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- first off get rid of the icore 7 you don't need it for this application.
- you'll use nvidia and the cuda application to encode videos
- get a P45 with a good processor, in reality you could even go celeron.
- DDR2 memory cheaper
- get a cheap drive.
- first off get rid of the icore 7 you don't need it for this application.
- you'll use nvidia and the cuda application to encode videos
- get a P45 with a good processor, in reality you could even go celeron.
- DDR2 memory cheaper
- get a cheap drive.
Just one thing though... the 4890 will block the PCI-e slot... which you may want/need if you ever want to bitstream lossless audio through hdmi with say... the Asus HDAV (new rev.) card. Tbh, i'm not too knowledgeable about this portion since I'm fine with 5.1 lossy audio, i'm sure the avs htpc peoples know more about this than I do.
Not that you can't use the other pcie slot (some boards have graphics only pci-e slots... not sure about this one), but what if you ever need it for whatever reason? What if you want to pick up some capture cards and the *particular* one you need happens to be pcie? I personally don't like getting "stuck". If it was a secondary HTPC I wouldn't care about the lack of slots, but if it's my main living room box, I would like as many upgrade options as I can get.
My HTPC consists of a full atx board, 3x PCI, 1 PCIe x16 for graphics, and like 3 PCIe x 1 (one blocked by vid card) for my HTPC. Is it huge? Yeah, but it's not like there aren't cases that fit it and still look nice. Got this for $180 AR, although not as nice as yours :
ASUS Xonar HDAV 1.3 – The Sound Card of the Blu-Ray Era
The ASUS Xonar HDAV 1.3 is the world’s only solution capable of providing bit-to-bit exact lossless Blu-Ray audio output—without any downsampling to DVD quality—allowing users to enjoy next generation audio enhancements such as DTS-HD, Dolby TrueHD and Dolby Digital Plus on the PC. Furthermore, the Xonar HDAV 1.3 also supports most Video Graphics Cards on the market, allowing delivery of both video and audio outputs through a single HDMI cable.
I personally have no experience with it but if I had a nice setup like yours i'd look into it. I personally am satisfied (for now) w/ just DDL 5.1 for movies and games. I'll try to implement BD into my HTPC maybe later in the year when I get the patience to mess with my setup again.
Here's a thread to the "slim" version of the card if you want to read up on it:
most ATI 4890's will cover up either the PCI slot or the PCI-E 1x slot as they are all likely dual slot cards. Why go with a small case, it's just going to give you issues with your build, then you can go a full size M/B as well.
Not that I'm saying you can't get lossless audio through that card, because I've never looked into doing it, but there's got to be a reason why everyone on avsforum is banging their head against the TMT3/HDAV trying to get lossless through that card right? Why else would Asus advertise the HDAV card as the *only* bitperfect lossless audio solution to HTPC BD playing?
I'd suggest reading up on it more, that's all.
I personally don't have the budget to get the pre-amp, amp, speakers, etc. I would really need to take advantage of lossless bit perfect BD audio so I have to compromise and be happy with DDL card w/ 5.1 and some athena bookshelves. Unlike me, you have the system to do though, so I would be a little extra careful in making sure you don't corner yourself in terms of upgrade paths. Nothing would suck more getting than to get everything setup then realize you're one PCIe slot short of getting the most out of your system.
Not that I'm saying you can't get lossless audio through that card, because I've never looked into doing it, but there's got to be a reason why everyone on avsforum is banging their head against the TMT3/HDAV trying to get lossless through that card right? Why else would Asus advertise the HDAV card as the *only* bitperfect lossless audio solution to HTPC BD playing?
I'd suggest reading up on it more, that's all.
I personally don't have the budget to get the pre-amp, amp, speakers, etc. I would really need to take advantage of lossless bit perfect BD audio so I have to compromise and be happy with DDL card w/ 5.1 and some athena bookshelves. Unlike me, you have the system to do though, so I would be a little extra careful in making sure you don't corner yourself in terms of upgrade paths. Nothing would suck more getting than to get everything setup then realize you're one PCIe slot short of getting the most out of your system.
i7 Build (heres what im thinking)
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