Yet Another HTPC-advice Thread!

[neoonwheels]

^^ Whats the budget??? Anyway I will go with option 3, considering 3D playback, GPU will be advisable. If possible get Asus/Gigabyte instead of MSI.

Budget is like 20 +- 2K. I will have to buy all the parts, so should be accommodated in that budget.

Is Nvidia 710 good enough to output FullHD + 3D + passthough audio to AVR over HDMI?

By pass-through, it should pass through all the audio not just DTS HD MA and Dolby True HD but normal DTS and Dolby too.

 

[sam9s]

Budget is like 20 +- 2K. I will have to buy all the parts, so should be accommodated in that budget.

Is Nvidia 710 good enough to output FullHD + 3D + passthough audio to AVR over HDMI?

By pass-through, it should pass through all the audio not just DTS HD MA and Dolby True HD but normal DTS and Dolby too.

Yes 710 will bitstream all HD audio, I however would recomend GTX 750, price will be negligibly higher but much better, with feature set E and 4K decoading ...

 

[TheSeeker]

Yes 710 will bitstream all HD audio, I however would recomend GTX 750, price will be negligibly higher but much better, with feature set E and 4K decoading ...

how will be an MSI GTX580 Lightning III for these purposes? capable?

 

[sam9s]

how will be an MSI GTX580 Lightning III for these purposes? capable?

won't recommend, outdated, and old card, also based on GF110, the bitstreaming info is a bit dicey on this, though it does support 6 channel LPCM.
Plus old feature set C, no 4K and all.

Why would you not go for GT710 or GTX750, since there would hardly be any difference between the price.

 

[saikatbiswas82]

Budget is like 20 +- 2K. I will have to buy all the parts, so should be accommodated in that budget.

Is Nvidia 710 good enough to output FullHD + 3D + passthough audio to AVR over HDMI?

By pass-through, it should pass through all the audio not just DTS HD MA and Dolby True HD but normal DTS and Dolby too.

If GT 610 can do everything you need, I believe GT 710 can do the same as well.

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

 

[tuff]

Budget is like 20 +- 2K. I will have to buy all the parts, so should be accommodated in that budget.

Is Nvidia 710 good enough to output FullHD + 3D + passthough audio to AVR over HDMI?

By pass-through, it should pass through all the audio not just DTS HD MA and Dolby True HD but normal DTS and Dolby too.

I got a Zotac gtx 960 for 17k about 3 months back from a local shop in thane.

 

[neoonwheels]

Sam, looking at the budget, I have decided to go ahead with following:

1. AMD 5350 - 25w TDP
2. Asus AM1M-E motherboard
3. Corsair 4 GB RAM
4. Samsung Evo 750 120GB SSD
5. Circle Lil cabinet with SMPS (Since the setup wont consume much energy)
6. WD 1TB USB3 HDD (Already have 1)
7. Wireless KnM

Hopefully this wont stutter while playing full HD movies. Friend is building up a NAS using above config, so will see if the MB can pass-through HD audio. If it does not, then would go for NVidia GT710 at 3k.

Thanks
Neo

 

[sam9s]

Full HD playback will give you no issues, same cannot be said with full confidence for AMD hardware. Look I will be frank, I have less idea about AMD chipsets than Intel, the APU 5350 has R3 graphics, which technically supports passthrough, but no idea about AM1M-E. Very frankly I would never trust AMD hardware on HD audio passthrough and quality videoplay back, specially 3D, always driver issues. With windows might not be problem, but why limit my self.

But none the less if it does give you problems, you can always get a dedicated GPU like GT710. Also I gave a quick look at the Mobo specs, looks like it only offers 4 lanes of PCI-Express 2.0. (AM1 chipset). This, means the discreet GPU will not be running at its full bandwidth. Even though it does have a physical x16 slot. Not sure if this concerns you if you will be using it only for HD passthrough purpose and watching 1080p videos. Should'nt be a problem I guess. (But for me why would I pay for a hardware, even though its cheap, and underutilize it or not utilize it to its full potential ... )

 

[neoonwheels]

Full HD playback will give you no issues, same cannot be said with full confidence for AMD hardware. Look I will be frank, I have less idea about AMD chipsets than Intel, the APU 5350 has R3 graphics, which technically supports passthrough, but no idea about AM1M-E. Very frankly I would never trust AMD hardware on HD audio passthrough and quality videoplay back, specially 3D, always driver issues. With windows might not be problem, but why limit my self.

