AMD - Based Home Theatre PC Recommendations please!

WarAdvocat · Post by **WarAdvocat** » Fri Dec 02, 2005 7:51 am

As some of you may be aware, I recently bought myself a nifty new 60" HDTV for my birthday. I don't watch a lot of television, but I do plan to build a reasonably priced home theatre system so I can enjoy movies in the comfort of my own home.

I also want to build a nice HTPC to go with it. I will be basing it around an AMD Athlon 64 3000+, and a spare Geforce 6600 GT I have laying around. The trouble is, the more I read, the more I realize I know nothing. Does anyone here have any experience with HTPCs?

Obviously I want to get the best theatre experience possible, audio & vision, PVR/DVR, plus all the gaming goodness I can handle on this PC, but I don't even know if I should buy a good receiver or just run everything through the PC.

Thus far, I'm thinking something like the following:
AMD 64 3000+ CPU
1 GB RAM
Capture Card (PVR 250?)
Geforce 6600 GT
NEC ND-3550A DVD Burner
Cordless Keyboard & Mouse (& Joystick!)
Hard Drive (300GB)

I'm still searching for a good HTPC Case too.

SO is anyone a true HTPC Guru? I'm about to pull the trigger on this beast.

MD-2389 · Post by **MD-2389** » Fri Dec 02, 2005 3:40 pm

You can get the 250GB PATA Maxtors for $60 AR from CompUSA throughout the rest of this week. A couple of those will be MORE than enough storage for your needs.

CritterB · Post by **CritterB** » Fri Dec 02, 2005 7:15 pm

I'm not a guru but I've had one running for a year using xp mce. It's an athlon 2100 with a hauppage mce 150 tv tuner and my old radeon 9500 pro. It does all that I need. I just got a cordless gyro mouse and keyboard by Gyration from woot for $40 and it works much better than my old wireless keyboard (once you get used to the gyro mouse that is). I just plug mine into my receiver for the sound.

Looks like you have a nice setup. I would just make sure you get a nice quiet heatsink, fan and case as I wish my cpu fan was a little quieter. I just built mine wiht my old parts so silence was not my overriding factor at the time. I'd put it a little higher now though after using it for awhile and I am actually starting to look at a new cpu heatsink just for that reason.

Check out
www.htpcnews.com
if you have not seen it before. they have lots of reviews and information including cases. They have fairly large forums as well. I have the coolermaster cavalier case so it matches my stereo stuff and it's almost too big but ti works. I use mine all the time to tape the kids' tv shows leaving room on the parents shows go on the hd dvr cable box. Good luck.

fyrephlie · Post by **fyrephlie** » Sat Dec 03, 2005 1:09 am

i have had some experience building and networking these over the last year or so. i good friend runs a company in the twin cities that does high end a/v. i tipped him off about htpc's and after some reluctance he started recommending them to customers.

i have a few questions. first of all, all you looking to store all your media digitally, and work entirely from the htpc? i.e. rip your movies and audo, and only use the htpc?
are you looking to incorporate video distribution, its just the one tv, but are you wanting to wire video from this unit throughout the home?
where would you reate yourself in the home theater world... are you into krell / sunfire type high end, yamaha / harmon kardon / denon high-mid end, or 'i saw this great home theater in a box at wal-mart the other day' ??
are you planning for a big low voltage install, in wall wires, mounted or in-wall speakers?
do you like bose? (answer that one carefully

)
what kinda coin do you expect to drop all said and done?
do you think im pretty?
is this too many questions?

ok those last two are pointless, but really, a little more background on the actual 'theater' helps figure out how to build the htpc.

or ignore me like everyone else around here.

stephen

WarAdvocat · Post by **WarAdvocat** » Sat Dec 03, 2005 1:17 pm

I don't know what I plan to do, to be honest.

I want to build an HTPC that will do everything, but I'll probably purchase a receiver and speaker system separately. I already have a progressive scan DVD player, and they're coming to install HD cable today.

I plan to use the HTPC as a digital video recorder and to stream various media to the TV, (I only own one).

Aside from the PC, I'm not looking to spend more than a 500-1000 for the receiver and speakers, although I may change my mind.

Canuck · Post by **Canuck** » Sat Dec 03, 2005 4:55 pm

I don't know how big your room is but you can get excellent results outputing from your soundcard to some 5.1 THX certified speakers such as these for example;
http://www.logitech.com/index.cfm/produ ... ENTID=9486

If you need to extend the wires it's simple.

Krom · Post by **Krom** » Sat Dec 03, 2005 5:43 pm

My PC features a Nvidia Soundstorm sound chip with realtime dolby digital encoding, I plugged it into a 650w dolby digital home theater system via optical SP-DIF and got excellent results. I think creative should have a soundblaster that can do the same or better encoding in hardware, so plugging into a decent amp and speaker system will work wonders on the audio.

The rest is getting the CPU power, with a video card that has all the VIVO options you want, plus enough fast hard drive space to make PVR worth while. The 400 and 500 GB drives on the market can record a LOT of video and they are plenty fast enough so that cures that problem without having to run too many drives at once which would cause excssive noise and heat for a HTPC. Think big on the cooling though, big heatsinks, and big QUIET fans, you will also want to keep the case and HDD cool.

