new Home Theater / Gaming PC


 
Clint

Clint

TVWBB Olympian
I've been using an extra old Dell Latitude d620 notebook for my HTPC for a few years, and I won't bore you with some of the hows & whys, but I have a new machine mostly tuned up...

Intel i5 processor
basic intel motherboard
250gb samsung SSD (SSD is a must)
Win7 64bit
16 gig ram
nvidia gtx 750ti video card
(basic case/power supply/dvd-rw---probably slap a blu-ray in)

It's been a process... I'll spare some of the painful details butttt

& then about halfway into the superbowl I put in a TV tuner that I got years ago but never used... recorded the SB to the hard drive.

I've loaded all my video games & downloaded a bunch more, including facerig (I'm not a gamer but you wouldn't know that judging by this weekend)....... (xbox wireless controller adapter so the xbox controls work)..
 
Now you need to add a 5.1 receiver and 4 speakers and a sub and you'll be good to go.

On board sound isn't too bad these days but you have to get the rcv & spkrs to fully appreciate your system. And tv speakers should be embarrassed to call themselves speakers.
 
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Len Dennis said:
Now you need to add a 5.1 receiver and 4 speakers and a sub and you'll be good to go.

On board sound isn't too bad these days but you have to get the rcv & spkrs to fully appreciate your system. And tv speakers should be embarrassed to call themselves speakers.
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Len, if it is a 5.1 receiver you will need 5 speakers and a subwoofer. 3 front speakers, 2 rear speakers and the .1 is the subwoofer.
 
I've been thinking about that.... I've just been using 2 speakers & a center channel, the speakers are some classics a friend saw at the pawn shop many years ago & we went & grabbed them (JBL 4312A). Their range is so full that a subwoofer hasn't been needed. I'd take another pair of these though for the surrounds!

images


I've been considering upgrading to an HDMI receiver, but I'll replace the monitor first (I've been looking & resisting, telling myself I have to save up instead of putting it on a card)
 
Clint said:
I've been using an extra old Dell Latitude d620 notebook for my HTPC for a few years, and I won't bore you with some of the hows & whys, but I have a new machine mostly tuned up...

Intel i5 processor
basic intel motherboard
250gb samsung SSD (SSD is a must)
Win7 64bit
16 gig ram
nvidia gtx 750ti video card
(basic case/power supply/dvd-rw---probably slap a blu-ray in)

It's been a process... I'll spare some of the painful details butttt

& then about halfway into the superbowl I put in a TV tuner that I got years ago but never used... recorded the SB to the hard drive.

I've loaded all my video games & downloaded a bunch more, including facerig (I'm not a gamer but you wouldn't know that judging by this weekend)....... (xbox wireless controller adapter so the xbox controls work)..
Click to expand...

building a HTPC is always a fun exercise and gives you lots of time to read up on critical things that you never even knew existed. At the risk of providing some unsolicited advice, I will do so simply because I wished that someone would have provided it to me.

Are you running WMC ? I presume you are because you are using Win7 and it seems you have an xbox that you could use as an extender ( your processor is definately beefy enough). getting WMC to play blurays is a gigantic pain as arcsoft stopped supporting total media theater which had a WMC plugin. I think that the last man standing for pc playback of blurays is Corel WinDVD and their customer support was not stellar when you had a choice. If you figure out a way to solve this I would be really interested. Last week windvd was free after rebate from newegg if you need a software player, but I'm getting really really close to giving up on it and just using the ps3. for a tuner I use a HRDR prime which is EXCELLENT with the best tech support I've ever gotten from anyone.
 
Sandy B said:
Are you running WMC ? I presume you are because you are using Win7 and it seems you have an xbox that you could use as an extender ( your processor is definately beefy enough). getting WMC to play blurays is a gigantic pain as arcsoft stopped supporting total media theater which had a WMC plugin. I think that the last man standing for pc playback of blurays is Corel WinDVD and their customer support was not stellar when you had a choice. If you figure out a way to solve this I would be really interested. Last week windvd was free after rebate from newegg if you need a software player, but I'm getting really really close to giving up on it and just using the ps3. for a tuner I use a HRDR prime which is EXCELLENT with the best tech support I've ever gotten from anyone.
Click to expand...

hmmmmmmmmm ---- I don't really have any blu-rays, maybe a few? I used makemkv (edit: not the smoothest option but it's the best I know) to burn all my DVDs to hard drives (that was nice cleaning off my shelves), I just play them with VLC player.

