Now you just need to add a little z-wave home automation equipment which you can control with a new Harmony 890 remote. Opens a whole new world of “tinkering”.
I built a HTPC this year as well and really enjoy using it. I bought a Silverstone LC17 (black) which looks like a nice piece of audio equipment. The interior of the case is kind of tight because the power supply has a lot of power leads, but I am very satisfied overall. The only noise is the OS hard drive doing writes, and that is rare or ignorable during movies.
I have a similar setup (though running MythTV on gentoo instead of Windows MCE), and I’ll second the Logitech IR remotes.
I originally used the integrated IR receiver in one of my hauppauge PVR 150 tuners, along with a generic universal remote. It worked, but it was disappointing - the receiver would miss keypresses unless you were aiming right at the thing, and the universal remote lacked the core keys you need to control a PVR.
I later picked up the MS USB IR receiver/remote for about $20, and the performance was much better - though I didn’t like that remote at all. It couldn’t handle controlling the TV/Receiver.
Finally I got the Harmony (and used it with the MS IR receiver), and I haven’t looked back. It’s configurable from a Windows or OS X machine via (admittedly clunky) software, and you bend the thing to your will so you can control your other devices all logically without doing the device-mode-switching dance. For the price point, I don’t think there’s anything better (and having a decent remote goes a long way to help the wife acceptance factor, too).
“I’ve been a fan of Windows Media Center since the first version; it’s one of the best products to come out of Redmond in years, and the version of Media Center bundled with Vista (well, Ultimate and Home Premium, anyway) is the best yet. With a hardware setup this compelling”
So how much did the copy of Vista cost? Certainly it didn’t come bundled with parts you used to build this machine. I seem to remember a previous post where you urge people to pay for software they really appreciate.
Thanks for the nice post on media PCs. I’m about to retire my old shuttle M1000, which was over-priced and noisy, but it sure looked nice. Any insight into whether the CPU fan will fit into one of these:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811163081
I’m also a little concerned about the 120W power supply in the Silverstone.
Great stuff.
I have a DVR from Comcast, and what kills me is that I record things that I would like to dump to a DVD. I assume what you have outlined here support this and I could get rid of the DVR?
What about using a Playstation 3 as a media centre? It sits in the same price range as a custom pc with blue-ray, and I’m told that it runs linux, so I should be able to stream media from my file server. Does anybody have experience with this? Are there features I could build into a pc that I might miss with a PS3?
Windows Media Center is great, but it does have a few limitations (I won’t go into it here, needless to say that if you’re running into them you’ll already know what I’m talking about). A great Free and Open Source alternative to Windows Media Center is MediaPortal.
http://www.team-mediaportal.com/
Definitely worth a look even if you’re happy with Windows Media Center.
Is the HDMI port HDCP-compatible? If I hook a Blu-Ray drive up to this, will it argue about DRM? I’ve heard that not every HDMI video card will work with, say, an LG BR drive. If this DOES work, then you 've just shown me what my next build project is.
The nerdie-ness in me is urging me to inform you, that it’s not 46 Watts, its 46 Kilowatt/Hours. 
@steve
"I have a DVR from Comcast, and what kills me is that I record things that I would like to dump to a DVD. I assume what you have outlined here support this and I could get rid of the DVR?"
You will need a cable card to replace the Comcast DVR. The TV tuner card Jeff talks about is for Over the Air. Cable cards are not commercially available unless you purchase a pre-configured HTPC from authorized dealers (HP is one of the few who offer the cable card HTPC).
There’s a good community dedicated to the Windows Media Center: http://thegreenbutton.com
The advantage of having a Windows Vista Media Center is that you can have a central PC anywhere in the house with all your TV recordings (assuming you have a TV tuner card), music, photos, etc… And then connect any TV/Stereo to the media center with an extender (either wirelssly or hardwired network), aka, Xbox 360.
We’ve been using a Vista Media Center w/ an Xbox 360 extender for about a year now. As much as I enjoy the system, it is a P.I.T.A. to set up; definately not ready for the masses IMO.
Jeff,
Thanks for sharing this.
How do you avoid the horrible noise of the DVD drive? I mean in most PCs when you put a disc in the drive, you’d think the space shuttle is taking off from your garden when the drives start spinning.
Is it something handled by Media Center? Does it manage to slow down the drive to keep sound low?
I figured out that an HTPC would cost over $1,000 to build…
Where did you get those figures? I plan on having an HTPC, and it’s only going to cost me… $501…
Anyway, given the implications in the article, it would be better to include all costs.
OK, I added a complete from-scratch build list to the end of the article. $523, plus $110 if you need a Vista Home Premium license.
Bear in mind there are ZERO recurring monthly costs for a HTPC, whereas Tivo costs $13/month!
The Antec Minuet case is 3.8" x 12.8" x 16.8". For reference, an Xbox 360 is 3.3" x 12.1" x 10.2". See a visual size comparison of the Minuet with a few items: http://is.gd/9rS
I just set up a similar box today, same mainboard + memory different processor (5000+ black edition) + arctic freezer 64 pro as a cooler.
Which is my first non stock cooler, I have to say I’m impressed so far the sound is almost missing and the temperature is silly low but I haven’t tried any real tests also haven’t tried overclocking the proscessor yet.
If you want you can also up the video clock in the bios, results differ but it’s probably an easy overclock from 500 – 700+ as good as free performance.
To tell the truth, I’m quite curious as to the difference between the Freezer 64 Pro and the stock cooler. In an unrelated build, I’m planning to use the same processor and motherboard as Jeff’s build in OP. It’s going to be run as a 24/7 server. Should I stick with the stock cooler or buy aftermarket? Notes: no overclocking, noise not that big of an issue.
However, for my HTPC build, I’m definitely going with a Scythe Ninja Mini in an Antec NSK2480. Fanless heatsink, here I come!
The stock cooler is incredibly quiet (don’t take it from me – see this confirmed by the guys at silentpcreview in their review as well).
Given the low wattage we’re talking about and the excellent built in temperature-based fan control, probably not worth the $30+ an aftermarket cooler would cost you. You could probably remove the fan from the OEM cooler if your case has semi-decent airflow.
There is a nice low-profile cooler here if you’re looking to build an ultra-small system:
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/amd-780g-chipset,1785-17.html
low profile cooler product page on Newegg:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835224006
I’m not sure how invested you are into the plugins for media center, but I just got word of a really really cool one from Thomas Hawk
http://thomashawk.com/2008/04/power-playlist-must-have-add-on-for.html
It does photo slide shows to smart playlist music, but the best part is that the plugin is in the top level menu.
For those of you concerned with the cost of Windows Vista there is always an open source alternative: Linux MCE.
After multiple DRM issues with Windows Media Center this is the route I took. It has MythTV integrated for PVR and multimedia, as well as Pluto Home for home security and automation. This is a much more powerful and flexible Media Center solution verses Windows Media Center.
I got around the half-height card issues on my media center by going with the ATI TV Wonder HD 650 - connects via USB.
Doug