Building your own HTPC for less than $750



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 Last updated in December, 2006
by Giordano Biondani

Introduction

Components

Assembly and installation

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Introduction

What is an HTPC

An HTPC (Home Theatre PC) is basically a simple PC that you install in your living room and use to:
  • play DVD's
  • record, store and play TV programs
  • schedule TV recording over long periods of time and for entire series
  • pause and rewind live TV programs
  • store and play music
  • play the radio
  • store and view your digital photos
  • store and view your digital movies
  • play videogames
You can achieve a similar result by buying different separate devices: a DVD player, a DVR (such as TiVo), a stereo set, a bookcase for your CD's, a game console (such as a Playstation or X-Box) and you probably already have a PC for your digital pictures. The advantage of going the HTPC way is that you can consolidate everything in a single device, the quality of your entertainment experience will probably be better, and you'll save a lot of money to boot. The only question then becomes whether you should just buy an HTPC or if you should build your own.

System layout

When I was researching the Internet to figure out how to design the system I wasn't able to find a clear explanation of which components I would need and how they would fit together, especially if I didn't want to get a full-blown home theatre (which would have been a lot more expensive).
I hope the following pictures will fill the gap. Click on each picture to open a larger, more detailed view with explanations.

This is the front view of the system:

 The image shows the main components (click on it for a more detailed view):
  • a large format TV (you don't want to build a home theatre without a large TV),
  • the 6 speakers,
  • the cable set-top box,
  • the Windows XP Media Center remote with receiver and IR blaster,
  • and of course the HTPC.
I have digital cable with a cable set-top box; if you have satellite I imagine the setup would be pretty much the same.
The Windows XP Media Center remote is important because it's what you use to control the whole system. The IR blaster is needed by Media Center to control the set-top box, so that Media Center can change channels.
I didn't draw it, but you'll need a combination mouse/keyboard as well.


This is the back view of the system:

 The image shows the main connections (click on it for a more detailed view):
  • The set-top box is connected to the cable outlet through a standard coaxial cable,
  • the set-top box is connected to the TV through a component cable,
  • the set-top box is connected to the HTPC through an S-video cable and an audio cable (not shown),
  • the HTPC is connected to the TV through an RGB cable,
  • the HTPC is connected to the subwoofer with 3 audio cables, and the subwoofer is connected to the 5 satellites (connection not shown),
  • the IR receiver for the Media Center remote is connected to the IR blaster and to the HTPC through a USB cable,
  • the keyboard/mouse are connected to the HTPC through a wireless USB interface (not shown).

I made the drawing using Google Sketchup. It's really powerful and easy to use, and can be downloaded for free from this page.

Limitations and assumptions

The goal here is to have the best possible system for the smallest amount of money. This is like wanting the cake and eating it too, so compromises have to be made. I decided to err on the side of saving money, so here are a few points to keep in mind:
  • The TV receives the TV signal directly from the set-top box and indirectly from the HTPC. You can switch from one input to another (assuming that your TV has multiple inputs) by using the "input" button on your TV remote. I did it this way for two reasons: the first is that the TV tuner card does not support HDTV, but I still want to be able to watch my HDTV channels. So when I want to watch an HDTV channel I'll just switch to the direct from set-top box input. There are some TV tuner cards that do support HDTV, but from what I could find out it seems that cable operators are able to prevent you from transferring the HD signal to the HTPC. I don't know how they do that, and it's possible that different cable operators have different policies, and that these policies may change in the future, but for now I decided to go with the cheaper non-HD tuner card. The second reason for the double input is that I may not always need the HTPC features when watching TV. In those cases I'd rather use the TV without the HTPC and save the power.
  • Since the tuner card doesn't support HD, you won't be able to pause or record live TV in HD.
  • The speakers are connected to the HTPC but not to the TV. This means that you won't get the full surround sound experience when watching TV without the HTPC. If you want to be able to use the 5.1 speakers directly from the TV, you'll need a receiver to handle and amplify the signal between the TV and the speakers. This adds several hundred dollars to the system, and I didn't think it's worth it. If I want the surround sound, I use the HTPC; when I'm not using the HTPC I'm probably just watching a Law & Order rerun or the local news, so I don't care about surround sound. The only real drawback is that if I want to watch an HD channel I can't use the HTPC, but if I don't use the HTPC I don't get the surround sound, so I can't have HD and surround at the same time. Still, I don't think it was worth the extra hundreds for the receiver. I may reconsider this when HDTV becomes more widespread.
  • Both the TV and the HTPC are getting the signal from the same set-top box. The HTPC, in order to tune on any given channel, actually switches the set-top box. This means that you can't watch one channel while the HTPC is recording another channel. A cheap way to go around this is to get a cable splitter and direct one end directly to the tuner card (assuming that the card has enough inputs); the drawback is that by bypassing the set-top box you also lose any encoded channels that need the set-top box to be decoded. I suppose a better (an more expensive) way would be to get multiple set-top boxes and multiple tuner cards, but I haven't really looked into this.
  • Please keep in mind that this system works in my specific situation, but you can't assume that it would also work in your situation, if it's different. Here are some specifics:
    • I have cable, not satellite
    • I have digital cable without any premium channels (HBO and similar); I don't know if and how it would work with those channels
    • My cable provider is Time Warner in NC; I don't know if other cable providers may be able to prevent you from using your HTPC with certain channels
    • My set-top box is a Pace model DC-550
    • My TV is a Vizio Plasma 42".