But none the less if it does give you problems, you can always get a dedicated GPU like GT710. Also I gave a quick look at the Mobo specs, looks like it only offers 4 lanes of PCI-Express 2.0. (AM1 chipset). This, means the discreet GPU will not be running at its full bandwidth. Even though it does have a physical x16 slot. Not sure if this concerns you if you will be using it only for HD passthrough purpose and watching 1080p videos. Should'nt be a problem I guess. (But for me why would I pay for a hardware, even though its cheap, and underutilize it or not utilize it to its full potential ... )

Thanks a lot man. I guess, either I will have to search for AM1 board with PCIe 2.0 full support or else shift to Intel Pentium G3250 + Asus H81M-A board.

 

[TheSeeker]

won't recommend, outdated, and old card, also based on GF110, the bitstreaming info is a bit dicey on this, though it does support 6 channel LPCM.
Plus old feature set C, no 4K and all.

Why would you not go for GT710 or GTX750, since there would hardly be any difference between the price.

thanks. i already have a 750ti in my HTPC. this i asked about because i have it in my currently being unused main PC & to arrive at some price to sell it.

 

[neoonwheels]

Paid a visit to a friend today to see how the AMD 5150 performs as far as HTPC needs are concerned. One update is, my wifey told me that she gets hedache whenever watches a 3D movie, so now 3D is out of my requirements.

Boy O boy, was I impressed !!! He has assembled a budget HTPC with AMD 5150, Asus AM1M-E motherboard, 4GB RAM, Circle Lil cabinet with SMPS. Overall its like a 12K system which performed brilliantly.

I had taken my AVR just to make sure that the APU+MB can pass through HD audio to my AVR. We used Kodi and played Batman Dark Knight and it was awesome. It was some 5 GB rip with DTS stream and the system passed on DTS to my AVR without any issues. Also there was not even a single instance of any kind of stutter. It was a FullHD print and it played brilliantly.

Since I have sold off my Asus Media player and Android box, I made up my mind and ordered parts from his HW dealer and in next an hour, we assembled my first HTPC :clapping:

I will carry on with installations and would then post pics of the setup. Very excited to finally join the HTPC club :yahoo:

 

[sam9s]

^^ Congratts, enjoy the experience, how ever just an FYI , just for around 2K more, you could have gone for Intel NUC, which would have perfromed as good as the above ifnot better, but in a much much small and elegant form factor ....

My bedroom HTPC is the same ...

 

[sam9s]

I had taken my AVR just to make sure that the APU+MB can pass through HD audio to my AVR. We used Kodi and played Batman Dark Knight and it was awesome. It was some 5 GB rip with DTS stream and the system passed on DTS to my AVR without any issues. :

DTS Stream is not HD Audio, please re perform the test if possible with HD Audio (DTS MA and DD THD) if that is of any concern, if DTS/DD is only what you want then you are good to go.

 

[sam9s]

^^ Congratts, enjoy the experience, how ever just an FYI , just for around 2K more, you could have gone for Intel NUC, which would have perfromed as good as the above ifnot better, but in a much much small and elegant form factor ....

My bedroom HTPC is the same ...

Infact flipkart has it for even cheaper, adding HDD and RAM would land this piece to around same price 12K ...

 

[Rockfella]

These days formatting is simple. I do it every 1/2 months anyway. Imaging will just install old apps (if we image it with third party apps). . With a "fresh" install new updates softwares can be installed. It is a PITA sometimes but worth it.

venkat, you cannot expect to reformat your C drive every 6 months and then keep reinstalling teh OS and JUST the software you need ...... that is not a viable solution. Imaging is what I would suggest. Install everything, including your applications and drivers and then create an Image (google nortan ghost). When your system is all bogged and goes ultra slow with all the garbage and you feel the need to reformat, just deploy the image you have created and that would bring back the OS with all the drivers and all the necessary application you installed in the beginning ......

