SFF HTPC Build

Westie · Post by **Westie** » Mon Feb 25, 2008 8:01 am

Hi

I have recently purchased a big shiny sony HDTV and want to build a HTPC to play DVD/BD films, Digital PVR, listen to music through Windows Vista Media Center and use for every day PC stuff (no gaming). The TV connects to the stand through HDMI which has built in speakers and amp. I want the system to be reliable and reasonable quiet (quieter than a PS3 hopefully). I have made a list of components which I believe will do the job. They are:

Westie · Post by **Westie** » Mon Feb 25, 2008 8:01 am

SFF Case/Mobo/PSU - MSI HETIS 965

CPU - Intel Core 2 Duo E6420

Graphics - MSI NX8500GT 256MB

Memory - Corsair Memory 4GBKIT (2X2GB)

Hard Drive - Samsung 500GB HD501LJ

Optical Drive - Pioneer 5x BluRay Reader BDC-202BK

Keyboard and Mouse - Microsoft Wireless Entertainment Desktop 8000

Digital TV Tuner - Hauppauge WinTV-HVR4000

A few questions I have are:

1. What would be the best CPU HSAF to use considering the height restrictions of the case?
2. The mobo says "1 SPDIF-out Pinheader (for HDMI graphics card audio line use only)" and the graphics card says "SPDIF Connector". Do I need to purchase a cable to connect the SPDIF on the mobo to the graphics card for audio through the HDMI interface?
3. Will the stock PSU be ok?
4. Also any other improvements/recommendations would be greatly appreciated.

xan_user · Post by **xan_user** » Mon Feb 25, 2008 8:14 am

video cards don't make sound, so to have hdmi carry sound, it must get it from the sound card. So a cable will be needed. I don't like hdmi for audio, or video for that matter..... I prefer a more sturdy connection like dvi

Are you using a surround receiver? Will hdmi be connected to tv or switched though receiver?

Westie · Post by **Westie** » Mon Feb 25, 2008 8:35 am

I am using the Sony RHT-G800. The Inputs plug into the stand and the stand then plugs into the TV all through HDMI.

I was going to use DVI from the HTPC but wouldn't that still need that sound to be carried through optical? As the mobo I have chosen doesn't have external optical out, I thought it would be wise to use HDMI and make use of the internal SPDIF on the Mobo.

xan_user · Post by **xan_user** » Mon Feb 25, 2008 9:08 am

with that setup -
spdi from mobo to vid card, then hdmi from vid card to stand input.
Let me know how this works, Sony can sometimes throw you a curvball when using hdmi from non sony PC's due to there overzealous DRM policies. Sony says not to use hdmi to dvi adapters with this.

PS
I hope since Sony won the HDDVD war they can finally get over loosing to VHS and start to play nice.

not holding breath.....

Westie · Post by **Westie** » Mon Feb 25, 2008 9:19 am

Amen to that. Was going to buy the LG combo BD/HD-DVD until recent developments.

xan_user · Post by **xan_user** » Mon Feb 25, 2008 9:39 am

I work i home theater and 90% of the 1st gen players died within 1 month, if not DOA.

They take over 2 minutes to boot. Yes boot, if you look inside one they use a standard 5.25" pc DIN player and some sort on unix OS.

Way better off using a HTPC for HD/blu DVD's. wait for version 3 before buying stand alone player - Or get a PS3- best player on the market for the $.

Looking forward to full report on your new toy(s).

Westie · Post by **Westie** » Mon Feb 25, 2008 9:50 am

I've heard standalone players are slow as hell. I have a PS3 hooked up at the mo and I agree it's excellent. Upscaled DVD playback is much better that I had anticipated and HD stuff looks stunning. Unfortunately it's not mine I so I need something to play BDs on. Anyone have any advice with regards to the rest of my rig?

kevinfelker42 · Post by **kevinfelker42** » Mon Feb 25, 2008 11:23 am

Video card: Go with a Radeon HD 3450 or 3650. They have built in x264 and vc-1 decoders.

Hard Drive, I just replaced the noisy samsung 500GB with a Western Digital GP 750GB.

It can stream a 1080p x264 MKV just fine, and it is SO quiet.

Heat Sink: I have a scythe ninja mini in my HTPC, works greatly.

Those are my 2 cents.

Also, 4GB of ram seems over kill, but i guess it's so cheap these days.

Westie · Post by **Westie** » Tue Feb 26, 2008 2:01 am

I don't think I have room for the Minja, am looking at the golden orb but not sure if width is an issue. Will wait till I get the mobo down and measure it before purchasing a HSF. I would like to go with a higher end graphics card to offload the HD decoding from the CPU but I have a problem as I only have 2 expansion card slots. One for the graphics and one the the TV card and I have no digital audio out. Anyone have any ideas?

