Thread: Reccommendations for a Home Theater PC.

All looks fine to me but I did not see an optical our on the MOBO for sound. I think you should either get a MOBO with optical out of buy a sound card with it.

For an HTPC, you should look for low power consumption as this is a PC that will be used frequently and will more than likely stay on most of the time. I highly recommend an Antec Earthwatts PSU for an HTPC. I am using the 430w PSU in my HTPC.

Here is the 380w for $44.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-033-_-Product

Here is the 430w for $69.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-034-_-Product

The GPU you picked out says it requires a 400w PSU, but I am not so sure about that. If that is the case, I recommend the 430w.

I highly recommend the WD Green drives for an HTPC. Here is a 1.5TB drive for $89.99. You would get an extra 500GB for only $15 more, plus you will lower your power consumption. I have 3 WD Green drives in my HTPC, and they are great. Just because they are "Green" doesn't mean they won't be able to do the things you need for an HTPC. I record, stream HD content, and do other things on my HTPC I shouldn't mention on this forum, and they work great.

Memory choice should be fine.

Here is the GPU I have in my HTPC. It is similar to what you selected, but it is the ATI 4000 series. For an HTPC, you shouldn't need more than 512MB of video memory. Most issues with HD playback involve multi-threaded decoding. Your CPU should be able to handloe most of that.

Gigabyte ATI Radeon HD4850 512MB - Only $29.99 after mail in rebate!, which should save you some more money after spending a little extra on the PSU and hard drive.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814125250

You should not need a dedicated sound card, so if you can find a motherboard with onboard Optical, you should be fine.

Also, check out this article:

http://www.computerpoweruser.com/edi...=&bJumpTo=True

It is more about building an HTPC for streaming across a network, but it gives you a good idea on what to look for in a good HTPC. Also check out this article:

http://www.computerpoweruser.com/edi...05%2F25c05.asp

This is more for a higher end HTPC, but it can give you some ideas. Remember that you can always upgrade your HTPC down the line with BluRay, video capturing, and other stuff. Just get the core infrastructure done with more modern components so you are not forced to upgrade in the future.

By the way, I have had the same HTPC in my living room for almost 3 years. It is as follows:

• AMD Athalon X2 3600 (socket 939)
• 2 GB PC3200 (DDR2)
• ATI Radeon HD4550 512mb
• ASUS Motherboard (don't even remember the model) with onboard SPDI/F Audio
• WD Green 640GB, WD Green 1TB, WD Green 1.5 TB Hard Drives
• Gigabyte Wireless G Network Card - This is hardly used as I have powerline networking to my HTPC.
• Lite-On BluRay player
• Windows 7 OS

So you can see it is an outdated system, but it does everything I need from it at the time. The more important components were the onboard devices on the motherboard, the hard drives, and PSU. I acutally went through 3 PSUs until I found one that was quiet. I am in the marked for a new video capture card as my died recently. You also might want to invest in a few Zalman fan speed controllers to quiet the box.

Make sure you store it where it has some room to breathe. Often, the CPU fan and PSU fan will speed up to help cool if you are not letting enough hot air escape.

Updated list with Bunni's & Heavy G's reccommendations.

Is there anyway to turn on the HTPC using a remote control?

Originally Posted by WileECyte

His video card has HDMI out, so he shouldn't need optical out for audio.

Did not realize that the HDMI out on a vid card had sound. Learn something ever day I suppose.