For more technical people, my advice, use VM for your day to day activities and keep snapshot of the original image. When things go haywire with your OS just revert to the original snapshot.

 

[regeHA]

Sorry my friend, that does not work. Incognito just hides your browsing history, but it does not stop external IPs from messing with your system. And CCleaner has limited capabilities. It leaves a lot of irrelevant entries in your Registry as well as a lot of dead files in your C drive. Nothing like reformatting your C drives once in six months and reinstalling JUST the software you need. My laptop today takes upto 90 seconds to boot. It used to boot in 30 seconds or less before. When I clean some stuff, the boot time and application load time improves.

Cheers

venkat, you cannot expect to reformat your C drive every 6 months and then keep reinstalling teh OS and JUST the software you need ...... that is not a viable solution. Imaging is what I would suggest. Install everything, including your applications and drivers and then create an Image (google nortan ghost). When your system is all bogged and goes ultra slow with all the garbage and you feel the need to reformat, just deploy the image you have created and that would bring back the OS with all the drivers and all the necessary application you installed in the beginning ......

For more technical people, my advice, use VM for your day to day activities and keep snapshot of the original image. When things go haywire with your OS just revert to the original snapshot.

Move the OS to an SSD. I've done that over a year ago and it doesn't really slow down or decrease in response time with age. Boot time is still like 6-8 secs.

Takes me back to the time I was using the Ghost. Good s/w, never failed once. OTOH the first time I tried Acronis it was a disaster.

But I think using an image is a moot point... Windows 10 takes like 15 mins to install. Throw in Ninite and you are ready in 20-25 mins. More importantly PCs are not like days of old where everything was stored in them... these days everything is on the local network/NAS or in the cloud. I do however backup settings/config like PotPlayer... just import them and saves you the trouble of having to set up everything.

These days formatting is simple. I do it every 1/2 months anyway. Imaging will just install old apps (if we image it with third party apps). . With a "fresh" install new updates softwares can be installed. It is a PITA sometimes but worth it.

Highly recommend https://ninite.com/. Its gets you out of the gate with most of the basic/daily use s/w.

 

[neoonwheels]

DTS Stream is not HD Audio, please re perform the test if possible with HD Audio (DTS MA and DD THD) if that is of any concern, if DTS/DD is only what you want then you are good to go.

It shows all DTS and Dolby streams (HD and HD MA, True HD etc) :yahoo:

 

[neoonwheels]

Infact flipkart has it for even cheaper, adding HDD and RAM would land this piece to around same price 12K ...

Built HTPC coz I want to have upgrade path. Modular approach always pays off. Was stuck with Android box for last 2 years without any upgrade path. Did not want to repeat same mistake again.

Circle Lil cabinet is HTPC chassis and hardly takes any place. It rather looks good as well !!!

 

[Rockfella]

On my SSD and USB3 desktop windows takes less than 15 mins :lol: I prefer the old school way.

Move the OS to an SSD. I've done that over a year ago and it doesn't really slow down or decrease in response time with age. Boot time is still like 6-8 secs.

Takes me back to the time I was using the Ghost. Good s/w, never failed once. OTOH the first time I tried Acronis it was a disaster.

But I think using an image is a moot point... Windows 10 takes like 15 mins to install. Throw in Ninite and you are ready in 20-25 mins. More importantly PCs are not like days of old where everything was stored in them... these days everything is on the local network/NAS or in the cloud. I do however backup settings/config like PotPlayer... just import them and saves you the trouble of having to set up everything.

Highly recommend https://ninite.com/. Its gets you out of the gate with most of the basic/daily use s/w.

 

[Naturelover]

These days formatting is simple. I do it every 1/2 months anyway. Imaging will just install old apps (if we image it with third party apps). . With a "fresh" install new updates softwares can be installed. It is a PITA sometimes but worth it.

Can you elaborate on that please? (In layman language )