Yalah, because want to use RAIDlah.

u can slip the raid driver into ur thumb drive acting as floppy too...........

so no need floppy haha.... hehe

Madman also scare of DFI hehe..... Q connector, i love it too but i was hoping that it will be a tighter, easier to use.

@tungkw, you can use nLite to slipstream RAID driver into your WinXP installation disc. That would be easier for you to reinstall your OS later.

HTPC with RAID? Serious? The PSU has to be relatively powerful, IMO. Wat about space?And noise?

I don't think RAID would require more power. It is just like running 2 units of Hard disk.

Thanks for your advice. I'll try it in my next os installation.

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Added on July 7, 2008, 1:25 amMy slim casing only come with 250W PSU. E6600, G965 mobo, DVDRW, ram 1G x 2, capture card, HDD x 2 work well. Low noise too.
Only that 2 x HDD generated a little bit more heat. Will add some ALU to reduce HDD heat later.

This post has been edited by tungkw: Jul 7 2008, 01:25 AM

Nice specs. I suppose the PSU is 100% Pure Power?

250W enough for E6600?

My casing bundled with HEC 250W PSU. Used for more than 1 year. I do video capture & convert often and it did not give me any problem. Good PSU.

looking at tunkw, spec it should be sufficient the 250W PSU, E6600 is quite energy efficient

not only that... HEC also makes rock solid PSUs. theyre just very underated here.

2nd Update on HTPC Project.

1. Silverstone SG-01B Evolution
2. Coolermaster 350W PSU
3. Gigabyte MA78GM-S2H
4. Kingston 1Gb DDR2 RAM 800Mhz - X2
5. AMD 4850e cpu w/ stock HSF
6. WD 500Gb SATA HD Greenpower
7. Lite-On SATA DVD Writer

I completed the installation of VISTA Home Premium on Monday with the latest CATALYST Drivers and klite mega codec pack. Installation was smooth with no hiccups whatsoever Yesterday, I hooked up a HDMI cable to my Sharp 32" LCD TV, and watched a 720p h.264 movie. I must say that I am extremely pleased with the performance of this rig

I am happy to report that I did not detect any stuttering or audio sync issues, and the picture quality blew me away. Definitely money well spent.

Can give us a price breakdown? TQ

720p totally smooth? glad to hear that.
pls do a test on 1080p sample.

wanna ask...since ATI provide h264 decoding, does that mean i just install media player classic MPC (home cinema) and enable DXVA, and haali media splitter, i can play those h264 mkv video files?
how about Dolby Digital AC-3 audio? do i need to install AC3filter to hear the sound? or just the audio driver with MPC will do? DTS how? same also?

(planning to get the exact mobo and cpu )

This post has been edited by Skylinestar: Jul 9 2008, 09:24 PM

ericmaxman,
Below is the price breakdown of my config. I've included the OS as it wasn't fair not to have it in the list.

1. Silverstone SG-01B Evolution Casing <-- Budget Destroyer! (RM529)
2. Coolermaster 350W PSU (RM60 bundled deal with SG-01B)
3. Gigabyte MA78GM-S2H Motherboard (RM310)
4. Kingston 1Gb DDR2 RAM 800Mhz - X2 (RM160)
5. AMD 4850e cpu w/ stock HSF (RM288)
6. WD 500Gb SATA HD Greenpower (RM255)
7. LiteOn 20X DVD-RW SATA Super AllWrite Drive (RM95)
8. VISTA Home Premium (RM340)
9. Microsoft Wireless Mouse (RM0 free with VISTA)
10. HDMI cable (RM85)

Total = RM2122

Skylinestar,
Can I leave it to you to test the 1080p sample? I do not have any 1080p media yet (Not motivated to get as my LCD TV only capable of 720p)

Can't really advice you on codec enabling/disabling as well as audio setup. I just install kLite Mega Codec Pack to settle everything for me. You should be able to output AC3 through the SPDIF out on the Gigabyte mobo.

I have no regrets getting this combination of mobo and cpu. This is actually the first PC I've put together that is almost silent (no detectable fan noise, and only the occasional clicking of the HD). Be sure the lap the bottom surface of the stock heatsink if you intend to use it though, it's not really flat and a bit rough

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Added on July 10, 2008, 10:44 amcpu usage while playing 720p media is averaging around 32%

This post has been edited by boonhoong: Jul 10 2008, 10:44 AM

The price is not bad at all, considering that it includes a copy of Vista Home Premium. BTW, does anyone know how to configure Astro to work with the HTPC?

Hi, do anyone of you know where to get this stuff with price below rm970?


Thanks in advance

Hi, do anyone of you know where to get this with price lower than rm970?


Thanks in advance

anyone having issue to load Astro's movie guide into Vista ?

onkyo HTPC

APX-2