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[autoboy]

I had much higher hopes for GoogleTV than this.  I’ve really bought into the idea of the Apps store built on a standard OS for set top boxes.  But, their reliance on the browser, mouse, and keyboard are really disappointing.  This whole GoogleTV experience isn’t anything new to HTPC users.

I don’t want to use a browser on my TV.  That’s why I got rid of the HTPC.  It isn’t practical for the rest of the family to be navigating around websites in order to watch 90210 on demand.

[autoboy]

I had much higher hopes for GoogleTV than this.  I’ve really bought into the idea of the Apps store built on a standard OS for set top boxes.  But, their reliance on the browser, mouse, and keyboard are really disappointing.  This whole GoogleTV experience isn’t anything new to HTPC users.

I don’t want to use a browser on my TV.  That’s why I got rid of the HTPC.  It isn’t practical for the rest of the family to be navigating around websites in order to watch 90210 on demand.

[autoboy]

You’re going to be short on power.  That’s a powerful system for a Pico.  The Ceton card alone is said to use 25W.  And you don’t know which voltage that is pulled on.  The Pico provides very little power on the 5V rails.  The Pico is a cool PSU, but I would recommend you walk before you run. 

Fans in your system can be extremely quiet if you pick the right ones, optimize airflow, and enable fan speed control.  Don’t shy away from fanned power supplies.  There are some that are incredibly quiet.  Check out SilentPCReview for their latest recommendation on power supplies.  They won’t steer you wrong over there.  The rest of the build seems great, if a little ambitious for a first try.  I’m not sure you need 8GB of ram coupled with a SSD, 2GB is enough for a dedicated HTPC, but it can never hurt.

[autoboy]

You’re going to be short on power.  That’s a powerful system for a Pico.  The Ceton card alone is said to use 25W.  And you don’t know which voltage that is pulled on.  The Pico provides very little power on the 5V rails.  The Pico is a cool PSU, but I would recommend you walk before you run. 

Fans in your system can be extremely quiet if you pick the right ones, optimize airflow, and enable fan speed control.  Don’t shy away from fanned power supplies.  There are some that are incredibly quiet.  Check out SilentPCReview for their latest recommendation on power supplies.  They won’t steer you wrong over there.  The rest of the build seems great, if a little ambitious for a first try.  I’m not sure you need 8GB of ram coupled with a SSD, 2GB is enough for a dedicated HTPC, but it can never hurt.

[autoboy]

I have some very minor buzzing from my Panasonic 65″ V10 plasma.  But, I also have a small fan running in my entertainment system that maskes the buzz.  These sounds are VERY faint and I only notice them if I strain to find them.  Buzzing is a big problem on some plasmas, but if it is not noticable in normal viewing then i would tend to ignore it. 

You’ll find problems with all sets if you go looking for them.  Plasma seems like it is the best fit for  you.  I can’t imagine that you are very happy with the picture from a LED DLP.  I found their picture to have a big bright spot in the middle, very poor off angle viewing (from relatively minor angles it got bad), and an abundance of the silk screen effect.  My Plasma is worlds better than any of my two rear projectors.

[autoboy]

I have some very minor buzzing from my Panasonic 65″ V10 plasma.  But, I also have a small fan running in my entertainment system that maskes the buzz.  These sounds are VERY faint and I only notice them if I strain to find them.  Buzzing is a big problem on some plasmas, but if it is not noticable in normal viewing then i would tend to ignore it. 

You’ll find problems with all sets if you go looking for them.  Plasma seems like it is the best fit for  you.  I can’t imagine that you are very happy with the picture from a LED DLP.  I found their picture to have a big bright spot in the middle, very poor off angle viewing (from relatively minor angles it got bad), and an abundance of the silk screen effect.  My Plasma is worlds better than any of my two rear projectors.

[autoboy]

I’m hoping the new COD is good.  I’m still playing COD World at War since I have to have customizable servers.  I play tactical.

[autoboy]

I’m hoping the new COD is good.  I’m still playing COD World at War since I have to have customizable servers.  I play tactical.

