final components for HTPC

[suprateep]

IS this the product :-

Products - Pro Series, Computer Cabinets, Keyboards, Mouses, Power Supplies, Speakers, Web Cameras, Jet, Hawk, Shivaji, Antibiotic


Why not try the Spark & Dragster series with a cool blue LCD display ?

sarkar i spoke to the Zebronics people and they have run out of stock - think of the manufacturers running out of stock. As far as the dealers in Pune and mumbai - they have not heard of this dragster model.

Anwway the procube gives me option of building a media server with lots of storage - adding 3 HDDs later. So i think looking at that option it felt kewl.

I would anyday want a normal HTPC cabinet with a display and remote - but milta kahaan hain

 

[kannanokannan]

Check this Antec Antec - Fusion Remote Black currently i can t find that product in Theitdepot - India's First Online IT Store but ..
you can call Mr.Shanmugavel from It Depot: 9884042588 ... these guys are Antec importers...
My proud cabinet is running rocksolid 6 yrs..
cheers,
kannan

 

[kannanokannan]

Could also consider Barebone PC from Shuttle will be cute and compact ....Shuttle Computers, The pioneer manufacturer of small factor. .. may be for VFD and remote module you should opt separately... in India distributed by Welcome to Mediatech India ...
cheers,
kannan

 

[gobble]

Dual Core ?? Ok I thought you meant Core 2 Duo! I agree Dual Core CPU are cheaper than Core 2 Duo's any day cause they are nothing but stripped down versions of Core 2 Duos. Dual Cores are not that efficient . We have Dual Cores in our office machines and not one days goes by when we dont curse it for its slow speeds. In fact we tried playing a 720p wmv file in the Office Dual Core and the CPU consumption was a whopping 60-65% !! I guess the Core 2 Duos in my Home PC and Desktop have spoiled me .


By Dual Core I thought you were referring to Core 2 Duo here . My Bad.

The problem is not the dual-core. The problem is that the chipset does not support HDvideo playback. Even a 3ghz Intel has been found to struggle with 1080p videos!! The G45 chipset is the first Intel chipset to support HDVideo, so if you drop the same sluggish dual-cores into a G45 mobo with X4500HD chip, it will play just fine with low cpu.

My be-2350 is a low end 2.1ghz cpu mind you, but it plays 1080p with 45% cpu. Thats because of the 780G chipset. Dont blame your cpu, pick the right chipset and you are all set.

Regards

 

[thevortex]

Bala, do you have the exact link to this article. I am not bale to locate it for some reason.

Cheers

Venkat - here you go. http://photos.imageevent.com/cics/v... art of building Computer Transports v0.3.pdf

This is a PDF file. The homepage is at - The Art of building Computer Transports

 

[Dushie]

Hi all

Well i wanted to start making a HTPC so i have kicked off buy buying the following products -

1. Athlon 64 X2 7750+ (2.7GHz 3MB L2 cache Black Edition)
2. Gigabyte GA-MA78GM-S2HP (AMD 780G + SB700 Chipset )
3 . Transcend DDR 2 (2 GB 800 Mhz)

The above setup cost me Rs 9360.

Processor Rs 3450
Mobo Rs 4860
Ram Rs 1050

Had an old cabinet and 400 Watts SMPS which i will be using with the setup, will add more stuff as time passes by as this is just a start ...

 

[illusion]

Hi all

Well i wanted to start making a HTPC so i have kicked off buy buying the following products -

1. Athlon 64 X2 7750+ (2.7GHz 3MB L2 cache Black Edition)
2. Gigabyte GA-MA78GM-S2HP (AMD 780G + SB700 Chipset )
3 . Transcend DDR 2 (2 GB 800 Mhz)

The above setup cost me Rs 9360.

Processor Rs 3450
Mobo Rs 4860
Ram Rs 1050

Had an old cabinet and 400 Watts SMPS which i will be using with the setup, will add more stuff as time passes by as this is just a start ...

Finally Dushie jumps into the HTPC bandwagon ! :licklips:

 

[suprateep]

Finally Dushie jumps into the HTPC bandwagon ! :licklips:

I am in a dilemma after failing to find a proper cabinet in Lamington road..though mahavir had one that looked like and old VCR and around 5-6 inched thick. Was decent with black finish and support for 4 addon cards, 1 HDD, 1 OD, micro atx mobo.

If if had support for adding one more HDD then it would have been a steal for 2.7k.

Anyway i have decided to get a tower instead and make it into a media server with lots of HDD for content.

 

[venkatcr]

This is for those who are looking to build their own HTPC and have a few rupees to burn. ExtremeTech (ExtremeTech - Computer Hardware and Software News, Reviews, and Advice) uses the following configuration as their reference system.

Processor - Intel Core 2 Duo E8500
Motherboard and chipset - ASUS P5Q Deluxe (P45 Chipset)
Memory -2 x 1GB Kingston DDR2/800
Hard drive - Western Digital WD6400 7200.10 640GB
Graphics Card - ASUS EN8800 GT (HDCP capable)
Display - Gateway FPD2485W 24-inch wide screen display (HDCP capable)

This is just for information. There are of course other MOBOs and processors that can be used.

Cheers

 

[Dushie]

Finally Dushie jumps into the HTPC bandwagon ! :licklips:

Yep, the reason i didn't go all out is because i am trying to get my hands on a WDAVN00 - WD HD media player box which is costing $ 99 in US.

So will be using the media player to play most stuff.

