mera HTPC

[avink]

I am using XT pro and an old desktop(download rig) so far and have decided to put together a HTPC. I will be visiting US next week and will be ordering components from amazon and carry them back. my net-research tells me that in US, these components are cheaper by 10% - 40% range.

This is what I have finalized. Some of it may be an overkill for pure HTPC(XBMC) needs but i want to future proof it and don't mind spending few extra bucks . The total is around $718: Amazon.com: Avinash Kotwal: mera HTPC

Thoughts/Feedback?

 

[manniraj]

I am using XT pro and an old desktop(download rig) so far and have decided to put together a HTPC. I will be visiting US next week and will be ordering components from amazon and carry them back. my net-research tells me that in US, these components are cheaper by 10% - 40% range.

This is what I have finalized. Some of it may be an overkill for pure HTPC(XBMC) needs but i want to future proof it and don't mind spending few extra bucks . The total is around $718: Amazon.com: Avinash Kotwal: mera HTPC

Thoughts/Feedback?

Configuration is good and my only suggestion would be not to carry the Silverstone case. I have the same case brought for 6.5k in July 2011, its pretty heavy and at a price of $99 I think another 1k to 1.5k you should be able to get it in India. Instead of this heavy item you can get something else at the same cost which benefits you with the price as well as the carry in weight. Think over it.

 

[baijuxavior]

Add a blu-ray writer to the list. I bought LG writer from amazon and imported through ishopinternational. Total price less than 5.4K. So you will be able to get it at still lower price. The LG model was listed for 54USD a few days back, but now it is 69USD, I think.

 

[avink]

Thank you guys for good suggestions..this is exactly the feedback i was looking forward to

Configuration is good and my only suggestion would be not to carry the Silverstone case. I have the same case brought for 6.5k in July 2011, its pretty heavy and at a price of $99 I think another 1k to 1.5k you should be able to get it in India. Instead of this heavy item you can get something else at the same cost which benefits you with the price as well as the carry in weight. Think over it.

Good suggestion. I will buy it in India then.

Add a blu-ray writer to the list. I bought LG writer from amazon and imported through ishopinternational. Total price less than 5.4K. So you will be able to get it at still lower price. The LG model was listed for 54USD a few days back, but now it is 69USD, I think.

Tnx for the suggestion. I am looking at picking "LG Electronics 14x SATA Blu-ray Internal Rewriter without Software, Black (WH14NS40)"

 

[akd]

just a friendly suggestion - in your current PC run a 1080p film or run a BD or play some music or transfer a 10-15GB data and check the memory,CPU usage. This will definitely convince you what actually you need

To me HTPC is a low grade PC which only serves to play music and run films (files,ISOs and BDs), one need larger physical memory and processing power for calculations (flops) in scientific computations and video encoding

 

[sam9s]

Why would you need a NAS Grade HDD, WD Green is good enough, and 16 GB RAM ..... man are you building a VM Server ... ..... I agree that you dont mind spending some extra bucks, but throwing cash on something that is total irrelevant to the performance of a PC is something that puzzles me.

Lower RAM to 4, an HTPC can run with it full glory even with 1GB RAM. Infact lowering proc will also make no difference......Direct your money to a dedicated GPU, a nice case, quality wireless HTPC keyboard and accessories that actually make an HTPC worth ......

Regards
Sammy

 

[baijuxavior]

It is the same drive I have. The drive is very good and is silent too.

 

[avink]

Why would you need a NAS Grade HDD, WD Green is good enough

Since i will also be using it as always-on download rig.. i thought NAS drive was better suited for continuous I/O operations as compared to Greens. What do you think ?

Lower RAM to 4, an HTPC can run with it full glory even with 1GB RAM. Infact lowering proc will also make no difference......Direct your money to a dedicated GPU, a nice case, quality wireless HTPC keyboard and accessories that actually make an HTPC worth ......

Regards
Sammy

Good question I have 8gigs on my i5 laptop and occasionally i hook it up with my AVR using XBMC and have seen slight delays/hangs sometime. ..no big deal and i knwo its a laptop but that's what prompted me to go higher on RAM. I want absolutely no delay/ super smooth experience + I am looking at it as always-on kind of a system..don't want to limit my self. and sometimes finding matching RAMs later is an issue. Having said that, your comment has made me ponder over bringing it down to 8gigs ..but nothing less . May be I should rename it to power HTPC

Thoughts ?

