[sickpuppies]

Or do I need to spend more?

Hi Guys,

I have been scouring these forums for information on HTPC builds and I have come up with the following based on what I want it to do:

1. It should be fast
   
2. It should be able to play up to, and including, 1080p and BluRay Discs*
   
3. It should have optical audio out
   
4. It will only have OS and XBMC installed
   
5. It should be able to play DVD and BluRay
   
6. It should be able to run all mainstream skins (Aeon, for example)
   
7. It should be reasonably quiet (doesn't need to be silent, though)
   

*Most of my media is on my NAS. I have ripped my DVD collection maintaining file structure so as to keep special features, director's commentary etc so they are all .vob, .bup, .ifo etc, and my TV Shows are mostly downloaded .avi, or are full rips to .iso (to make it easier on myself when naming episodes). I will also occasionally play the odd DVD and BluRay Disc.

It certainly seems more expensive than some of the others I have seen on the forums, but I have two considerations there; firstly, I am in Australia and will be purchasing here and, secondly, I notice most of the proposed builds don't include operating systems, or hard drives, or some other potentially expensive component.

Anyway, onto the proposal (links are to mwave.com.au who have an assembly deal for about $70 they build, test, update and basically make sure everything is working as it should - seems ideal for a first time non-Dell/Acer type purchaser).

MOBO: ASRock A75 Pro 4 M $99.99 - but I would be happy with anything that had optical audio out, HDMI out, and gave some future proofing. Not a lot, but I think USB3 and SATA3 is a good place to start.
CPU: AMD A6 3500 $99.99 - been seeing some good reviews on the forums. Just to confirm - no need for GPU with one of the A6's?
CASE(1): Fractal Design Mini Tower $135.00 - I love the look of this case! Nice clean front, sound absorbing material on the inside, not too big (I am not concerned about having my HTPC look like just another AV component, and I have the room for a larger tower). It was that case or this;
CASE(2): Thermaltake Dokker Midi Tower with HDD Dock $62.99 - I like the added functionality of the HDD dock on top, although this PC will only be running OS and XBMC. In any case (hahah), neither comes with PSU, so;
PSU: Antec EA 380D Green 380W ATX Power Supply 80mm Low Noise $59.95 -thanks bluray
RAM: G Skill Ripjaws 4GB 2x 2GB 240pin DIMM PC3 12800 DDR3 1600 CL9 1 5 $35.30 - I don't really know much about RAM, help here would be appreciated! In particular what difference will the timings make? eg 7-7-7-21, or 9-9-9-24 etc?
SSD: Kingston 64Gb 250Mb/s read, 145Mb/s write $99.00 - I have read that OCZ have dodgy SSD's. Can anyone confirm my choice of SSD?
ODD: LG BluRay Read/DVD Write $69.99 - no requirement for burning BluRay in the foreseeable future. If/when I do I will upgrade the drive.
OS: Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit $99.00

$788.86 (Case #1) - including build fee
$706.85 (Case #2 - Dokker) - including build fee

And here is what I already have;

Media Storage: D-Link DNS-323 2x 2Tb in Raid1 (total storage 2Tb)
Network: Belkin N600DB (although PC will be wired in using Cat6 cable)
TV: Sony 40" 1080p LCD - while I currently won't notice much benefit from 1080p I will upgrade my TV (possibly to a 1080p LCD Projector) in the near future.
Tuner: Sony 6.2 Dolby DTS - this is where the optical output will go. For the quality, and ease, I can't go past optical sound.

Thanks for taking the time to read, any advice/feedback/suggestions will be gladly welcomed. Although if I am going to get mwave to build it for me then it will need to be a) something they sell and, b) something they have in stock (I want to get my PC yesterday )

Cheers,

francis

[darkscout]

Don't insist on BlueRay. That right there will save you Windows7 and the BlueRay drive.

If you still want BR, a standalone player will be cheap. (and just get cheaper)

[jackh]

Forget about blu-ray discs. Just for doing that you need Windows and whole lot of crap around it. Buy a standalone BR player for $70 and you are done on that front.

Then for the HTPC, pick a good value build from eskro (as I did) and put XBMCLive or Linux on it and you can play 1080p from your NAS like a champ. I just built mine like this for $350 (taxes included!). The machine is a beast (processing power) and a whisper (noise). 1080p and Aeon Nox in all its glory, no compromises.

[pyrospawn]

I do not think you would notice the difference in timing with htpc uses, so just go for reliable brand that offer at cheaper price. $35 for 4 GB is kinda expensive right now. For example: 8gb G.Skill Ripjaw 1333 (4x2) for 24.99 free shipping

If you like the ram in your post, it is still cheaper at newegg. G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600

Stupid me for not reading the complete post and not notice there are special consideration as you are in Australia, and would use mwave instead. My bad

Somthing like this would work and save $5 http://www.mwave.com.au/sku-37140158-G_S...F3-12800CL

[sickpuppies]

Don't insist on BlueRay. That right there will save you Windows7 and the BlueRay drive.

If you still want BR, a standalone player will be cheap. (and just get cheaper)

That's a good call. I haven't used, or even looked at, Ubuntu/Linux before though - or would you look at something along the lines of WinXP? I have a spare serial number on one of my old computers that might work.

Forget about blu-ray discs. Just for doing that you need Windows and whole lot of crap around it. Buy a standalone BR player for $70 and you are done on that front.

