Lenny_Nero Posted February 9, 2007 Posted February 9, 2007 The gpx cards you are looking at are waaaay over kill for a HTPC/media PC, look in my sig at the Asus and see the card I use in mine that is more than enuff. You want to get a quick'ish CPU single core is fine, but the main thing I have found is Hdd space I have 960 GB for stuff to watch 74 for OS'es, but I also have another box as a media server, putting in another DVD is too much like hard work when it can get encoded at a good rate to XviD and take up half the space and always be there The best thing the board has is an aux TV out so with that card I can run 3 TV's (well 2 and another one is a 28'' TV that has a monitor mode) and a monitor without using a breakout box. Canopus and Osprey do some good capture/edit cards if you want to do a lot more than just cap TV and cut the adverts, but I end up getting most of my digital TV via my Twinhan cards. I have a Turtle Beach, Santa Cruz card, but have it pulled so I can have space for other cards, and the onboard does very well thru some Nad amps, TDL Studio 1's, Missions and a Rel Q4000. Its a balancing act, I ended thinking that I watch more stuff at lower volumes where I cant 'really' hear much difference, the big loss is true 5.1 but... MythTV is better than XP MCE, but mine spends most of the time with it running Win2000. Also HD is more than just a few cables believe me. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Radiohead Posted February 9, 2007 Posted February 9, 2007 I can't foresee myself going the HD route, My TV may be HD but my satellite signal isn't. I'm sure this is gonna take a slew of experimnetation but I'll most likely start putting this box together this weekend. I'm expecting the motherboard today, all the other parts are right here in my hands. I'm liable to be back with a lot more questions but I'm gonna make this happen. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
stuff72 Posted March 29, 2007 Posted March 29, 2007 A couple of suggestions... Something that I try to do is to eliminate every unnecessary component from the case. More parts = more heat = more fans needed to cool. Example, If you can get by with one big hard drive, instead of two small ones, do it. Use every onboard feature that will meet your needs. Check and see if the onboard sound has an SPDIF connection. You want the tuner to do the sound processing, not a sound card. If that's the case, you may not need a sound card to hook up to your tuner. I also try get by with a relatively small PSU which will create less heat and save a little $$$. I use a 380W SeaSonic for my setup. Rock solid and energy efficient. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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