 

[manniraj]

Your video playback should depend on the GPU capability. Hence invest in a very good GPU like GT440 or any of the ATI 6xxx series for jitterless playback. As sam pointed out you do not need 16gb of RAM I am running a 40gb movie with 4gb RAM with the GT440 GPU. It runs flawlessly no issues at all. I even ran this movie over 2gb RAM and still I did not had any issues.

Thanks

 

[akd]

slightly off the topic, is it not rationale to spend on originals when we are capable of buying instead of rely on atrocious downloads? spend half the amount and rest invest in original BDs which will be at least 20 in that money, 20 BDs will make you prouder than a download rig

I find most of the suggestions given here quite realistic and useful

 

[sam9s]

Since i will also be using it as always-on download rig.. i thought NAS drive was better suited for continuous I/O operations as compared to Greens. What do you think ?

Well then, how about a dedicated storage NAS kind of unit running 24x7 for your downloads and for storing all your movies and music as well. This kind of unit can automate your downloads as well with torrents, NZBs and direct downloads. Use your HTPC to stream all content from there. Infact use your mobile, TAB as well to stream from the same, not only from LAN but from Internet as well...... does that sound good ...
(Suggestion by my personal experience - I have a same kind of setup)
Keep your HTPC only when you actually want to view movies or listen to some songs. Instead of spending a huge amount on one PC, divide it in to two.

Good question I have 8gigs on my i5 laptop and occasionally i hook it up with my AVR using XBMC and have seen slight delays/hangs sometime. ..no big deal and i knwo its a laptop but that's what prompted me to go higher on RAM. I want absolutely no delay/ super smooth experience + I am looking at it as always-on kind of a system..don't want to limit my self. and sometimes finding matching RAMs later is an issue. Having said that, your comment has made me ponder over bringing it down to 8gigs ..but nothing less . May be I should rename it to power HTPC

Thoughts ?

Nope something else is wrong then ..... Most of us including; as mentioned by manniraj are running our HTPCs with 4 gigs of RAM. I infact am running with 2 and I run full BD ISO 45GB absolutely flawlessly. Delays, Hangs, slow performance not always mean less ram and increasing it does not necessarily mean, improved performance. There are loads of other factors that control the overall performance of a PC.

If you want super smooth performance, as far as HTPC goes, get a dedicated GPU, you already have an SSD, install a light OS, install only XBMC and few other mandatory applications and thats it. With 4 GB RAM this is gonna breeze as smooth as you would hope for.

As far as always on goes, consider my above suggestion .........

Regards
Sammy

 

[avink]

Hmmm.... you guys have got me all confused..for good

I have decided to scale down :
- the RAM to 8gigs.
- Wont be saving much by switching to green drive so I will let it be.
- Other thing i am looking at is going with AMD A6-5400K instead of A8-5800 ???

 

[ranjeetrain]

Put your money into a dedicated NAS. In a long run it will help you in a number of ways. After switching to a NAS for storage, I find it hard to understand how I lived without one for so long.

 

[sam9s]

- the RAM to 8gigs.
- Wont be saving much by switching to green drive so I will let it be.
- Other thing i am looking at is going with AMD A6-5400K instead of A8-5800 ???

- I hope you do realize that you would be wasting most of your RAM gigs and money as well ....... but thats your take.
- If there is not much of a difference, then RED suits I guess.
- You can even go further low and still would land up with a pretty decent HTPC ...... A6-5400K is good enough though. As a comparison I run my HTPC on an intel Core2Duo 6200 1.8 Ghz with 2 GB RAM and there is nothing, nothing anyone can point out that makes my HTPC any way less then any current gen hardware HTPC. So you can see. Yes I do have a decent gpu GT440.
(My Desktop is an all together different story though .... )

Put your money into a dedicated NAS. In a long run it will help you in a number of ways. After switching to a NAS for storage, I find it hard to understand how I lived without one for so long.

I second that opinion, saving on a high end PC for an HTPC and investing on a dedicated NAS is much better and highly advisable .....(specially if you have good movie collection, is fond of downloading, plan to run it 24x7 and feel the need to access your media and files from all across the city/country/world)

 

[just4kix]

slightly off the topic, is it not rationale to spend on originals when we are capable of buying instead of rely on atrocious downloads? spend half the amount and rest invest in original BDs which will be at least 20 in that money, 20 BDs will make you prouder than a download rig

I find most of the suggestions given here quite realistic and useful

+1. I concur. The whole rig is $650. Add 7% Sales Tax. Then there is cost of HTPC cabinet, cables, etc. taking the total to INR 40,000.