I went the HD DVD route - you can't even explain blu-ray without saying HD DVD was my reasoning :) so I have a dozen or so HD DVD movies on the shelf.......

& yeah... the i5 is definitely good enough! I have 2 machines that run the i7 (both have 4 cores, the i7's cores have hyperthreading which essentially gives it 8 cores, I think)..... been a while since I looked into this but.... the ram & 64 bit is what I emphasize to everyone! (along with SSD) I've seen it chugging along using 6 gigs of ram, processor @ ~10% I went with the i7 for my main office PC since I was getting into advertising (photoshop), and a server because I didn't know any better (had more $$ than brains :) )
 
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Clint said:
hmmmmmmmmm ---- I don't really have any blu-rays, maybe a few? I used makemkv (edit: not the smoothest option but it's the best I know) to burn all my DVDs to hard drives (that was nice cleaning off my shelves), I just play them with VLC player.

I went the HD DVD route - you can't even explain blu-ray without saying HD DVD was my reasoning :) so I have a dozen or so HD DVD movies on the shelf.......

& yeah... the i5 is definitely good enough! I have 2 machines that run the i7 (both have 4 cores, the i7's cores have hyperthreading which essentially gives it 8 cores, I think)..... been a while since I looked into this but.... the ram & 64 bit is what I emphasize to everyone! (along with SSD) I've seen it chugging along using 6 gigs of ram, processor @ ~10% I went with the i7 for my main office PC since I was getting into advertising (photoshop), and a server because I didn't know any better (had more $$ than brains :) )
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nothing wrong with make mkv but if you are not going to handbrake them, you are gonna fill up that ssd pretty fast. with a connected nas, you really dont have to transcode them, and I've been toldthat it is possible to play mkv's in WMC but like you I rely on VLC.

The ram will help, but not much. tons of people run it on 32 bit win7 with the 4 gig limit. both my boxes are currently 32 bit and I have zero latency with a small ssd set for the os and a big spinning drive as the target for recordings. I also have a nas that I can set as an iSCSI target but have put off doing so until the integral drive starts to fill up.

lots of people run wmc and extenders on processors way wimpier than an i5, so long as the network is robust, its pretty good.

The problem is that even when a HTPC is running great there are always some tweaks calling like a siren's song and in my case about 10% of them end up with huge associated problems.
 
Sandy B said:
nothing wrong with make mkv but if you are not going to handbrake them, you are gonna fill up that ssd pretty fast. with a connected nas, you really dont have to transcode them, and I've been toldthat it is possible to play mkv's in WMC but like you I rely on VLC.

The ram will help, but not much. tons of people run it on 32 bit win7 with the 4 gig limit. both my boxes are currently 32 bit and I have zero latency with a small ssd set for the os and a big spinning drive as the target for recordings. I also have a nas that I can set as an iSCSI target but have put off doing so until the integral drive starts to fill up.

lots of people run wmc and extenders on processors way wimpier than an i5, so long as the network is robust, its pretty good.

The problem is that even when a HTPC is running great there are always some tweaks calling like a siren's song and in my case about 10% of them end up with huge associated problems.
Click to expand...

The ssd is just for programs, the movies go to other NAS---I've read about handbrake even tried it but I had some (don't remember) difficulty. The MKV files are sometimes bigger than 4gigs so yeah... VLC is pretty cool!

I didn't have any problems using my old underpowered notebook as the HTPC, other than video games were off limits, and Real Flight (http://www.realflight.com/) had to be played with all the effects turned way down. but it worked........ reminds me,,, I might have to break out my other simulators!
 
Clint said:
just an old Pioneer amp - RX7000V, I only use 2 inputs - CD (tv output), & DVD-multi which is the PC. .....dunno if it has the toslink inputs or not..........
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I can't find a pioneer 7000 amp. I can find a JVC 7000 rcvr. the JVC has 5.1 and two optical inputs.
 
you're not missing much ----- oh sh!t it's a JVC!

the box I adopted for this - its motherboard doesn't have the audio optical out----- it was a purpose built machine but it was replaced by cheaper options.. I should still experiment with it but I'm just having fun right now. (posting here, listening to somebody's NIN playlist on youtube, playing The Bridge <puzzle game>....that'll probably change to mordoor soon - I've been stuck for a while---Yes, I know this is all a big waste of time )

If you could hear the music out of these speakers---It really doesn't leave much to be desired.
 
