Need Help to build a perfect HTPC

ksvraman

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Guys.

I am completely a lay man regarding this HTPC, so I kindly ask help from you all to suggest me to build a HTPC, which can
1) Play all formats (Audio & Video)
2) All types of in & outs for Audio & Video
3) Should be capable to play 3D & 7.1 Audio
4) Should be able to connect to the internet to download movies thru torrents
5) Should be connectable to Projector / Monitor / TV
6) Should have RF in for getting the cable TV
7) The software to be put in
8) The best & the latest hardware to get the best of the best
9) Readily connectible

Budget up to 25K, I read all the threads posted in this section, but i am totally confused. Please help me to build the HTPC step by step.:sad:
 
You can easily find the hardware specs in other htpc threads. Any HTPC will play all kind of audio and video formats. For 3D you will need a graphics card. A TV tuner card is required for cable TV support.
 
Guys.

8) The best & the latest hardware to get the best of the best

Budget up to 25K

Respected Sir,

The Mother Board & Processor will cost you Rs. 25/- K ++

You ask for good quality products.
The Video Card will set you back 20 + K at least.
The RAM - 8 GM minimum will cost you 8/- K

If you can spend Rs. 100/- K [at least] then this is possible.
Rs. 25/- K will get you some entry level HTPC - imho.

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Mother Board - This level at least...

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Ram - This is where you will need to start...

Sir,
I can keep listing the products & software you will need.
But, you need to work on your 'budget'
That is most important.

A top end Audio & Video Server can be built with Net Flix XBMC J River etc. etc. All installed, but the money too is needed & has to be spent.

All the Best !

Buy Online Antec DF-85 AP Full Tower Dark Fleet Case in India
A Case like this - to fit all the movies & music etc.
 
Guys.

I am completely a lay man regarding this HTPC, so I kindly ask help from you all to suggest me to build a HTPC, which can
1) Play all formats (Audio & Video)
2) All types of in & outs for Audio & Video
3) Should be capable to play 3D & 7.1 Audio
4) Should be able to connect to the internet to download movies thru torrents
5) Should be connectable to Projector / Monitor / TV
6) Should have RF in for getting the cable TV
7) The software to be put in
8) The best & the latest hardware to get the best of the best
9) Readily connectible

Budget up to 25K, I read all the threads posted in this section, but i am totally confused. Please help me to build the HTPC step by step.:sad:



Hi,

I recently built my first HTPC after lot of looking around, you can go with the following Specs

Processor - G2020 - Cost 3350 - this performs close to i3 in day to day needs and its half the price.
Motherboard - Go with any B75 chipset as its is much cheaper then Z77 and H77 chipset board and it does the job fine...Check out Gigabyte B75 Micro ATX Board - Cost 4200
Ram - Kingston 2*2GB 1333 Should cost around 3k
Harddisk - Depends on ur need - WB - Blue 1TB - 3800
Graphic Card - here you have too many Option, Depends on ur need and how much you are willing to spend here
Options - Just for Movies and 3D - u can stick with GT 620 or GT630 - Cost Under 4k
If u want to do bit of Gaming - HD6670 , HD7750, HD7770 Should cost from 5-8K Make sure u buying DDR5 1GB then DDR3 2GB models
 
Hi,

I recently built my first HTPC after lot of looking around, you can go with the following Specs

Processor - G2020 - Cost 3350 - this performs close to i3 in day to day needs and its half the price.
Motherboard - Go with any B75 chipset as its is much cheaper then Z77 and H77 chipset board and it does the job fine...Check out Gigabyte B75 Micro ATX Board - Cost 4200
Ram - Kingston 2*2GB 1333 Should cost around 3k
Harddisk - Depends on ur need - WB - Blue 1TB - 3800
Graphic Card - here you have too many Option, Depends on ur need and how much you are willing to spend here
Options - Just for Movies and 3D - u can stick with GT 620 or GT630 - Cost Under 4k
If u want to do bit of Gaming - HD6670 , HD7750, HD7770 Should cost from 5-8K Make sure u buying DDR5 1GB then DDR3 2GB models

This is a good config for HTPC. You may follow it.
 
Hi Bhagwan .. if im not wrong .. u also have a HTPC rite ? could you list out the config ?

Sir,
I have 3 of them.
2 are for Audio
1 is for Video
I do not like to mix them up - but they can be built in 1 box too.
Both Machines have same - In Common
1]
M/B = ASUS Maximus V - Gene
2]
Ram - Cosair Vengence - 8 GB
3]
I-5 3rd gen - Low Heat - top spec processor
4]
SSD Drive - Win 8 - Cossair - GTX 120GB

Now the differences are :-

Silver has no HDD
Has an RME - AES 32 Hammerfall Card - my sound card
No DVD Rom
No Software - except win 8

Black has 10 HDD's - all my 16 + + TB of music is here;
DVD Rom
Win 8
J River
Foobar
J Play - mini
dB Power Amp - Ripper

Operation :-

I play music via J River - no critical listening in the Black Machine.
The Silver Machine 'hibernates' [basically shuts down] & the music
is played - sent from the RME Card to my DAD Dac.

For Critical Listening - I use the same set up but with J Play Mini.

Sir,
I cannot begin to explain it to you;
It is just so damn brilliant - I could never imagine that my house could
play like this. Just amazing.

I am very very happy.
The Best 1 Lac I ever spent.

So this is what I have done & I am really satisfied & happy.
 
