My New Media PC

[Baez]

Awesome thanks for the link vern. So with some patience and luck I can probably get one of these up to 4.5 with the Zalman. Just need to think of which board would be the best for the price to get it there now

 

[TheOtis]

Woa woa woa.

4.5 on air?

Man. I bet with my loop I can go towards 5ghz then.

I need to change my boxers now.

 

[Grievearz]

A far cheaper option would be to get the 780G chipset and a 3870 and take advantage of hybrid Xfire. 780G has some awesome features for HTPCs, including HDMI and HD audo support. The 3870 hybrid crossfire will give you enough power to play pretty much anything you throw at it with a decent frame rate.

Ive been doing a lot of research on HTPCs for a future build and the 780G chipset is considered the "best" right now for it's application.

Edit - Best tuner card depends on a lot of factors.

1) What media center are you planning on using?
2) What type of cable do you have?
3) Does your cable support OTA and QAM HD channels?

Ignore these answers then buy an HDHomeRun. It will tackle anything you throw at it and will even network to multiple computers as well as handle OTA and QAM through Vista MCE, not to mention pretty much any LinuxMCE or MythTV.

 

[veg1992]

I'm totally picking one of those up now.

EDIT: Take that back, not a quad.

you could get the x3320 (Xeon) which is the Xeon version of the q6600 (hope for a G0)

 

[Baez]

Vern that was the other other CPU I was looking at but I haven't found one single legit review on it so I really don't know yet.

I would get a 780 board but I've used quite a few nForce boards over the past couple of years (including the one in my current comp) and I'm just not happy with them. They're pretty unstable and aren't nearly as good for OCing as some people say. This is all from my experience of course.

As for my media setup I'm still debating between SuSE or Vista, both of which I have on this comp right now. I use SuSE all the time but I'm thinking Vista just because I want to be able to put any game I want on here.

I have a question pertaining to your cable question. Which would be better: DVI->HDMI or DVI->VGA? My TV has both HDMI and VGA (and no DVI) but I don't know which would give a better picture.

Also can you send me a link to this HDHomeRun thing you're talking about?

 

[veg1992]

*Official Xeon x32x0 OC Thread* - Overclockers Forums

I found those

EDIT: X3210 Xeon Core 2 Quad: Overclocking Monster in Sheep's Clothing! - Page 1 - Introduction

I found some x3210 stuff, seems to be more reviewed than the x3220

 

[Grievearz]

HDMI is tons better than VGA. Most TVs don't even support HD through a VGA connection.

Motherboard: Newegg.com - GIGABYTE GA-MA78GM-S2H AM2+/AM2 AMD 780G HDMI Micro ATX AMD Motherboard - AMD Motherboards
*note* This one is special because of the way it handles HD audio, great for an all around DVD/Downloaded content solution

CPU: Newegg.com - AMD Athlon X2 BE-2350 Brisbane 2.1GHz 2 x 512KB L2 Cache Socket AM2 45W Dual-Core Processor - CPUs / Processors
*Note* 45W processor, easily passively cooled, even when overclocked.

Tuner: Newegg.com - SiliconDust HD Homerun Dual Network HDTV ATSC/QAM Tuner IPC-HDHOMERUN Ethernet Interface - TV Tuners & Video Devices
*Note* Make sure to research this product, it can do anything you throw at it but requires a little bit of computer knowledge and patience to set it up with multiple types of TV (i.e. OTA with QAM and SD TV all at once)

This is just for a low power system. If you're looking for a lot more performance and don't mind some noise, go with this processor:
Newegg.com - AMD Phenom 9850 BLACK EDITION 2.5GHz 4 x 512KB L2 Cache 2MB L3 Cache Socket AM2+ 125W Quad-Core Processor - CPUs / Processors

It will run WAY hotter so be prepared to actively cool it.
As much as I love Intel for most applications, AMD has the HTPC game under control with low power solutions that tear through HD media.

Edit - My Build (Newegg prices YMMV)
Total
$773.94 - $55 (rebates) = 718.94

Items:
Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 ST3750330AS 750GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM
GIGABYTE GA-MA78GM-S2H AM2+/AM2 AMD 780G HDMI Micro ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail
SiliconDust HD Homerun Dual Network HDTV ATSC/QAM Tuner IPC-HDHOMERUN Ethernet Interface - Retail
LITE-ON Black SATA Blu-ray DVD-ROM Drive Model DH-4O1S-11 - OEM
CORSAIR CMPSU-450VX ATX12V V2.2 450W Power Supply - Retail
CORSAIR XMS2 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model TWIN2X2048-6400C4 - Retail
AMD Athlon X2 BE-2350 Brisbane 2.1GHz Socket AM2 45W Dual-Core Processor Model ADH2350DOBOX - Retail

The PSU is beefy enough to handle a second card later if you decide you'd like to add a 3870 or 3850 for hybrid Xfire.

 

[Baez]

Ah we have an AMD fan here eh? The best AMD quad-core still loses to the Q6600 in most benchmarks. Especially if you take into account overclockability. I realize the advantage of an HTPC with AMD but I want to pay for performance over a few extra features.

Also I can't buy from Newegg. I'm in Canada but I get better prices than them anyway.

I'm not buying anymore LITE-ON products. I said I build PC's before and I don't think I've had one LITE-ON drive that has lasted more than a year for any customer.

That SiliconDust tuner looks very nice though. I'll look around for availability in Canada. My usual reseller places don't have any so I'm not sure if it's here yet.

Thanks for the help.

 

[Grievearz]

Actually, I really don't like AMD. My gaming build is Q6600 all the way, I didn't even look at crappy AMD. Unfortunately it's a little hard to build a quiet, low power HTPC with all the features you need without using AMD. I plan on keeping my gaming PC for gaming and then using my HTPC for... well... home theater, maybe browsing the web and email as well. I really don't see the need for two high powered systems in my home. You could most likely set up your current computer, the one in your sig, to play on your big screen. All you'd need is a DVI -> HDMI converter or DVI -> Component Cable to get HD signals to the TV.

If they made a chip-set with the 780G integrated and supported LG775, I'd be all over it. Overclock a 2180 and you'd blow anything AMD can make out of the water, but I digress. The biggest difference is that the system I recommended will only draw about 73W during Blu-Ray playback. A Q6600 system with a graphics card is going to draw 2.5 to 3.5 times more than that at least. Source:AMD's New 780G Chipset Has Powerful GPU | Tom's Hardware

Personally I've never had any problems with my LITE-ON drive (free from work) *knocks on wood* but I've heard they are crap.

 

[Baez]

Acutally that's a little impossible considering my PC and TV are in separate rooms. Otherwise I would consider it. I live in an apartment with two other roommates and we use my TV as the main one.

I also don't pay utilities, it's part of the rent I pay so I really don't care about power consumption. My TV is a power sucking beast anyway.