Home entertainment

[Livzz]

Hi guys,

I'm planning a home entertainment system for our lounge, and was thinking about the CPU and motherboard i'm going to need...

It's likely to have 2 hdtv tuners, so that we can watch one channel and record another simultaneously, so i'm thinking a dual core cpu?

 

[hermeslyre]

Definitely. I'm going to guess that the budget is pretty high, correct me if i'm wrong.

CPU-

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115003

Motherboard-

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128042

Or

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131142

Or
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813188019

Newegg is USA only, just a warning. Also The quad core C2d is dropping to $266 very soon, if you can wait that is the Chip you should get. The quad core has a 1333 fsb so to get the full use of the chip the motherboard would need to be 1333 as well.

 

[Livzz]

Thanks for those suggestions - cpu definitely looks good!
I always struggle to pick a motherboard though... i suppose it will have 1 or 2gb ram, a couple of sata II hard drives, dvd-rw, and hopefully wireless network (i'll eventually get a wired network point to the lounge though). I dont know how to pick a motherboard based on those criteria..

yeah with regards to budget, i'd like it to be comfortably capable of recording a channel and watching another simulteneously (possibly recording two channels at once?), so i suppose the goal is for a mid-high range computer, but i'm not bothered spending money on things like SLI or other unnessecary things like that...
I'm guessing (on my folks behalf) that the budget will be something like $2500 - $3000 (australian).

I dont think we'll get round to buying it till the end of the year, so yeah if prices drop thats good!

 

[MixedLogik]

Here are some ideas

AMD Athlon 64 x2 6000+ 3.0Ghz
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103773

MSI K9N SLI Platinum Socket AM2 NVIDIA nForce 570 SLI MCP ATX AMD Motherboard
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130048

Western Digital Caviar SE WD3200JS 320GB 7200 RPM 8MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136017

nMEDIAPC HTPC 500BA Black Aluminum Panel/ 0.8 mm SECC body ATX Media Center Computer Case
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811204023

CORSAIR ValueSelect 1GB (2 x 512MB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 533 (PC2 4200) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145526

COOLER MASTER eXtreme Power RP-550-PCAR ATX from factor 12V V2.01 550W Power Supply 90-132V/180-264V Nemko, TUV, cUL, CE, BSM, FCC, CCC - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817171016

ASUS Black 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-ROM SATA DVD-ROM Drive Model DVD-E616A3T
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827135143

Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Audio 7.1 Channels 24-bit 96KHz PCI Interface Sound Card
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16829102007

XFX PVT84JUDD3 GeForce 8600GT 256MB 128-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 Video Card
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150229

ViewSonic Optiquest Series Q22wb Black 22" 5ms DVI Widescreen LCD Monitor 300 cd/m2 900:1
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824116076

Creative Inspire P7800 90 Watts 7.1 Speaker - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16836116153

Microsoft CA9-00001 Black 103 Normal Keys 3 Function Keys PS/2 Standard Basic Keyboard and Mouse Included - OEM
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16823109132

That seems to be pretty good for what your looking for. I got to go to bed, but take a look at this stuff. Pretty good.
Oh you may want to add another hard drive, or 1GB of RAM.
Good Luck

 

[Livzz]

wow thanks for the extensive list,

I noticed a couple of reviews commented on the noise the fans make (i think it was the PSU and video card) which is annoying because its going to be in the lounge room, so i'd like it to be as quiet as possible...

In trying to choose a motherboard, (i'm not all clued up on this) do i need to match the chipset with that of the video card?
for example, will a motherboard with nVidia nForce 570 chipset need to be matched with a particular video card's chipset?

Also, what is "AMD Live", and intel's "Viiv"?
is it worth looking into them seeing as its a media PC?

 

[MixedLogik]

Well, AMD makes a program called AMD Cool n Quiet, That makes the CPU Fan as soundless, but as fast as possible. It levels it out. Also about the Chipset. I don't know if having an Nvidia Chipset will cause problems with ATi based card. The card I gave you is made of Nvidia's Geforce. It is a good card. Geforce 8600. It is like 7th on the market. (With Geforce 8800 being on the top with 1024mb of DDR3 RAM. Though you probably won't need a card like the one I suggested because it is a Media Center. But if you would like to look around to find a quieter on which is probably best. Go ahead. The card is probably too much for just a Media Center. Or if you want a Intel processor, change out AMD 6000+ for Core Duo 2 E6600. But AMD 6000+ is really good. As far as the fans go you know I really don't think they will be too loud because did you check to see if they were overclocking??? You really don't need all the fans on the back of the case so if you don't connect one to the motherboard, it will reduce noise but the heat may go up. (That shouldn't be a problem because you have 2 other chassies fans, and CPU fan, and Air vents.) Now for the Media Center. AMD Live and Intel ViiV aren't really the best Media Centers. But Windows Media Center is a great option because you can play Music, Videos, View Pictures, Listen to Radio, Look at Album Artwork, Browse through the internet, and much more. I use it for my collection (Over 2000+ of total media) an im really happy with it. Explore your options, research, look for upcoming deals to save money. And when you get comfortable and think it is what you want. Buy it. I hope it works out for you and looks like a cool project.