 

[illusion]

Yep, the reason i didn't go all out is because i am trying to get my hands on a WDAVN00 - WD HD media player box which is costing $ 99 in US.

So will be using the media player to play most stuff.

Yes but no warranty on that .


Ok i am confused here now. DO I ask one of my friends to get it for $99 from USA or do I buy it in India at Rs 7500/- with warranty ?

 

[suprateep]

Yes but no warranty on that .


Ok i am confused here now. DO I ask one of my friends to get it for $99 from USA or do I buy it in India at Rs 7500/- with warranty ?

with warranty dude.......you can get the WD TV for around 6.5-7k....one member on the forum posted that he can give a ref for the same

 

[moserw]

Yes but no warranty on that .


Ok i am confused here now. DO I ask one of my friends to get it for $99 from USA or do I buy it in India at Rs 7500/- with warranty ?

$99 is around 5K and savings of 2K is quite a good amount. 2 points to consider though. Warranty is important especially all the more in case of expensive equipment. Not sure what warranty implies in the case of WDTV though. If its comprehensive and inclusive of h/w replacement then better to go with it. If its limited and to what extent then make a call on whether warranty is worth the extra 2K. Sometimes warranty is pretty limited wherein the owner has to pay for any parts replaced and also service charges and in such a scenario replacement with a new unit does not even come into consideration. All they will do is replace defective parts and also charge you for it. This happened to me with a SE mobile phone. The reason I am stating this is there is no India mentioned in the list of countries where WDTV is sold on their website. If WDTV is not officially sold in India then warranty would not even apply to the company. Local seller warranty is totally a different ballgame. Make sure what kind of warranty you are getting.

The 2nd point to consider is how soon can you get it from the U.S. If there is no waiting period involved and warranty does not really mean warranty then U.S. with its savings of 2K makes more sense. If however warranty really means warranty and also you have to wait for a while before you get the WDTV from U.S. then probably get it locally. Decision is yours to make.

 

[nfsfan]

i've doing reading on htpc's for about an year now.. so i would suggest the following motherboards :

amd : nvidia 8200/8300 chipset ( gigabyte, asus and zotac make them)
intel : nvidia 9300 chipset (though its expensive)

the sole reason for suggesting these is that nvidia chipset is the only one with hdmi to offer full and working 7.1 lpcm support. this may not be that imp, but in the long run it sure will be.

780g has only 2.0 lpcm support, whereas it is poor driver implementation in intel motherboards that is the problem(intel does implement 7.1 lpcm)

 

[gobble]

I agree. I have suffered ATI's lack of support for OSS/Linux for many years now.

However ever since it became apparent that Microsoft was in danger of losing its desktop share, ATI has ( out of fear or business sense not social ideology for sure) started releasing its hardware details to the open-source community. Last month the hardware details for R5xx/6xx chipset was released to public.

This means we should soon have fully working opensauce 3d drivers for most ATI graphics cards except the 48xx series. The UVD2/AVIVO bits of hardware that allow motion compensation and HD playback may also work fully depending on whether the DRM hardware is separate from the UVD2 bits. In the cases of cards where UVD video acceleration hardware is closely tied to DRM, this may not be possible as ATI cannot release documentation on DRM without getting sued by all the major entertainment companies around the world - This will enable open source hacks to defeat all sorts of copy protection.


If your card supports UVD2 it should be fine only UVD has this risk. So if you ask me today, I would say no more harm for sticking with ATI.

Regards

 

[suprateep]

what mobo do the experts suggest for the HTPC........

in absence of bitstream True HD audio atleast the least thing is 7.1 LPCM from a HTPC - what i understand that the Gigabyte 780g motherboards can do 2 LPCM via HDMI and 5.1 via optical while the nvidia 8200/8300 etc can do multichannel (7.1??) via HDMI?

Is that true? What boards then?

 

[gobble]

I would go with nvidia

Cheers

 

[Dushie]

Yes but no warranty on that .


Ok i am confused here now. DO I ask one of my friends to get it for $99 from USA or do I buy it in India at Rs 7500/- with warranty ?

Well illusion i have taken the plunge, ask one of my friends to pick up the unit from US. He has placed an order online on newegg, it is costing 99$ inclusive of shipping, he may be coming down in May so, will need to wait till then to get my hands on the box

 

[nfsfan]

what mobo do the experts suggest for the HTPC........

in absence of bitstream True HD audio atleast the least thing is 7.1 LPCM from a HTPC - what i understand that the Gigabyte 780g motherboards can do 2 LPCM via HDMI and 5.1 via optical while the nvidia 8200/8300 etc can do multichannel (7.1??) via HDMI?

Is that true? What boards then?

as i mentioned, nvidia chipsets are the way to go. gigabyte mobo for nvidia 9400 costs 7200 which imo is too much. so better get an amd proccy with zotac nvidia 8200/8300 for around 3.5-4k.

 

[thevortex]

what mobo do the experts suggest for the HTPC........

in absence of bitstream True HD audio atleast the least thing is 7.1 LPCM from a HTPC - what i understand that the Gigabyte 780g motherboards can do 2 LPCM via HDMI and 5.1 via optical while the nvidia 8200/8300 etc can do multichannel (7.1??) via HDMI?

Is that true? What boards then?

What mobo is a question which is logically a function of which processor brand you want to go with - Intel or AMD?

If AMD then the best choice lies with the 780G based mobos out there. The Gigabyte model discussed is one of them. If it is Intel, there are other choices.