Planning on building HTPC

[stormwing142]

Well I want to build a Media Center PC, and as I'm a relative noob to building PCs in general, let alone HTPCs, I was wondering if you guys could help me out...

Heres what I was planning (The budget here is <$1500)

Motherboard:
Asus A8N VM-CSM

Memory:
2 GB OCZ DDR 500 PC 4000 "Gold Gamer"

CPU:
AMD Athlon 64 X2 4400+

Hard Drive:
Seagate 7200.9 250GB SATA II

Case:
Thermaltake Mystic

PSU:
Enermax Liberty 400W

DVD Drive:
NEC 3550A DVD+-RW

Video Devices:
Hauppage WinTV 150MCE
Gigabyte Geforce 6600GT w/ VIVO


I'm sure my newness is apparent in the part selection, so I'd like to know where I can cut costs, especially in the RAM and Processor departments. So here are a couple of specific questions:
1.) Is there that much difference between the X2 3800, 4200, and 4400 to justify the cost difference?

2.) For this purpose, would cheaper ram (such as value select) be a better choice than the RAM that I've picked (I picked it for the speed, but I'm not sure it would really matter unless I was using this for gaming right?)

3.) Do I need a sound card, or will onboard sound suffice?

Other than those two questions, any other suggestions you guys may have regarding parts selection (or anything else, for that matter) would be greatly appreciated.

[kodmaster]

I wouldn't be going with that motherboard. It doesn't allow you more than 2 pci cards. 1 that will be used up with 1 TV tuner card unless you plan on getting another TV tuner card. If you want digital audio you probably will need a seperate sound card. I don't know much about them but some other members probably will. The motherboard is MATX which most likely means you won't be able to upgrade anything easily. It also has onboard video which I don't think you will need. You should go with this in my opinion
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813131525

[flanzig1]

You could drop the CPU down a couple of numbers to save a some dollars. Probably won't see any reducetion of performance.
Probably don't need to use the high end ram that you picked.
As for a sound card, if you are going to have hi end speakers, then the sound card could provide a better sound experiance.

[stormwing142]

thanks for the suggestion (response to kodmaster) but I'm afraid that wont work, as that mobo doesnt have any sata II ports

Also, I dont think I'll be needing more than two PCI slots, as I could always use the PCI Express x1 lane if I wanted to expand the TV capabilities. Also, I'd rather prefer using MATX, because its easier to install into a smaller case like that one I picked

At this point, my highest priority is making sure that the components noted above (RAM, proc, etc.) are worth using...

Edit: And to flanzig: what would you suggest for the RAM, would something like Corsair ValueSelect be of use, or perhaps a lower end XMS series?

[Stuey]

I agree that you should choose a full size ATX motherboard, but as for suggestions, I'm not familiar with AMD so I can't help you there.

I recently built myself a HTPC (about 2 weeks ago), and I'm using Beyond TV and Snapstream's Firefly remote. The software is about $70 and they throw in the remote which can be bought separately for $50 or so. BUT they also feature hardware combos, such as the tuner card you mentioned.

Here is the combo, and you can navigate through the store menu to see the other combos.

Now in terms of choosing more specific parts (such as ram), go into a little more depth as to the uses for this system. Will this be primarily used in the living room, or will TV/media center functions be secondary to computer uses?

If it's going to be standalone in the living room, 1 gig of ram should be enough as you won't be doing too much in the background while you're recording or compressing your recordings.

If you don't already have an OS in mind, you may want to check out XP media center edition instead of Xp Home or Pro. If that's the case, you won't need Beyond TV, and you can get cheaper remotes that will work with XP Media Center. If you buy the OS in OEM version, you'll save a lot of money.

[stormwing142]

oh sorry if I wasnt specific enough...

Well, I was definetely going to use XP Media Center, and the TV tuner card has a remote.

As for uses, this HTPC will be used as a TiVo box, and also to record programs to Hard Disk/DVD for future viewing. It will probably be hooked up to some sort of surround system (so I guess a decent 7.1 sound card will be necessary).

[Stuey]

Some sort of a surround system? Do you already have a system in place? if you don't plan on using a 7.1 system, but a 5.1 system, you might be happy with the onboard audio on most motherboards. You can use the digital coax or optical output.

The remote that comes with the tuner card won't be as good as a separate remote for controlling general PC functions. There are a lot of MCE remotes out there as well.

But you're right, try out whatever you have first and then see if the need arises for something more sophisticated.

[glc]

Corsair Value Select will be fine, you can cut down the processor speed all you want to save money without really noticing a difference, and you don't need a 6600GT if you won't be gaming with it. A media center will run fine with a $50 X300SE card, just don't get a Hypermemory or Turbocache card. In fact, the onboard video would be good enough for a media center if there is good driver support and you are willing to allow shared ram.

The onboard audio is so-so on that board and doesn't have a S/PDIF (digital output).