High quality HTPC - Need advice

[PeterTaps]

Folks,

I am building a mini theater that can seat about 50 persons. The media will be played through HTPC-->AV Receiver-->Projector via HDMI. The HTPC must support VGA, DVI-D and HDMI video ports. For audio, optical S/PDIF out is also required (although I intend to use HDMI primarily).

There are a number of recommendations on the forum for gaming related PCs. However, my purpose is solely for playing bluray quality media.

The quality of audio and video is very important (within budget).

I will be running Ubuntu on the HTPC. Media will be played through VLC.

The budget for the HTPC is around $1500.

The configuration I have in mind is:

Motherboard: ASUS F1A75-V PRO ($71)
CPU: AMD A8-3800 ($157)
Memory: PNY XLR8 8GB ($40)

All the prices are from Amazon as of today.

AMD A8-3800 CPU has integrated Radeon HD 6550 video processing.

With this setup my thought is I no longer need dedicated video and audio cards. The CPU has integrated Radeon 6500 GPU. As for audio, the decoding is mostly offloaded to the AV receiver.

I would appreciate it if you could share your thoughts on this configuration. Especially, the quality of video and audio is very critical. If you think I could do better with separate audio and video cards, please advice.

Thank you in advance for your help.

Regards,
Peter

 

[bavman]

This shouldnt need to reach $1500 to be a good htpc. Also 8gb is way too much for what you intend to do, 4gb is more than sufficient. I believe you should be good on everything...the only thing is that if you have a nice high end audio setup you'll probably need a decent audio card to get the most out of it.

 

[jamie_1318]

You have to remember that the onboard audio is a digital out and requires a nice Reciever on the other end that will determine sound quality (the whole point of a digital system is passing off the load from the PC). If you are running the HDMI into the TV the TV will do the decoding for example. You are better off budgeting more for a really nice projector + Sound system than spending more than what you absolutely need on the PC

You really should budget max $700 for a decent HTPC. The quality of the video should look almost exactly the same regardless of what video card you are running.

If you are planning on running high end games you will definitely want a better video card, but if you are just going to be running video you can go with a cheaper CPU like a A6-3400 or something, in fact the lowest one you can get should do great for just playing videos.

 

[PeterTaps]

Thank you all for your help. As 8G PNY DDR3 memory is just $40, I think I will stick with it. However, I may go down to A6 instead of A8 for the CPU. The money saved could be well spent in getting good AV receiver and HDMI projector.

 

[bjpitts]

Thank you all for your help. As 8G PNY DDR3 memory is just $40, I think I will stick with it. However, I may go down to A6 instead of A8 for the CPU. The money saved could be well spent in getting good AV receiver and HDMI projector.

Did the PNY Memory work? I ordered some generic memory for this board and it did not boot. The only memory that the stores have is PNY and I was thinking about trying it but it is not on the supported list for the board. Let me know if it worked so I can buy it.

 

[jamie_1318]

All memory basically works on all boards. Some RAM will clock differently on different board and usually run different timings but nothing major. RAM will Never just not work in another motherboard unless it is totally obsolete, or the motherboard or RAM have specilized, or non-matching sockets.

If the board did not boot try it with one stick at a time. Odds are you either plugged it in wrong, or got a defective stick .