Your source for everything home theater & HTPC related
Hello all,
I've been thinking about building an HTPC for a while now, just haven't pulled the trigger yet.
As movies, TV, and that I internet I keep hearing about become more and more blended, I think I'm ready to do it!
I have grand ideas of the ultimate man-cave HTPC with 2 or more flat screen displays. That being said, I've never built a PC from scratch. The most difficult hardware tech I've done is replacing power supplies. I know, that's not that difficult, but it gives you some idea of my hardware experience. (And I don't even have a man-cave...yet!)
Initially, I'd like to build an HTPC on which I can stream netflix; play cool games; watch the occasional movie (I have a large library of ISO and VIDEO_TS movies); and hook FIOS into so that I can watch/record the occasional show; maybe play music occasionally.
I've shopped a bit on-line for a large case and found the huge range in prices, higher-priced cases coming with an LCD, controls on the front, etc. I think I've settled on the Antec Fusion Remote Max, largely because of looks and large (quiet) fans. I looked at the really high-end cases, but I don't see a compelling reason to spend the extra $300+ to get the 7" touchscreen LCD on the front. The $500+ cases don't seem to offer that much more functionality. What does the touchscreen LCD do that I need, or am I missing something with those cases? I just read that the touchscreen LCD is nice to control playing music so that you don't have to have the big screen powered on. Anything else?
I've also been wondering about the two flat-screen TV hook-up. Is it even possible to watch two shows at once (football games) with a Ceton card and whatever app I use to watch FIOS TV?
This is obviously going to a be a long work in progress. Thank you for reading and any suggestions are most welcome.
Buddy
First, I have the original Antec Fusion case and swear by it. Second, if the LCD is front and center so that you're looking at it regularly, having some information on it will either be a great feature or utterly annoying to you. What's recording is usually duplicate info you could access with a simple button press, but might come in handy when the TV is off. Music info/controls might be kinda neat, but you'd probably prefer to use a remote to change tracks or pause. When mine was in sight, I had RSS feeds going across it and I found that quite useful.... although, extremely addictive!
Beyond that, as a secondary display, it might come in handy for troubleshooting. Honestly, the only place I think one would be extremely useful is on a headless server. Otherwise, it's a "nice to have" feature.
Server: WHS, SuperMicro dual Xeon X7DWE, 1 x Xeon L5410, Thermalright HR-01, 4GB Crucial ECC, 8 port PCI-X SATA, 4 port RocketRAID 2300, 5x1 PortMultiplier, Corsair HX1000W PSU, Lian-Li PC343B case [blog]
Storage: 2 x Addonics 5-in-3 bays, 13TB
Client: SageTV 7, Windows 7 64-bit, Foxconn G9657MA-8EKRS2H, Core2Duo E6600, Zalman CNPS7500, 2GB Corsair, 320GB, HIS ATI 4650, Antec Fusion [blog]
Tuners: 2 x HD-PVR (serial control), 2 x HDHR, USB-UIRT