Planning on building my first dedicated HTPC. Opinions wanted.

[Mojo]

below is the general setup i'm thinking of going for. Any comments or advice would be much appreciated. I want to make sure I've got everything covered before I start buying things. Anyone else using the Shuttle model i'm looking at?

PC: Shuttle SB75G2 i875P Mini BareBone System
CPU: P4 2.6Ghz w/heat sink, fan. 800mhz Socket 478
RAM: 1GB PC3200 DDR
Video: GeForce FX 5600
TV Tuner: Hauppage WinTV PVR-USB2
Hard Drive(s): 200GB 7200RPM 8MB Cache (possibly a second drive, too)
CD-RW Drive of some sort
DVD-RW Drive of some sort
Universal PC remote of some sort
6 in 1 USB2 Card Reader

The above is the basic hardware stuff that i plan on setting up. My ultimate plans for this PC is to have it hooked up to an LCD/Plasma/DLP TV set (haven't decided on which one yet). Also, the Shuttle has digital optical out that i will feed to my Dolby Digital/DTS receive. It will ultimately serve the following functions:
TV Recording/Playback
DVD Playback
MP3/Music Playback
Gaming
Internet Browsing
Possibly other normal computer functions...

To begin with, i'm just concentrating on the TV/DVD/MP3 functions.

[MonsterHTPC]

If you are definitially looking to store alot of TV go with the biggest HD you can afford. I filled up a 250 gig drive rather quickly

little USB-UIRT action with girder will let you do some very nice stuff. Grab some old remote and program it to do whatever you want.

just my two cents.

[Brett]

Circuit City had western Digitals 250gbs w/8mb on sale for $140.00 recently, and I think for as low as $100.00 a couple weeks back. So all I can is recommend purchasing the WD's on sale, as they are cheaper than OEM in most cases.

Circuit City currently has the WinTV PVR2 on sale for $139.99 also not a bad buy.

Buy the rest of your stuff from http://www.newegg.com they totally kick ass.

As for a recommendation on the DVD+/-RW I have a sony and personally love it and would strongly suggest it as well.

Mentioning the WD harddrive reminds me of a sad story: I purchased the 250gb last weekend, got all excited, then realize I could add no more drives to my computer, and would need a IDE controller. Only I could not even add an IDe controller as I had no more PCI slots left. Dang't I am buying my next motherboard with like 10 PCI slots and built in RAID

-Brett

[MonsterHTPC]

Yeah newegg, is great plus they don't charge a life savings for shipping when all is said and done.

you can send that 250 over my direction, I need another for my personal system, the little woman filled it up with opra and good eats shows from food tv. course my 3 seasons of farscape and a hundred movies or so doesn't help. I have planty of room, got some SATA and IDE slots open still.

[burden]

http://www.sfftech.com/showdocs.cfm?aid=447

been looking at the Shuttle as well, here is an interesting link i found ...

[Brett]

Originally posted by MonsterHTPC
you can send that 250 over my direction, I need another for my personal system...

Yeah, I am debating how to handle the situation right now...my current decision is to take no action, but I have considered some wild alternatives...

Grab this for an idea... I am tossing around this:

4x250gb Western Digital (8mb) $600
Basic Mobo/P4 1.5ghz $125
Basic/Slight Upgraded Case $90
PC2100 DDR 256mb $40

And for $875 I just built a terrabyte networked server, that holds about 1500 hours of WMVs Then I would be in serious need of folder navigation, ha!

More than likely, I will end up retiring parts of my current machine into a dedicated PVR box though sometime next December...

But one can always dream,
Brett

[duncan]

Just a couple of other things to consider that *may* or may not affect your decision. Note that I have a SN41G2 HTPC setup so have some experience with a very similar setup to what you are proposing to build:

- Noise. Shuttle boxes are not anywhere near the quietest HTPC setups you can get. They aren't LOUD but they are far from quiet in my experience. Particularly if you fill up the interior space with drives and both slots (PCI/AGP) as that makes for a lot of heat and reduced airflow which results in more fan noise to keep it all cool.

