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Thinking of building a HT PC....

#1
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5/19/08 at 2:12pm
  • Joined: January 2006
  • Post Count: 29
I getting a wild hair to build a HT PC. I was watching the web based TV series they have posted on the Internet and thought how cool it would be to watch these on my regular LCD TV rather than my computer monitor or Laptop.

MY laptop had a S video out but with the poor graphics card I'm sure it won't push the video on a 32" LCD TV....so I thought, why not get a small computer case..install a cheap MB and CPU with 2 GB of RAM, a decent Video card with a HDMI In/output, a wireless modem, a big HD and a blu-ray player and connect it to the TV.

It should play the HD Blu-ray DVD's via the disk drive, and display the web based video and the video content coming in on my Sat receiver via the HDMI input on the Video card.

I've read some of the system specifications for the HT PC's and they seem to be quite moderate....nothing like the high end gaming rigs.

Am I missing anything here?

I've goggled some of the sites that talk about HT PC's but haven't found one that really explains everything in detail.....I have questions about the video card capabilities....for HD content and such.

I'm guessing that if a video card has then proper input and output...displaying HD or regular content on a 32" LCD TV shouldn't be a problem.

Any input/advice would be greatly appreciated....

I once asked this literary agent, uh, what kind of writing paid the best... he said, \"Ransom notes.\"

Harry Zimm

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#2
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5/22/08 at 10:31am
  • Joined: August 2001
  • Post Count: 1,191

Re: Thinking of building a HT PC....

Dennis,
Here is a good Motherboard to start you off.
Newegg.com - ASUS P5N-EM HDMI LGA 775 NVIDIA GeForce 7100/nForce 630i HDMI Micro ATX Intel Motherboard - Intel Motherboards
Reasonably priced and already has the video you need onboard, including an HDMI output.

Good Luck
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#3
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5/22/08 at 2:20pm
  • Joined: January 2006
  • Post Count: 29

Re: Thinking of building a HT PC....

Many thanks for the link..that's perfect..get the board with video and HDMI port in one. Pick up a small case, CPU, add RAM, Network card, TV Card, Blu-Ray, HD and OS and I'll have a nice little HT computer.

Regards

Dennis

I once asked this literary agent, uh, what kind of writing paid the best... he said, \"Ransom notes.\"

Harry Zimm

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#4
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5/22/08 at 3:13pm
  • Joined: May 2008
  • Post Count: 76

Re: Thinking of building a HT PC....

I was considering doing the same a few weeks ago. After doing a bunch of research, I concluded there was not much savings compared to buying a completed high-end media PC.

I spent about $2K on a HP Pavilion with 24 inch monitor.
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#5
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5/23/08 at 8:41pm
  • Joined: January 2007
  • Location: Michigan
  • Post Count: 42

Re: Thinking of building a HT PC....

I personally always build my own, but typically thats because I format, re-install, tweak, develop, and mod the living heck out of them many times, so I use my MSDN copy of the software, which ends up saving me $ from the pre-built systems, but for most people, this isn't economical since they probably dont have MSDN subscriptions.

I think for the cost of building a moderate system, you can get a decent pre-built one. If your building requirements are much higher, or have unique requirements, it may be more feasible to build one instead.

Jim
http://onebadpixel.com/blog

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#6
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6/2/08 at 10:05am
  • Joined: December 2000
  • Post Count: 345

Re: Thinking of building a HT PC....

you can try bestbuy if they still have the Dynex with 500w psu for 20 bux for your case.. built my first ht of of that..
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#7
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6/3/08 at 9:54pm
  • Joined: June 1997
  • Post Count: 10,881

Re: Thinking of building a HT PC....

Jim:

I used to build my own too. Gateway has come out with an HTPC (GM 5664) that has a quadcore Phenom processor with 3G of RAM,
ATI Radeon™ HD 2400XT video card and 1Terabyte of HD space. Also comes with Vista Home Premium that includes Media Center. The kicker for me is that is also comes with a Blu-ray/HD DVD drive and PowerDVD to play it all back. The video comes with a DVI to HDMI dongle that allows you to pass both you video and audio over the one cable.

I wrote up a review here. I picked up another for the bedroom so I can stream between the two.

I also added another tuner card an AverMedia Bravo. Both the ATI and the AverMedia are combo analogue/digital so when they switch over you will be set.

Also, the price was great at around $950 without the monitor.

Figuring in the cost of motherboard, care, PS, RAM, CPU, combo Blu-ray/HD DVD and a terabyte of storeage I would have ended up spending more for my own build on all the parts.

They sell this at Best Buy, Circuit City and Amazon to name a few. It is worth checking out before you get too deep in buying parts to build your own.

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