Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater HTPC...again

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This sounds pretty cool too...pricey though.

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Wow, I didn't even know they had a new one out yet... and quite pricy for a sound card... Oh well, you spot it, you bought it. Then you can tell everyone else if its as good as it claims

hmmm...found a couple new vidya cards geared towards the HTPC market. Whatdayathink?

Gigabyte GV-NX76G256HI-RH
ASUS EAX1900XT/HTVDP/256M

Hey Craig,

You know I'm NOT the alpha geek around here, so I'll just offer a couple thoughts based on my own similar experience.

I think that fanless Gigabyte card looks pretty cool. I have a similar, lower end one and it works like a champ.

I don't know how concerned you are about silence, but having the video card be fanless can't hurt. My impression (albeit with smaller drives) is that Western Digital drives are significantly noisier than similar models from Seagate and Samsung.

Does your motherboard have a coaxial audio output?

Fun project!

Some of the WD drives now have what they call "WhisperDrive™ and SoftSeek™ technologies". This particular drive got a thumbs up from silentpc.com

As far as the video card goes, it simply needs to be powerful enough to play video games at 1920x1080 resolution. I'll be replacing it's hsf with a Zalman which in every report I've read keeps the vidya card super cool and very, very quiet.

The motherboard...hmm...lemme download the manual...

OK...I'm even more confused now. The motherboard has both a coaxial RCA digital output as well as an optical digital output! I didn't even think to check on this, as I've never heard of a mb having these features. I guess you actually do get what you pay for sometimes.

If I'm understanding this right, I just wasted $63.50 on my soundcard, as this motherboard can pass all my digital audio signals directly out to my receiver, right?

sh$t.

Pardon the endless questions...

Aren't most games encoded with EAX audio, rather than Dolby Digital and/or DTS? If that's the case, how with a HTPC would you get that EAX gaming audio decoded? If I simply pass the digital signal through the mb out to my reciever, the receiver doesn't know what EAX is. If I use a sound card, again, if I use the digital output the receiver isn't going to know what the EAX signal is, so I'd need to then use the multi-channel outputs from the card and purchse mini-plug to RCA cables and run all those cables out of the card and into the receiver's multi-channel analog inputs, no? If I did that, all Dolby Digital, DTS and EAX decoding would happen on the card and the receiver would simply receive the individual analog channel signals. Correct? (Much like you have to do with SACD and DVD-A)

Sounds like a pain in the tushy.

Sent ya a PM, I think I covered all of that.

Update...

I've been buying this thing piece-meal. Here's where I'm at so far.

Purchased
motherboard: Intel 975XBX2KR
ram: 2GB Corsair 800Mhz DDR2
audio: Creative X-Fi Extreme Music
storage: Western Digital 500Gb
cooling: Zalman
ps: Corsair 620 watt Power Supply

Remaining to Buy
Video Card
Case
CPU
Optical Drive

I’ve found another video card that I think may be the best bet so far.

GIGABYTE GV-NX795T512H-RH GeForce 7950GT 512MB
It should have PLENTY of power for games, and already has the Zalman heatsink to keep it quiet and cool.




The case I wanted couldn’t accept optical drives with full width face plates, so I’m leaning towards this one now…
Silverstone Grandia GD01-MX



CPU…wanting to future proof myself as much as possible… Intel E6600 2.4Ghz Core 2 Duo It should run any game I throw at it for the next few years, while at the same time run nice and cool and quiet.



Lastly the optical drive. Unless someone talks me out of it, I’m planning on getting the Sony Blu-Ray drive.

With an HDCP compatible video card, hooked up directly to my tv, I shouldn't have any problems watching 1080p movies with this, yeah?

When they finally come out with an internal HD-DVD drive, I’ll have a free 5.25” bay ready and waiting in the Silverstone case.

I’m still hoping to sell my Rotel amp and processor, and replace it with a Denon AVR-3806. I’ll need the space in my audio cabinet for the HTPC, and I should come out ahead in the deal, so the extra money can go towards buying some of the gear.

Regarding my Denon 2900. If this HTPC works out to be as great as I’m hoping, the only reason for me to keep the 2900 would be to play SACD and DVD-A’s. I definitely do not want to lose that ability, but perhaps I could sell the 2900 and replace it with a smaller, less costly unit? Any suggestions?

I hate to keep raining (it sounds pretty good other than this!), but I would be cautious about Zalman's claims of quiet cooling. I've used their stuff repeatedly, and it's really not all that quiet. Usually their idea of quiet seems to be "take a regular fan and plug in a resistor so it runs slower and doesn't cool nearly as well."

I did see a review of a video card that performed well in games and had a passive heatsink. Here's a link to newegg, here's the review.