I am sick of dragging my laptop from room to room to watch movies or listen to music. I have been reading and it seems that none of the extenders are all that great. I was close to buying the new popcorn hour c-200 but the reviews were not that great. It seems that the best extender is a HTPC. I have not build a computer in over 10 years so not sure about compatibility. Will someone look at this configuration and tell me if it will work and if it is good or if it is crap. I use DVDfab 6 to copy dvds to my ex485 and stream the vob files to my laptop via WMC. I'm not sure if the onboard video will work or if I should add a video card. Also looking for a fan and heatsink recomendation.
vista home premium
Motherboard
ASUS M3A78-EM AM2+/AM2 AMD 780G HDMI Micro ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail
Item #: N82E16813131324
Memory
CORSAIR XMS2 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model TWIN2X2048-6400 - Retail
Item #: N82E16820145590
Processor
AMD Phenom X3 8750 Black Edition Toliman 2.4GHz Socket AM2+ 95W Triple-Core Processor Model HD875ZWCJ3BGH - OEM
Item #: N82E16819103711
Harddrive
Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 ST3320418AS 320GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive
Item #: N82E16822148469
Case
SILVERSTONE Silver Aluminum front panel, 0.8 mm SECC body LC17-SC ATX Media Center / HTPC Case - Retail
Item #: N82E16811163054
All of these items came from newegg
Thansk

Hi Andy,

Is your sole purpose for an HTPC watching streamed content (i.e do you plan on doing any gaming, encoding, etc...). If watching streamed content is all you want to do I woudl recommend just going with a dual core. You can see my builds here (http://dbone1026.blogspot.com/2009/04/m ... build.html)

An updated build I would get these later models in place of what I used:

Gigabite 785g MicroATX
AMD Regor 240 CPU or 245 or 250
If not included with case Antec 380W PSU or 430w

If you don't want to build an HTPC and once again you are just looking to play streamed content (HD or SD) you can get one of the Ion builds (ASRock or the new Acer Aspire. YOu can get further info about teh Ion systems from some other users here (viewtopic.php?f=13&t=4794)

A separate GPU is not necessary unless you potentially want to start looking at bitstreaming HD Audio (AMD 5xxx series). I purchased GPUs for my HTPCs primarily because the price was cheap (approx $50-60) and they do handle SD content better then the IGP

Once again, this is purely assuming you just want a media streamer (and are not looking for something more powerful).

_________________
Cheers,
Damian

DIY WHS - 12.5TB and growing, too many gadgets to list

Did you read the MediaSmartServer blog today?
Blog - http://www.adigitalhomeblog.com
"Like a midget at a urinal, stay on your toes!" - Lieutenant Frank Drebin

Thank you for your advice. Your assumptions are correct it will be used strictly for streaming and ripping cds and dvds to the ex485. Look at what I am able to purchase from newegg and let me know what you think also if you know anywhere to get any of these items for less money.
Harddrive
Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 ST3320418AS 320GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148469
Motherboard
GIGABYTE GA-MA785GM-US2H AM3/AM2+/AM2 AMD 785G HDMI Micro ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128394
Power Supply
Antec earthwatts EA430 430W Continuous Power ATX12V v2.0 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC Power Supply - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371006
Memory
G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model F2-6400CL6D-4GBMQ - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231112
Processor
AMD Athlon II X2 245 Regor 2.9GHz Socket AM3 65W Dual-Core Processor Model ADX245OCGQBOX - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103687
Case
Antec Black Aluminum / Steel Fusion Remote Black Micro ATX Media Center / HTPC Case - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811129054
Fan
ZALMAN VF900 – CU 2 Ball VGA Cooler - Retail
Item #: N82E16835118001
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.250184
Thermal Compund
Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Compound - OEM
Item #: N82E16835100008
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.250184

Let me know if you can think of anything else I will need to purchase.

Thanks

Build looks good. The one thing you don't need is the Zalman cooler, the stock cooler that comes with the CPU is more then enough and not loud (I only purchased a separate cooler because the stock fan that came with the AMD 4670 GPU I got was way too loud). Other then that as long as you have a Sata cable for the HDD you should be fine and just use a USB Thumb drive to load your O/S.

_________________
Cheers,
Damian

DIY WHS - 12.5TB and growing, too many gadgets to list

Did you read the MediaSmartServer blog today?
Blog - http://www.adigitalhomeblog.com
"Like a midget at a urinal, stay on your toes!" - Lieutenant Frank Drebin

What OS are you using?

_________________
....JBick

EX475, 2 GB, LE-1640
PC1: Vista-->W7 Ultimate/32, (D-Drive RAID-5 Array)
PC2: Lenovo Laptop, Win XP Home SP3
2xLinksys WRT54G v1.1 and 2xNetGear GS105 Gbit switch

He mentions Vista Home Premium in the first post

_________________
Cheers,
Damian

DIY WHS - 12.5TB and growing, too many gadgets to list

Did you read the MediaSmartServer blog today?
Blog - http://www.adigitalhomeblog.com
"Like a midget at a urinal, stay on your toes!" - Lieutenant Frank Drebin

Duuuuuhhhhhh..... (And I read it THREE times before asking....!)

Still procrastinating on HTPC vs HD200 here...

_________________
....JBick

EX475, 2 GB, LE-1640
PC1: Vista-->W7 Ultimate/32, (D-Drive RAID-5 Array)
PC2: Lenovo Laptop, Win XP Home SP3
2xLinksys WRT54G v1.1 and 2xNetGear GS105 Gbit switch

Just get both!!!

_________________
Cheers,
Damian

DIY WHS - 12.5TB and growing, too many gadgets to list

Did you read the MediaSmartServer blog today?
Blog - http://www.adigitalhomeblog.com
"Like a midget at a urinal, stay on your toes!" - Lieutenant Frank Drebin

That is exactly where I am at the moment!

And I can not afford both...............

_________________
YSoSerious - Q9550/W7 Home Premium/32bit/2.5TB/No Raid/120GB for OS, P4 2.53GHz XP Pro server (2.5TB)/SageTV+HD200/Linkplayer2