Ideas for new build of Link Box (small, quiet, cheap, etc...)

[erikhtpc]

I am about to build a new computer or the sole purpose of runing a 40 inch 1080 plasma or LCD on the bedroom.

My main concern is that I want it to be small, * quiet *, and fast enough to run HD without any problems.

** I will never play games on this machine. **

Also, I want it to be on the cheap side.

So am am looking for some nice small form factor build compenents that will work well together.

[Fonceur]

I'd say go for a mATX motherboard using one of those newer chipsets with integrated video (AMD's 780g, GeForce 8200 or INTEL G45) and a 45W or 65W processor... Starting with those, integrated video no longer means cheap and crippled...

[Nick Burns]

You can see my post here for a link machine I built for under $500 (if you don't include the display)

[erikhtpc]

Is the 760G really enough graphics power? If I can avoid a seperate graphics card it will really allow the case to be a lot smaller which is much more ideal.

I just don't want HD video to be a problem.

[nanook105]

I just built a new link box:

Asus P5P MX
Intel 2.4 Dual Core
PNY 8600GT

[Fonceur]

Originally Posted by erikhtpc

Is the 760G really enough graphics power?

They do have acceleration for HD-DVD/Blu-ray, just not sure yet what it means for HD in BTV...

[tscales]

I'm still a fan of a used Dell Optiplex GX620 USFF. Love mine. Drives 1080p flawlessly.

[NickHark]

Originally Posted by tscales

I'm still a fan of a used Dell Optiplex GX620 USFF. Love mine. Drives 1080p flawlessly.

Lots of us have these, thanks to tscales. It an do anything I want at this point. I am very hopeful it can handle the new Hauppauge HD-PVR.

[Nick Burns]

I record solely in digital/HD. I've used the link machine to watch Live TV and had no problems, neither with recorded material.

[purduee]

Inspiron 600M - You can find these laptops cheap on e-bay. DVI out via docking station. ATI Radeon 9000 graphics along with the Cyberlink codec are more than enough for 1080i. Mine is a 1.7GHz, 1.5G RAM, connected via 10/100 ethernet (I'm no fan of wireless).

As for HD-DVD/Blu-ray decode - that's VC1, broadcast HD is just MPEG so I don't think you'll see any real advantage from a VC1 optimized chipset.

On the other hand, if you want to watch blu-ray/HD-DVD on your link box....

[dgw80]

I put together a BTV Link box a couple months ago, starting with an ASUS P1-AH2 barebones PC:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16856110057

I added an AMD 45W single core LE1620 CPU, 1Gb ram (512Mb is enough for a Link box, but 1Gb is cheap), an 80Gb HD (again, why buy more than the minimum for a Link box?), plus a DVD drive, IR remote and copy of Windows XP I already had. I think the total (not counting the parts I already had) came to less than $300.

So far it has worked great. No problems with HD, using the onboard 6150 graphics through a DVI-HDMI cable.

I see that Asus now has a similar model with ATI 1250/HDMI onboard graphics (the P2-M2A690G).

A couple caveats/things I don't like about the P1-AH2:

The optical SPDIF audio connector is on the front panel rather than the back. Dumb.

I haven't been able to get it set up to wake up out of standby via the IR remote. (The MB/BIOS seem like they support it, but maybe I need a different remote?)

The first box I built worked fine, so I put together another one. The DVI output on the second box would not work until I did some minor surgery on the motherboard to add a pull up resistor to the DVI dataclk line. Now it also works great.

Dennis