 

[maroon1]

Intel build would be better in my opinion than AMD build. I would go with E6600 over 6000+ any day

 

[Livzz]

i was going to get the E6600, but the AMD 6000+ is $100 cheaper...
does it really matter which one i get? i dont think i'd notice any difference...

 

[tlarkin]

what software you plan on using?

www.mythtv.org

check that out

 

[ThatGuy16]

i was going to get the E6600, but the AMD 6000+ is $100 cheaper...
does it really matter which one i get? i dont think i'd notice any difference...

You might not be able to tell the difference at stock speeds, but for only $10 seperating the two i would get the E6600 for its overclocking abilities

 

[Livzz]

yeah $10 wouldn't bother me, but its a $100 difference, and in my situation that dictates which video card i get..
and I'm not going to be doing any overclocking, wouldnt have the faintest clue how to, and dont want to void any warranties...

and can you explain the "mythtv" thing to me? the website doesnt seem to explain whats going on...

 

[tlarkin]

read through the FAQ

Myth TV is:

digital video recorder
allows you to rewind and pause real time tv
integrated video game emulator and web browser
and more

 

[Yeti]

If you’re only watching/recording TV there’s no reason to spend that much money on high end components (unless you really want to). If you get a capture card with hardware encoding you can get by with a very old beater PC – I was running an old 800 MHz box with 384 MB RAM using an ATI TV Wonder Elite for a while. Right now I have a Sempron 2600 with 512 MB RAM and a GeForce 6600 LE and it runs perfectly fine for TV, movies, and music. You’ll want to spend some time researching exactly what capture card(s) you want. There are several options like HD, dual vs single tuner, etc; I recommend visiting this forum http://www.htpcforums.com . So basically just buy low-to-mid range components.

For software you can try MythTV if you are somewhat familiar with Linux, but if you have Windows I would try GBPVR – it’s very simple, it has a lot of add-ons, it’s free, and since you’re using Windows you can use ATI products if you want (ATI TV cards are nearly impossible to work with in Linux, at least they were when I tried, maybe things have changed since the AMD merger).

 

[Good Ol' Ramos]

I haven't read all the posts, but passive cooling is a term you might want to become familiar with.

 

[xxxalpinexxx80]

wait till the end of this month and get 2 of the e6600 (q6600) for 300 dollars- quads are good mutitaskers and its well worth the money when those price drops

 

[Livzz]

even though its primarily a home theatre PC, i still want to play a few games on it (hence the higher end components)... so I'll get Vista Home Premium (or ultimate if i find some extra $$) to get the best of the media centre interface, and normal windows functionality.

Yeh ive only used linux once for a uni assignment, and i couldnt stand it...

Thanks for the link to the htpc forum, will have a good look around!

And passive cooling, that means the components only have heatsinks without fans right? and they rely on a couple case fans to keep air moving over them?

 

[tlarkin]

even though its primarily a home theatre PC, i still want to play a few games on it (hence the higher end components)... so I'll get Vista Home Premium (or ultimate if i find some extra $$) to get the best of the media centre interface, and normal windows functionality.

Yeh ive only used linux once for a uni assignment, and i couldnt stand it...

Thanks for the link to the htpc forum, will have a good look around!

And passive cooling, that means the components only have heatsinks without fans right? and they rely on a couple case fans to keep air moving over them?

Myth TV is free open source software. And get this, Myth TV will automatically edit out commercials for you when you record a show. You can also access your PC over the internet with its web based interface and control what you want to record from anywhere in the world. That way you don't have to spend the money on buying vista.

The down side is, you would have to install Linux and to some that may be too much.

 

[Livzz]

sounds like a pretty good package, but im not one for linux...
I think i'll stick with Vista Home Premium, i've managed to fit it into the budget so its all good!

Thanks for all your advice, much appreciated!