HTPC Thread v.2010

[Benny B]

All this talk about PC vs. Mac has got me thinking that I probably should forgo Mac this one time and simply build a HTPC to my specs instead of waiting for the Mac Mini to upgrade or the Mac Pros to come down in price (which might be forever).  Ideally, I want to be able to ditch my cable subscription completely as most non-network shows and sports I watch now are on the web (granted not in HD quality, but that seems to be slowly changing).

As there appears to be no shortage of the requisite knowledge amongst the Scoop crowd, let me pose the following questions since the last time I built a system, it had these new, cutting-edge ports called "Universal Serial Bus" that no one had heard of but were going to transform the industry.

My goals (in order of importance):

A. Be limited only by my download speeds when watching MLB.tv (in HD mode).
B. Rip my entire DVD collection over the next year or so (~200 DVDs)
C. Upgradable to new/future technology (e.g. Blu-Ray, HD3D, etc.)
D. Play 720p (with ability to go to 1080p when necessary) flawlessly on my 52" HDTV.
E. Under $600, at least for now.

Note - I do not intend to use the HTPC for gaming purposes. 

Questions:

1) Processor - For ripping/encoding, is there a particular line that outperforms others?  Should I focus on a certain socket (for upgrade purposes) or just plan on buying a new MOBO if/when I do upgrade CPU?
2) RAM - Does the benefit of 4GB DDR3 outweigh the additional cost over DDR2?  Does clock speed make much of a difference?
3) Will a decent iGPU suffice for watching MLB.tv in HD or do I need to get the video card now?  What are the minimum specs I should look for in an iGPU or discrete video card?
4) Anything else I should keep in mind or any other suggestions/recommendations?

[reinko]

All this talk about PC vs. Mac has got me thinking that I probably should forgo Mac this one time and simply build a HTPC to my specs instead of waiting for the Mac Mini to upgrade or the Mac Pros to come down in price (which might be forever).  Ideally, I want to be able to ditch my cable subscription completely as most non-network shows and sports I watch now are on the web (granted not in HD quality, but that seems to be slowly changing).

As there appears to be no shortage of the requisite knowledge amongst the Scoop crowd, let me pose the following questions since the last time I built a system, it had these new, cutting-edge ports called "Universal Serial Bus" that no one had heard of but were going to transform the industry.

My goals (in order of importance):

A. Be limited only by my download speeds when watching MLB.tv (in HD mode).
B. Rip my entire DVD collection over the next year or so (~200 DVDs)
C. Upgradable to new/future technology (e.g. Blu-Ray, HD3D, etc.)
D. Play 720p (with ability to go to 1080p when necessary) flawlessly on my 52" HDTV.
E. Under $600, at least for now.

Note - I do not intend to use the HTPC for gaming purposes. 

Questions:

1) Processor - For ripping/encoding, is there a particular line that outperforms others?  Should I focus on a certain socket (for upgrade purposes) or just plan on buying a new MOBO if/when I do upgrade CPU?
2) RAM - Does the benefit of 4GB DDR3 outweigh the additional cost over DDR2?  Does clock speed make much of a difference?
3) Will a decent iGPU suffice for watching MLB.tv in HD or do I need to get the video card now?  What are the minimum specs I should look for in an iGPU or discrete video card?
4) Anything else I should keep in mind or any other suggestions/recommendations?

Nerds, ENGAGE!   

[mu_hilltopper]

Ripping 200 dvds is interesting.  Without compression, each is 6-8gigs * 200 = 1.5 TB just for DVDs -- and that's before you're saving off any TV shows.  I'd imagine .5-1.5 tb for that, so now you're up to 2-4 TBs .. that's about $150-300 in storage (at least) of your $600 budget.

But furthermore, the investment in time to rip is pretty high too, say 8-10 minutes per DVD = 26-33 hours of your life, flipping discs in and out. 

As for the questions ..
CPU won't matter that much.  Most mid-range dual cores would be fine.   When ripping, it's not the CPU that's the bottleneck, it's the DVD reader .. and your harddrive.

As for RAM, again, DDR2 or 3 .. either is fine .. clock speed should not factor in to your decision.   The bottlenecks aren't CPU and RAM.

Dunno about the GPU question.

