New media center PC - budget build sufficient?

[mcschmidt_00]

Hello - I've been digging around the site and love what I see. I'm wondering if you might give a bit of advice on a specific need I have.

My wife and I are considering giving ditching cable TV in favor of a more streaming/dvd based approach to watching TV. I'm thinking this might be a perfect opportunity to build my first PC and am wondering whether you all think the 'budget build' would be sufficient for my needs.

What I'm thinking of is a smallish profile PC that sits next to the TV and acts as our media center. Looking at the current "budget build", 2gb ram and 320gb HD space seem about right. I may or may not store a lot of media on it so initially 320gb would be fine. And I can't image I'd need much more ram than 2gb simply to stream video, though I might just go with 4gb just to be safe.

What I'm wondering about is how high-powered a video card would you suggest? To test the quality of streaming video on our TV I purchased this PC->TV converter:

http://sewelldirect.com/pc-to-tv.asp

It seemed to work pretty well just using my Thinkpad T61 work laptop. The image wasn't outstanding, but we don't have high-def yet so we're used to crappy picture quality :) Do you think the cheaper 8500GT will work well enough?

Also, is there a lower profile case that you think might work with these components? As you can imagine, case size and noise are key issues in helping to integrate this into a living room environment.

Btw, I'm thinking of loading Ubuntu as the OS so any hardware compatibility issues you can think of?

Thanks in advance.

Michael

[chunkylover53]

Wow, lots of questions there. I know you mentioned the budget build, but it would also help to know what the high end of your budget is.

First, on the video card. I have my PC set up next to my TV (55” 1080p DLP), and I have an EVGA 512-P2-N757-TR GeForce 8600 GT 512MB video card which is roughly $60 after rebate. I think it looks great, even at 720p resolution. Now, I haven’t tried myself, but theoretically you shouldn’t need a graphics card with the recommended motherboard GA-MA78GM-S2HP. If you are not using a full 1080 TV as it is, then the onboard graphics should work for you. That board has VGA, DVI & HDMI outputs, and should be able to deliver up to 1080i. Plus, if you aren’t happy after using the onboard graphics, you can always add a new GPU card later.

I’m sure there are lower profile cases and you might get some recos from the rest of the group, but as you look keep in mind it’s in the living room. I would consider putting a little more investment in the case, even if it’s just due to aesthetics. Also keep in mind that cheaper many times results in louder. Finally, think long and hard before you buy an HTPC specific case such as http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811163055. Not a lot of room inside the case to maneuver for your first build, and the extra room helps. :D

I think the big debate will be over your Operating system. Vista Home Premium comes with Windows Media Center, and I recommend it wholeheartedly. I think it should work OK with 2GB of memory. I’m sure there will be other recommendations, but either way be sure you purchase an OEM or system builder’s copy of Windows.

Hopefully that gets you started. Happy Holidays!

[Perhaps]

I can't offer much. but I'll say this.
If you're thinking of running a media center I'd splurge on a beefy power supply.
Partially to give you some room to work with if you decide on multiple vid cards down the road.
Partially for headroom. Akin to audio amplification, it's better to have more and not need it then
need it and not have it. A 1000 watt power supply won't draw that much unless you are using that much.
So no worry about the power bill.

I'll step aside for the more qualified people here.

[mcschmidt_00]

Hi and happy new year.

Thanks for the responses. Sorry if it was a bit of a brain dump but I appreciate you taking the time to answer. I've been dissecting your advice and digging in a bit more deeply over the past week and think I have shopping list. Most of it is still based off of the 'Budget build' except for the case and a couple of other things I couldn't find. See below for the full list.

Based on your comments I'll start out with only the built-in video card and see how that looks. I'm also taking your advice on the Vista Home Premium. Budget is a concern and I'd hoped to be somewhere within the $400 range so I was thinking I'd go with Linux. However, I've read some good things about Vista media center and also that it works pretty seamlessly with the Hauppauge tuner package. So rather than try to mess with Linux (which I have no experience with), I'll spend a few bucks on Vista and hopefully save myself some grief.

