crackintosh Posted April 5, 2007 Share Posted April 5, 2007 my DP 1 GHz G4 is gettin long in the tooth so im lookin to build a new computer in a HTPC case. it will be used for general computing, internet, music production, itunes, light graphics work, and OTA HDTV here's what im thinkin: CPU- Athlon 64 x2 4600 am2..........how much faster are the core 2 duos? what about a dual core opteron? Mobo- Abit KN9 Ultra.......seems like it works good, only thing it only has 3 PCI slots Graphics card- anything that will run 1080i HD and widescreen resolutions (my LCD is 1680x1050), i dont play games. lookin for a card that has dual DVI and tv out......thinkin Radeon x1300. theres some sapphire x1950s i saw for a pretty good price though Sound card- onboard sound is fine....ive got a m-audio revolution 7.1 but that doesnt work in osx86 Memory- ill prolly load up on RAM...2GB Hard Drive- Western Digital Caviar SE16 500GB DVD Burner- Lite-On LH-20A1H Case- Silverstone LC20 i'll be usin my hauppauge hvr-950 to watch OTA in eyetv what do you all think? does this look like a good system or should i wait for other hardware/price drops? Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/47538-lookin-to-build-a-htpc/ Share on other sites More sharing options...
crackintosh Posted April 8, 2007 Author Share Posted April 8, 2007 any help? since i dont play games im just lookin for a PCIe graphics card that will have QE/CI support, run HD 1080i fine, 1680x1050, and dual DVI for when i eventually get a 2nd LCD. was thinkin of the x1300 but upon lookin at the wiki it seems there arent any dual DVI models listed. should i maybe go nvidia say a 7600GT? my main wants are -silent system -HD playback and HD-DVD/blue ray for future -fairly future proof -easily upgradable when i want to -good price to performance are there any mobos you would recommend for HTPC? need a socket am2 w/SPDIF to connect to my receiver Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/47538-lookin-to-build-a-htpc/#findComment-342336 Share on other sites More sharing options...
crackintosh Posted April 10, 2007 Author Share Posted April 10, 2007 this is the hardware im thinkin of: AMD Athlon 64 X2 4600+ 2.4GHz Socket AM2 Processor- Retail ABIT KN9 SLI Socket AM2 NVIDIA nForce 570 SLI MCP ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail XFX PVT73GUGF3 GeForce 7600GT 256MB 128-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 Video Card - Retai CORSAIR XMS2 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory - Retail SILVERSTONE LC20-S Silver Aluminum front panel, 0.8 mm SECC body ATX Media Center home-theater Computer Case - Retail Western Digital WD5000KS WD WD5000KS 500GB 3.5 HDD 7200RPM 16MB SATA II Lite-On LH-20A1H-185 Lite-On LH-20A1H-185 LightScribe 20X DVD+/-RW Drive (Black), Bulk w/o Software MFN LH-20A1H-185 BULK sound good for osx86? how does the abit mobo compare to gigabyte GA-M59SLI-S5? the abit seems to be a good mobo but only 3 stars review on newegg Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/47538-lookin-to-build-a-htpc/#findComment-343761 Share on other sites More sharing options...
emig647 Posted April 10, 2007 Share Posted April 10, 2007 Nice case Personally, I'd try and get an intel cpu. e6400 or better if you can. Asus' motherboards seem to be the most supported on these forums. The graphics card you should be golden with. I'd try and get a Pioneer DVD burner as that is what apple uses. The graphics card should work perfectly! Hope this helps! Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/47538-lookin-to-build-a-htpc/#findComment-343894 Share on other sites More sharing options...
crackintosh Posted April 11, 2007 Author Share Posted April 11, 2007 i'll consider the C2D when they drop in price maybe. right now the e6400 is $215, e6600 is $316. the athlon 64 x2 4600 is $123 and goin down...i might even be able to get a 5200 for around that price by the time i build. the e6400/e6600 probably dont make a huge performance difference. my goal is to put together a speedy and compatible system for now to run OTA HD for 500-600 bucks and then upgrade next yr when theyve gotten the kinks out of leopard. why do you say pioneer? ive used lite-on drives in macs for yrs and had no problems w/them. plus they are the cheapest. i dont think pioneer has a 20x lightscribe drive out anyways.....the only one i could find was dvr-a12 and that seems to be a japanese model. Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/47538-lookin-to-build-a-htpc/#findComment-344580 Share on other sites More sharing options...