Hi,

I recently built my first HTPC after lot of looking around, you can go with the following Specs

Processor - G2020 - Cost 3350 - this performs close to i3 in day to day needs and its half the price.
Motherboard - Go with any B75 chipset as its is much cheaper then Z77 and H77 chipset board and it does the job fine...Check out Gigabyte B75 Micro ATX Board - Cost 4200
Ram - Kingston 2*2GB 1333 Should cost around 3k
Harddisk - Depends on ur need - WB - Blue 1TB - 3800
Graphic Card - here you have too many Option, Depends on ur need and how much you are willing to spend here
Options - Just for Movies and 3D - u can stick with GT 620 or GT630 - Cost Under 4k
If u want to do bit of Gaming - HD6670 , HD7750, HD7770 Should cost from 5-8K Make sure u buying DDR5 1GB then DDR3 2GB models

Sir,
This is a good config;
But it is a VFM solution.
This is not Best of the Best by a Mile.
You have done a super job to get a machine up & running.
If budget is an issue - the VFM solution is buy a X Box or a PS 3 & give it a NAS Feed - all your Games & Movies & Audio will get 100 % Sorted.
This will cost you Rs. 25/- [for the box] + Rs. 25/- [for the NAS]
This is a brilliant Rs. 50/- K solution & will have a good looking product & some serious number crunching ability & will have killer graphics on your Projector / Screen / Plasma or LED etc.
Consider this on a 'serious' note.
 
Sir,
This is a good config;
But it is a VFM solution.
This is not Best of the Best by a Mile.
You have done a super job to get a machine up & running.
If budget is an issue - the VFM solution is buy a X Box or a PS 3 & give it a NAS Feed - all your Games & Movies & Audio will get 100 % Sorted.
This will cost you Rs. 25/- [for the box] + Rs. 25/- [for the NAS]
This is a brilliant Rs. 50/- K solution & will have a good looking product & some serious number crunching ability & will have killer graphics on your Projector / Screen / Plasma or LED etc.
Consider this on a 'serious' note.

Hi,
Well i had a budget of 20k to play with so i went with the above solution, and more over role of the HTPC was to Play all formats of Video and Audia and 3D Movies and Basic stuff, Like Browse and torrenting and Basic Gaming,

and reason NAS dont work for me is, its still need a HTPC or Computer to Play, and I have PS3 and its just has too many limitation...or i find 20k HTPC will serve my purpose....
 
Respected Sir,

The Mother Board & Processor will cost you Rs. 25/- K ++

You ask for good quality products.
The Video Card will set you back 20 + K at least.
The RAM - 8 GM minimum will cost you 8/- K

If you can spend Rs. 100/- K [at least] then this is possible.
Rs. 25/- K will get you some entry level HTPC - imho.

Buy Online PowerColor HD7750 4GB DDR3 Graphic Card in India
Graphic Card - This level at least..

Buy Online Asus SABERTOOTH-Z87 32GB DDR3 Intel Motherboard in India

Mother Board - This level at least...

Buy Online Corsair Vengeance 8GB 1600mhz RAM CMZ8GBX3M1A1600C10 in India

Ram - This is where you will need to start...

Sir,
I can keep listing the products & software you will need.
But, you need to work on your 'budget'
That is most important.

A top end Audio & Video Server can be built with Net Flix XBMC J River etc. etc. All installed, but the money too is needed & has to be spent.

All the Best !

Buy Online Antec DF-85 AP Full Tower Dark Fleet Case in India
A Case like this - to fit all the movies & music etc.

Hi Bhagwan-ji,
A tangential question from my side. I am a complete novice in the domain of computer audio world. I would like to understand a bit more on how a good hardware+software is going to improve the overall sound quality. My little understanding of the hardware part :-
1. Bigger the RAM size, better the caching for the player to process.
2. Faster the CPU+better system Bus arbitration gets good bit rate delivery to the DAC
So when you recommend better hardware (as you have done in the above of post of yours), are the above points correct ? Please add/delete/modify the above points on what a good hardware can do for a good sound quality and how they contribute to that.

Similarly, the role of a software (jriver/foobar/jplay) is a bit of confusion for me. Apart from providing management solutions, how does it contribute to the sound quality ? My understanding is that all the digital audio files (wav, flac, etc) are decoded to PCM format and those PCM bits are fed to DAC (either through I2S or SPDIF) without any further processing. As long as the hardware+OS have enough bandwidth to schedule the software player program/process (and as long as there is no DSP processing applied on the decoded digital PCM data) , how does the software contribute to the overall SQ ? I am trying to understand if there could be any other factor. Or is it that some DSP processing is applied on the decoded bits and that's why players do make a difference ? I don't think so because purists/audiphiles would generally like to have an unadulterated content, but I am not 100% sure about this.
 
Bhagwan, do you use WASAPI in JRiver?
Do you also use memory playback or do you stream directly from SSD?
Can you please share your experience with these settings/modes - and how much impact they have on the sound quality?

Thanks,
Arun
 
Bhagwan, do you use WASAPI in JRiver?
Do you also use memory playback or do you stream directly from SSD?
Can you please share your experience with these settings/modes - and how much impact they have on the sound quality?

Thanks,
Arun

@ Arun;

a]
I used to use Event Style - When I used J River i.e.

b]
Now I use J Play - that too 2 machine set-up & play back

c]
Yes, I use to use SS via Memory Play Back - Buffered. Now it is all done by J Play for me.

The J Play - 2 Machine set up is 'leagues' better than any Foobar / J River etc. that I had ever used.
It is a must have & the only way to do Computer Audio.
 
@ Arun;

a]
I used to use Event Style - When I used J River i.e.

b]
Now I use J Play - that too 2 machine set-up & play back

c]
Yes, I use to use SS via Memory Play Back - Buffered. Now it is all done by J Play for me.

The J Play - 2 Machine set up is 'leagues' better than any Foobar / J River etc. that I had ever used.
It is a must have & the only way to do Computer Audio.

Thank you. Coming from you, that is a strong recommendation indeed.
 
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