Opinions Please on new Client for SageTV

[nwboater]

Hi,

I’m going to build a new SageTV ‘Client’ PC. It will replace our old Dell P4. All media is stored on a WHS machine. It will only be used for HTPC duties.

What we hope it will accomplish is:
1. Have lots more power. HD has greatly increased our power requirements, even with hardware acceleration on the GPU. Also we want to use Comskip (a commercial marking software) and it’s very cpu intensive.
2. Be quieter. When we do HD on the old Dell it’s fan winds up like it’s about to take off!
3. Be reliable. Getting worried our old Dell may be getting tired.
4. Keep costs to a minimum but have good value.

Here’s what I am thinking of using: (Please keep in mind that with our internal soundcard we don’t need HDMI. DVI out from the video card is all we need.) All prices are from Direct Canada. Supposedly they include free shipping on over $300.

1. Nmedia HTPC-8000 Red Wooden Desktop Media Centre Case ATX 1X5.25 4X3.5INT Card Reader No PSU $108.86.
[url=http://www.directcanada.com/products/?sku=15270AC3058&vpn=HTPC-8000&manufacture=NMEDIA%20SYSTEM]http://www.directcanada.com/products/?sku=15270AC3058&vpn=HTPC-8000&manufacture=NMEDIA%20SYSTEM[/url]
2. ASUS M4N68T-M mATX AM3 GF7025 NF630A DDR3 PCI-E16 PCI-E 2XPCI SATA2 RAID Audio Motherboard $51.48
[url=http://www.directcanada.com/products/?sku=10530BD6329&vpn=M4N68T-M&manufacture=ASUS]http://www.directcanada.com/products/?sku=10530BD6329&vpn=M4N68T-M&manufacture=ASUS[/url]
3. Kingston ValueRAM KVR1333D3N9K2/4G PC3-10666 4GB 2X2GB DDR3-1333 CL9 240PIN DIMM Memory Kit $68.79
sku=1241184014H&vpn=KVR1333D3N9K2/4G&manufacture=KINGSTON%20TECHNOLOGY%20-%20KVR
[url=http://www.directcanada.com/products/?sku=1241184014H&vpn=KVR1333D3N9K2/4G&manufacture=KINGSTON%20TECHNOLOGY%20-%20KVR]http://www.directcanada.com/products/?sku=1241184014H&vpn=KVR1333D3N9K2/4G&manufacture=KINGSTON%20TECHNOLOGY%20-%20KVR[/url]
4. Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 500GB SATA2 3.5IN 8.5MS 7200RPM 16MB Hard Drive OEM *3YR MFR Warranty* $37.99
[url=http://www.directcanada.com/products/?sku=14120DR8025&vpn=ST3500418AS&manufacture=SEAGATE]http://www.directcanada.com/products/?sku=14120DR8025&vpn=ST3500418AS&manufacture=SEAGATE[/url]
5.AMD Athlon II x4 635 Quad Core Processor AM3 2.9GHZ 2MB L2 Cache 95W 45NM Retail Box C3 Stepping $100.82
[url=http://www.directcanada.com/products/?sku=10360BD5309&vpn=ADX635WFGMBOX&manufacture=AMD#specifications]http://www.directcanada.com/products/?sku=10360BD5309&vpn=ADX635WFGMBOX&manufacture=AMD#specifications[/url]

New parts we already have, or are ordered:
1. Win 7 Home, OEM
2. Antec PSU Basiq BP550
3. Liteon IHOS104 4X BLU-RAY Reader BD-ROM Drive SATA Black Retail Box.
4. Asus Essence ST 5.1 Sound Card.

We will use our old Video card – an EVGA GeForce 8400 GS 512MB 64 bit PCIx. Has DVI out to TV. Might upgrade that later if needed. Will also use our old small monitor (for pc work only), keyboard and mouse.

Note that our only audio use will be from the Analog Outs on Essence ST card.

No HDMI or SPDIF needed.

The HD is more than we need for this application – but the price is great!

While not fitting in with the budget build, I think the extra money for the Cherry wood HTPC case is worth it in our situation. We have large 1958 Klipschorn speakers and some other old furniture in our HT room. And I think it will be a conversation piece. Has anyone here used or seen this case?

Would appreciate any comments, especially on the mobo. Also I can’t tell if this CPU comes with a cooler. Might I need a separate one?

Thanks very much,
Rod

[Meester.Rip]

If I knew I was building an ATX case I would use an ATX board.

My reasons.

1. You can space out the cards you put in for better airflow
2. You never know what you might want to add later. If you already are using a discrete video card and a discrete sound card then 2 of the four slots are full. If you were to throw in a Ceton tuner your PCI-e slot would be goen and now you are already down to 1 and each cards is pretty much on top of the other.
3. I potentially see a USB 3 card in my future also.

