New PC build

[sterdog]

Hello,

I invested in a new 3D tv on boxing day when things were cheap and I'm looking to add a HTPC to really finish off my home theater. I use a PS3 for bluray playback but to be honest it sucks compared to a real 3d bluray player. I'm looking to go for good bang for buck. I refuse to buy Atom CPU because I have experenced the difference between the new AMD E350 and a new dual core Atom and there is little value in the Atom for me. I like AMD but from what I can tell only Nvidia has a mature supported system for bluray 3d playback on 3d tv. Here's what I came up with from newegg.ca

Antec EarthWatts EA380D 380 W PSU 49.99
WD Caviar Green 500 GB 134.99
EVGA GTX 550 Ti 143.99
Kingston 2x2GB 41.99
ASUS E35M1-M Pro with E350 processor at 1.6 ghz 129.99
Lite on Black Bluray Drive 59.99
Thermaltake Black SECC Lanbox Lite VF6000BWS 87.49
Win 7 Pro 64 bit 134.99

Total after shipping 772.79

I'm going to buy Nvidia 3DTV play and Roxio CinePlayer BD locally to play the blurays, what do you guys think?

 

[striker410]

This is a toughy. You are building an HTPC, but putting a high performance card in there..... I would suggest dropping down to a GT 430 for a cheap 3D HTPC solution. It's the cheapest 3D capable card I could find. Also, why win7 pro? Almost nothing is gained from it for most people.....

 

[sterdog]

This is a toughy. You are building an HTPC, but putting a high performance card in there..... I would suggest dropping down to a GT 430 for a cheap 3D HTPC solution. It's the cheapest 3D capable card I could find. Also, why win7 pro? Almost nothing is gained from it for most people.....

At first I was going to go with the gt 430, but upon checking http://www.nvidia.com/object/3dtv-play-requirements.html playback through 3DTV play is not supported. Out of that list the 550 ti was only slightly more then the lower cards on the list and better for HD 3D GPU accelerated video.

As for Win 7 Pro, I use remote connect to my other PC to lift videos off to work sometimes, I want to do that with this machine as well. Sorry for not clarifying.

 

[striker410]

Interesting find.... I did a bit of research, and found that the GT 430 supports 3D blu-ray playback... That's odd. http://www.nvidia.com/object/3d-vision-requirements.html Not saying I'm right, I just find it interesting that these 2 conflict.

 

[sterdog]

Interesting find.... I did a bit of research, and found that the GT 430 supports 3D blu-ray playback... That's odd. http://www.nvidia.com/object/3d-vision-requirements.html Not saying I'm right, I just find it interesting that these 2 conflict.

I could be wrong but I think it's typical Nvidia sneakiness. I'm sure the gt 430 can playback 3D to a tv, but I think that the 3DTV playback software to make the cards 3D functional with 3rd party tv's and 3rd party software is driver locked to the cards they've stated. I have no proof, but I don't want to be the guy that figures that out either.

It makes sense, they would rather sell the +100 dollar glasses with your 60 dollar card or sell you a 150 dollar graphic card and 40 dollar software rather then let you spend 60 dollars on just the cheap card.

 

[striker410]

That is very true. I will do some digging and see what I can turn up. You might want to ask around in the Graphics section of this forum.