Hi all.

I'm very new to this forum, and have with interest read some threads about systems similar to the one I'm planning to get. But me being a Linux and MythTv newbie I'm still not confident in my own choices without getting some feedback upon them.

If anything seems wrong, stupid or extra nice or whatever, I would appreciate your feedback.

I'm working on choosing an HTPC config to purchase and build, this is the current setup-to-be:

Antec Fusion, Media Center Case, Built-In VFD Display, USB/Firewire Front, 430 Watt, Black/Silver
Athlon64 3200+, 2.0GHz, 512KB Cache, 0.09 Micron, Orleans Core, Socket AM2, BOX
250,0 GB - SATAII-300 - 7200 RPM / 16MB, Native Command Queuing (NCQ), Softsonic FDB! - Barracuda 7200.10
512 MB DDR2, PC4200 DDR2-533 - KVR533D2N4/512
WinTV-PVR500MCE, Windows Media Center Edition, Without Remote Control and software, Bulk
AD-5170 DVD±RW, DVD±Rx18, Dual Layer DVD-R DLx6/x8, Internal, 2MB, White, Bulk
M2NPV-VM, nVidia nForce430 / GeForce6150, GLAN, 6 Channel Surround Audio, Onboard GeForce6100 VGA, SATAII RAID, Firewire, PCI-Express, DDR2-667/800, Socket AM2

The entire system totals at about 600€. I will be using an Panasonic PT-AE700E as display (so 720p).

And I'm also pondering about getting an IRBlaster to mount by the VFD, behind the dark shielding glass, if that is doable? Or would any other solutions be preferred?

I _might_ run the computer in dual boot for occasional Windows usage, but on the other hand, I might not.

Any opinions, feedback or suggestions?

Cheers!

_________________
/Stefan

The system you are looking to build is more than a little bit similar to the one I just completed. Here is the thread I started for my little upgrade project: http://www.mysettopbox.tv/phpBB2/viewto ... highlight=

Now for some comments on your hardware choices:


I would suggest looking at the Antec NSK2400 case. It is the same chassis however it doesn't have the volume knob, the VFD or the hidden DVD drive. It is however about $100 cheaper than the Fusion. I didn't see the volume knob as value added and it's rumored not to work with digital outputs anyway, also the VFD is low-end and doesn't have a remote sensor. For what you save going with the NSK2400 you could buy a higher end 5.25" VFD with an IR receiver and put it in the sencond bay.
(You can see more details and pictures of my NSK2400 in the above link)

For not a great deal more you could go dual core with the Athlon 64 X2 3800+. I waffled back and forth between single and dual core and am glad I went dual.

Looks good, perhaps a little small for HD if you ever go that route

Why only 533 MHz? The board supports 800MHz RAM, no reason not to get full speed stuff. 512 MB will be good enough but might be worth looking into getting a 1 GB. Could always add another 512 later. Be sure to get 1.9V RAM, the ASUS motherboard is VERY picking on RAM voltagages. Do your homework!

Good choice. Try to get a version A card with the Phillips tuners. They have much better support than the version B with the Samsung tuners.

White? I hope you plan on painting it! Otherwise it will look hideous with your case.

A good motherboard no doubt however it has a few quirks. First you have to purchase a seperate add on card to get digital audio! What a pain. Second, it's quite picky on RAM voltage (needs 1.9V RAM). Third, pretty much no overclocking features. I was planning on the M2NPV-VM but ended up going with the Abit NF-M2 nView. Similar price without the quirks. Only downside on the Abit is that it has absoluetly no legacy ports.

I hope this information is helpful to you. Best of luck on the box!

Martian

_________________
ABIT NF-M2 nView | Athlon 64 X2 3800+ | 2GB DDR2 800 | HDHomerun | GeForce 6150 (onboard) | WD 640 GB SATA HD | DVD-RW (sata) | StreamZap IR receiver with Logitech Harmony remote

Vizio 37" LCD HDTV (1080p)

I know I read through that thread before posting


I actually started out with the 2400 and I'm still thinking about it, but the aluminium and the hidden DVD might be worth the extra cost to me. The volume knob however I think make the case uglier.


I'm not sure the extra power would be of any use really, and when it comes to single-threaded CPU-heavy tasks, the 3200+ might be better, otoh they use the same clock frequency, the X2 3800+ has twice the cache etc and is about 10€ more. I'll give it some thought, but I'm already at a price I find a bit too high

If they start sending proper HD stuff on our cable I just might, but then again, I'll probably just get another HDD when that time comes (it'll probably be years).

