Home Theater PC (HTPC) Project
November 24th, 2008 / 5 Comments » / by jeje
HTPC PROJECT - PART I
INTRODUCTION TO HARDWARE
By: jeje
HTPC is quite new in Malaysia. HTPC is similar to normal PC, but it serve different functionality, as multimedia center. HTPC is placed at guest hall as TV, DVD player, media center, gaming console, internet station, photo album and even wall picture. Moreover, it uses special Operating System (OS) and hardware (different in shape). In this part, im going to introduce the hardware used in this project. Personally, i prefer to have good-looking, affordable (i consider used hardware), quality and mid-performance hardware. Some people may prefer cheap/new/high-performance/full-features hardware depends on their budget.
1. The monitor - Panasonic plasma TV 42″
The TV is bought by my father. My home doesnt has Astro (my family members dont watch TV so much, we are internet freak!), so the big TV without any special capability is just a waste. Its has HDMI Input, so the HTPC can connect to TV by using HDMI cable.
2. The casing - Cooler Master Media 282 HTPC casing (RM425)
This casing is most affordable (yeah that expensive) with good looking by Cooler Master. There are a lot more HTPC casing up to RM3000 and it just a casing! But dont worry, there is a lot of alternative HTPC casing out there from as low as RM200.
3. The remote control - Logitech Dinovo Mini (RM450)
The is mini keyboard with touchpad. Its wireless and the battery can last up to 1month for every 4hours charging. This keyboard was designed specially for HTPC. Its small but it costs a bomb! and there is no other alternative keyboard that has looks, function and design like it is. Anyway, you can use normal size wireless keyboard and wireless mouse.
4. TV/FM Tuner Card - Campro Videomate TV Gold TV Tuner (RM100-used)
This is PCI-E TV card. It has poweron capability, which is your HTPC can be switched ON just by pressing power button on the remote. Its make your PC behave like normal TV. It also has FM tuner, so you can listen to radio on your HTPC. It costs me RM100 for second hand unit (to cut cost). 
5. CD/DVD player - Pioneer DVR S16FXB (RM119)
It just normal DVDRW drive. It is cheap from as low as RM60+. However, i choose this one because Pioneer drive is just awesome. It can play any CD/DVD even the disk is full of scratch/break into two
6. Graphic Card - Gigabyte 4670 512MB DDR3 (RM320)
The graphic card detemines the display quality on your TV. This graphic card support DirectX 10.1 (DX10) for Vista (yes, we are running Vista Ultimate). It has acceptable performance and be able to support 42″ monitor. This is medium-end graphic card, but i suggest you get a high-end graphic card which RM500 onwards especially when you want your HTPC to be your main gaming station.
7. The processor - Intel® Core™2 Duo E6600 Processor (RM230-used)
It is advisable to get multicore processor to fully support Windows Vista.
8. The RAM - Kingston Value RAM 2×2GB DDR2 800MHz (RM158)
4GB RAM for just RM158!. The RAM is damn cheap nowadays. It is advisable to buy RAM with at least 2GB capacity. 4GB of RAM is recommended.
9. The Motherboard - MSI P45 Platinum (RM400-used)
The most important thing to decide. Make sure your motherboard compatible with all other hardware. This motherboard uses P45 chipset from Intel, it support high definition (HD) audio and video output (most of latest motherboard support HD AV). You can buy any other motherboard from as low as RM250 for new one.
9. The Hard Disk - Seagate 500GB 7200RPM (RM205)
11. The Power Supply - Cooler Master Real Power 450W (used-RM100)
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The total cost is = RM2508.
The cost for casing + keyboard + motherboard = RM1275 (51% of total cost)
As you can see, these 3 hardware is highly affect the cost of your HTPC. I prefer good-looking hardware (the casing and keyboard) for my HTPC. The motherboard is value for money hardware as the seller decide to sell to me at RM400 for 2month old motherboard (The price as Nov 20th 2008 is RM550). If you have greater budget, you can consider sound card and speaker as well.
>> READ PART II - Windows Vista Ultimate, The Operating System (OS) - Under Construction
