nwboater

[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

[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

[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

[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=”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]

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

[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

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