[Simplemind]

Sorry, complete HTPC novice here with a few questions!

I have a 3 year old, top of the shelf PC game rig that is just sitting collecting dust and I am getting back into home theaters, so I thought it would be good to re-purpose this rig for a forklift home theater upgrade, with a HTPC running XBMC. I am somewhat technically savvy, so I am not to scared with installing and playing around with XBMC (knowing myself, it will always be a constant state of tweaking).

Current Specs:
Intel Core i7 3.4GHz 2600k (sandybridge)
Asus Sabertooth P67 motherboard
16GB RAM
Nvidia 1.5GB GTX 570

I am sure it has the horsepower to be a great HTPC, but I was thinking of upgrading my video card to one that is HDMI 1.4 compatible for 3d and lossless bitstreaming, as the 570 (from my research) is incapable of doing either of those. So I was going to throw in an Nvidia 2GB GTX 760 ti. Again, from my research, it looks like this card will do what I am looking for?? Or is there another direction I should go?

I have just upgraded my 9 year old Denon 3805 for a Denon X4000 that I will use as my new receiver, and just ordered a BenQ W1080ST 1080 3d projector for my screen.

All of my movies are on one 4GB external USB 3.0 drive that I will hook into the HTPC, and about 80% of all my movies are .mkv with .mov/.mp4/.avi rounding out the rest. I am correct that XBMC will play all these files? or will I need to download all the XBMC "addons" that I hear about?

Thanks for some direction in advance.

[Topken]

XBMC should play all those files out of the box as it were. The PC should be perfectly fine for a HTPC.

and according to this it should handle 3D Playback perfectly fine over HDMI

http://www.geforce.com/hardware/desktop-...ifications

[Simplemind]

Thanks for the link. But still not 100% sure on bitstreaming lossless audio. And I am fine with upgrading a video card for that purpose as I may, just may play some BF4 from time to time

[Topken]

In that case the HD audio might not work on the high end cards.