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Clint said:
you're not missing much ----- oh sh!t it's a JVC!

the box I adopted for this - its motherboard doesn't have the audio optical out----- it was a purpose built machine but it was replaced by cheaper options.. I should still experiment with it but I'm just having fun right now. (posting here, listening to somebody's NIN playlist on youtube, playing The Bridge <puzzle game>....that'll probably change to mordoor soon - I've been stuck for a while---Yes, I know this is all a big waste of time )

If you could hear the music out of these speakers---It really doesn't leave much to be desired.
Click to expand...

that's a relatively cheap fix if you have an open pci slot, you can get a 5.1 sound card with spdif out for about 15-20 bucks after rebate ( like this one ASUS Xonar DG 5.1 at newegg) And on a new build its likely you do have some open pci slots.

ultimately for the sake of avoiding a rats nest of cables, I'd like to use the single hdmi with passthrough going to an elcheepo 5.1 or 7.1 receiver. one day I suspect it will happen.
 
These things sure have come a long way, any time I see new computer specs I'm always reminded of my first Packard Bell.

25mhz Processor
2 MB RAM
75 MB Hard Drive

Hard to even fathom we functioned with that machine.
 
Teddy J. said:
These things sure have come a long way, any time I see new computer specs I'm always reminded of my first Packard Bell.

25mhz Processor
2 MB RAM
75 MB Hard Drive

Hard to even fathom we functioned with that machine.
Click to expand...

pshaw that thing was a cray compared to my first "PC" ( the term between the quotations is used very loosely)

The commodore vic20
5Kb of static ram
MOS 6502 CPU ( in all its 8-bit glory)
a monochromatic orange CRT
and the ubiquitous C2nB Datasette

from that I went to a 286 that was comparable to your packard bell, I think on "turbo" ( which I am convinced was nothing more than a led switch connected to nothing) I think we squeezed out 33 Mhz.

nowadays if we can't stream netflix over LTE in a car driving 70 MPH the kids act like its a violation of the geneva convention.
 
Sandy B said:
from that I went to a 286 that was comparable to your packard bell, I think on "turbo" ( which I am convinced was nothing more than a led switch connected to nothing) I think we squeezed out 33 Mhz.
Click to expand...

The turbo light, I had forgotten about that thing. Too funny.
 
Teddy J. said:
The turbo light, I had forgotten about that thing. Too funny.
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I just found out that pushing that button actually slower the processor down to 8088 clock speeds for compatibility!

My childhood is ruined! Wasting all those megahertz as I fancied myself a speed demon,I was in the Slow lane! What's next my 56k us robotics modem was not state of the art either?

Oh the disillusionment!!!!!!!!!
 
Teddy J. said:
These things sure have come a long way, any time I see new computer specs I'm always reminded of my first Packard Bell.

25mhz Processor
2 MB RAM
75 MB Hard Drive

Hard to even fathom we functioned with that machine.
Click to expand...

Where to start (thread-jackers!)

I remember trying to practice the BASIC from my programming class (summer school) on one of these:
atari400.jpg


Painstakingly entering line after line of code (again, basic) from some computer magazine on an old Apple 2e, trying to get "Penguin" to play... I think one line of welcome screen would load & then it'd freeze... I never could figure that out.
220px-UniversumUNAM46.JPG
 
Cool thread, did my own HTPC Build 3 years ago. Here's my system:
CPU: AMD A6-3650 Llano 2.6GHz Socket FM1 100W Quad-Core Desktop APU with DirectX 11 Graphic AMD Radeon HD
Mobo: GIGABYTE GA-A75M-UD2H
Memory: Kingston HyperX 8GB (4x2GB)
HD: Hitachi Deskstar 5K3000 2TB SATA 6.0Gb/s
Patriot Pyro PP60GS25SSDR 2.5" 60GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive
Case: nMEDIAPC HTPC 6000B ATX
Ceton InfiniTV4 Tuner
Remote: Rosewill RHRC-11001
OS: Windows 7 Home Premium

The case really rocks, looks like a piece of AV equipment. Used the Tuner for about 2 years then Cox switched their signals and it screwed-up my tuner card and I didn't have the time to deal with it so I switched to dish. However, before that I used it exclusively, no boxes from the cable company, used Linksys media extenders and X-box.

It's been a great unit.
 
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