[autoboy]

[quote=”Skirge01″]
An “IP based interface”?  My guess is that they’ll tweak it just enough so that it’s proprietary and completely negate any actual usefulness.
[/quote]

My guess is that it will be the same as firewire was.  It will be ruined by 5C encryption that nobody can get a license to decode.

[autoboy]

[quote=”Skirge01″]
An “IP based interface”?  My guess is that they’ll tweak it just enough so that it’s proprietary and completely negate any actual usefulness.
[/quote]

My guess is that it will be the same as firewire was.  It will be ruined by 5C encryption that nobody can get a license to decode.

[autoboy]

All PCIe 2.0 cards are compatible with PCIe 1.0 slots on motherboards.  The graphics card will simply default back to PCIe 1.0 mode and it will have no affect on anything since 16x PCIe-1.0 is plenty fast for today’s graphics cards. 

I recommend the AMD 5570 as the best video card option, but even a 5450 or 4350 would work fine if your aren’t concerned about the best image quality possible.

You might even get by with an upgrade to the Ram and the video card only since the video cards now accelerate most video, unless you’ve got a large library of improperly coded content.  The single core Athlon is still faster than an Atom, and a lot of people use an Atom with ION graphics for a HTPC.

My HTPC is a AMD 2.4ghz S754 chip with a 4350 graphics card and it works fine when I use it.  Which is like once a year mostly for testing purposes.  I switched to using extenders everywhere.

[autoboy]

All PCIe 2.0 cards are compatible with PCIe 1.0 slots on motherboards.  The graphics card will simply default back to PCIe 1.0 mode and it will have no affect on anything since 16x PCIe-1.0 is plenty fast for today’s graphics cards. 

I recommend the AMD 5570 as the best video card option, but even a 5450 or 4350 would work fine if your aren’t concerned about the best image quality possible.

You might even get by with an upgrade to the Ram and the video card only since the video cards now accelerate most video, unless you’ve got a large library of improperly coded content.  The single core Athlon is still faster than an Atom, and a lot of people use an Atom with ION graphics for a HTPC.

My HTPC is a AMD 2.4ghz S754 chip with a 4350 graphics card and it works fine when I use it.  Which is like once a year mostly for testing purposes.  I switched to using extenders everywhere.

[autoboy]

[quote=”robinhoody”]
I was a little surprised how many people dont have blue ray yet (me being one of those votes.)  Only reason I havent switched yet is because I only have a tv that plays at 720p.    When I upgrade my TV i’ll def add a blue ray player to the HTPC.
[/quote]

Do you notice the difference between DVDs and HDTV?  If  you do, then you will see a benefit from BD on your 720p TV.

[autoboy]

[quote=”robinhoody”]
I was a little surprised how many people dont have blue ray yet (me being one of those votes.)  Only reason I havent switched yet is because I only have a tv that plays at 720p.    When I upgrade my TV i’ll def add a blue ray player to the HTPC.
[/quote]

Do you notice the difference between DVDs and HDTV?  If  you do, then you will see a benefit from BD on your 720p TV.

[autoboy]

[quote=”Meester.Rip”]
I would think you could buy a AM2+ board, proc and DDR2 pretty cheap whether it be used, refurbished or a cheap combo deal. 1080P isn’t going change like video games as far as graphics hardware goes. If it runs today then it should run several years from now. Unless the pockets are deep.

The only thing I would definitely change on my future main HTPC builds would be to use an ATX board. More options, e.g. more tuners, a 3d capable video card (if there needs to be such a thing), more sata ports (should it get moved to a server).
[/quote]

I think MATX is perfectly suitable.  Just make sure you have things like firewire onboard if you think you will need it.  I use it to change channels on my cable box.

I would go with AM3 since DDR2 will only get more expensive.  AM3 will be more upgradable.  But, you are are wanting to upgrade a board, and Athlon X2 will fit in a AM2+ board.  From what I’ve heard though, it hurts the onboard graphics/video performance because you step back to HT2.0 instead of HT3.0 on the new chips.

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