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Looking for a little guidance from anyone who's built an HTPC with the primary intent of hosting a 4-ch tuner w/ cable card for use with extenders / other HTPC's around the house: eliminating set top boxes. This machine would reside in the living room, be connected to our 1080p 60" samsung and used primarily for live / recorded TV, but also for occassional browsing, streaming music & movies from HDD, and some light gaming (no BF3 / COD, more like angry birds, sudoku, whatever my wife wants to play). I already have a copy of W7MCE, and intend to use it on this machine, as well as other set-top box replacement HTPC's... and just got the Ceton USB 4-ch tuner for christmas... so it's time to get started ditching the cable boxes. The idea is to do it as cheap as possible, but the budget is unlimited for items necessary to achieve this. So, here are my questions:
1. I have a core2duo E6300 laying around. It's been faithful and OC's well, but has since been retired for a core2quad in my main rig, and I've never used it in this type of environment. It would be regularly called upon to stream content to multiple HTPC's / extenders, act as a DVR, at the same time as streaming a movie on it's connected LED tv - and be left on 24/7. I have a ton of RAM at my disposal, so assuming it has enough to chew on - do any of you think this CPU can hack it in this type of environment? Or would I be better off saving this cpu for a 'media extender' PC for another room where the requirements would be more relaxed?
2. I have a GTX-260 laying around. I know it opens up more possibilities for gaming in the living room than onboard vid or other budget options, but it also requires a beefy power supply, will basically always be running, and at times - will get loud. From what I've read in this forum, I'm thinking this might be overkill - and it's a pretty big card and will obviously limit my choices for cases (although the object here is definitely function over fashion). What are your thoughts? Any suggestions on a quiet VPU that would do the job and has the ability to hook up an HDTV via either HDMI or component? Or is a GTX260 a pretty standard choice for this type of rig?
3. I have an Onkyo 7.1 receiver that's relatively new, and does all my HD video / audio switching. I've never hooked a PC up to anything other than headphones or cheap 2.1 speakers. I would assume a sound card with optical-out would be ideal... but then again that's why I'm here asking these questions. I'm definitely throwing a blu-ray player in this rig, and would obviously be streaming HDTV anyway - so taking full use of my home theater sound rig would be the key here. Anyone have a sound card to recommend?
Any thoughts or comments are appreciated. Cheers & beers.
1. I have a core2duo E6300 laying around. It's been faithful and OC's well, but has since been retired for a core2quad in my main rig, and I've never used it in this type of environment. It would be regularly called upon to stream content to multiple HTPC's / extenders, act as a DVR, at the same time as streaming a movie on it's connected LED tv - and be left on 24/7. I have a ton of RAM at my disposal, so assuming it has enough to chew on - do any of you think this CPU can hack it in this type of environment? Or would I be better off saving this cpu for a 'media extender' PC for another room where the requirements would be more relaxed?
2. I have a GTX-260 laying around. I know it opens up more possibilities for gaming in the living room than onboard vid or other budget options, but it also requires a beefy power supply, will basically always be running, and at times - will get loud. From what I've read in this forum, I'm thinking this might be overkill - and it's a pretty big card and will obviously limit my choices for cases (although the object here is definitely function over fashion). What are your thoughts? Any suggestions on a quiet VPU that would do the job and has the ability to hook up an HDTV via either HDMI or component? Or is a GTX260 a pretty standard choice for this type of rig?
3. I have an Onkyo 7.1 receiver that's relatively new, and does all my HD video / audio switching. I've never hooked a PC up to anything other than headphones or cheap 2.1 speakers. I would assume a sound card with optical-out would be ideal... but then again that's why I'm here asking these questions. I'm definitely throwing a blu-ray player in this rig, and would obviously be streaming HDTV anyway - so taking full use of my home theater sound rig would be the key here. Anyone have a sound card to recommend?
Any thoughts or comments are appreciated. Cheers & beers.