Hi all, I am trying to come up with the right components for the HTPC I'll build soon. I have build a few comps already but never with multimedia in mind. This is what I want to achieve: - I want to run XP or Vista with XMBC managing a collection of Video files (mainly avi's with the occasional .mkv and mp4's) - Silence is a big priority - Temperature is also important, as I will be running 5 Hard drives in the build. - I want to use onboard graphics and audio only. I am not planning to play many blu ray's. I don't want to play games on this machine. I will decode and encode a few files but not much. I mostly want to plug this (silent and cool) machine into my HDTV and play all my videos with good quality. I also will ultimately be using my own set of speakers and a video projector. I have been reading around a lot of reviews and advice and since I am not very knowledgeable when it comes to video formats, etc. I am a bit lost on what system I need. I know there are many guides around and they're really good, but a bit dated also, and I am worried of choosing technologies that would not be good enough for tomorrow's formats. At the same time, I don't want to waste money on a too powerful setup that I don't really need. I have chosen so far the following elements: - WD Caviar Green 1.5Tb -ASUS M4A785STD M EVO motherboard - Zalman HD160 Plus case - AMD X2 7550 I have chosen this motherboard for its GPU but I am thinking it might be overkill. ALso, do I really need a DDR3 motherboard and spend money on this when I could get cheap DDR2 sticks? But if I go for a DDR2 motherboard, wouldn't the built-in GPU be too weak for high quality playback? As you can see I am a bit lost... I have not yet chosen the CPU cooler and the PSU, I guess if you can provide advice that would also help. Thanks for reading!
Are those WD 'green' drives the slow 5400rpm? I tried installing an OS on a samsung 'green' drive and i found it noticably slower than what i was used to. I now use 2 of them for storage but have a fast drive for the OS. This might not bother you but it might be worth looking into. Other than that id say go for it if your happy, it should be good for full 1080p if thats what your aiming for
-ASUS M4A785STD M EVO motherboard - AMD X2 7550 Sod that, just get a dual core ION board, you can put a RAID card in the PCI slot, though it means you'd havee to ue XP, as Vista would be a little too slow on an atom setup. The ITX-A bundle would be perfect for you... Just have an NAS working via Ethernet with the hard drives you can't get to fit and you're sorted.
@Titanium angel No those drives are the WD15EADS, they are 7200 RPM and seem to perform well with not too much heat generated (considering I'll end up with 5 in my case, I have to watch out for heat). @Bigsharn I really don't want to have to watch movies over a network (NAS), what I am after is a "all-in one case" system with no external requirements if you see what I mean. The bundle you're mentioning looks good but there are too few hard drive bays. @Blackwhizz and all What is the minimum requirement for playing videos at 1080p? How would the ASUS 780G perform in that respect? Thanks for all answers.
