HTPC spec for HD + 5.1 sound (and cheap!)

[waf-tastic]

Having just about completed my cinema, I'm thinking about upgrading my old pc as it just can't handle HD content (even 720p). Unfortunately, due to the rest of the cinema cost, the pc needs to be as cheap as possible! Can anyone recommend a minimum spec for watching HD content with 5.1 sound. Ideally upgradeable processor-wise with as much on-board help (video and audio if possible or I guess a video card with lesser spec processor).

I'll need to upgrade my projector at some point (it's not hd ready but will scale 720p/1080i source) but I've hit the buffers in terms of brownie points for more spending by the missus! (althoughit's easier to sneak in PC components...

[GarryF]

the ability to play HD is quite vague atm. do a search for bbc 264 and you will see that current BBC HD footage is making even very high spec PCs struggle.

I've been using the asus a8n-vm csm motherboard with a 3500+ processor and it's been able to play most HD footage, only thing so far I can't play is the above bbc stuff. The motherboard has onboard 5.1 and graphics nvidia 6150. Then as you require you can upgrade the processor or shove in a new graphics card as budget allows (I think I'll try and hold off on graphics cards till the HD ready ones appear at christmas)

[Demon]

I'd second that..

Asus A8N-VM CSM (Must be the CSM version!) Integrated 6150 video with DVI Connection (With a DVI to HDMI lead, this works well with my Projector and Plasma)
It has SATA / Gigabit LAN and all the usual stuff..

Since I wanted a digital connection to my AMP, I went for a Terratec Aureon 7.1 PCI (Has realtime Dolby Digital encoding), I did also get an SPDIF connector for the motherboard (It has a header for one), but the Aureon is hardware accelerated, and cheap..

I'm using that with a A64 3200+ and it plays even 1080p WMV and Transport Streams really well..

As GarryF says, it's upgradeable, so if/when the time comes, you can upgrade the processor and graphics cards.

[waf-tastic]

Thanks GarryF and Demon - I didn't realise that playing HD content would need that much grunt - I guess it's not going to be that cheap then.... I'll have a hunt around to get prices for the components you've mentioned and price it up.

Is the BBC content more processor intensive because it's at a very high bit rate? Is this going to be the norm or is the BBC just pushing the limits for the trial?

Cheers,
Rich.

[Demon]

I've just built one to this spec.. you could go lower spec, but the A64 Socket 939 is more upgradeable then going for an older Athlon XP and Socket A..

Motherboard - Asus A8N VM CSM £55
Processor - A64 3200+ £66
RAM - 1Gb - £50
HDD - 160Gb - £48
Case - ThermalTake Tenor - £59

Total = £278 with case, £222 without case..

A TV Card would be an extra £43 for a hauppauge Nova-T PCI digital terrestrial freeview card..

An Aureon 7.1 PCI if you want more advanced audio with everything encoded to DD5.1 to a surround AMP, £33
(The on-board has 5.1 analog surround, so you can just connect that to your amp if it has discrete analog inputs for surround sound)..

Not a bad setup for the money..

[waf-tastic]

Just looking at prices now - where did you get your components from?

On the processor front, I found this one on ebuyer:
AMD (Venice) Athlon 64 3200+ (ADA3200DAA4BW) OEM Skt 939

Is this what you meant? This seems a lot more expensive (£85 ex vat) (not sure if it's the wrong processor or just ebuyer...).

On the memory side, is it worth getting paired 2x512MB ddr2 or will I not notice a speed increas over a basic 1GB one?

There's too much choice nowadays - the permutations of components is amazing!

[Demon]

Hi, yes, I used Ebuyer for most of it..

I know AMD have just dropped their prices, and I think Ebuyer have old and new stock..

http://www.ebuyer.com/UK/product/88109
A64 3200+ Retail box (Comes with heatsink + fan), £66.22

I always use 2 memory sticks, 2 * 512.. PC3200 is required..

My usual online haunts for stuff are
www.microdirect.co.uk
www.ebuyer.co.uk
www.komplett.co.uk
www.aria.co.uk
www.scan.co.uk

And if I am desperate, www.overclockers.co.uk..

[GarryF]

If I'm building a new pc I usually try to get the mb/ram/processor from same supplier then if there's a problem they can't point the finger at something else.

As for bbc HD content it's as you say, currently a trial so no one knows what will eventually happen there, I can happily play back 1080p wmv-hd stuff without any problems.

The other main thing that can be done with processing power is ffdshow. It can help make normal dvds look close to hd content, takes a lot of grunt too though.

[bigtim]

Another option for the same onboard graphics and processor is this asus barebones case:

http://www.asus.com/products4.aspx?l...87&modelmenu=1


Just over 100 quid from scan, was revieed in last month's PC Pro. The SPDIF out is on the front though (doh) so a right angle plug and small bit of case mods maybe requied to get a clean look.

I'm waiting for the next version (PH1-AH2) which will be the latest AM2 socket

[waf-tastic]

Thanks guys - looks like it won't cost as much as I thought. The barebones case looks good, but wires out of the front won't look good...

I think I'll have to warm up the credit card.... need to find a nice case - the thermaltake tenor is not my cup of tea. I really like the silverstone cases, but I can't justify that much for a case!

[benji]

The real AMD price cuts won't appear to the end of July tho when intel's new processors actually appear.

Dual core should be affordable then.

[GarryF]

I got a silverstone LC14b case and was very impressed with build quality, the thing about a good case is you'll use it for several pc's over it's lifetime, I've got one cas that's had 5-6 motherboards now I think.

It also makes it quite easy to slip effectively a whole new PC in when the time comes, you just tell the wife it crashed and your having to reinstall from scratch :D

[nigelbb]

Originally Posted by waf-tastic

Thanks GarryF and Demon - I didn't realise that playing HD content would need that much grunt - I guess it's not going to be that cheap then.... I'll have a hunt around to get prices for the components you've mentioned and price it up.

My HTPC is based on an Athlon XP 2000+ & plays almost all HD content perfectly(MPEG2 .TS & WMVHD 1080i). The secret is a graphics card that does hardware assists (mine is an Nvidia FX5200) & to use Theater Tek for playing all video as CPU utilisation is far less than when using e.g. WMP

Originally Posted by waf-tastic

Is the BBC content more processor intensive because it's at a very high bit rate? Is this going to be the norm or is the BBC just pushing the limits for the trial?

It's not the bit rate as some of the MPEG2 .TS stuff available on the net is 15-20Mbs. The problem is the CODEC h264 which is a variant of MPEG4. This compresses much better than MPEG2 because of its ingenious algorithms but of course requires far more work for playback & as yet there is little no assistance in hardware from the graphics cards. On my system this plays at about 10fps.

[shodan]

[quote=nigelbb]My HTPC is based on an Athlon XP 2000+ & plays almost all HD content perfectly(MPEG2 .TS & WMVHD 1080i). The secret is a graphics card that does hardware assists (mine is an Nvidia FX5200) & to use Theater Tek for playing all video as CPU utilisation is far less than when using e.g. WMP
QUOTE]

I've got that graphics card which I got really cheap and was told that it wasn't much cop. I've recently got TheaterTek and FFDShow and I've set it up with my 5 year old CRT moniter and it looks stunning! I'm also only running with 256mb of RAM too. If I can find my DVI-HDMI lead then I'll try it on me 50" Rear Pro Sony LCD tv and if the pic is as good (I'll set it up to output at the tv's native 1280x720) as I hope it could be then I could be looking at the base componants of a waiting to be built HTPC.