My build so far...suggestions?

[davidpat]

I am upgrading an old PC so that it isn't a big financial hit all at once.
Here is what I have so far?
Motherboard - Asus Intel B85M-G Micro Atx Socket Lga 1150
Processor - INTEL CORE I3 PROCESSOR 4330, 3.5 GHZ,
Memory - Patriot Viper Xtreme 8GB 1600 CL11
Hard drive - I am looking at a WD BLACK SERIES WD1003FZEX 1TB 7200 RPM 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard. ($87 from NewEgg) - suggestions?
Video card - I am looking at the ASUS GT630-2GD3 GeForce 2GB 128-Bit DDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready Video Card. ($52 from NewEgg) It has to be a single slot wide, suggestions?

Then I'll get the InfiniTV 6 PCIe or InfiniTV 6 ETH and an Echo.

That should be all I need!!! (right???)

[jjwatmyself]

It looks good. You could do better on the video card IMO. For example, I have a GTS 450 OC 1 GB DDR5, which is single slot, and from what I can see, benchmarks at around double the GT 630. Also, although I don't have direct experience with the Echo, my go to extender is an Xbox 360. The Xbox Video store is used as much as Media Center. I combine with the Logitech Harmony Xbox remote.

I use http://www.videocardbenchmark.net to evaluate GPU performance.

[lithium630]

Are you using the PC for gaming? If not I wouldn't even bother with a video card. All it will do is suck more electricity and add more heat. I would strongly suggest using an SSD to run windows and a separate drive for recording.

[leroys1000]

Maybe a blueray drive if you are going to play movies.

[davidpat]

jjwatmyself - Thanks, I looked at the GTS 450 but it was more than I want to spend. Also all the ones I saw were double slot!

lithium630 - No gaming, but I need a good video card to output to my TV
The plan is Fios through InfiniTV to my PC which will be my DVR, and from there to the TV, Why the SDD, what does it get me?

leroys1000 - The PC I'm upgrading has a BlueRay already in it so I'm good there, thanks!

[lithium630]

That motherboard already has HDMI out, so I'm not sure what else you need. As far as the SSD, there's quite a few threads discussing it.

http://www.thegreenbutton.tv/forums/vie ... f=7&t=7045

In a nutshell the computer will boot much faster, wake from sleep much faster and Media Center will feel much more snappy.

[davidpat]

is that HDMI quality good enough for InfiniTV?

[lithium630]

is that HDMI quality good enough for InfiniTV?

I don't think you'll see the slightest difference. I always liked the minimalist approach for my setups. Seemed like the more parts you have, the more potential for problems. You can always add stuff if needed.

[volfan6415]

I will second lithium. An HTPC does not need a separate video card other than the on-board video card in the core I series.

[christoph86]

I would ask what you are planning on using the echo for? If it's just for live tv and recordings it does pretty well with that in my experience, though there are documented issues noted on this forum that you will likely come across. If you are wanting to playback ripped movies, don't expect it to work well. If you can get it for $99 then it may be worth it. I just don't want you to have too high of expectations for it, but it serves my purposes pretty well. I just have a hard time recommending it.

[newfiend]

Hard drive size is always subjective,.. But I wouldn't buy a smaller drive than a 2TB now. They aren't much more cost wise and the more you mess with media center the more you want to add to it. I never thought I would game on my HTPC until I started adding STEAM big picture mode to my HTPC. Then added a launcher from within WMC.. Its pretty nice to have one machine hooked up to the tv that does tv, movies, games, music..etc.. I have a 1TB drive in mine now I can't wait to replace with a 2 or 3TB soon. You can always add more space/drives later but if your spending money now I would get a bigger HDD. And I can't say enough good things about SSD's! These are awesome for boot drives on any PC!

[mike_ekim]

Its pretty nice to have one machine hooked up to the tv that does tv, movies, games, music..etc..

Agreed 100% We don't really game on the TV anymore and now we do as much as we can through the Roku with the HTPC serving recorded TV. My goal is one box for everything with one simple remote for everything and never switching inputs on the TV or receiver (plus no tangle of wires!).

[barnabas1969]

Its pretty nice to have one machine hooked up to the tv that does tv, movies, games, music..etc..

Agreed 100% We don't really game on the TV anymore and now we do as much as we can through the Roku with the HTPC serving recorded TV. My goal is one box for everything with one simple remote for everything and never switching inputs on the TV or receiver (plus no tangle of wires!).

Your goal sounds great, but in reality it's just easier to use a Roku for all your streaming needs. Switching inputs is easy with a programmable remote like a Harmony or something like my AR-RX18G.

[Dkeyguy1]

I think you're on the right track, but I'm known for overkill on all of mine.
The only thing, if you're gonna do add-on graphics, consider specs 128 bit, DDR5, then memory size and core etc..
1 GB was more than enough for me to do 3D Blu-ray and everything else fine.