Home Theatre PC

[Monkey]

Hello Techies,
soo.. I am wanting to build a home theater pc (HTPC) and I was wandering if any of you guys have experience in this field. I was wanting to know what the cost is and how good HTPC's are for the tv, movie and normally computing experiences. Thanks for reading this

 

[atomic tofu]

htpc is the same as building any other pc...and can just be as good in all areas, because it's a pc

the one thing you have to concern yourself more or absolutely most with, is the noise level of the unit.

you can either try for a build that is fan less and only uses heat sinks (though fans will still be somewhere in the case) - fanless means no fan on the cpu or gpu.

And if you want to buy a standard pc case or a specifically made for htpc case.

MONEUAL.COM

many others too, I believe, Zalman makes some too

 

[Monkey]

Thats cool on the performance side. My next questions are..
What should i be looking for in a video card, TV tuner, and sound card. Also, how much spade will i be needing? is 750GB enough?

 

[veedubfreak]

How much gaming do you plan to do. If all you plan on doing is using it as a DVR/DVD/etc then you can get away with a cheaper video card. I used a regular mid-tower for my build, but thats because i have 5 750gb hard drives. I use an MSI 8500GT video card because it has both an HDMI and DVI output. The hauppage 1800 is an excellent tv tuner.

 

[Monkey]

I would like to do some decent gaming such as COD 4, front lines: fuel of war, and some strategy games like starcraft 2 when it comes out and what not.

I was also looking at the hauppage tuner also.

I am hoping ot have a 37 in lcd for my tv/monitor..soo does that play a role in deciding what kind of video card?

 

[veedubfreak]

If you plan to do actual gaming, i would go with a 9600gt or 8800gt. The 8500 isnt going to do much good for gaming. But my media pc is strictly for viewing recorded shows and dvds.

 

[Monkey]

What if I wanted to go something in the ATI arena?

 

[veedubfreak]

Probably the 3870 or 3850 depending on your price range.

 

[Ridr4lfe96]

ok guys sorry for the newb qeuestions, but a) what is spade?, and b) what is the advantage of having 5 hard drives? are you guys saving movies and stuff on your pc or playing it from a disc?

 

[veedubfreak]

spade = typo of space
I have 5 hard drives because one weekend when i decide to get off my lazy butt, i'm going to rip as many of my 400+ dvd's to the htpc so that i never have to go digging to find the disc when i want to watch a movie.