[facted]

I'm looking to build a PVR HTPC that would also run sickbeard/sabnzbd in the background. I think I'll start with Ubuntu, but it might become a Windows 7 box. Anyway, I think I have most of my components and I just wanted to run them by you guys as I've found everyone else's posts to be so helpful in finding my own components.

One other question, I live in the US and have a digital antenna i'd like to record off, and I'm thinking of running the PVR XBMC version. Any suggestions for the tuner card? Also, aside from the tuner card, is a separate GPU necessary or could I rely on the intel chip support? I'm looking to stream 1080p, but no blu-ray for now. Given this Mobo, I could only use one of the two, since most cards use PCI-E and the board only has one PCI-E spot, correct?

Any remote suggestions?

The components are
CPU: Intel Core i3-2120
Case: Micro-ATX Silver Stone ML03B
RAM: Kingston 1333mhz 4GB DDR3
Mobo: ASUS P8H61
HD: OCZ Agility 4 128GB SSD
Fans: 3 Enermax UC-8EB
PSU: Antec Earth watts 380
GPU: EVGA GeForce 210 1024MG DDR3

Thank you.

[onizuka]

Trade up the OCZ for a Crucial or other non-Sandforce SSD and the Geforce 210 to a Geforce 430 for better deinterlacing and you're good to go. HDHomerun for the tuner.

People may say different, I'd go discrete instead of integrated GPU in this PVR scenario.

[facted]

The HDHomerun does look pretty nice. I haven't read such great things about the TV Tuner cards though I do like the idea of incorporating everything into one box. Just curious, why change the OCZ drive?

Thanks.

[Zenith]

Loss of performance when disk is getting full and short life has been reported on unit using sandforce controllers like OCZ
Better Crucial or even better Samsung 830

[facted]

Thanks for the suggestions. I changed it up with the samsung 830 128 for only $10 more. I think I'm going to skip out on the GeForce 210 for now and see what the box runs like without it. I could always pick up a card after if it's not performing well enough.

I also noticed that the original mobo doesn't have an HDMI output so I switched it up for the Gigabyte GA-B75M. I just want to confirm how easily the box will boot back up from sleep or hibernate to a remote command. I couldn't find much info on the gigabyte manual regarding wake from usb. Any ideas?

[Zenith]

Check here
http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=132960

[Digital Vortex]

Thanks for the suggestions. I changed it up with the samsung 830 128 for only $10 more. I think I'm going to skip out on the GeForce 210 for now and see what the box runs like without it. I could always pick up a card after if it's not performing well enough.

I also noticed that the original mobo doesn't have an HDMI output so I switched it up for the Gigabyte GA-B75M. I just want to confirm how easily the box will boot back up from sleep or hibernate to a remote command. I couldn't find much info on the gigabyte manual regarding wake from usb. Any ideas?

I tried this with an Intel i3 too.. as I built my box a few months ago when the 7000 series and Nvidias were just coming out, so I relied on the intel integrated graphics..
Video playplack image issues - kind of like playing a game on LCD without VSync..(misaligned frames/tearing?) Once I slipped in a discrete card.. all gone.. smooth.

So I would suggest you buy a discrete card in the not too distant future!

The other advantage of a discrete card is to give you a bit of power for your Emulators/old school gaming!

[facted]

I tried this with an Intel i3 too.. as I built my box a few months ago when the 7000 series and Nvidias were just coming out, so I relied on the intel integrated graphics..
Video playplack image issues - kind of like playing a game on LCD without VSync..(misaligned frames/tearing?) Once I slipped in a discrete card.. all gone.. smooth.

So I would suggest you buy a discrete card in the not too distant future!

The other advantage of a discrete card is to give you a bit of power for your Emulators/old school gaming!

Thanks for this info. What card did you go with? What mobo did you go with? Micro or Mini-ATX?

[Zenith]

I tried this with an Intel i3 too.. as I built my box a few months ago when the 7000 series and Nvidias were just coming out, so I relied on the intel integrated graphics..
Video playplack image issues - kind of like playing a game on LCD without VSync..(misaligned frames/tearing?) Once I slipped in a discrete card.. all gone.. smooth.

So I would suggest you buy a discrete card in the not too distant future!

The other advantage of a discrete card is to give you a bit of power for your Emulators/old school gaming!

Have you tried disabling DVXA?

[facted]

Would a i3-2105 allow me to skip the video card? I'm not going to be doing any gaming on this. Would I be better off going with an A6-3500?

Thanks for the input.

[bluray]

Would a i3-2105 allow me to skip the video card? I'm not going to be doing any gaming on this. Would I be better off going with an A6-3500?

Thanks for the input.

I can playback all blu-ray files using Intel HD2000 iGPU so far......for HTPC usages, you don't need a discrete GPU.........

This is what I did- post #3