Building a HTPC, few questions

[ride365]

Well i am in the procces of building a HTPC and i have a few questions, Yes i have read the sticky. First i plan on buying the new Ceton 4 tuner card when it comes out, and i was wondering would a core I-5 be enough to hadle this flawlessly. Second what video card would you reccomend for a 50" plasma at 1080I with HD channels. Last i need a Very quiet PSU what would you reccomend. Thank you.

 

[coldsleep]

1) Sure.
2) Anything with an HDMI or DVI output?
3) Check silentpcreview.com for their suggestions. I hear good thing about Antec's (?) Earthwatts series. Or something.
4) Read the sticky again. Really read it.

 

[shortstuff_mt]

The core i5 is more than enough for a HTPC. All that's really needed for strictly a HTPC is a dual core. I have two dual-tuner TV tuners in my HTPC. I can easily record four shows at a time with a 3.2GHz Core 2 Duo. The same goes for HD content on your TV. Even integrated graphics will easily handle HD 1080i.

I would follow the format in the "How to ask for new build advice" sticky so we can optimize a build for your intended use. I can't really recommend a PSU without knowing the components it will be required to power.

 

[False_Dmitry_II]

Seems to me a AM3 mobo with HD 3300 graphics with nearly any CPU (except the sempron) would do this just fine. i5 seems like a super expensive way to go for just an HTPC.

The one we're using now is just my dad's previous "guts" after he rebuilt his. The HTPC has a x2 4200+ with a HD 4670 (he was after a good HDMI card, for bluray)

 

[ride365]

The only reason i was thinking about going with the i-5 was that i was thinking that i might need some extra power because of the 4 tuners i was planning on using

 

[False_Dmitry_II]

Tuner cards do most of the processing onboard.

 

[mindless728]

if all you need is simple DVR (ie record then watch) an AMD Athlon II x2 is all you may need, though if you want to re-encode the recorded media from what ever the ceton cableCard tuner outputs into say H.264, then the i5 would allow you to do this faster

i also can't wait for that Quad Cable Card tuner, $400 seems like a good price to me IMO

 

[False_Dmitry_II]

For reencoding something you're going to keep, it seems to me that you could just run that on your main computer. That after all will not happen as often. No need to go with more than is necessary.

 

[Wolfshadw]

Note to all: The Ceton card recommends a 2.7 GHz Dual-Core processor.

http://www.cetoncorp.com/ProductsWMC.php (requirements tab)

-Wolf sends

 

[mindless728]

Note to all: The Ceton card recommends a 2.7 GHz Dual-Core processor.

http://www.cetoncorp.com/ProductsWMC.php (requirements tab)

-Wolf sends

good catch, and 3GB of ram

though i would imagine that it would be fine on a slightly slower processor and less ram, just a precaution for people who don't have hardware acceleration from the gpu for the video more than likely

 

[False_Dmitry_II]

Ugh, it really does just say 2.7 dual core. Does this mean pentium D dual core? If it does the slowest athlon ii dual core will be more than enough. Does this mean athlon ii? That's a bit harder to meet.

That's a pretty useless number.

Either way if you went with either of the athlon ii x3 CPU's that's an extra entire core not caring about what architecture they were actually talking about.