Why you should (or should not) build your own HTPC

Building your own HTPC is going to require a lot of work, time and frustration. In the end you'll have an HTPC that is better suited to your needs and cheaper than an off-the-shelf one, sure, but it will be worth it only if you actually enjoy building your own stuff, and if you already know something about computers. If you have what it takes, read on...

Components
Warning: the more you read about computer components on the Internet, the faster your money will fly out the window. An HTPC does not need to be a high performance machine, but 90% of the people writing on the Internet about building your own PC's are serious gamers. What they talk about and recommend is overkill. Don't listen to them, unless you want to use your HTPC for serious gaming.
I do my gaming on a PSP when I travel for work or before I fall asleep in bed; I don't play games on the HTPC, so I did not need to spec the system for gaming. If you want to do that, you'll need some better components than I am listing here.

The case and power supply

You want a case that looks good in the living room (i.e. small, black and as incospicuous as possible). It should also have good airflow because you want the HTPC to be quiet; quiet can be achieved if the fans don't have to work hard to cool the processor and other components, and if you have good airflow in the case, the fans won't have to work as hard.
I selected the Cooler Master CM Media 250. It fulfills all the above criteria. It is the smallest I could find while having enough room to accommodate all the components I needed, it's black, for the most part it doesn't look like a computer, the build quality is good, it has two very quiet fans and it stays pretty cool (the processor averages 35 degrees C, while the system averages 30 degrees C, which is very good).

As for the power supply: the important thing in selecting one is - you guessed it - the power. It's better to oversize it a little, because you may need more power if you add components in the future. Also, if it's not being squeezed for all the power it's worth, it's less liable to overheating or malfunctioning. For a non-gaming HTPC, 400 or 450W is a good, safe spec. I selected the Coolmax CX-450. The build quality is good, it comes with more than enough plugs, the cables are long enough, and it has two fan speeds. You can let it select the optimum speed automatically or override it manually. When running at low speed (which is what it does most of the time) the fan is practically silent.

Processor, motherboard and memory

An HTPC, unless is used for serious gaming, doesn't need a lot of processing power. This is good, because power means heat and heat means noise. You don't want an appliance in your living room that sounds like a hair-dryer. I did some research to find a processor with the best compromise of processing power, power consumption, and price. It appeared to be the AMD Sempron 3000+. I found it in a bundle with a pretty good motherboard.
Concerning the motherboard: as long as it fits in the case (most HTPC's accommodate only micro-ATX-sized motherboards, not ATX-sized ones) and supports the processor you want, you usually can't go wrong.

As for the memory, the more the better (especially if you want to work with digital pictures or movies). I settled for a pretty good 1GB 400MHz DDR deal.

Drives

You can easily find DVD drives that do everything (play and record CD's and DVD's, in all possible formats), so one DVD drive should be enough.
I decided however to buy two of them, because I want to be able to watch movies from both Region 1 (North America) and Region 2 (Europe). As you may know, each DVD player can only play DVD's from one region; you can change the setting, but only 4 times in the life of the device. This is not good enough. So I got a DVD player/burner, which I'll use for Region 1, and a simple DVD player that I'll use for Region 2.
Just make sure that they come in the same color as the case.