fusionfan Posted April 11, 2007 Share Posted April 11, 2007 The E6600 is due to drop (along with most of the other Intel chips) on the 22nd of this month. It should be around $225. You can probably find the charts elsewhere (Anandtech would be the first place I'd look). These have been known for a while, but just weren't confirmed. A few of the bigger sites are now saying the 22nd is definitely the target date. Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/47538-lookin-to-build-a-htpc/#findComment-344595 Share on other sites More sharing options...
emig647 Posted April 11, 2007 Share Posted April 11, 2007 I say pioneer because that is what apple ships in all of their desktops. So it is most likely to be supported. I don't do lightscribe so it doesn't bother me, and finding 20x media is about slim to none. If lightscribe works then go for it... I just prefer what apple uses... even though I got an LG drive. Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/47538-lookin-to-build-a-htpc/#findComment-344614 Share on other sites More sharing options...
crackintosh Posted April 18, 2007 Author Share Posted April 18, 2007 i've decided to hold off on this project for another month gonna wait for the price cuts and then re-evaluate things from there. probably gonna stick with AMD as currently they offer the best bang for buck, the X2 4800 brisbane 65nm is what i'll go for. then next yr i'll upgrade w/the intel 45nm penryn. also the geforce 8600/8500 series are comin out....being advertised as 100% offloading HD decoding from the CPU i would love to see some socket AM2 nforce 680i mobos come out and work on osx86 *drool* Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/47538-lookin-to-build-a-htpc/#findComment-349063 Share on other sites More sharing options...
miramar Posted June 22, 2007 Share Posted June 22, 2007 Just a short quick note. I've just completed building my Hackintosh HTPC with full HD 1080p playback, PAL/DVB-T TV, 2.1(and maybe 5.1 but not tested) audio output, remote control, Front Row 1.3, iTunes CoverFlow from the couch, etc... Everything is working so far except sleep (wakes with no usb). I'll create a new topic with my specs later but I'm quite happy with it. Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/47538-lookin-to-build-a-htpc/#findComment-391993 Share on other sites More sharing options...
SteveNZ Posted June 22, 2007 Share Posted June 22, 2007 That motherboard looks insane... I've built a HTPC recently, Silverstone LC16 case (IR and front-panel don't work in OSX), E6600 CPU (Running at 3.09Ghz - the cheap RAM won't go any higher), Gigabyte P965-DS3P Mobo, 2Gb RAM, Enermax PSU, LG H30N DVD-RW, etc. The 7900GT videocard works perfectly in OSX, dual-screen etc. I've got a silent 8600GTS card in it at the moment which "kinda" works but is currently useless for watching movies with as anything scaled to fullscreen is quite jumpy. The main point of the exercise was to make it very quiet, and I've succeeded. 3 fans total (The _huge_ fan in the enermax is almost inaudible, the accessory cooling unit on the CPU is also basically silent except under extended 100% CPU load and a small fairly quiet casefan. The noisiest component in the whole thing at idle is the HDD. As long as I use the 7900GT rather than the 8600GTS, then everything works perfectly, and it's _fast_. If you don't intend actually using the computer for much other than TV watching, then just buy an Apple-TV and install a normal OSX onto it. It'll save a lot of money. Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/47538-lookin-to-build-a-htpc/#findComment-392173 Share on other sites More sharing options...
josh256 Posted June 22, 2007 Share Posted June 22, 2007 I'd highly recommend avoiding AMD only on HTPCs. Elsewhere they're great value and I'm psyched to see what they start cranking out w/ ATI later this year but compatibility-wise the Intels take updates w/ relative ease. Sickest single Intel CPU system I've seen w/ good compatibility is the Gigabit DQ6.. This is pretty neat too: Hackintosh Deal of the Day: http://sarahbau.webhop.org/hackintosh/hack_prices.html Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/47538-lookin-to-build-a-htpc/#findComment-392379 Share on other sites More sharing options...
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