Help with HTPC - 3d(HDMI 1.4a), HD Audio passthrough, plus multichannel LPCM

[sam9s]

RoC and sam9s, thank you for your suggestions.
I should probably just take it, coz I'm trying to build an HTPC. It needn't be all powerful, just be a very good media player. USB3 and SATA 3 are probably unnecessary.

But I'm also trying to make a decently future proof buy. I don't want to upgrade soon. I wont have to, unless I need to play some new games, right?

Gaming!!! ..... well thats an all together different department, though GT440 is a decent card, if Gaming is what you are looking forward to.... the min I would recommended is an i3 with HD6670. On a regular 19" monitor 6670 will run all current gen games with more or less all settings to high.

 

[gazal]

Sorry to put the word gaming out there, I take it back. All I meant is I'm trying to build a system that is reasonably future proof.

Does anyone have an answer to my question about power consumption with the g620 + radeon vs a6 3650 with IGP?

 

[saikatbiswas82]

Guys,

I'm trying to settle for this CPU + mobo combination:
Intel i3 2120 (~7k) + ASUS P8H77 M- LE (~8k).

My primary purpose ofcourse is media playback. I am not looking for gaming.
I wonder if this is too much for my requirements. But I hear in some reviews that the AMD LLano's GPU might struggle for 3d framepacked blurays.

Any thoughts? baijuxavior, you own a LLano, any feedback?

I am also planning to setup my HTPC.
Considering your preferences, I am leaving the graphics card issue behind.

Let's talk about the mobo that you've selected.
While reading through various motherboard audio specification (I was looking for these articles online to select my motherboard as well ), I found terms called "Input SNR/Output SNR". Now here is a comparison chart for the same and an article on "How-On-Board-Audio-Works". In this link it is written, that if you want to work with audio professionally (like audio mixing) you need atleast 95db output.

Now, I've found few Asus mobo which are having onboard audio with 110db output SNR. Here it goes:
- Asus P9X79 PRO (this mobo is only useful for 3rd gen intel processors)
- Asus P8Z77 WS
- Asus P8Z77-V DELUXE

But these motherboards are way too expensive.

BTW... @gazal, thanks to your post, I started googling and learned so many things regarding audio codecs .

Now my question to audio experts - If I have an A/V receiver, do I need to care about the output SNR (in case I don't have a dedicated sound card)?

 

[baijuxavior]

If you mainly use the htpc for music listening, then use a good sound card or a dac. Critical listeners won't use onboard sound anyway. The hdmi or optical out is enough for movie playback.

 

[reignofchaos]

Sorry to put the word gaming out there, I take it back. All I meant is I'm trying to build a system that is reasonably future proof.

Does anyone have an answer to my question about power consumption with the g620 + radeon vs a6 3650 with IGP?

The g620 eats roughly 35W of power even though intel rates it at 65W. Here's a link

Intel Pentium G850, Pentium G840 and Pentium G620 Review. Page 8 - X-bit labs

The radeon 6570 ddr3 has a peak power usage of 43W. So its rougly 35+43 = 77W on full load. In normal usage it will be far lower. The A6-3650 is rated at 100W by AMD on full load. However in normal usage, it won't exceed 75-80W.

So draw your conclusions.

 

[gazal]

saikatbiswas82, I second baijuxavior. If you have a good AV receiver/amp with digital input, why invest in an audio card, unless ofcourse you are that particular about D-A quality. And I suppose the sound card will have to be quite expensive to beat an AV receiver's DAC.

reignofchaos, the G620 + radeon 6570 makes sense. Low power, PQ of the radeon 6570 is seemingly one of the best out there, can bitstream hd audio, makings of a budget HTPC indeed. Any higher is probably just overkill.

Now, I probably am going to run XBMC Live or OpenELEC on this. And the android XBMC remote app to control it. But for running a windows 7 OS from my old HDD on it, I would need a keyboard and mouse. What do you guys use? Suggestions please.

 

[reignofchaos]

No hd bitstreaming in the linux strains of XBMC. Only windows has bitstreaming support. This is afaik. Not sure if it changed.

 

[haisaikat]

You can have a look at my dream HTPC (I am planning to get this by coming 2-3 months)

Intel Core i7-2700K Processor (All the speed I ever wanted)
Asus SABERTOOTH Z77 Motherboard (everything I need/all in one mobo and this one has IVY Bridge processor support as well - one more thing, this mobo can absorb some heat. So I don't need Coolermaster V10 for cooling off RAMs)
Asus nVIDIA SLI GeForce GTX 570 DirectCu II Graphics Card (1.28GB) (24 bit multichannel LPCM/lossless audio -TruHD output over video HDMI 1.4a output)
Corsair Vengeance 8 GB RAM x 2 (if I want to upgrade my pc to 32gigs, I need to have one of these)
LG BH10LS38.AUAU 10x Internal BD-RW (I don't want external blu ray player)
Crucial CT128M4SSD2 128GB M4 SSD (cheap and best)
Coolermaster V8 Cooler RR-UV8-XBU1-GP Fan (needed for overclocking cpus - better over other competetors)
WD Caviar Green 1 TB HDD
Cooler Master CM 690 II Advanced Mid Tower Cabinet

Regarding my preference, I always liked Intel over AMD and NVidia over ATI Radeon (personal choice).