As far as the case goes I've decided not to go with a HTPC case. Upon reflection I'm probably more worried about noise than looks, but not so worried to spend $300 on a case. I was instead thinking of the Antec Sonata III (listed below). It claims to be fairly quiet and I'm wondering if anyone has any thoughts on it. And also, regarding noise, do you think something like this is required:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835185046

I read a thread where someone was raving about it. Not sure what it does or even if I goes with my setup.

Again I appreciate your help. When I buy I want to make sure you guys get credit. I'm assuming you've got an affiliate code for Newegg. Can you tell me how I make sure that gets used?


Current shopping list:
=====================

Case/PSU:
========
Antec Sonata III 500 Black 0.8mm cold rolled steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case 500W Power Supply
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811129024

Motherboard:
================
GIGABYTE GA-MA78GM-S2HP AM2+/AM2 AMD 780G HDMI Micro ATX AMD Motherboard
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128360

CPU:
========
AMD Athlon 64 X2 5000 Brisbane 2.6GHz 2 x 512KB L2 Cache Socket AM2 65W Dual-Core Processor
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103211

RAM (x2 = 4GB):
==============
A-DATA 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820211066

Hard Drive(s):
================
Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD5000AAKS 500GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136073

Optical Drive(s):
================
SAMSUNG Black 22X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 16X DVD+R DL 22X DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 12X DVD-RAM 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 32X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM 2MB Cache SATA 22X DVD±R DVD Burner with LightScribe
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827151173

TV tuner:
========
Hauppauge WinTV-HVR-1600 ATSC/ClearQAM/NTSC TV Tuner PCI w/Remote 1178 PCI Interface
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16815116007

Operating System:
================
Vista Home Premium
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16832116488

AntiStatic strap:
================
BELKIN F8E093 Anti-Static Wrist Strap
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16899888207

Thermal compound:
================
Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Compound
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835100007

Graphics/Sound card:
===================
onboard only for now.

[chunkylover53]

As far as the case goes I've decided not to go with a HTPC case. Upon reflection I'm probably more worried about noise than looks, but not so worried to spend $300 on a case. I was instead thinking of the Antec Sonata III (listed below). It claims to be fairly quiet and I'm wondering if anyone has any thoughts on it.

I have this case, and it's been great. It's "understated" too, without a bunch of lights, so we don't mind it being in the family room.


And also, regarding noise, do you think something like this is required:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835185046 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835185046)

I read a thread where someone was raving about it. Not sure what it does or even if I goes with my setup.

Well, the 80mm fan that comes with it won't fit in the Sonata III, but I don't think you need more that the 1 fan (120mm) that comes with the case anyway. As for a heatsink fan... that's a tough one. I think you could probably do without it and go with the stock CPU fan (it shouldn't be that loud), but that's just my POV. But for the record, I have this in my build http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835118020, and it's whisper quiet.


Again I appreciate your help. When I buy I want to make sure you guys get credit. I'm assuming you've got an affiliate code for Newegg. Can you tell me how I make sure that gets used?

I don't think so. To be honest, I never noticed if even Rob has one.

[mcschmidt_00]

Thanks again for the quick reply chunkylover.

A quick question about RAM and I should be set.

I was thinking of sticking an extra 2gb in the system and realized that I'm buying 4 x 1gb sticks which will fill up all of the slots. So if I wanted to change to 2gb sticks, could I use this instead?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820211282

Looking through the specs the only difference I see is the voltage. 2.0 - 2.1 vs 1.8. Will this cause problems?

If not I found this on Crucial:

http://www.crucial.com/store/partspecs.aspx?IMODULE=CT25664AA800

All of the specs seem to line up here.

Thanks again.

[RickyTick]

You would be better to use 2 sticks instead of 4. Check the ram and see what the required voltage is, and make any adjustments in the BIOS.