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mwong168:
Now for most of the HTPC's I've built for friends and family I've used AMD CPU's along with Gigabyte motherboards.

AMD Athlon 64 X2 5200 Brisbane 2.7GHz 2 x 512KB L2 Cache Socket AM2 65W Dual-Core Processor - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103210&cm_re=amd-_-19-103-210-_-Product

GIGABYTE GA-MA785GM-US2H AM3/AM2+/AM2 AMD 785G HDMI Micro ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128394&cm_re=gigabyte_motherboard-_-13-128-394-_-Product



This board supports HDMI, DVI, VGA and has toslink for optical audio output as well.  This setup also plays back h.64 and bluray rips flawlessly without having to use third party decoders such as CoreAVC.

Ram will depending on what operating system you plan on using.  If you are planning to stick to 32bit then don't bother getting more than 3gb of ram because that is all windows would recognize anyways.  As for RAM speed DDR2 800 will suffice and anything faster then that would be overkill.  Keep your eyes open for mail in rebates and stick to reputable brands like OCZ, Patriot and my personal preference for the moment is Mushkin.

Rest is pretty straight forward and now hard drives are so cheap you can pick up a 1.5TB for just around $100 mark.  I think for under $500 you can have a decent HTPC with storage to spare unless you are a boarder like me  :laugh2:
diazsinger:

--- Quote from: mwong168 on December 07, 2009, 02:15:24 pm ---Now for most of the HTPC's I've built for friends and family I've used AMD CPU's along with Gigabyte motherboards.

AMD Athlon 64 X2 5200 Brisbane 2.7GHz 2 x 512KB L2 Cache Socket AM2 65W Dual-Core Processor - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103210&cm_re=amd-_-19-103-210-_-Product

GIGABYTE GA-MA785GM-US2H AM3/AM2+/AM2 AMD 785G HDMI Micro ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128394&cm_re=gigabyte_motherboard-_-13-128-394-_-Product




You could also stream files from your main pc, so you wont even have to keep things other than your DVR recordings on the pc itself.
This board supports HDMI, DVI, VGA and has toslink for optical audio output as well.  This setup also plays back h.64 and bluray rips flawlessly without having to use third party decoders such as CoreAVC.

Ram will depending on what operating system you plan on using.  If you are planning to stick to 32bit then don't bother getting more than 3gb of ram because that is all windows would recognize anyways.  As for RAM speed DDR2 800 will suffice and anything faster then that would be overkill.  Keep your eyes open for mail in rebates and stick to reputable brands like OCZ, Patriot and my personal preference for the moment is Mushkin.

Rest is pretty straight forward and now hard drives are so cheap you can pick up a 1.5TB for just around $100 mark.  I think for under $500 you can have a decent HTPC with storage to spare unless you are a boarder like me  :laugh2:

--- End quote ---
reko19:
Good info, many thanks. Could someone chime in on DVR interface? Can't picture it being as good as the box I got from the cable provider.
Hoopz:

--- Quote from: reko19 on December 07, 2009, 02:26:54 pm ---Good info, many thanks. Could someone chime in on DVR interface? Can't picture it being as good as the box I got from the cable provider.

--- End quote ---
If you want to build it into the HTPC, then I suggest looking at the BYO PVR site I linked to earlier in the thread.  Unless it changed a lot recently, it's going to have the best resources for what you can do. 

A lot depends on your setup.  Is this machine going to be networked with others or stand alone (albeit with NAS)?  That will affect where you have the capture card and how you have to set it up.

The other question is what are you planning on doing with a dvr in the HTPC that will be different than the one in your existing box?  Do you just want everything in once place and on one menu or is there a need behind the need?

reko19:
The main reason I am looking into this is to get rid of $25 a month for a DVR and to be able to stream videos from Netflix.  I will most certainly look into web site you recommended, this is just some preliminary discussion just to see if I am on the right track.
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