Regarding graphics card, i did some research online and found that there is 24 bit lossless multichannel audio support (without affecting the graphics) in NVidia GTX 570 series onwards.


----------------------------------------------------------
EDIT - Just wanted to add price for the above configuration
----------------------------------------------------------
Intel Core i7-2700K Processor - 20000 (approx)
Asus SABERTOOTH Z77 Motherboard 19500 (approx)
Asus nVIDIA SLI GeForce GTX 570 DirectCu II Graphics Card (1.28GB) - 24000 (approx)
Corsair Vengeance 8 GB RAM x 2 - 3500 - 4000 (each approx)
LG BH10LS38.AUAU 10x Internal BD-RW - 5800 (approx)
Crucial CT128M4SSD2 128GB M4 SSD - 7500 (approx)
Coolermaster V8 Cooler RR-UV8-XBU1-GP Fan - 5200 (approx)
WD Caviar Green 1 TB HDD - 5400 (approx)
Cooler Master CM 690 II Advanced Mid Tower Cabinet - 5900 (approx)

Friends, please correct me if I am wrong.

-Saikat

Hi SaikatBiswas82, you spent just a little over 1 lakh for a gaming PC, would it not have been economical to purchase a PS3 3D for around 20K and keeping the rest for buying game discs (even there is yearly rental from moviemart for PS3 games). I have not considered the price of your softwares in your gaming PC but if you are not going to buy original games, you can do similar in PS3 as well.

 

[saikatbiswas82]

Hi SaikatBiswas82, you spent just a little over 1 lakh for a gaming PC, would it not have been economical to purchase a PS3 3D for around 20K and keeping the rest for buying game discs (even there is yearly rental from moviemart for PS3 games). I have not considered the price of your softwares in your gaming PC but if you are not going to buy original games, you can do similar in PS3 as well.

@saikat... Thanks a lot for your suggestion. It's really a valuable one.
But, I always liked PC over any dedicated gaming consoles. That's why I never bought any. This is a personal taste altogather.

Anyway.... As budget is concerned... I am planning to build this PC step by step.

Lately I found that I won't be needing some of the high end stuffs as they are not VFM (IMO)... Like, I am planning to downgrade to i7 2600K or maybe i5 2500K, asus P8Z77 V Pro instead of sabertooth... etc.

-Saikat

 

[sagarmilind]

Sorry to be off topic, but one question to 'Gazal' , how did you get the Pioneer speaker system in Kerala, which is shown in your signature.

All the best on your HTPC endeavour.

 

[baijuxavior]

I use ordinary mouse and keyboard form logitech and that too only if I have something to do with the pc. After the initial setup is over, the keyboard and mouse is rarely used. You can try wireless keyboard+mouse combo like lenovo mini keyboard or WCI Quality Mini Handheld Wireless Presenter Keyboard With Mouse And IR Re-JFW | eBay

 

[haisaikat]

Also look at these variants as well 2.4GHz Wireless Mini Keyboard with Touchpad-NXP | eBay it is backlit for dark room operations, remote size with built in touchpad, if you have a habbit of thumbing on your qwerty smartphone you will love it. recharges over USB

 

[sam9s]

Hi SaikatBiswas82, you spent just a little over 1 lakh for a gaming PC, would it not have been economical to purchase a PS3 3D for around 20K and keeping the rest for buying game discs (even there is yearly rental from moviemart for PS3 games). I have not considered the price of your softwares in your gaming PC but if you are not going to buy original games, you can do similar in PS3 as well.

For a true PC gamer, consoles are like, sorry to say pathetic ....... the level of graphic detail and the combination of Keyboard mouse you get form PC, is miles milessss ahead of any console on the planet when is comes to true satisfaction for a gamer.

I also have a 2600K coupled with 2xHD5850 crossfire. connected with my 47" 1080p LCD and a 24" DELL 1080p IPS Display and I swear on Battlefield 3 and COD MW II, the details you enjoy.... with the freedom and precision of KB. Mouse combi simple cannot be matched with a console. Specially on the hardest setting of any game. Games which do require a gamepad I have connected an xbox360 controller on my computer as well. and believe me the scenic beauti that NFS RUN offers when connected to my 47" LCD is something a console guy can never enjoy ........ truly satisfying.

 

[gazal]

has anyone here tried this flirc.tv - Your TV - PC Remote Companion ?