Another option you might want to think about is having a huge RAID somewhere else in the house over gigabit, then you could go for a really quiet and cool 5400 RPM HDD to make your box really stfu depending on what other cooling options you have.

fyrephlie · Post by **fyrephlie** » Sat Dec 03, 2005 11:22 pm

i would recommend that if you arent sure what you are going to do with the audio... go check it out.

you can certainly make changes in the future, but without stepping over bounds, there isn't a computer speaker set on the market that can hold a candle to a def tech bp10 setup driven by even a middle of the road yamaha reciever (rxv series),

i would strongly recommend going down to your local hi-fi shop and asking for some demos of different levels of speaker / receivers, shouldnt cost you more than an hour of your time and would be very insightful as to your next step.

some people find they just dont have a discriminating enough ear to make it worth the investment. so figuring that point out right quick

next... krom man made some points. i would ask if you have a closet nearby, myself i don't think a 'pretty case' is the best route to take, but a big open tower. if you are using wireless and you have a closet right nearby you can run everything from there. (i like to hide things, that is my nature). big fans and heatsinks are also the way to go, and a big server tower leaves you open to future upgrades.

hd size... go big right away ... trust me, you will regret getting something small and kicking yourself later cause you wanted just a little more room.

a solid card with VIVO (and with a good capture card... the VI is much less important

) will help alot, but without, you can get by with the right scaler boxes. if you wanna use that 6600 you have, you can get by.

Capm · Post by **Capm** » Sat Dec 03, 2005 11:42 pm

dude, you spent 5 grand on a HDTV and you got a rear-projection? wtf.

WarAdvocat · Post by **WarAdvocat** » Sun Dec 04, 2005 1:10 am

My ear is middlin' good, but I'm not all that picky. Middle to high-end consumer is fine for a receiver and speaker setup. I just wasn't sure if it was necessary or desirable to have a separate receiver. And anyone who uses computer speakers for their home theatre deserves what they get.

On another topic. I'm not planning on putting the PC in a tower of any form. It's going in a horizontal enclosure. Preferably one that is stylish, spacious and easy to work with. Something like this.

Capm: I'm happy. I'd rather replace a lamp than a TV. YMMV. (I got a deal on the TV too btw)

fyrephlie · Post by **fyrephlie** » Sun Dec 04, 2005 2:04 am

kewl... so it sounds like you really want to make it a compenent in rack. as to the speaker situation, my vote is ALWAYS seperate reviever. actually it would be best to go with a processor and amp set up... but i digress. the case you link to is very pretty, but limits you a bit on what you can plunk in there. especially if you go with a higher end sound blaster or the like, since there is a lack of open 5.25" bays. and also would require an external ir receiver as opposed to front mounted, not a big deal, but worth mentioning. i mentioned the tower only if you planned on hiding the box, which is my 'preferred' way of doing things. i like hidden and out of the way, when people come to watch a movie i want them searching the room for the components ... cause they see a screen and hear the sound, but no where can they figure out where its coming from. makes everything really 'neat' and tidy.

the only other issue with these is the cooling, if you are talking about cramming some high heat components (processor / video / burner / HD are all going to generate substantial heat) cramming them into a small case with a single 80 mm fan in the back doesnt help, especially when placed on a close a/v component rack and stuck up against a wall. remember this when choosing your rack and component placement .

oh ... and you MUST invest in good cable management lol... man i can't tell you the number of people get to that point and say... oh lord... SO MANY CABLES, THEY ARE EVERYWHERE. especially if you are talking back feeds from the cable to pc, pc to tv, dvd to both, audio, more audio. also, do not scimp on the cabling.

all in all it sound like you are on the right track though, you seem to know roughly what you want the thing to do. so start taking the next steps.

i am assuming that you are reading up on the parts already, found anything you are wondering about?

(i'm rambling... may edit this when more awake)

Krom · Post by **Krom** » Sun Dec 04, 2005 9:34 am

I should mention that my home theater system is a yamaha system in a box, so the speakers aren't the greatest (only 6 ohm) but thanks to the 100w sub it still blows away any other PC sound system I have ever heard.

fyrephlie · Post by **fyrephlie** » Sun Dec 04, 2005 11:15 am

now im disappointed in you krom... a htib? yamaha is still better than, say, magnetbox, or even sorny. and yeah ... they still usually sound better than 'most' pc speakers.

Krom · Post by **Krom** » Mon Dec 05, 2005 12:38 am

Trust me, I investigated a large number of options before I decided to get a home theater in a box with 6 ohm speakers. The main factor in the decision was I refused to spend a months pay on a sound system, I like good sound and quality components, but not enough to spend that much. This system is also convienent in that it has small shielded speakers that aren't out of place on a desk with a PC and the amp also plays nice with CRT monitors nearby.

My previous sound system was also a HTIB, but it was a very old RCA 250w pro logic system from 1998 that featured proper 8 ohm speakers, it still sounded very crummy compared to this new yamaha system.

fyrephlie · Post by **fyrephlie** » Mon Dec 05, 2005 1:41 am

im not really jumpin' on ya, and i am glad that its at least a yamaha which really is a solid company with strong audio background.

much <3

Krom · Post by **Krom** » Mon Dec 05, 2005 9:52 am

If I had a larger budget you bet I would have got one of the higher up units and quality speakers from a local shop I checked out, even though the speakers were huge and my desk space is limited it would have looked really impressive.

But yeah, I'm glad I picked this brand, the only thing that was better on the old system was the headphone base, can't quite get this system to boom as much over my $200 headphones as the old system did, but it's a small loss vs the huge improvement I got during games having a real 5.1 system.