- HD selection. I have read - others may know better - that if you are setting up an HTPC, you might want to consider a 5400 RPM drive rather than a 7200 RPM drive. Reasons being a couple: 1- cost - you can often find close outs on 250GB 5400RPM drives since they aren't that popular (people who want large drives want the fastest available). 2- 5400RPM drives are apparently both quieter and run cooler than 7200RPM drives in general. 5400RPM drives are also apparently plenty fast for doing HTPC type of stuff including video/PVR type applications.

- Limited slot space in a SFF. BTV is soon going to support multiple tuners. If you are a fan of PVR250 setups like many are (and like having everything internal to the case in your home theater which is much cleaner than a bunch of devices hung off each other with things like external tuner boxes etc...), you won't be able to do that unless you use external tuners.

- Limited drive space. You are pretty much limted to 2 HD's in total if you plan on an internal CD or DVD drive. As another person mentioned, you will eat up disk space quickly and being able to have space to just throw in another 200GB+ drive until you can finally get around to burning shows off to DVDs is an option I would DIE for about now. Yes, external drives are an option but they are more expensive and once again, just add more clutter to your HT setup which isn't good. I have an external Sony DVD burner which I like but I wish I would have just bought the internal version instead.

- Do you really need that much power/cost? When I built mine, I bought high end components at the time like you are proposing to do. However, I am contemplating buidling a replacement now and turning this one into just a regular desktop (for many of the reasons that I note in this message...). If you are just going to use the box as an HTPC, you don't need anywhere near the power you are proposing to buy. If it will also serve as your only home computer, then my opinion would change on this and I would say the power/cost is worth it. However, I am contemplating someting more along the lines of the ANTEC HTPC case - which not only solves a lot of my issues noted here but also looks much better/more natural next to HT components - and a mid 2GHz processor (much cheaper than a current high-end processor).

These issues may or may not be important to you in your decision but after having had a system much like you are proposing to build for the past year, I wouldn't do it the same way again.

[MonsterHTPC]

Isn't it always that way though. You get something you didn't need or is wrong, then you spend more money to utilize it in some manner cause you don't want to waist it . . . that's how I got my current HTPC. Bought an extra thermaltake case, cause I was cutting and modding my other one and needed pieces. couldn't let a case sit there, so filled it up

To stay on topic some: I was impressed to find these cases through one of my merchants. Not too shaby.

http://www.impression-brand.com/3002704.asp

Grrrr!! there was a good review someplace but can't find it now. Had it all taken apart and each piece analyzed. Oh Well

PS: if you really want to go all out, and price is secondary you can underlcock a good high end processor helps with heat.

[Mojo]

duncan, thanks for your reply. i appreciate it and had weighed the pluses and minuses of many of the things you mentioned. the primary thing that swayed my decision was the fact that i hope to actually use this PC as both an HTPC and as a gaming machine and maybe even some other normal PC tasks. To begin with, i'm concentrating on the PVR and DVD playback aspect. But once i get an adequate enough display (Plasma/LCD/DSP of some sort), i'll want to take advantage of being able to do most computing functions from my couch.
However, i hadn't thought as much about the clutter factor of having numerous external devices. But, i think i can keep it organized...
Also, i had read that the Shuttle can be a little noisy at times, but i'm somewhat skeptical about it being loud enough to bother me.

With that said, i went ahead and pulled the trigger on the following things:
Shuttle SB75G2 i875P Mini BareBone System
P4 2.8Ghz w/heat sink, fan. 800mhz Socket 478
1GB PC3200 DDR400 (2x512 Kingston)
Jaton GeForce FX 5700 256MB
Hauppage WinTV PVR-USB2
200GB 7200RPM 8MB Cache Seagate ATA100 Hard Drive (TigerDirect has it for $99 after rebate)
NEC ND-2500A 8x DVD-RW

My current desktop is:
Mid-tower
Pentium 3 700Mhz
648 MB RAM
150 GB Total HD Space
NVidia GeforceFx 5200 128MB
Hauppauge WinTV-Radio

So, i will have the freedom of swapping components back and forth, and possibly even turn the current desktop into an HTPC if i'm not happy with the setup and want just a dedicated HTPC.

Thanks for the input, though. I'll let you all know how it turns out!