Buy a Panasonic DMP-BDT220 for $79 + 7% ST. Make it regionfree, if required. Start building a BD collection by importing from Amazon.com. No need to buy just released BDs that are $25+. Buy the BD 6 months after realease (priced $18 or below). Each BD will not cost more than $15 on an average. From the money saved, you will be able to buy at least 40 BD titles.

I am speaking from experience. I have collected 167 BD movies (excluding documentaries) and my average cost is Rs. 785.22 per movie (including shipping and customs duty). Advantages of original BDs (just to name a few):

• full 1080p video; no compression; pristine quality; mkv quality will depend upon the bitrate
• true HD sound
• extras, commentaries, deleted stuff, interviews
• BD-Live (if that interests someone)
• No downloading and waiting patiently till the download completes; high quality/size mkvs will take days to download
• No internet bandwidth requirement, no 24x7 power usage by the downloading equipment
• Conforming to anti-piracy

 

[sam9s]

slightly off the topic, is it not rationale to spend on originals when we are capable of buying instead of rely on atrocious downloads? spend half the amount and rest invest in original BDs which will be at least 20 in that money, 20 BDs will make you prouder than a download rig

I find most of the suggestions given here quite realistic and useful

Its not just about originals or pirates, availability and ease of accessibility for me also plays a big issue, say for example I want to see a movie The Day The Clown Cried, I dont find anywhere I can purchase/Rent this movie, but a quick torrent search provides me the link to download .....

 

[sam9s]

Advantages of original BDs (just to name a few):

• full 1080p video; no compression; pristine quality; mkv quality will depend upon the bitrate
• true HD sound
• extras, commentaries, deleted stuff, interviews
• BD-Live (if that interests someone)
• No downloading and waiting patiently till the download completes; high quality/size mkvs will take days to download
• No internet bandwidth requirement, no 24x7 power usage by the downloading equipment
• Conforming to anti-piracy

• on a 42-47" LED, a 5,6 GB high bitrate BD rip MKV is almost as good as original Bluray

• You do get HD audio rips as well, though rare, as you really need a pretty high quality audio setup to actually fully take advantage of DTS MA or DD THD or make out the difference. In most of the occasions DD or DTS is good enough

• Not much interested in exrtas, though you get everything on You tube
• days to download ..!!! My meek 4mbps connection, I can download a 5GB movie in 3-4 Hours ... so its like 2 movies every night!!!

• Internet bandwidth is not as expensive now a days as it used to be. power usage, my NAS takes 25-30W at full load, most of the time its hibernated where its like 3-7 W

• Not justifying Piracy .... but the points are easily confront-able.

 

[akd]

Its not just about originals or pirates, availability and ease of accessibility for me also plays a big issue, say for example I want to see a movie The Day The Clown Cried, I dont find anywhere I can purchase/Rent this movie, but a quick torrent search provides me the link to download .....

you missed my point, I've nothing against downloading, I said when one can afford and things are available downloading can't be justified!!

Do you think a person who can afford to buy a PC (just to see films and listen to music) at 40K need to download 24x7?

a few points to note
1.Downloading is an addiction, I know FMs here who are ready to spend 50K on an AVR but not 500/- for a THE HURT LOCKER BD, thats a problem in attitude.

2.You know better how many prospective film buffs are looking for "The Day The Clown Cried" or "Broken Lance" and how many for "Life of Pi" or "Argo"

3.I myself struggle to get originals, when I was a student just from my own hard fought and earned money bought every LP I wanted, its quite possible, all that matters is how you see a thing, I only know a thing - if you want something dearly you will find it eventually

I say respect originality and when you can't (afford or availability) then think of something else

just gave my opinion, pls don't take it otherway

 

[avink]

Please guys ..lets not digress..I appreciate all the feedback but lets keep the discussion on what's right and whats wrong for some other time/thread..Thanks.

 

[corElement]

I play full-hd using SVP group modified windows media player classic (For increasing the framerate as my monitor does not do hardware based frame interpoloration)on the following configuration

AMD phenom 2 x4 965 Black Edition
Gigabyte GA-890GPA-UD3H MOBO
G.SKILL RIPJAW 1600MHZ RAM 4gb ram
Cooler Master Power 500w PSU - This is not a good PSU, I just can't be bothered to upgrade it.
Sapphire Radeon HD 5850 DX11 2gb gpu - (The 5850 and 5870 are better than lower end 6 & 7 series in ability to push raw fps)
Asus Xonar STX