My first HTPC Build

[Alize]

Hello all,

Been lurking these forums for years, been reading the HTPC forums for a long time now too, finally got around to wanting to build mine, got rid of the laptop and have no PC at the moment (although I work with them, hence how i'm typing this!)

Here is the parts list...

Case: Antec Fusion Remote (Black)

Motherboard: DFI LANPARTY JR 790GX-M2RS Socket AM2+ onboard DVI HDMI 8 Channel Audio mATX Motherboard
DFI LANPARTY JR 790GX-M2RS Socket AM2+ onboard DVI HDMI 8 Channel Audio mATX Motherboard - Ebuyer

Proccessor: AMD Phenom II X4 Quad Core 940 Black Edition 3.0GHz
AMD Phenom II X4 940 3GHz Socket AM2+ 6MB L3 Cache Retail Boxed Processor - Ebuyer

Other parts
4GB (2x2GB) OCZ Reaper HPC Edition RAM
OCZ 500w Modular PSU
Samsung SpinPoint F1 1TB HDD x2

What I want to know is, anybody have experience with this motherboard mostly or can anybody see any potential problems with this build?

It will mainly be used for media purposes and internet browsing, I may have to chuck in a gfx card or two when Diablo 3 comes out other than that, it won't be used for gaming at all. I'll add Ninja CPU Cooler and some silent fans too to keep it running nice and cool.

As far as OS, i'm not too sure what to pick, I have been using Windows 7 for my primary OS at home for a while now, I'll probably pick Windows 7, but someone at work suggested I look at Linux distros, I have linux experience, Ubuntu have a media edition as well as the famous XBMC OS...

One last thing which seems to be a blackhole for my time when I try and look into this...I have a skybox, is it possible to rid of this and still retain full functionality or am I asking a trick question here?

 

[Alize]

After posting, I've seen a few others using the motherboard I posted and I've found a very in-depth guide on how to get Sky working with MCE! Yippee!

 

[Altern8]

Hey

Sounds like I want something simular to your setup, have you got the sky link please?

Cheers

 

[Taelinn]

From the guides i have seen, you will still need to keep your Sky Box handy as you will need to put the viewing card in about once a month or else it will become inactive.

That said i would be very interested to see someone get it working, been thinking about going down this route for a while.

 

[Alize]

From the guides i have seen, you will still need to keep your Sky Box handy as you will need to put the viewing card in about once a month or else it will become inactive.

That said i would be very interested to see someone get it working, been thinking about going down this route for a while.

Yes, that has been reported several times, I was curious as my sky box is part of a multiroom subscription, I should imagine I could just swap the cards around every 4 weeks to keep them permanently active! Aka, take it out of my HTPC, go to the other skybox in another room, swap cards and boom Sky cards should always remain active!

 

[Alize]

Hey

Sounds like I want something simular to your setup, have you got the sky link please?

Cheers

Sky link is here:
Article : Sky / MCE Integration

I'm a programmer by profession, so I'm fairly good with computers, I wouldn't suggest playing if you're not very sufficient with computers.

 

[Stephen Neal]

Yes, that has been reported several times, I was curious as my sky box is part of a multiroom subscription, I should imagine I could just swap the cards around every 4 weeks to keep them permanently active! Aka, take it out of my HTPC, go to the other skybox in another room, swap cards and boom Sky cards should always remain active!

If you have a premium subscription - your cards are tied (paired/married) to your receiver serial number. AIUI they have to be put into the specific receiver to work.

If you use the card with some CAMs you have to program the CAM with the serial number of the receiver is married to. Rotating multiple cards may be a bit of a faff.

 

[Alize]

If you have a premium subscription - your cards are tied (paired/married) to your receiver serial number. AIUI they have to be put into the specific receiver to work.

If you use the card with some CAMs you have to program the CAM with the serial number of the receiver is married to. Rotating multiple cards may be a bit of a faff.

Thanks for that, I only found this out 2 days ago when Sky sent us new cards, they specified which new card needs to replace which old card.