Westie · Post by **Westie** » Tue Feb 26, 2008 3:08 am

I've found the ATI RADEONâ„¢ HD 3850 card which has "Integrated HD audio controller with multi-channel (5.1) AC3 support, enabling a plug-and-play cable-less audio solution" Does anyone know how audio is carried from the mobo to the card? Also what does "HDMI output support" mean? The card has 2 DVI outputs so how do you output to HDMI?

Westie · Post by **Westie** » Tue Feb 26, 2008 5:23 am

Ok so I think I'm going to go with the following:

SFF Case/Mobo/PSU - MSI HETIS 965

CPU - Intel Core 2 Duo E6420 (already got)

HSF - Thermaltake Golden Orb II

Graphics - Sapphire Technology Radeon HD 3850 256MB

Memory - Corsair Memory 4GBKIT (2X2GB)

Hard Drive - Samsung 500GB HD501LJ (already got)

Optical Drive - Pioneer 5x BluRay Reader BDC-202BK

Keyboard and Mouse - Microsoft Wireless Entertainment Desktop 8000

Digital TV Tuner - Hauppauge WinTV-HVR4000

Looks like I will just have to suck it and see with regards to the 5.1 audio but the website for the Sapphire does say "Integrated HD audio controller with multi-channel (5.1) AC3 support" so hopefully it will be ok. Any last minute adjustments I should make? Will order tonight.

quikkie · Post by **quikkie** » Tue Feb 26, 2008 6:00 am

as far as I've researched all the ati 3xx0 cards have 5.1 sound cards onboard as well as the UVD chip (HW video decoding). The two models of 3450 I've looked at (on the manufacturers websites) say they have onboard sound.

In the box with my 3870 there was a DVI-> HDMI convertor that you can plug into either of the DVI ports on the card.
Quite how the sound makes it through the dvi port I don't know and since I haven't tried it myself so I can't tell you for definite that it works. However I'm told that it does.

Westie · Post by **Westie** » Tue Feb 26, 2008 7:01 am

That pretty much confirms what I thought that it should work. I'm going to go with this setup and hope for the best. Thanks for your replies guys.

nitram_tpr · Post by **nitram_tpr** » Tue Feb 26, 2008 7:59 am

the DVI port does not support any sort of audio, if you are using aDVI-HDMI cable then you will need to provide seperate audio.
If the ATI card has a HDMI port on it, then it will supply audio. (AFAIK)

Westie · Post by **Westie** » Tue Feb 26, 2008 8:42 am

It says that there is an intergrated audio controller so there must be a way of carring the signal out. I will email their tech support for an answer.

Westie · Post by **Westie** » Tue Feb 26, 2008 9:10 am

After a quick gander in the Sapphire forums it seems like all the ATI cards that have built in audio work using a special DVI - HDMI converter that also carries the audio. Looks like it's a go-er then.

neon joe · Post by **neon joe** » Tue Feb 26, 2008 11:28 am

A little bit OT, but do HDMI ports on motherboards output sound, or only video (or does it depend on the mb)?

jessekopelman · Post by **jessekopelman** » Tue Feb 26, 2008 12:15 pm

neon joe wrote:A little bit OT, but do HDMI ports on motherboards output sound, or only video (or does it depend on the mb)?

Depends not only on the MB but on having the proper drivers (i.e. some MB support this in hardware, but it doesn't work yet).

derekva · Post by **derekva** » Tue Feb 26, 2008 12:17 pm

Go for the Sapphire 100235L HD3470 card - it is passively cooled, has 5.1 audio over HDMI and should be more than sufficient for 1080P. The 3850 you referenced is overkill for your purposes and will be hard to cool in that tiny case. Also, I'd go for a single (or pair) of ATI TV Wonder 650 Combo cards over the Hauppauge - better analog quality as well as good OTA HD (if you want to go that route).

-D

AZBrandon · Post by **AZBrandon** » Wed Feb 27, 2008 11:40 am

derekva wrote:Go for the Sapphire 100235L HD3470 card - it is passively cooled, has 5.1 audio over HDMI and should be more than sufficient for 1080P. The 3850 you referenced is overkill for your purposes and will be hard to cool in that tiny case. Also, I'd go for a single (or pair) of ATI TV Wonder 650 Combo cards over the Hauppauge - better analog quality as well as good OTA HD (if you want to go that route).

-D

Does anyone happen to make such a thing in good old PCI? I have a really old PC hooked up to my 1080P via a DVI to HDMI cable and separate RCA cables for audio. The problem is it only supports 4:3 resolutions, so right now 1024x768 is the best I can do. I could get a PCI video card that does 1920x1080 for $40 or so in PCI, but it would be great to find one that does the audio too. At this point however I'm starting to wonder if it's just too old to hope for anything like that.