Creating a New HD Rdy HTPC

[-Oz-]

As you can see in my signature I have two working media pcs. These now belong to my family and I am moving to Alaska (lots of military stuff which is why I vanished and still will be kinda vanished for the next couple months).

Anyway, I figured out I need to order the components while I am stateside since and shipping is very expensive to Alaska.

Desired Capabilities
- Output HD quality TV
- Record 2+ streams (at least one of which is digital)
- Cut out commercials/encode to xvid
- Send out shows to an extender
- Optical audio out

Currently Have
- High-def LCD tv (LG)
- HVR-1600 (coming out of HTPC 1)

Largest issues:
- I have never had good luck with ATI video cards; everytime I get one I hate it for some reason or another.
- With the motherboards I'm looking at it looks like the 780G by ATI beats the GeForce 8200...

Components
Motherboards
- GIGABYTE GA-MA78GM-S2H AM2+/AM2 AMD 780G HDMI Micro ATX AMD Motherboard (newegg)
- GIGABYTE GA-M78SM-S2H AM2+/AM2 NVIDIA GeForce 8200 HDMI Micro ATX Intel Motherboard (newegg)

Can anyone tell if either of these motherboards have H.264 hardware acceleration?

Case
I'm really sad that they don't make the NSK2400 anymore so I'm open to suggestions. Cool and quiet are paramount. Currently I'm thinking the:
- Antec Aluminum Veris Fusion Black 430 Micro ATX Media Center / HTPC Case with IR receiver (newegg)

Ram
Just gonna pick up 4gb of RAM compatible with whichever motherboard that way I can dedicate 512mb to the videocard (or the max I can).

OS
I'm hoping to run WinXP Pro but I can run Vista Business (have a copy from school). Opinions?

Processor
I'm thinking that going with a 45W dual-core processor will cut down on the power bill; will I still have enough power to watch tv, do processing, etc? Normally processing is done overnight the biggest "issue" would be recording digital and streaming to an extender.
- AMD Athlon X2 4850e 2.5GHz Socket AM2 45W Dual-Core Processor (newegg)
or the one that takes more power:
- AMD Athlon 64 X2 5200+ Brisbane 2.7GHz Socket AM2 65W Dual-Core Processor (newegg)

Extender
Popcorn Hour A-100 (opinions anyone). Are there any others that integrate well with GB-PVR?

Hard Drives
Standard SATA, probably start with 500-750gb (all recorded shows will be made into HD xvid overnight).

Optical Drives
some sort of SATA drive most likely

Tuner
- HVR-1600 to start; then once I get to Alaska I'll either add another one (any issues with two 1600s?) or get an HD-PVR.

So, opinions, help, etc? Everything has changed since the last two... not to mention the ATI vs nvidia thing is really getting to me.

[observer_11]

From AVS Forums:

[-Oz-]

that is an awesome chart.

so the real question is: does the multi-lpcm matter over 2-lpcm?

Also, someone else mentioned just using 2gb of ram versus 4gb since windows will only see 3gb.

[whurlston]

You may want to get the new HVR-2250 over the 1600.

I would go with Vista over XP. Much better video performance.

2GB vs 4GB ram: The shared video memory comes out before the OS gets hold of it so 4GB will leave 3.5GB for the OS after the video ram is allocated. 1/2 GB "wasted". 2GB will only leave you 1.5 for the OS. With RAM prices at an all time low, get the 4 if you can.

[-Oz-]

whurlston, with that 2250 can I do two feeds where they can both be analog or both be qam depending on the channel?

I know the 1600 can only do one qam and one analog, it'd be awesome if it could do it all.

Thanks.

And for the price I'm totally gonna go with the 4gb. Kingston or corsair depending on if I want to wait for a rebate...

Any opinion on the 780G versus the GeForce 8200?

EDIT: The 2250 looks really good. I'll get it unless I need to get the HD-PVR thing. No matter what I'll be using the 1600 because I have it But I'll need more than just that.

[whurlston]

Actually it is a single feed. It is then split internally to two tuners. The tuners can do analog and HD on each one. So with one feed you can record 2 analog, 2 QAM, or 1 analog/1 QAM program at once. The only issue I see with the card is if you want 1 tuner for cable and one for OTA (not possible).

[-Oz-]

Its a perfect card barring a STB. Thanks for that.

The last debate is the 780G vs GF8200.

[whurlston]

I'd probably go with the 8200. There are a could of threads on AVS discussing those motherboards. Also send me an email at my username at oshinetworks.com. I have an extra Fusion case for a second HTPC I've never gotten around to building.

[observer_11]

Rumour has it Nvidia is exiting the chipset business, so I would count that as a strike against the 8200. Neither chipset seems to have a definite edge in power efficiency. As far as stereo vs multi-channel encoding, that would be another plus for the 8200.

[whurlston]

Rumour has it Nvidia is exiting the chipset business, so I would count that as a strike against the 8200.

Not according to Nvidia:
http://www.maximumpc.com/article/news/nv...e_not_true
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2327006,00.asp

Although such a withdrawal would be highly unlikely, ExtremeTech asked Nvidia for comment. "The story on Digitimes is completely groundless. We have no intention of getting out of the chipset business," said Bryan Del Rizzo, a company representative, in a statement. (The same statement was later resent as an official company statement.)