Because the 800MHz ones cost more and I'm not sure I need that kind of memory performance atm. I'm using my ordinary PC for making music and software development, and that one is using 400MHz DDR (not DDR2) and I just recently upgraded to 1gig on it. Does PVR stuff need really fast RAM?
The voltage thingy was a good spot however, thanks for that one! The memory I had listed is 1.8V. If asus web site would be online I'd double-check, because nowhere I look I can find any info on what voltage they support for RAM. But it's very good you told me, I didn't know about this.

That might prove to be a bit tricky I guess. Does it work with the samsung ones? Are they worse in picture quality? Would any other choice of TV tuner card(s) be better?

If I go the NSK-2400 route I will probably pick a black DVD instead, but as the DVD is hidden on the Fusion, I don't see the issue with it being white. This one is cheaper than the black/silver ones.

I know about the card thingy, and it'll cost me about €15 to get that bracket, which sucks, but the cards I find with digital out doesn't have the 6150, and if I find that I _need_ digital out, I guess I'll just order the darn bracket. I like getting the composite out in addition to the DVI out. I've never used overclocking in the past and I doubt that I will in this one. Unfortunately the retailer I'll probably by from doesn't carry Abit, nor basically any other decent 6150 card apart from the Asus ones.




It was most appreciated! I feel totally lost most of the time trying to figure out how to configure my HTPC box

_________________
/Stefan

I'd second what Martian says. Dual core makes for a very smooth experience. MythTv may want to do commercial flagging while you're playing HD content etc., and there's loads of headroom for it with an X2. That said, single core would probably be adequate.

I think it will be quite easy to stealth a drive in the NSK2400 - the web is full of tutorials. If I could only locate my drive cover I'd do it.

Thanks! I'll have a look around and see what kind of work and money would be involved in using the NSK2400 and getting a stealthed drive + internal "hidden" IR receiver and preferably a VFD (those usually have IR receivers in them it seems). The main issue would then probably be aesthetics. I want the front of the case to have an "uniform" appearance.

_________________
/Stefan

The stealthing business is basically: remove the plastic from the front of the drive, pare down the back of the original drive bay cover to make it thin and flat, stick it on to the drive tray with double-sided foam adhesive tape stuff, meanwhile sticking something solid (a lump of plastic) over the eject button, so you just press on the bottom of the drive cover to open the drive.

That would indeed be a fancy stealthing solution, just saw this mini-tutorial describing that exact method:
http://www.techtastic.ca/articles/stealthdrive.html

An all-black VFD thingy with an IR receiver residing in the other 5.25" tray would probably look good enough as well.

Will keep looking around for a nice VFD with good value for the money. I just want something basic, showing current time, play length etc. I hate spectrum analysers on equipment not used for analysing spectrums...

I really appreciate all your input on this, thanks again.

_________________
/Stefan

I understand wanting to cut costs with the slower memory. Just be sure to consider the future into your equation. It'd be a real shame to later pair up an 800 MHz stick with a 533 MHz stick. Also, 1.8V memory should work but anything greater than 1.9V would certainly cause problems with the ASUS board.

As for the tuners I think it's kinda a crap shoot. I got lucky and got one with Phillips tuners before they switched. I believe the Samsung tuners will work but they may require some manual driver updates or other tweaking to get an acceptable picture. Probably worth doing a little research before clicking the "buy" button.

I was thinking about my NSK2400 when I made the comment about the white DVD drive, I forgot that you were planning on going with the stealthed drive on the Fusion. My bad. Actually I bet a black slot loading drive would look pretty awesome on the NSK2400. Might need to look into that

If you do go with the Asus motherboard I would suggest picking up the digital audio card now if you think you might ever need it. I'm guessing those cards are going to get mighty hard to find once they stop making the board. Heck, they aren't real easy to find now!

One more thing on the Asus board. It doesn't have a serial port only a serial header just in case you were planning on using a serial adapter for your remote.

Looks like you're doing your homework, I'm sure you will be very pleased with the results! I know I am pleased with my box.

Once again, best of luck to you!