Then for the HTPC, pick a good value build from eskro (as I did) and put XBMCLive or Linux on it[snip]

Yeah, I think I will pretty well forget about BluRay for the moment, but I haven't used Linux before, or even looked at XBMCLive. Will have a hunt around tonight to gauge whether it is the path I want to follow.

I have checked out eskro's posts, and they have been invaluable for me getting this far, however certain differences between the newegg stuff, and what is available to me, makes me uncertain. Plus I have seen eskro giving +1's for the A6 3500 so that comforts me

pyro - nice pickup on the RAM, thanks for the link

[Kirky99]

You lose GPU acceleration with WinXP I believe...

[Beer40oz]

You lose GPU acceleration with WinXP I believe...

What is windows XP? Joking...

[sickpuppies]

You lose GPU acceleration with WinXP I believe...

Hmm, that would be less than ideal.

I believe that the A6 chip has good onboard GPU and that is one of the reasons I went down the A6 path (which I picked up from eskro's excellent My Very First HTPC, But Where do I Start? guide).

Can anyone vouch for the A6 under various OS?

[bluray]

It'll be a solid build, and it is a great idea to include a BD-ROM in it. It'll be fully integrated in HTPC. You'll be able to playback bluray/dvd directly on HTPC BD-ROM with XBMC, PowerDVD, Total Media 5, etc. I included BD-ROM in all my HTPC. I enjoy pop in Red Box BD in BD-ROM. You'll enjoy it!

[eskro]

You do lose GPU acceleration with WinXP + XBMC.

A6-3500 is at a sweet spot for HTPC use!!

[sickpuppies]

You do lose GPU acceleration with WinXP + XBMC.

A6-3500 is at a sweet spot for HTPC use!!

Well XP is out then. When I get home tonight I will have a look at an Ubuntu or a XBMCLive install to see if that is the path I want to follow.

Anyone out there want to give me an idea of how difficult it might be to get a fresh drive up and running with Ubuntu and XBMC, or XBMCLive? I'm not looking for instructions - I can get them off the Wiki - but I would like to know beforehand if it is generally a pretty straight forward process, or if it is better left to someone a bit more technically minded

I successfully jailbroke my ATV2, installed NitoTV, and also ssh update nightlies every now and then (to give you some idea of my technical level), and I hacked my Wii to play downloaded games, and installed Linux on my PS3 (back when you could using the 'install other OS' option). Again, this is just to give some indication of my technical level.

It'll be a solid build, and it is a great idea to include a BD-ROM in it. It'll be fully integrated in HTPC. You'll be able to playback bluray/dvd directly on HTPC BD-ROM with XBMC, PowerDVD, Total Media 5, etc. I included BD-ROM in all my HTPC. I enjoy pop in Red Box BD in BD-ROM. You'll enjoy it!

If I don't have Win7 I can't play BluRay in XBMC, no? I only have a couple of movies in BluRay at the moment (Pirates of the Caribbean 1 & 2) and they are such fun it would be a shame not to be able to play them

[OniFactor]

Well XP is out then. When I get home tonight I will have a look at an Ubuntu or a XBMCLive install to see if that is the path I want to follow.

Anyone out there want to give me an idea of how difficult it might be to get a fresh drive up and running with Ubuntu and XBMC, or XBMCLive? I'm not looking for instructions - I can get them off the Wiki - but I would like to know beforehand if it is generally a pretty straight forward process, or if it is better left to someone a bit more technically minded

I successfully jailbroke my ATV2, installed NitoTV, and also ssh update nightlies every now and then (to give you some idea of my technical level), and I hacked my Wii to play downloaded games, and installed Linux on my PS3 (back when you could using the 'install other OS' option). Again, this is just to give some indication of my technical level.



If I don't have Win7 I can't play BluRay in XBMC, no? I only have a couple of movies in BluRay at the moment (Pirates of the Caribbean 1 & 2) and they are such fun it would be a shame not to be able to play them

Most linux installs are fairly straight forward, from my experience.

i'm assuming you'll have a regular workstation, as well as this HTPC? if so, why not run XBMClive on the HTPC, and then install the BD drive in the workstation, to rip DVDs to digital formats?

[sickpuppies]

Most linux installs are fairly straight forward, from my experience.

i'm assuming you'll have a regular workstation, as well as this HTPC? if so, why not run XBMClive on the HTPC, and then install the BD drive in the workstation, to rip DVDs to digital formats?

I do have another PC, but it's a laptop and currently doesn't have a bluray drive, just DVD. It's the one I do my ripping on currently.

My 2Tb NAS is nearing capacity as it is (got quite a few favourite TV Shows, and they really eat up the space) so not sure if I am ready to start accumulating BD rips yet.

I dunno, something to think about; Win7 + BD, or Ubuntu/Live

[bluray]

If I don't have Win7 I can't play BluRay in XBMC, no? I only have a couple of movies in BluRay at the moment (Pirates of the Caribbean 1 & 2) and they are such fun it would be a shame not to be able to play them

I'm assuming you can, but you cannot utilize your hardware acceleration. It might not work as well as W7.

[bluray]

I dunno, something to think about; Win7 + BD, or Ubuntu/Live

Nothing easier than W7+XBMC and more options, you can utilize 7mce too.