Build your own Home Theater PC Computer DIY

Posted by admin on May 19th, 2010 and filed under home theater | 25 Comments »

The Real HT Info Podcast assembles a computer that has all the cooling and noise considerations to make an admirable HTPC. If you’ve ever wanted to build your own computer, this is a good place to start.

$50 Antec P180 Case
$49 Antec NEO 430 Power Supply
$88 Intel Core2Duo E4300 w/ Stock Heatsink
$98 Abit AB9 Pro Motherboard
$60 Crucial Balistix 2GB 6400 DDR2
$108 MSI Silent 8500GT Video Card
$32 Sony/NEC DVD Burner SATA
$105 Seagate 500GB SATA Hard Drive
$200 Westinghouse 22″ LCD Monitor
$20 Microsoft Wireless Mouse and Keyboard
$15 Monoprice Cables
—————
$825 Total

Duration : 0:6:43


[youtube Aln5AMXZKjM]

25 Responses

  1. realhtinfo Says:

    @Slash27015

    Can’t …
    @Slash27015

    Can’t argue with that.

  2. Slash27015 Says:

    For a nowdays …
    For a nowdays graphic card, I’d go with a 5450 as it’s a low-profile card, with passive cooling, that has HDMI-Out with sound.

    It’s also capable of playing newer games on a low graphical setting, incase you ever feel like playing games in your living room.

    The 5450 requires 1×6pin power connector.

  3. realhtinfo Says:

    @OneEyedJack1970


    @OneEyedJack1970

    It is a great card, but these days, I’d look for HDMI with audio out.

  4. hondaaccourd5 Says:

    omg how did he know …
    omg how did he know that my computer was under my desk

  5. OneEyedJack1970 Says:

    It is a great card …
    It is a great card for a HTPC system, if you can still find one. I got mine like three years ago.

  6. OneEyedJack1970 Says:

    One problem with …
    One problem with that particular revision is the fact that you can’t fit it in the K9N Diamond motherboard’s first PCI express slot, because the heat sink on the north bridge gets in the way of the of the heat sink on the back of the video card. I wouldn’t care had not MSI made both the card and the board. MSI did make another revision with a heatsink/fan in the normal position.

  7. OneEyedJack1970 Says:

    Hey, that’s the …
    Hey, that’s the video card I have.

  8. realhtinfo Says:

    @blankpaper66

    I …
    @blankpaper66

    I wouldn’t say stronger parts, actually, for audio and video, you can get by with less processing power on the proc/graphics card side of things. I’d say quiet parts, low-energy usage, and lots of storage are the key.

    Get you HDMI from monoprice or another internet source to save money.

  9. blankpaper66 Says:

    Hmm, home theater …
    Hmm, home theater pc’s are basically normal Pc’s with a few stronger parts.

    In our desktop pc I bought a game which was too new for our pc so we needed more RAM and I bought an Nvidia 8600GT for it. lol.

    but now I have a sick laptop with HDMI out, only thing is I have no HDMI cord and they are about $15-20 bucks… but at least it will play well on my HDTV, because the blu ray program on my laptop tells me the reso isn’t supported with the VGA cable -.-

  10. realhtinfo Says:

    @AMDDragonfly Well, …
    @AMDDragonfly Well, I don’t know about “kill” unless you have a short, but it can definitely produce more heat and use more electricity than you need, and be more expensive to purchase the unit itself.

  11. AMDDragonfly Says:

    good video. liked …
    good video. liked the part about buying a PSU that you don’t need, i.e. a 1000W when you only need 500W. more wattage than you need can kill your computer

  12. MichalJinoch Says:

    I allways first …
    I allways first give motherboard to Computer and text is CPU and RAM.. it’s better if you have “big” case

  13. 32JSE Says:

    That’s not really a …
    That’s not really a home theater PC by looking at the case. Good tutorial though.

  14. TheEmeraldAreej Says:

    thanx,, I got more …
    thanx,, I got more information about building computers ,, nice!

  15. overgrown420 Says:

    @williii24 THATS …
    @williii24 THATS GOING TO BE 1OX BETTER THAN THIS BUILD ALL THE PARTS HE USED IN THIS BUILD ARE OLD AND NOT GOOD YOUR’S SHOULD BE FINE

  16. eugovector Says:

    Depends on what …
    Depends on what you’re using it for I guess. Seems good enough for HT duties.

  17. williii24 Says:

    Is this a good …
    Is this a good setup?

    XFX Radeon HD 5750 (1 GB) – GPU
    ASUS Crosshair III Formula Republic of Gamers Series – motherboard
    Phenom II X4 955 6 MB (AMD Processor in a Box (PIB)) (Cooler (fansink)) – CPU
    Samsung Super-WriteMaster SH-S223C (Sort) (En gros) – DVD burner
    WD Caviar Blue WD5000AAKS 500 GB – Harddrive
    Corsair VX450W – PSU
    Antec THREE-HUNDRED EU – Case

    Thanks in advance

  18. realhtinfo Says:

    Most bios come with …
    Most bios come with fail-safe defaults and will auto-recognize the CPU. After windows in on, you’ll likely want to go in and customize. I set mine for a low and high power config, and dropped all the fans as low as they would go to keep it quiet.

  19. wombattos Says:

    would I need to …
    would I need to configure my BIOS for anything after assembling my pc? or can I just boot up by OS disc and start installing windows to my PC?

  20. realhtinfo Says:

    Also, the …
    Also, the motherboard has been switched to an MSI and the RAM to 2×2GB from Corsair due to an apparent incompatibility and damaged memory.

  21. realhtinfo Says:

    Well, all the parts …
    Well, all the parts are captioned in the video, but I will update the video info box with the full list.

    I don’t know how much good it will do you though. Some of the parts are no longer available, or if they are available, are much more expensive due to scarcity.

    Still, you could probably find modern analogues.

  22. Lenninct Says:

    i know its a little …
    i know its a little crazy but anyway you can post a list of parts for this build…i wanna see how much it would cost to build it today.

  23. realhtinfo Says:

    Agreed. The PC …
    Agreed. The PC that I built in the video, with the addition of 2 more hard drives, pulls about 130 watts. I think people overestimate their power supply need and just get suckered into buying power they’ll never use.

  24. rvdm88 Says:

    thats true, 1000w …
    thats true, 1000w is overkill, though often they perform best on 60 to 75% of their max capacity
    so i’d suggest around 500 watt for a pc that runs on 300 watt,
    if you run your PSU at 90% or more, it starts to generate extra heat and loses efficiency.

  25. realhtinfo Says:

    I stand corrected. …
    I stand corrected. This video was posted in Dec 2007, which make the hard drive an even better deal at the time. Thanks for pointing that out.

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