Martian

_________________
ABIT NF-M2 nView | Athlon 64 X2 3800+ | 2GB DDR2 800 | HDHomerun | GeForce 6150 (onboard) | WD 640 GB SATA HD | DVD-RW (sata) | StreamZap IR receiver with Logitech Harmony remote

Vizio 37" LCD HDTV (1080p)

Ah ok, good, since all the memory sticks I looked at at my current "retailer of choice" was 1.8V.

If I 2-3 years down the road feel a need to go up to one or two gigs I could get rid of the current stick or get another 533'er. Nothing is written in stone yet though, so I'm keeping all my options open


Indeed, I've noticed instructions on how to update the firmware of the PVR-500 in tutorials I've read (or, well, glanced through), but I need to take a better look at this. I don't want to end up with a crappy image quality.


Or you could stealth it, as stated in this thread. Seems like a very viable option to me


Indeed! I've found _one_ retailer in Sweden so far that are carrying those. Geez.


I noticed this today too, and irblaster.info carries no receivers with a header as far as I can tell, but I've asked him in an e-mail what he'd suggest. OTOH, if I go the NSK route I will probably want to add an VFD to that one. Still plenty of decisions to make


I'm trying to. I've never spent this much time researching for any other equipment I've ever bought, that's for sure. I've been looking at this almost daily for maybe a month now. It's becoming less and less of a jungle.

Cheers again!

_________________
/Stefan

That stealthing looks pretty cool. I'm not sure it's very two-year-old proof though so I think I'll stick with my black painted drive for now.

You should take a look at the imon VFD's, I think they have supprted IR receivers built in. I might look into adding one to my system in the future.

You might try Ebay for the digital audio card. I saw a few on there when I was looking. Of couse that was in the states.

Martian

_________________
ABIT NF-M2 nView | Athlon 64 X2 3800+ | 2GB DDR2 800 | HDHomerun | GeForce 6150 (onboard) | WD 640 GB SATA HD | DVD-RW (sata) | StreamZap IR receiver with Logitech Harmony remote

Vizio 37" LCD HDTV (1080p)

Unfortunately they seem to cost more then the case itself here in Sweden. Will keep looking around



Good tip! Thanks!

_________________
/Stefan

Sorry for the bump, and maybe a separate thread would have been better but...

If you'd build your own VFD by buying an ordinary serial connection display and hooking that up (there are quite nice ones, cheap too) and using an irblaster, how would you go about with the actual 5.25 bay? Would you build yourself a cover out of dark acrylic glass or are there good covers you could get? I've been trying to find one, but to no avail.

I don't get why all ready-to-buy 5.25 VFD's are so ugly, I just want a single dark surface with a simple display behind it and the possibility to place an IR receiver behind it if one isn't included. And there's really no point if the VFD costs as much as it'd cost me to get the Fusion instead.

Sorry for all the questions, but like I said, I'm a total newbie at this

_________________
/Stefan

Bringing an old thread to life here.

Still in the process of deciding upon my setup, at the moment I got this in my "shopping cart":
Kingston DDR2-800, 512MB, CAS 5
Asus M2NPV-VM, nForce430, AM2
Asus DRW-1814BLT, SATA, Black, Retail
Antec NSK2480, Desktop, 380 Watt PSU
AMD Athlon64 X2 BE-2300, EE, BOX
2 x Hauppauge WinTV-PVR-150, Retail

Have sent an e-mail to the retailer asking if they could get for instance an Abit AN-M2HD, and if that is a good alternative motherboard. Anyone here used it with MythTV?

Also I'm still a bit concerned about the TV-tuner cards. I'm now going for two 150's instead of one 500, because it seems some people are reporting that the 500's are having more driver and quality issues? However, it seems a lot of people are having quality issues with the 150's too? Any other TV tuner card that would be a better choice?

About the 150's, they both come with a remote and I guess, from looking at hauppauges site, IR blaster functionality?

Man, this sure is taking forever for me It's a frigging jungle

_________________
/Stefan

I have the PVR-500 dual tuner card with Samsung tuners purchased about 1.5 years ago. I had mixed feelings about it for a while. Tinny sound on some channels, some fine tuning issues, etc. Things got better with R5F1, but now all the problems have gone away with R5F27 and I am very happy with it.

Good call going with the dual core cpu. I'd put 1gb of RAM in. You don't mention the disk so if you're still thinking of 250gb, I'd say go larger. I keep a lot of cooking and home improvement shows on the box for future use, and when you do that the space fills up fast. You may want to keep music, or photos, or movies on the box, and then you'll have the same problem, less room for TV shows. Good luck with things!