Building a Home Theatre PC (HTPC)
Part 1: Component Selection
Updated: 28 May 2009
I've choosen to start our articles with one on building your own Home Theatre PC or HTPC. Now is an excellent time to build one since not only are prices very reasonable, but within the last year new and exciting parts have become available. Intel boards with GeForce 9xxx on-board graphics (IGP) mean that stutter-free Blu-ray playback on an Intel system is possible. Currently most are micro-ATX boards, but Zotac recently released a mini-ITX with GeForce 9300 & Atom 330 - This board brings Blu-ray playback to miniature sizes and allows fanless operation.
Now we musn't forget that up till recently AMD systems were the top choice for HTPC's due to the 780G IGP. So I will include an AMD build as well. My reason for preferring the Intel system is that almost all E5200's will handle a bus overclock from 800MHz up to 1066MHz often with just the stock cooler, great for only around £50.
So let's start with my suggested spec. I like desktop style cases and I particularly like the NSK2480 since it's such great value for money - £80 for a beautiful case with an 80Plus PSU! There are also some really nice cube cases from Lian-Li and Shuttle, like the Lian Li PC-V350B, but remember that many don't include PSU.
Wherever you look lately the E5200 is coming up tops for an HTPC build, it gives the best balance of performance to price.
The ASUS P5N7A-VM is a lovely HTPC board. It's fanless and has pretty much every feature you could want:
- Back I/O: PS/2, 6xUSB2 ports, optical audio out, gigabit ethernet, eSATA, HDMI, DVI-D, VGA, and DisplayPort, 8-channel audio.
- Onboard headers: S/PDIF coax and 6 more USB2
- Onboard I/O: 5xSATA2, 1xPATA/133, 1xPCIe 16x, 1xPCIe 1x, 2xPCI
For RAM I've chosen 2x2GB, since there's really not much reason to choose less. I also went with ones certified for 1066MHz since the plan is to overclock the E5200. Remember that officially DDR2 only goes up to 800MHz, so any chips above that are factory overclocked and usually include extra heat dissipation measures. You're best going with recognized brands like Kingston, Corsair, or OCZ.
Up till recently the WD Caviar Green was the only good low power (cooler also) standard desktop drive. But Samsung have just released the EcoGreen F2 which is competing well. As far as Blu-ray playback the LG drive is a favourite with many people.
| Type | Choice | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Case | Antec NSK2480 | £80-£90 |
| Motherboard | ASUS P5N7A-VM | £80-£100 |
| Processor | Intel E5200 | £50-£55 |
| RAM | 2x2GB DDR2 1066MHz (Top Brand) | £40-£50 |
| Hard drive | WD Caviar Green 1TB (WD10EACS) or Samsung Spinpoint EcoGreen F2 1TB |
£60-£70 |
| Blu-ray Drive | LG GGC H20L (Blu-ray + HD-DVD) | £70-£80 |
| Remote control | Philips Vista Remote SRM5100 Universal remote control | £20 |
| Wireless KB/Mouse | Logitech Cordless Desktop EX110 | £15-£20 |
| £415-£485 |
You'll notice that there are a few things missing from the list. A display is left out since you'll probably use your existing TV. Also, while many will choose Vista Media Centre, I use MythTV for three main reasons - it's highly customizable, supports decoding of almost any type of media, and is free. MythTV can sometimes be difficult to set up, but why not give it a try, even if you end up using Windows you won't have lost any money and will have gained experience.
That's it for the first part of the article. In future parts we'll look at installing and configuring MythTV.
If you would like a system like the one described above set up for you in your home contact us for a quote. We also do larger house-wide media installs including integration with home automation systems.