Home Theater PC
 

I'm thinking about building a HTPC. What is everyone else using? Specs? Configuration? Explain.

Can be done but not good for the eyes..

Id just get a pre made box... More expense, but less hassel...

I bought Logitech Z-5500 speakers for my comp and I get off the the way they sound every day. Phenomenal... and for the price you can not go wrong. THX certified and all that shit. Worth every penny

http://www.logitech.com/repository/335/jpg/2412.1.0.jpg

Was thinking about doing one. The key is in getting the right case and proper cooling so you don't have to listen to a bunch of noisy fans when you are trying to watch a movie.

Here's a real cool one:

http://store.pcpowerzone.com/silcblatxhoe.html

just don't run windows. you'll be happier

get an imac

And what does that have to do with a HTPC? :error

dope cases their!

That Logitech ones looks very nice!!

Friend of mine built his own out of an old tower, works great. I don't know what specs he used...sorry can't help you there.

I'd rather build one actually. I've always built my machines building a HTPC may be a headache but it'll be part of the fun as well. I also plan on having network storage so it doesn't need a hard drive (less noise). Then just booting off some type of flash media. This is about as far as I've got though in my plans.

That looks nice, how much were they?

you All I can say: buy a really good sound system ( it's one of the basic gadget for a theater feeling )

I have an HTPC in my media room, mostly for playing the songs I have on my big RAID array in my office PC. evildick is correct. The key is getting a nice case with VERY quiet fans. I spent about $100 on this case

http://directron.com/vb8000bns.html

Very cool LED lights :-) (of course, the purists would say that lights of any kind are a distraction - but I'm a geek...I like pretty blinky lights :thumbsup

I then replaced all the fans on it with even quieter fans from http://www.endpcnoise.com/. I also replaced the CPU fan with a quiet one. You can't skimp on the fans. Of course, if you really want to do it right, go with a water cooled system.

The actual guts are just a P4 2.8 with a good Hauppauge video card and a good SoundBlaster sound card.

It's not HD quality, but like I said, I just use it to listen to mp3's.

Here are some pics of my media room for anyone that cares :-)

http://lbbv.com/theater-room/index.html

Go to avsforum, they have a section for htpc's, lot's of info.

Im gonna be running one in my new HT room,i havent built it yet but it will have a video card with DVI so i can use a HDMI cable and will have optical out of the sound card to plug into my reciever. The cpu doesnt really need to be that great just able to play the movies. I will have all my media on a different computer on my network.

Does anyone know if you have a divx movie with ac3 sound is it possible that the audio is in 5.1 and will work with the recieve not using the fake 5.1 feature of most recievers.