One thing I would suggest .. I just bought a small SSD drive, 30 gigs for $80 after rebate. 30 gigs is plenty for an OS and a ton of programs.   Since you'll have 1-2 other huge TB drives in your machine, that'll be where your video resides.

The SSD will mean boot up and shut down will be quick, programs coming up, etc, etc.

[chcsportsfan]

Last Summer I built my own computer for the first time and I too wanted to rip my DVDs onto my harddrive.  However, in order to make them watchable through my computer (not just saved as an .iso file for example) took ~ 2 hours apiece, but the quality was lowered to around 1.5 GB per dvd.  Keep in mind you might burn out your disc reader doing this.  There are 2 TB hard drives out there for under $150 and if you buy a case that has multiple slots and a mother board with multiple sata ports (which I would assume you would be doing), you can always start with a large harddrive (and partition if you want) and always add more as necessary. 

I also would recommend buying RAM online as it is much cheaper then in the stores.

But under $600 is going to be tough with everything you want to do.  Here were my expenses:

Case ~100
HDD ~130
Disc Drive ~40
Motherboard ~120
Ram ~45
Processor ~100 (I think I cannot remember this cost)
Dual channel receiver (hauppage 2250) for recording tv ~ 100

Granted this was 10 months ago, so prices might have gone down, but technology has gotten better and I am sure you want closer to top of the line stuff now.  Also this price does not include any software, so depending on what you want.  Linux is decent for a free OS, but if you spring for say Windows 7, that is going to jack up the cost.  Good luck!

[Benny B]

Some good info so far... I do think it will take at least a year (maybe two) to get my DVD's onto a HDD so I'll probably start with a 750G drive and simply buy a new one when I run low on space.  $600 is my budget just to get started.

Glad to know that the CPU & RAM aren't bottlenecks... that should save me at least a hundred dollars by downgrading those parts; although I do like the lower voltage requirements of DDR3.  Since I can always add a video card later, I'll probably just get a MOBO with an average iGPU to see how she flies.

[Sir Lawrence]

Let me know when one of you can put together something like this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=7H0K1k54t6A

[mu_hilltopper]

I would not go with the 750gb drive.  For $25-50 more you can get 1.5tb.  Easy trade off.

Here's a 1.5tb for $99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822152175

[ChicosBailBonds]

I would not go with the 750gb drive.  For $25-50 more you can get 1.5tb.  Easy trade off.

Here's a 1.5tb for $99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822152175

Agreed.

My only warning to all of you guys....I'd pick up TWO of these drives. I had a 1 TB drive that had all my video backup (HD videos of the kids, etc) and it failed (Western Digital).  I spent over $750 to get the files recovered.  So now I have two hard drives over 1 TB each and dual backup both.  The really really really important stuff I also put offsite via Jungle Disk and pay a monthly fee for.

[mu_hilltopper]

Just a comment .. I've recently started using SkyDrive (from Microsoft) .. they give you a whopping 25 gigs for free.  Couple that with a program called Gladinet, which maps a drive to Skydrive .. and you've got 25gigs of free "cloud" backup.  (Not enough for a ton of DVDs, but no one is stopping you from signing up with multiple email addresses.)

[ChicosBailBonds]

Just a comment .. I've recently started using SkyDrive (from Microsoft) .. they give you a whopping 25 gigs for free.  Couple that with a program called Gladinet, which maps a drive to Skydrive .. and you've got 25gigs of free "cloud" backup.  (Not enough for a ton of DVDs, but no one is stopping you from signing up with multiple email addresses.)

Thanks, I'll have to check them out.  At first I tried Mozy and had all kinds of issues.  Then I tried another outfit, can't remember their name....I've had very good success with JungleDisk which is basically an Amazon.com product.

I'll take a look at SkyDrive....appreciate the information

[Benny B]

I would not go with the 750gb drive.  For $25-50 more you can get 1.5tb.  Easy trade off.

Here's a 1.5tb for $99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822152175

I hear ya... it's actually showing $90 today.  The only hiccup is that I found a great combo on Newegg that has just about everything I'm going to need to get my HTPC started (http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.359138).

The downside is that it already comes with a Seagate 750G HDD, the upside is the combo is only $300 (after rebate) which allows me to spring for the Samsung 1.5T HDD now.  With Win7 64 and some miscellaneous parts and shipping, I should be comfortably within my $600 budget.

Now I sit back and wait for the combo to be restocked.