As for the hard disk drive, you need to get the biggest you can find. Once you start recording your favorite TV series, ripping your CD collection, downloading mp3's and your digital pictures, you'll need all the space you can get.
If the price is right, go for a SATA instead of EIDE (assuming that your motherboard supports it); I don't know if it's faster or anything, but it's sure much easier to install.
I went for 320GB, which should be good for a few years.

Video card, sound card and speakers

Unless you're planning to use the HTPC for gaming, get any run-of-the-mill 128MB video card. It will be plenty good to handle any entertainment content. Just make sure that the 128MB is actual memory, not "shared" or "supported" memory. I went for a GeForce FX5200.

As for the sound card, you want one that supports at least 5.1 surround. It's unlikely that the on-board sound card of the motherboard does (check the output plugs: you need 3 of them - front, rear and center), so you'll probably need to get another one.
You'll need a 5.1 set of speakers (5.1 means that you have two in the front, two in the back - left and right - one in the center, and a sub-woofer). Make sure that you can easily install the speakers on the walls. Obviously the more power the better. The only limits that you want to keep in mind are your wallet and the eardrum of the neighbors. I went for a total 70 watts RMS.

TV tuner card

The TV tuner card recives the signal from the cable. Many cards also have an antenna for FM radio and are able to receive that as well.
I chose a Visiontek Xtasy Theatre 550 Pro, which includes the Windows XP Media Center remote as well as the IR receiver and blaster. The remote is used to control the HTPC when you don't want to use the keyboard and mouse. The IR blaster is used by Windows to control the set-top box (to change the channels). If you choose a different card, you should be able to buy the remote, IR receiver and IR blaster separately.
As I explained above this card does not support HDTV. There are cards that do, but according to what I found online, many cable providers prevent you from getting the HD signal to the HTPC. I didn't feel like going through the hassle, so I decided to forego the HD tuner card.

Keyboard and mouse

You want a keyboard and mouse that you can operate from the couch without cables running around and without a TV tray in front of you, so the ideal solution is a wireless keyboard with joystick mouse like the one I bought.

Network and other interfaces

If this is not your only PC, you'll want to be able to transfer data from one to the other. Obvioulsy you can burn the data on CD's or DVD's and transfer it this way, but the most convenient way is to set up a wireless netweok, if you don't already have one. All you need is a wireless access point and a USB adapter to plug in the HTPC.

Since I still had an available bay in the case, I decided to get a card reader and USB hub. It's convenient and it's nicely integrated in the front of the case, but it's totally optional.

Software

There are several pieces of software that you can use, but I found that the best way to pull everything together is Windows XP Media Center Edition. It has pretty much all the functionalities you need to rip CD's, play music, display pictures and slideshows, play DVD's, watch, record and pause live TV, play recorded TV, schedule recordings, play the radio, etc.

My HTPC
This is the detailed list of the components I bought, and the price I paid in November of 2006. Depending on when you read this, you may not find the same products, and the prices may be significantly lower. However, the table should give you a good starting point.
Component
 Price
Case: Cooler Master Black Media 250 MATX HTPC Home Entertainment Desktop Case with Fron USB, Audio and Firewire Ports
 74.99
Power Supply: Coolmax 400-Watt ATX Power Supply with 120mm Fan
 24.99
Processor: AMD Sempron 3000+ Socket 754 64-Bit (Palermo) BOX 54.99
Motherboard: Mach Speed Viper K8M8MS Socket 754 Motherboard 40.00
Memory: Ultra 1024MB PC3200 DDR 400MHz 49.99
DVD player 1: Lite-on SHW-160P6S / 16x DVD±R Read / 16x DVD±R Burn / 8x DVD+RW / 6x DVD-RW / 8x DVD+R DL / 4x DVD-R DL / 48x24x CD-R/RW / Black/Beige / Internal / DVD Burner
 24.99
DVD Player 2 (optional): Lite-on SHD-16P1S / 16x DVD-ROM / 48x CD-ROM / Black / Internal / Drive
19.99
Hard disk drive: Seagate 320GB Serial ATA HD 7200/16MB/SATA-3G 79.99
Video card: XFX GeForce FX 5200 / 128MB DDR / AGP 8X / VGA / DVI / TV Out / Video Card 29.99
Sound card: Sound Blaster Audigy
 19.99
Speakers: Logitech X-540 Speakers
 79.99
TV tuner card: Visiontek Xtasy Theater 550 Pro MCE / PCI / PVR / TV-FM Tuner / Video Capture Card with Remote Control
 109.99
Keyboard/mouse:  BTC 9019URF Wireless Multimedia USB Keyboard with Joystick mouse
 34.95
Wireless network access point (optional): D-Link / DWL-G700AP / 54Mbps / 802.11g / Wireless Access Point
 39.99
Wireless network USB adapter (optional): GigaFast / WF748-CUI / 54Mbps / 802.11g / USB 2.0 / Wireless Network Adapter
 4.99
Card reader & USB hub (optional): Sabrent 52-in-1 / USB 2.0 Internal / Flash Memory Card Reader & Writer w/ USB 2.0 Port
12.99
Operating system: Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 OEM 109.99
Total
 $812.80
Total without optional components
 $734.84

