Hardware
I started to look and see what hardware I needed to create an HTPC and discovered that my present system was not up to the task:
CPU: PII 400MHz
MB: ASUS P2B
RAM: 256MB
Video: Matrox G200
HDs: 13GB 5400RPM and 30GB 7200RPM

From what I read the PII 400MHz seemed to be a fraction too slow for a quality video capture. Also the ASUS P2B motherboard only has the original AGP slot so a modern video card was unusable. For these two reasons a new PC was really required.

I decided to approach the project by deciding on the video card first. I discovered through a number of forums that the ATI video cards are very common and considered some of the best around for video capture (for full disclosure, I should mention I have an investment in ATI). So I settled on the ATI AIW 8500DV. This seemed to be the leading solution without going overboard on video game features, since I don't play many games. The latest, the ATI AIW 9700, was just too much money without a significant increase in video quality.

I next looked for a motherboard. Since my P2B has been very reliable I started looking at ASUS. My local PC store where I had bought my original computer and who would build my new computer, also sold mainly ASUS motherboards. I discovered the ASUS P4S8X (which has an AGP 8X slot) and the P4PE, two top-of-the-line mobos. But from reading a review at ExtremeTech (article) and comments at ASUSBoards (article), I decided they were too unstable at the time. I decided stability was more important than speed (I would rather have some dropped frames rather than no video at all!). So I selected a ASUS P4B533-E with all options included. After reading an article on ExtremeTech about the AGP8X slot not proividing a huge increase in speed (article) I decided I didn't need AGP8X anyway and settled for the AGP4X on the P4533-E.

I have a 27" non-flat, plain ordinary TV and am not going to go to the expense of buying any LCD/projection screen system for the foreseeable future. I am not too picky about the quality of the video since TV is just a disposible entertainment to me. But I did contemplate making a "quiet PC" so I could have the PC by the TV to make it more convenient changing VCDs (no DVD player/recorder yet!) and because short cables are better than long ones. But in the end, I decided the expense of making it quiet and what I think is the experimental nature of HTPCs (I wanted a conservative budget), I decided to leave my PC in my study, so noise problems were not a concern. Perhaps in the future I will make it quiet. Since the ATI AIW 8500DV has a radio frequecy remote (non-line of sight) I didn't have a problem putting the PC "next door".

A computer expert friend told me the P4 CPU's "sweet spot" is 2.4 GHz, and since the price of CPUs have decreased over the last 5 years (I paid $900 for the P2 in 1998) I decided I could splurge on the 2.4 GHz. This would be fast enough for quality compression and I wanted plenty of power for the future anyway.

I needed a new hard drive and the Western Digital Special Editions were highly regarded by many. It has a 8MB buffer that should keep video flowing smoothly. Since my motherboard can be configured as a RAID, I had contemplated buying two WD 800JB's, but budget, again, reared it head. So I bought one drive and might buy another in the future.

The specification of my new PC:
CPU: P4 2.4 GHz
MB: ASUS P4B533-E
RAM: 256MB
Video: ATI All-in-Wonder 8500DV
HDs: 30GB 7200RPM Maxtor and 80GB 7200 RPM 8mb cache Western Digital

Since my computer is so far away from my entertainment system (25 feet), the sound volume was not spectacular out of the mobo's sound card. My TV doesn't have a pass-through for any of the sound cables, so if I wanted to attach my computer to my TV and stereo (so I can play sound files through my stereo without the TV on) I needed to amplify and split the sound. I decided not to go to the expense of buying an additional amp. Instead, I plugged a splitter into the headphone jack of my computer speakers. The amp in the speakers was good enough to get proper volume to my entertainment system.

But I noticed a hiss on the CMedia sound chip on the mobo. I understand that full duplex audio (simultaneous record and playback)is not well supported by the CMedia chip. As a result I decided to buy a cheap Soundblaster card. It proved very satisfactory with greater volume and definition with absolutely no hiss.

I recently bought an LG DVD-ROM drive. I've played a couple of movies on it and it seems quite satisfactory. Firmware updates seem to be easily available and the drive is such a best seller that I don't think there will be any problem in getting updates for it.

I was just slightly disappointed with the video quality out of the ATI Tuner. The colours were all little muted and the there was some increase in the interference over the rather poor cable reception I get. However, DVD quality is just superb. This leads me to the conclusion that it is a weak cable signal that is the problem (perhaps too long a cable extension or the splitter I used) and not the computer hardware.

An interesting way of "broadcasting" shows around the house is through Wi-Fi. While I haven't attempted this a neat solution to recieving signals on each TV may be the Pinnacle ShowCentre hardware/software combination.

My Hardware
ASUS P4B533-E
ATI
8500DV
8500DV
Rage3D
Remote Wonder review
HD
Creative SoundBlaster
LG
LG Service Drivers

General Hardware
ExtremeTech
ASUSBoards
ASUSBoards
HardOCP
Lost Circuits
ExtremeTech
IR Remote port
X10

Hardware Reviews
Tom's Hardware
Motherboards.org
ExtremeTech.com
Tweak Town
OCWorkbench
Firing Squad
Explosive Labs
Active-hardware.com

TV Cards
ATi
WDM Video Capture Driver for BT8** cards
Hauppauge
Leadtek
NVidia
Pinnacle PCTV Card Setup
TV-Cards.com
TV Interference from Eric Vey's website

Quiet PCs
QuietPC.ca
ExtremeTech.com
PCMech.com
QuietPC
Silent
Silentpcreview.com
quiet PC

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