[nwboater]

Meester.Rip

Thanks very much for your suggestion. It makes a lot of sense!

Is there an ATX board you would recommend for us?

Also for some reason ‘Preview’ is not working when I want to check my new post. Odd!

Thanks again,
Rod

[Meester.Rip]

I am a Gigabyte fan personally.
If I were to build today I’d go with this one.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128444

I try to find a balance of price and good reviews. And even if I plan on using a discrete video card I like having on board video for troubleshooting or eventually if the board goes into WHS server duty or one of the kids PCs I can get the power savings of the onboard video and better airflow.

[ruwackd]

If you are running the SageTV server on your WHS, I would recommened installing your bluray drive in the server as you can add the drive as an import path and then the disc than becomes availalbe to any of your SageTV clients (assuming AnyDVDHD is running). 

If you are not using the client to run comskip or showanlayzer for commercial skipping, you could save some money by going with an Athlon X2 instead of the x4.  And to save costs even more, have you looked at the HD300 to see if it will meet your needs?  It handles bluray playback (unencrypted) and hd tv, is extremely easy to install/setup, and is silent.

[nwboater]

[quote=”Meester.Rip”]
I am a Gigabyte fan personally.
If I were to build today I’d go with this one.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128444

I try to find a balance of price and good reviews. And even if I plan on using a discrete video card I like having on board video for troubleshooting or eventually if the board goes into WHS server duty or one of the kids PCs I can get the power savings of the onboard video and better airflow.
[/quote]

Thanks for the good suggestion. A fair bit more money, but definitely a board for the future. Again I can’t fault your logic!

Also on our WHS machine, which is the only other computer I have built, I used a Gigabyte board and I’m very pleased with it.

I thought that if I use an Nvidea GPU that I should have a mobo with the same. Guess that’s only an issue with Crossfire. Don’t think I’ll ever use that.

Thanks again.

Rod

[nwboater]

[quote=”ruwackd”]
If you are running the SageTV server on your WHS, I would recommened installing your bluray drive in the server as you can add the drive as an import path and then the disc than becomes availalbe to any of your SageTV clients (assuming AnyDVDHD is running). 

If you are not using the client to run comskip or showanlayzer for commercial skipping, you could save some money by going with an Athlon X2 instead of the x4.  And to save costs even more, have you looked at the HD300 to see if it will meet your needs?   It handles bluray playback (unencrypted) and hd tv, is extremely easy to install/setup, and is silent.
[/quote]

I like the idea of the BD on the server. The problem is that I use My Movies. For some reason MM on WHS has a very low success ratio of finding data. Others have reported the same. So I’ve been doing all my rips on my desktop and have a much better result. I also thought that if a guest brought over a BD it would be handy to just plop it in the PC in our HT room.

I like Sage Extenders – in fact own an HD100 and an HD200. Our problem with that is that I’m also somewhat of an audiophile (audiophool?). The SPDIF out wont give the best audio out with HD audio. Since we are using a sound card in the HTPC there is no easy way to get the full HD audio to the soundcard from the Extender. Otherwise I sure would go with an HD300. For most people they make a lot more sense than a Client PC!

And I do plan on doing Comskip on the HTPC. I was told that I could share Comskip duties between the HTPC and our server – which is only an X2, but haven’t really looked into the practicality of that.  I even thought of putting the new CPU in the Server, but it would increase our power consumption by quite a bit. Also our server has been running so well I hate to touch it!

Thanks for all your ideas.

Rod

[autoboy]

[quote]I like Sage Extenders – in fact own an HD100 and an HD200. Our problem with that is that I’m also somewhat of an audiophile (audiophool?). The SPDIF out wont give the best audio out with HD audio. Since we are using a sound card in the HTPC there is no easy way to get the full HD audio to the soundcard from the Extender. Otherwise I sure would go with an HD300. For most people they make a lot more sense than a Client PC!
[/quote]

You mean that you are using the analog outputs from the HTPC to get HD audio output on your receiver that DOESN’T have HDMI bitstreaming available.  That’s what I think you are saying, because the HD300 can bitstream full HD audio from a blu-ray over its HDMI port to a receiver with HDMI 1.3 inputs.

It sounds like a perfectly good build.  The motherboard is kinda strange since you are using an old Nvidia chipset with bad graphics built in.  I’d go for a modern AMD based motherboard and you can have your pick of either the Nvidia 8400 graphics card you already have, or the AMD graphics built in.  You don’t need to pair the graphics card with a motherboard unless you want SLI or Crossfire for gaming.

I have the Nvidia 7025 chipset in my wife’s computer and it is a perfectly acceptable system for basic stuff, but the graphics lacks most HD acceleration and is really only fit for an office machine.  It’s also a bit long in the tooth when it comes to SATA connections.  But in a HTPC it doesn’t really matter much.

