×1080 1080i/p 19.39mbits/sec
Digital cable MPEG2 1920×1080 1080i/p ~ 16mbits/sec
Verizon FiOS Video on demand MPEG2 1920×1080 1080i 15mbits/sec
DISH HD MPEG2/MPEG4 1440×1080 < 10mbits/sec
DIRECTV HD MPEG2/MPEG4 1280×1080 < 10mbits/sec

 

[n0irsmurf]

Ok, that gives a little bit better understanding.... I wouldn't really be recording football games since I already watch the ones I want. More interested in TV shows and what not. Because my dad is a huge DVD collector and I already rip those so I don't have to go and get his DVDs in the other room and change them out every time I want to watch a movie. I'm also trying to convert him into this HTPC thing so I can get a server going. And riping those is about 1GB. So it surprises me on the recording.

Or are these all HD figures? Because of course I would record HD shows and like many I'm a huge Lost fan, and would be recording every episode of that.

Because I know when I rip my blu rays also those can easy be 12GB or so... just trying to get the best figures. Thanks.

 

[nd4spdbh2]

remember 54mb is the theoretical max speed, good luck to get even half of that in real world/house unless you are sitting a couple feet from the router (and the server needs to be a couple feet away too in order for it to have the max speed too!)

ya max your going to get on a 54mbit wifi connection is round 23mbit which is 2.875MB/s which will get you a max of ~10GB per hour. a 250gb hd will be fine so long as once you recorde the show you move it to your server.... but then if you want to watch it your not going to have enough bandwidth to play it back.

for myself personally i just have an external hd i use to transfer big files to my htpc. cus wireless takes way to long... and i have just recently spoiled myself with a gigabit connection between my server and main rig and wifi seems like 56k now.

 

[Burdman27911]

And riping those is about 1GB. So it surprises me on the recording.

I'm assuming you are talking about regular length movies on DVD. You must have some heavy compression on, because for the highest quality compression (I'm somewhat anal about quality) I'm getting in the 3-4gb range. Mind you that's uncompressed 5.1 audio and H.264 compression at a fixed rate. If you rip a DVD with no compression at all, you'll be getting much larger files than that even (you're ripping from DL DVDs).

 

[n0irsmurf]

Yeah, well I don't worry about it with DVDs because the quality isn't worth it to me. I much rather enjoy the quality with blu ray. And all I have right now is a 750GB HDD hooked up to my xbox to watch them. I would like to get a HTPC since there is still a lot of codecs not supported.

 

[cali]

How did this build work out for you?
I am looking at building my first htpc with the same processor and motherboard.

Cali

 

[Bodegus]

I ended up owe a bunch of taxes haven't built yet.

 

[pdxer1]

I'm a bit of a nub here to OCF, but I've been building 'stuff' for some years now, but when I saw this, "you'll be consistently moving the recorded shows from the HTPC to the server. and it looks like he'll be using a wireless solution for his home network, if so, then good luck when moving 10s of GB of data over a wireless network", I almost wet myself!