A comment pointed me to another version of the Zotac IONITX board that is a bit more expensive, but also has a few more features.
The prices are based on November 24th, 2009.
- Case: Apex MI-008 ($39.99) – 250W is a bit overkill. I doubt this system will use more than 60W.
- Motherboard/Memory Combo: Zotac IONITX-F-E + 2x1GB PC6400 DDR2 800MHz SO-DIMM ($214.98) – The board has a 16x PCI-e and nVidia ION (GeForce 9400M) can enable Blu-ray playback. It also has an internal WiFi card (supposedly 802.11n) to make the network connection easy.
- Tuner: AVerTVHD Duet ($64.99) – Dual ATSC-only tuner.
- HDD: 1GB Western Digital Caviar Green ($84.99)
- OS: Windows 7 Home Premium 32-bit OEM ($104.99) – For Windows Media Center.
- Keyboard/Mouse: IOGear GKM561R Wireless RF mini keyboard/trackball ($48.99)
- Remote (optional): Anyware GP-IR01BK ($23.74)
- Optical Drive (optional): LITE-ON BD-ROM ($67.99) – I can do without this initially.
The total is $558.93 (without optional stuff). With 2% cashback, you get about $11.18 back (or one can try to find a better deal with other sites since with NewEgg, I’d have to pay a CA sales tax).
This setup is slightly more expensive than #4 using Zotac IONITX-G-E. But IONITX-F-E has (at least) two advantages. 1) WiFi and 2) digital S/PDIF (one optical and one coaxial).
I decided I really don’t need 64-bit OS and I think I can live with 2GB. Also, I think a wireless keyboard/mouse is a better choice than a remote.
@T.Pepper
For me, besides the fact that there is no slot for the expansion card, the case included in that combo is $20 more expensive than Apex MI-008.
Also, you might be able to find cheaper components than what’s included in that combo. Also, you might want different size hard disk or RAM, etc…
So, for me, that combo doesn’t seem to be worth it. I really liked their previous IONITX-F-E + memory combo, but that one is gone.
I’ve greatly appreciated your work Hong, and thank you for your comments Roman. I’ve noticed Newegg is running a promotion that is basically a barebones kit with this motherboard: http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboBundleDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.311567 The case that is included with the combo may be useless though. It doesn’t have a cutout for a PCIe card although studying the images makes me wonder if the low-profile piece that comes with the Duet tuner could be made to work with this case. If it does, then add tuner, OS, and remote and you should be up and running.
I put together my setup this weekend and works perfectly as a DVR for OTA HD TV and a DVD player. Here’s what I used:
Case: Apex MI-008
Motherboard: Zotac IONITX-F-E
Memory: 2 GB Crucial DDR2-800
Tuner: AVerTVHD Duet
HDD: 500GB Western Digital Caviar Green
OS: Windows 7 Home Basic 64-bit
Remote: Anyware GP-IR01BK
DVD Drive: Sony Optiarc DVD
It took me about 2 hours to put it all together, get Windows 7 installed and start recording OTA HDTV. I was impressed that there were 64-bit drivers for all components and Windows 7 detected everything and downloaded and installed all the drivers automatically (via Windows Update). I am using the HDMI output and the optical SPDIF Output (I had to go into Control Panel->Devices to set the SPDIF Output at the default). I have also streamed some Netflix with this and it worked perfectly.
Thanks for pulling together this list of components, Hong!
- Roman
FYI – I’m building an almost identical setup (same mobo/case/capture card/remote/OS). Should have all the parts for Christmas. I’ll let you know how it goes.