[nwboater]

[quote=”autoboy”]
[quote]I like Sage Extenders – in fact own an HD100 and an HD200. Our problem with that is that I’m also somewhat of an audiophile (audiophool?). The SPDIF out wont give the best audio out with HD audio. Since we are using a sound card in the HTPC there is no easy way to get the full HD audio to the soundcard from the Extender. Otherwise I sure would go with an HD300. For most people they make a lot more sense than a Client PC!
[/quote]

You mean that you are using the analog outputs from the HTPC to get HD audio output on your receiver that DOESN’T have HDMI bitstreaming available.  That’s what I think you are saying, because the HD300 can bitstream full HD audio from a blu-ray over its HDMI port to a receiver with HDMI 1.3 inputs.

It sounds like a perfectly good build.  The motherboard is kinda strange since you are using an old Nvidia chipset with bad graphics built in.  I’d go for a modern AMD based motherboard and you can have your pick of either the Nvidia 8400 graphics card you already have, or the AMD graphics built in.  You don’t need to pair the graphics card with a motherboard unless you want SLI or Crossfire for gaming.

I have the Nvidia 7025 chipset in my wife’s computer and it is a perfectly acceptable system for basic stuff, but the graphics lacks most HD acceleration and is really only fit for an office machine.   It’s also a bit long in the tooth when it comes to SATA connections.  But in a HTPC it doesn’t really matter much.
[/quote]

Guess I should have explained what I’m doing with the audio. I’m taking each of the Analog outs from the Sound card (6 total) to inputs on our power amps. No receiver! Only problem with this is that I’m limited to play what’s on the computer. But since we have all our cd’s, movies, recorded TV and photos on the server it works fine for us. We actually use SageTV for all but critical 2 channel music listening. For that we use JRiver Media Center MC15. It has better audio.

Thanks for confirming that the video card can be a different make than the onboard video unless gaming. We don’t do that so a non-issue.

I’m inclined now to spend the extra money and use the Gigabyte mobo that Meester.Rip recommended. It would allow for a lot more future options.

Cheers,
Rod

[htpc_user]

I agree.  If you are going with that motherboard, then why not just use the onboard video instead of adding the little bit of extra heat and power consumption you’ll have by using the 8400GS?

[nwboater]

[quote=”htpc_user”]
I agree.  If you are going with that motherboard, then why not just use the onboard video instead of adding the little bit of extra heat and power consumption you’ll have by using the 8400GS?
[/quote]

Good point. I’ll try it first with the onboard video. If that works fine I’ll put the 8400GS in the surplus bin!

Not sure what you agree with, but I think it’s using the Gigabyte mobo.

Thanks,
Rod

[htpc_user]

I was agreeing with autoboy’s comment on using the “AMD graphics built in”.  I just got lazy and didn’t quote his comment, LOL.

But, yes, using the Gigabyte board is a good way to go.

[nwboater]

Just placed my order with Direct Canada. A couple of changes over my original build:

1. Gigabyte GA-880GA-UD3H AMD880G ATX AM3 DDR3 3PCIE 2-WAY CrossFireX GBLAN SATA3 USB3.0 Motherbo
[url=http://www.directcanada.com/products/?sku=11830BD4567&vpn=GA-880GA-UD3H&manufacture=GIGABYTE]http://www.directcanada.com/products/?sku=11830BD4567&vpn=GA-880GA-UD3H&manufacture=GIGABYTE[/url]

2. Silverstone Precision PS04B ATX Black Mid Tower Case 4X5.25 1X3.5 5X3.5INT No PS
[url=http://www.directcanada.com/products/?sku=22170AC7935]http://www.directcanada.com/products/?sku=22170AC7935[/url]

The mobo change was a result of recommendations on this Forum. The case change was to save some money as the build was getting a bit pricey.

Thanks to everyone here for their great support. After it’s built I’ll make a post here as to how it’s working. But it sure should be a screamer compared to my old Dell P4!

Rod

[autoboy]

The 8400 was no great video card.  I think you will find that the onboard graphics are just as capable.  That’s too bad about the case.  I thought it was cool.  Not my style, but I can see it being a great piece in an appropriate room.

[nwboater]

[quote=”autoboy”]
The 8400 was no great video card.  I think you will find that the onboard graphics are just as capable.  That’s too bad about the case.  I thought it was cool.  Not my style, but I can see it being a great piece in an appropriate room.
[/quote]

Yeah I was looking forward to the unique case. The build just got too pricey, and I finally had to decide that power was more important than looks. The other thing is we have a good spot to tuck away a conventional case, but the furniture style one takes up quite a bit of room. But maybe someday if I get a few extra coins I’ll get it and move things over.

If the onboard video handles things okay that will be great. Should be interesting.

Thanks for your interest.

Rod

[Author]

Posts