Looking for new HTPC build ideas

[brennok]

Ok as discussed here, I recently bought the Ceton InfiniTV4 due to the crazy Newegg Business sale. I am looking for some build ideas as a result. I don’t necessarily have a strict budget, but I don’t want to go crazy so sub $1000. This is some what my first HTPC so I apologize for the long post.

OS Drive – WD 640GB Black unless someone suggests another good OS drive. Not sure I want to spend the extra for SSD.

Recording Drive – 2-3TB not sure if green is ok here. Also could go with 1TB Black and something to copy recordings to a green drive when low on space assuming playback won’t be an issue.

CPU – leaning towards i5-2500 since I missed the Newegg sale on the i7. Probably way more than I need, but not 100% sure what all I might do with the HTPC yet. I may try Show Analyzer and might also want to use MC-TV converter though I guess I could always run that on my main PC. Mainly I would be stripping the WTV container to expose the MPG so I can also view recordings on my TiVos.

Memory – I have 4GB of G.Skill DDR3 1600 from another PC I upgraded to 8gb so I figured I would use that if I can.

Motherboard – The other thread definitely points me towards Intel which I have had good luck with in the past, but not sure which one to go with. I have always gone ATX, but with HTPC not sure this is needed.

Case – not a clue. I keep going back and forth between a nice tower and a HTPC case. I tend to dislike working in small cases since I definitely don’t have the hands for it, but since this should be pretty much set and forget I don’t think I will be working in the case much. If a tower it would sit next to my entertainment center, or I could put a HTPC case in my center. I have a good 19-20″ of depth and 19″ width max and about 15″ of height. This is pretty much filling the space though. Also this would be on the bottom of the cabinet so I would need a good 4 feet or so for the IR cable unless I find a good Bluetooth or RF remote.

PSU – Not sure what I need. Again I tend to go overkill but I don’t see myself necessarily filling this with 5-6 drives and

VideoCard – thinking of going with onboard assuming there aren’t any issues.

Tuner – Ceton InfiniTV 4 already on hand

Remote – Picked up the cheap MCE remote off Amazon for now since I had credit. I am only going to be controlling my TV and the HTPC so the Harmony remotes seem like overkill. I have heard good things about the Gyration remote, but it seems like those are ebay only these days.

Keyboard/Mouse – The older IOgear reviewed looks like it might be nice though I must say I have never been a fan of trackballs.

DVD Drive – I don’t plan on going Blu-Ray

Thanks guys. I think that covers everything.

I figure I will update this as a I narrow down my choices. I am coming from a TiVo setup which will still be in use, but I have a friend staying with me so I need one more room. My plan is to move a TiVo in his room along with a 360 and put the HTPC in my living room connected to my 58v10 Plasma via HDMI though I do have a PC Port also available. Then in my bedroom I will also put a 360. Between the two of us we would only be watching in two rooms, but we record a lot so all 4 tuners will be running a majority of the time.

 

[swoon]

Did you ever narrow anything down here? If not, I will give some commentary.

[brennok]

Yeah and it ended in failure lol. I built a i5-2500K with the Gigabyte GA-Z68X-UD3P-B3 with 8GB of DDR3 1600 using the Seasonic 660 in a Corsair 600T SE. 

Everything was going fine until I added the Ceton InfiniTV4. As soon as I did the computer wouldn’t load past the loading operating system screen without rebooting and it didn’t matter which PCI-E slot I used.

I ended up just RMAing everything back to Amazon except the memory and Ceton card, and I put the Ceton InfiniTV4 and the memory in my i7 system bumping it to 16GB.

Thanks though. I figure I will put my build plans on hold for a couple months or at least until I finally upgrade my bedroom TV so I can actually hook it up directly.

 

 

[swoon]

That sucks. Sounds like maybe you had a bad motherboard.

[brennok]

Yeah I was thinking that and I just didn’t feel like going through the hassle of RMAing it only to find that wasn’t the case. I emailed Gigabyte Support and they basically had no advice so I figured better to just walk away for now.

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