Computer guys, hardware recommendations?

[TheEtaUnderdog]

Are there HA based cards that are low profile and fanless in PCIe?

a lot of info here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VDPAU
Device drivers and hardware supporting VDPAU

Each hardware video GPU capable of VDPAU video acceleration requires a X11 software device driver to enable these features. Currently only second generation of PureVideo HD bit-stream processor in some of NVIDIA's GeForce 8 series and later graphics cards hardware that has support since the Beta device driver version 180.06.[4] Unsupported hardware from the GeForce 8 series includes the 8800GTS 320/640MB editions and the 8800GTX. Later cards based on the G9x series cores e.g. the 8400GS and the 8800GTS 512mb (G92 core) are supported. Nvidia currently has no plans to introduce support for the unsupported hardware.[8] All supported graphic devices are listed in Nvidia PureVideo.
S3 Graphics added support for VDPAU to the Linux drivers of its Chrome 400 video cards since version 14.02.17 of its device driver for Linux, it supports the S3 Chrome 430 GT, S3 Chrome 440 GTX, S3 Chrome 530 GT and the S3 Chrome 540 GTX hardware.[9]
Intel and ATI - there is currently no support for VDPAU. Nvidia hopes these GPU designers will follow open source VDPAU library and provide drivers with VDPAU acceleration by mentioning example names of hardware specific drivers for Intel and ATI: libvdpau_intel.so and libvdpau_ati.so.[10] Intel has mentioned that they are looking at VA-API and VDPAU in particular. From their cursory examination, the API to VDPAU looks nice.[11]


i personally have an 8400gs that is fanless and slim pci-e that is doing it in one of my other boxes

not mine but http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-473-_-Product

or all of em http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...8400gs&x=0&y=0

sub 40 bucks, works fine

[StereoInstaller1]

Are there HA based cards that are low profile and fanless in PCIe?

[TheEtaUnderdog]

PC power supplies are switched. it doesn't use anywhere near 800w all the time, that's just the peak power it can supply.

don't waste money on something with a shitty CPU (atoms are great - in a netbook). I've always been an Intel fan, but the newest AMD quad cores (even 6 cores) are just too cheap to pass up. Look for an AM3 board and at least 4 gigs of DDR3, plus whatever quad core CPU you can get and then use the rest of the money for your video card. a quad core athlon 2 will crush a core 2 duo and probably cost less at the same time..

the last thing you want is to find out your computer you just spent $500 is too slow to play the movie your girlfreind really wants to see because you're worried that your PC might draw too much power.

oh, if you aren't an audiophile you don't even really need a sound card. any decent mobo will come with 7 or 8 channel audio built in. Some of them even have SPDIF or optical out (my gigabyte does).

http://www.google.com/#hl=en&source=hp&q=acer+revo+1080p&aq=f&aqi=g3&aql=&oq=&gs_rfai=&fp=56fa4ceda65d5bbf

Believe me or not, hardware acceleration makes cpu a moot point in video playback. Its all about the gpu and the ion was made specifically for htpc's and small power usage

http://www.nvidia.com/object/sff_ion.html

[TheEtaUnderdog]

Ion!

My roommate has an Ion, phenominal little machine! Streams HD movies like it was meant to.. Oh wait it was! He also has a wireless keyboard and a gyration remote for it (Remote used as a mouse $70-90)

I swear you sound just like my roommate btw underdog! Even the touche salesman is something that he says on a weekly basis.

haha he must be a family guy fan

[Lodsin]

Ion!

My roommate has an Ion, phenominal little machine! Streams HD movies like it was meant to.. Oh wait it was! He also has a wireless keyboard and a gyration remote for it (Remote used as a mouse $70-90)

I swear you sound just like my roommate btw underdog! Even the touche salesman is something that he says on a weekly basis.

[nando]

this combo would do everything you need
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboD...t=Combo.381162
you just need ram ($100), BD drive ($50) and storage ($100)

the board has optical out, so you can output it to a nice reciever and not lose anything in audio quality.

[z31maniac]

^True, but I don't see the need, for me anyway. There aren't many movies anymore that I want to watch again after the first time.

But I'll look at what Blu-Ray drives cost, may get one just because. Are there Blu-Ray drives that will also burn DVD's/CDs? Or would I need two separate ones.

oh, if you aren't an audiophile you don't even really need a sound card. any decent mobo will come with 7 or 8 channel audio built in. Some of them even have SPDIF or optical out (my gigabyte does).

I'm slowly falling down the path of the audiophile.

[StereoInstaller1]

Oh, and I don't need a Blu-Ray drive, got the PS3 for that. DVD burners are cheap these days so no biggie there.

You can't rip from a PS3 AFAIK.

[nando]

800w is way more than 64 watts. If he's just looking for an htpc and doesn't need cpu power, than using ion graphics is the way to go.

also, bam, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dg5WjGmzMDU

PC power supplies are switched. it doesn't use anywhere near 800w all the time, that's just the peak power it can supply.

don't waste money on something with a shitty CPU (atoms are great - in a netbook). I've always been an Intel fan, but the newest AMD quad cores (even 6 cores) are just too cheap to pass up. Look for an AM3 board and at least 4 gigs of DDR3, plus whatever quad core CPU you can get and then use the rest of the money for your video card. a quad core athlon 2 will crush a core 2 duo and probably cost less at the same time..

the last thing you want is to find out your computer you just spent $500 is too slow to play the movie your girlfreind really wants to see because you're worried that your PC might draw too much power.

oh, if you aren't an audiophile you don't even really need a sound card. any decent mobo will come with 7 or 8 channel audio built in. Some of them even have SPDIF or optical out (my gigabyte does).

[z31maniac]

Oh, and I don't need a Blu-Ray drive, got the PS3 for that. DVD burners are cheap these days so no biggie there.

[z31maniac]

Buddy, do you plan on storing media on the HTPC, or do you have a wired network?

I am doing over the air ATSC DTV on 3 separate tuners on my network, all streamed across GB ethernet. I still have cable, but gonna drop it soon, too.

Storing it on the PC. This is basically going to be a "do it all machine" in the living room. I'm also planning on picking up a DSLR and Photoshop, photography is something I've wanted to pick up for a long time, so I'm finally going to do it.

Then we will get a netbook/laptop with a WiFi setup so that if one person wants to watch TV the other can get on the net, etc. We've found most of the stuff we watch you can get online, and if I can't get it, meh probably just rotting my brain anyway.


Just need to figure out how I'm going to get F1/WRC once I cancel the cable.

[Desaevious]

lets just say we sail the same seas.

[TheEtaUnderdog]

I have a feeling I shall soon eat my words. But that's fine, if there is a quick burning utility (I haven't bothered looking in 2 years) I still probably won't buy a blu ray optical drive...as of yet.

not at all

lets just say we sail the same seas.

[StereoInstaller1]

I have a feeling I shall soon eat my words. But that's fine, if there is a quick burning utility (I haven't bothered looking in 2 years) I still probably won't buy a blu ray optical drive...as of yet.

Me too!

And yeah, BD ROM is about $80ish, but I want a burner, too.

[StereoInstaller1]

Buddy, do you plan on storing media on the HTPC, or do you have a wired network?

I am doing over the air ATSC DTV on 3 separate tuners on my network, all streamed across GB ethernet. I still have cable, but gonna drop it soon, too.