Which M/B & CPU for new htpc

[ferrytrip1]

Hi, just about to embark on my first build and would like advice please.  HTPC will be used primarily for watching movies from file or BD from an optical drive, playing music from internet stations and mp3,  watching internet streamed films & soccer.  Possible tv card, but unsure about this so far.  It will not do any real heavy work or play games as other PCs do this.

I like the Moneual 320 case and will probably choose this over the Slverstone LC-19.

So far – to keep things cool and quiet I am looking at either i3 2100T or an athlon II 240e.  AMD is clearly cheaper. 

I want things to be quiet so the PSU is also important.

Questions:

Are there any advantages for one CPU over the other?

Which M/B would be recommended.  I will spend a good amount on the case so that eats into the budget.

Will I need a dedicated graphics card or will the HDMI output from most boards suffice?

Will a 120w or 150w picopsu be sufficient or will I need a full atx psu (fanless look expensive)

Appreciate the help

Thanks, Simon

[swoon]

For your needs, the new Intel Sandy Bridge Pentium parts may be a good solution. The G620T paired with an H61 or H67-based Intel-branded motherboard should give some great results when it comes to power consumption and heat (or lack thereof) as well as taking care of the other tasks you mentioned. The Intel board also will have an Intel NIC which is preferable. If you get the H67-based Intel board, it will have the Consumer Infrared (CIR) header for connecting an internal IR receiver.

You should only need a discrete GPU for the Intel parts if you need 24p output and you aren’t willing to disable UAC. AMD boards will probably have one of the 42xx IGP parts which are not as feature-complete as Intel IPG. Specifically lacking with AMD are support for 3D material, advanced de-interlacing and audio bitstreaming capabilities.

The pico should be adequate if all you are powering is the motherboard, processor and a couple of drives. If you do want to go with an ATX supply, most decent supplies should be quiet when you are just using them for HTPC duty since they are nowhere close to a load where the fan would have to spin faster. The pico will be more energy-efficient compared to ATX supply.

[DavidStein]

normally I am in favor in disabling UAC, but if you have a smartphone and a remote app (that connects via home network) that you might actually want to use from time to time you can’t disable UAC. for whatever reason, to protect those who have specifically chosen to not protect themselves, microsoft disables being able to pass keystrokes over the network with UAC disabled.

 

Maybe its been fixed since I ran into that problem a while back, but I doubt it.

[ferrytrip1]

Thanks for this – I was not aware of this processor.  Just looked at m/boards – would either of these suit?

Intel BOXDH67GDB3 or Gigabyte GA-H67MA-D2H-B3

Would I get away with one stick of RAM?

If I need to disable the UAC I will ask in the future.

I have found a passive cooler –Akasa AK-395-, which I hope will be cool and quiet.

Thanks

Simon

[Mike Garcen]

Both those boards will do you great, I’m a fan of intel boards for their stability and reliability especially in a HTPC setup.

And sure, 1 stick of RAM is fine, as long as it’s a 4GB stick…that should be the minimum, and if you can splurge go with 8GB total 🙂

[oliverredfox]

You’re better off with 2 sticks of RAM, especially if you’re running onboard video.  You’ll really want to be running in dual channel mode with your memory.

[swoon]

The Intel DH67GD board (review) is a better choice for HTPC. It should be more power efficient, it has an Intel NIC and it has a CIR header.

You can get away with as little as 2GB of RAM. However, try to get a 2x2GB kit because the pricing is not much more and it will add a little bit of performance.

The heatsink you found appears to only be LGA775 and the G620T is LGA 1155. You may want to consider one of the HDPlex chassis options.

[mikinho]

If you go w/ the 320B chassis (both Andrew and I have it) I would suggest the Swiftech MCX-VCore heatsink.  Though if you go w/ the Intel Core i3-2100T the stock heatsink isn’t actually that bad.  To save some cost you could stick with it.

[ferrytrip1]

Thanks for the advice and good spot on my choice of cooler.

Would it be worth the stretch to an i3 or would I see no difference?

Thanks

Simon

[swoon]

i3 would be needed if you are doing CPU-intensive tasks. The early word we have seen so far is that the Sandy Bridge Pentiums look good as far as the core HTPC playback functionality is concerned. If you are doing something like commercial skip analysis or 2D to 3D conversion, something with more CPU horsepower would be a better choice. The Pentiums also lose out on Quick Sync that is in the i3 and up, but you have not specified transcoding as something you’ll be doing.

[babgvant]

Is there a technote associated with this?  LcdWriter simulates keystrokes in a way similar to how any other remote application would and it works fine with UAC disabled. 

[mikinho]

[quote=babgvant]

Is there a technote associated with this?  LcdWriter simulates keystrokes in a way similar to how any other remote application would and it works fine with UAC disabled. 

[/quote]

I believe David is referring to VNC on early Vista and Windows 7 days not being able to send Secure Attention Sequence (aka Ctrl+Alt+Delete) when UAC is disabled. 

This occurs because the SendSAS API restricts usage when UAC is disabled per:

 

To successfully call the SendSAS function, an application must either be running as a service or have the uiAccess attribute of the requestedExecutionLevel element set to “true” in its application manifest. If an application is not running as a service, it must be running as either the current user or the LocalSystem account to call SendSAS. In addition, if an application is not running as a service, User Account Control must be turned on to call SendSAS.

 

The simple solution is a helper service that accepts a custom command to send SAS.  Most variations of VNC and other remote applications have been updated.

[ferrytrip1]

My 320B arrived today.  A little disappointed.  The Manual in the box is for a 312B.  Seems there are different ports on the front of the 312.  The cables to the circuit boards are not marked so there is a risk of getting them mixed up and wrongly connected

I will search for a 320 manual – if anybody has one or can point to a site I would appreciate it.  Otherwise if anybody could send the correct cable identifications for each of the internal cables it would also be appreciated.

Where is the ir receiver in this case?  Which is the connector for the m/b.

Thanks for the help

Simon

[swoon]

Have you looked at our review? Perhaps the photos there will provide a decent illustration for you.

[mikinho]

The user guide (manual) is available via http://www.moneual.com/index.php?option=com_weblinks&view=category&id=2&Itemid=166

 

For the LCDIR you’ll want to use Andrew’s LcdWriter over the provided application.  See his 320B review: http://www.missingremote.com/review/moneual-moncaso-320

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