I bought most of the parts at TigerDirect; they usually have very good prices (especially if you look for the mail-in rebates, which are easy to submit and are honored without difficulties).

I bought the keyboard at ErgoGeek.com. I was satisfied, but I used them only once.

Find the most up-to-date components:
Google





Assembly and installation
There are a lot of very good guides on the Internet on how to build your own PC, so I won't try to reinvent the wheel. I'll just post some tips that are specific to some problems that I encountered.

General tips

  • When you are assembling the PC, test it one piece at a time to see if it's working. Start with the power supply, the motherboard and processor, the memory, and so on. At each step check if everything works. I didn't follow this advice and I think I either installed the processor incorrectly, or shorted the motherboard. In any case I had to take the whole thing apart piece by piece to figure out why it wouldn't start.
  • Install all the drivers required by each device before you try to actually use it.
  • As soon as you have the Internet access configured, download and install any Windows and driver updates. You can use Microsoft Update to do that more easily.

DVD Codecs

Unlike music CD's, DVD's can't be played directly by the PC: you need to install a codec first. Usually the software that comes with the DVD player includes also the codecs, so you should be ok. The problem is that Windows XP Media Center Edition has higher requirements than other operating systems, so not all codecs are compatible with Media Center. In order to find out if your codec is compatible, you can download the Microsoft Windows XP Video Decoder Checkup Utility from the Microsoft website. Install it if you are having problems and run it to make sure that the codecs are compatible. If they aren't, search the web for "Windows XP Media Center Edition compatible video decoder". The PowerDVD 6 software that came with my LiteOn DVD players is compatible.

5.1 surround

I wasn't able to get the 5.1 setup to work in Media Center; in fact, I wasn't even able to select it as an option in the Media Center settings. Then I realized that you have to install all the DVD software before the 5.1 setup becomes available as an option. And when you play music, you'll hear sound only from the front speakers. I suppose all this is due to the fact that only DVD's really use the center and back channels, while regular music only uses the front ones. To get the sound to all 6 speakers when you are listening to music you have to turn on the "matrix" button on the controller of your speakers.

Placement of the speakers

The ideal placement of the speakers is as follows:
  • Front center speaker: in front of the TV, just below or above it. This is where the dialogue of the on-screen characters is usually hard-coded, and therefore it should be as close as possible to the TV.
  • Front left and right speakers: next to the TV, on either side, at approximately ear level.
  • Back left and right speakers: slightly behind the listener, at approxinately ear level.
  • Sub-woofer: the bass sound is non-directional, so its placement is not as important. The most convenient place is generally behind the TV.
For more details, check the Dolby website.

Windows XP Media Center Edition

Windows XP Media Center is currently available only as OEM. This means that they only sell it to PC manufacturers, not the public. I didn't realize this until I received it. I guess it's ok, because after all I am the manufacturer of my own HTPC.
The problem however is that the installation requires the XP Service Pack 2 disc, but it wasn't included in the box. I guess they assume that PC manufacturers already have it. I figured I could just cancel and install it afterwards, but I was wrong. I guess some really important pieces of XP MCE are in SP2, so after the install I couldn't even configure the network to access the Internet. I had to format the hard disk and start over. The SP2 CD can be downloaded from the Microsoft website, but it comes as a single .exe file. When you are installing Windows, the installer needs to see the individual files, not one single big .exe file, so you need to unpack it first. See this page to find out how to do that. In short, you have to go on a different computer, download the SP2 executable, then run this command from the command line: "xpsp2.exe -x:c:\sp2", where "XPSP2.exe" is the name of the SP2 executable file and "c:\sp2" is the place where you want to unpack it. Then copy the contents of C:\sp2 on a CD, and insert it in the CD player when the installer asks you to.


Copyright (C) 2006 Giordano Biondani