About to buy components of HTPC - sanity check please!

[scaryjones]

Ok, after huge deliberations I'm about to buy the following kit to build a htpc to run on my 37" 1080p LCD TV.

I'm concerned about the case size (full ATX) and the passively cooled GPU fitting in there, as well as height for the mini ninja, can people have a look over this and let me know if all seems well. Main uses:

Sat HD TV
Web browsing
Gaming
Recording TV
DVD / Blu ray watching

Here are the specs:

Silverstone Grandia GD01B-MXR Black Desktop Alu' Case with Card Reader MCE/Vista Ready w/o PSU

520W Corsair HX Series Modular PSU, ATX, EPS12V, whisper quiet, 5 year warranty

Logitech DiNovo Edge

2 x Samsung SpinPoint T166 500GB SATA2 16MB 7200RPM

Ram 4 gig DDR2 corsair

Intel core2duo E7200

Gigabyte GA-EP35-DS3, iP35, S 775, PCI-E (x16), DDR2 1066/667/800, SATA II, SATA RAID, ATX

HD 4850 1 gig passively cooled

scythe mini ninja -

LG GGC-H20L Lightscribe SATA 16xDVD±R +RWx8/-RW x6 Also READS - Blu-Ray & HD Disc's black

Don't think I've forgotten anything, buying from Scan, what are people's opinions on this, seem like an ok set up?

Any feedback welcome. THanks,.

 

[Maxamus]

2 x Samsung SpinPoint T166 500GB SATA2 16MB 7200RPM
Change to
1 x Samsung SpinPoint 1Tb (less noise and less heat)

GPU seems excessive for HTPC needs but im no expert so i'll let someone else suggest one.

Im assuming RAM is 2 x 2Gb sticks......

 

[devo]

Any particular reason you've chosen Intel over AMD? What do you mean when you say you want the system for gaming? HTPC and gaming pc don't normally go hand in hand.

 

[scaryjones]

Point taken on the 1TB vs 2x 500 gig drives.

Regarding gaming, put it this way, I like to occasionally game and I like FPS type games but don't like consoles for gaming. So, while I'm not seeking Crysis at full detail levels, I would like to play the occasional game at full HD without worrying about whether my PC can handle it.

To be honest I'd be more concerned whether my choice of GPU was a good one in terms of upscaling DVDs (does the GPU handle that?) and general video playback more than games. But I do want it to have the power to handle some games with aplomb.

Oh and no particular reason I've chosen intel over AMD except that I've been researching this for about a year and from the start I chose Intel (no reason really) and the idea of going back to start researching AMD options seems painful. That said, if you've got suggestions for a chip + full-ATX mobo combo that'll do as good a job I'm up for doing a little more reading!

 

[scaryjones]

Im assuming RAM is 2 x 2Gb sticks......

Aye, two sticks of 2 gig. Is that good or bad? It is cheaper than a 4 gig stick anyway so I'm happy with it for now, unless it's a misstep.

 

[rjames]

A HTPC most of the times is a silent system which is placed together with the Home Cinema amplifier. If this is the case in your situation you have to consider what will fit into the casing you want to use and what is the noise level you can put up to.. If you want to game ocassionaly and make use of your full hd screen then you need an external GPU. When silent then you need to go with a high performance silent cooling card.

So decide on your position first for your system.
Choose the casing
Choose the external silent GPU which will fit.. ATI 45xx or NVIDIA 9600.

Like Devo said. HTPC normally is as small and silent as possible with HD media processing capabilities. This setup will not allow you to experience full resolution gaming.

Therefore my 'HTPC' I keep in a closet and has High Performance external GPU. You can put your PC in anyplace and you only need a longer HDMI cable, Optical sound cable and USB cable. 3 cables which in good quality can be as long as 10 meters without losing functionality or quality.