So I have this computer lying around in my room. It's not being used, and I figured that if I can (and I don't see any reason why I shouldn't), I'd make it into an HTPC.

I'm gonna stick XP Pro on it (it's got XP Home, but I can use my dad's corporate copy to upgrade it), and I figured I'd dump a four hundred gig hard drive in it, along with about a gig of ram.
It's got an AGP slot, and it already has a DVD Burner and a DVD ROM.
I want to use it as a DVR, tv tuner (obviously), surround sound system (5.1 will suffice), DVD player and burn movies or whatever on TV that I can legally do it for (yeah, uh, yeah, legal-like). So I figure that a nice sound card, video capture-tuner card and an okay video card is all that I need, right? Well, what do yall suggest. And no, I'm not going to get Windows MCE. I refuse to spend money on a new OS. Also, what kind of software do I need? It'd be nice if it could handle HDTV. Since I'll be using this thing at school with my roomie, it does need a coax. connection (the type that screws in) for the cable to go in (only thing they give as an option, but I'm willing to buy a unit that converts the signal to RCA (the three cables that are red, yellow, white).

It's got a twelve hundred megahertz pentium something or another processor (probably a celeron--the thing was just a temp solution; but the proc. shouldn't be a limiting factor). So what do I need? (preferably actual recommendations).

Where are my manners? Thanks in advance for any help yall can provide?

HTPC's are traditionally desktop cases so that they can blend in with your reciever/vcr/etc... Some companies make special HTPC cases just for that application, but isn't absolutely needed, especially if you're trying to save cash. Here's a decent one that's reasonably priced and comes with a power supply.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814121213

A powerful video card isn't really neccesary, so here's a nice cheap one that has HDTV out (I clicked the pictures to make sure I saw the HD cable with the accessories before I selected it)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814270008

Here's a tuner with remote and hardware mpeg encoder built in so that you don't use your CPU for that task.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16815117603

High quality sound card
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16829102179

THX certified speakers
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16836121121

Thanks. I'm at school, so the tower that it's curently in actually works better for my purposes.

Apparently I was misinformed. That four hundred gig hard drive that I had lying around has been snatched up and in its place someone left a four gig drive. So how much storage do I really need?

And it already has 512 megs of memory. Should I really double it to a gig for my purposes?

1 gig is good. I wouldn't settle for less

400gb hdd is huge! I have a 120gb and I can fill it up pretty fast when using my DVR. I think a 1 hr show is aobut 1.5gb. If you know how to encode and compress, it's not a problem. With a dvd burner, you can easily archive the stuff.

Get what you can afford. The more the better I'm sure. Just make sure it's not some crappy hdd, like a western digital (IMO). They are noisy. Get a good maxtor with 8mb or more cache and sata

hey betty, that first link is to an $850 vid card :eek3:

I kinda like these nMedia cases

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16811204003

if I was to build a HTPC, I would prob get one of those, just because it would blend in so well

Thanks.

I like that case too. If this one works out, I'm gonna build a second one for my dad.

hey betty, that first link is to an $850 vid card :eek3:

I kinda like these nMedia cases

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16811204003

if I was to build a HTPC, I would prob get one of those, just because it would blend in so well
Holy crap, I have no idea how that happened. This is what I meant to link to.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16811119071

Just make sure it's not some crappy hdd, like a western digital (IMO). They are noisy. Get a good maxtor with 8mb or more cache and sata
Hey! I like WD.

The quietest hard drives are seagates or samsungs. Both have excellent track records.

I bought the stuff. I'm gonna build a second one.

Anyone have any software suggestions?

Oh, I was also wondering if there's a way that I could share the hard drive on this computer so that my roommate and I can access it on our room's LAN (I have a wireless router that we both share)? I don't want it accessible outside just the two of us. Can I do that with just what I have? If so, how? What I really want to do is be able to have us use the speakers and stuff to play our music that's on our computers without having to physically transfer everything (between the two of us, we have something like four hundred or so gigs of music, and I bought myself a 200 gig hard drive, which is the only thing that's gonna be in this thing until I can afford a five hundred gig hard drive.

anyone heard anything about these: ?

http://www.hauppauge.com/pages/products/data_nexus.html

I bought the stuff. I'm gonna build a second one.

Anyone have any software suggestions?

Oh, I was also wondering if there's a way that I could share the hard drive on this computer so that my roommate and I can access it on our room's LAN (I have a wireless router that we both share)? I don't want it accessible outside just the two of us. Can I do that with just what I have? If so, how? What I really want to do is be able to have us use the speakers and stuff to play our music that's on our computers without having to physically transfer everything (between the two of us, we have something like four hundred or so gigs of music, and I bought myself a 200 gig hard drive, which is the only thing that's gonna be in this thing until I can afford a five hundred gig hard drive.
That's super easy. First thing's first. Make sure your computers are talking to each other. To do that, you have to ensure that you are on the same workgroup. You can do this by going into my computer and clicking on one of the tabs, I forget what the tab is called, but it's in there.
Then go here and read this.
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/winxppro/maintain/filesharing.mspx
Go to the remote computer, open "My Computer", "Tools", "Map network drive" and guide it to the shared folder.

Once you have this done, the other computer can use that drive as if it was physically attached, so you can play the music off it directly.:nice:

or, just right click on the drive in your my computer view, and click on "share" :)

I suggest, if you get a super huge hdd, to partition it with partion magic. If you need it, I uh, know some people.... :| PM me

Thanks a bunch everyone. I'll let you know how it works out.

HTPC's are traditionally desktop cases so that they can blend in with your reciever/vcr/etc... Some companies make special HTPC cases just for that application, but isn't absolutely needed, especially if you're trying to save cash. Here's a decent one that's reasonably priced and comes with a power supply.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814121213

A powerful video card isn't really neccesary, so here's a nice cheap one that has HDTV out (I clicked the pictures to make sure I saw the HD cable with the accessories before I selected it)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814270008

Here's a tuner with remote and hardware mpeg encoder built in so that you don't use your CPU for that task.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16815117603

High quality sound card
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16829102179

THX certified speakers
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16836121121

Great info :nice: Might have to build me one of these.

What does windows media center buy you over XP Pro for use on one of these?

My understanding is that it has native software for DVR, DVD playing (and possibly recording), remote usage, etc.

check out this case

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16856140012