Cheap system with S-Video

[pippin88]

My AXP based HTPC has finally kicked the bucket. Think it's motherboard or ram, but it's too difficult and not worth my time to work it all out. Had this happen a while ago and it got fixed by rolling over it in a drunken wrestle, but I don't think that trick will work again.

My problem lies with the fact the only input my TV has is S-Video, it's an old panasonic CRT. Doesn't even have RCA. I don't want to update my TV, I don't watch anything except downloaded SD content and am perfectly happy with the current one.
Few modern VGA cards have s-video, so I'm a bit stuck.

Can someone recommend me a cheap system that has s-video and will be capable of 1080P HD content if I do update my TV.
Some Radeon 4350s seem to have S-Video
So I could grab one of them and then I need a motherboard and CPU to suit. Have plenty of HDDs.

Requirements:
Cheap
Able to play 1080/HD in future
At least 2 SATA, but preferably 6
Size is no issue.
Power consumption is a secondary consideration - it won't be on that much.

Intel H55TC looks decent but don't need the onboard video - is there a cheaper version?

Help is appreciated. I'm out of the loop on the current generation of products.

[Fishface]

Any Core2 Duo or AMD x2 system will be fine for what you require when teamed with a suitable graphics card like the 4350. This will cope with 1080p when you buy a real TV.

The H55 chipset is designed to be used with the I3, this has an onboard GPU. These are good but you will have to add a video card to get s-video which defeats the purpose.

[pippin88]

Thanks for the reply Fishface.

I'll go with a 4350.
So now toss up is between cheap AMD or cheap Intel

MSY (probably store I'll use)
Intel:
G41MT-D3 = $60 (4x SATA, 2x PCI, PCIEx16+x1)
E6500 = $82 (put that in my main PC, put E4400 from main into HTPC)
2G DDR3 = $32
R4350 = $32
Total = $206 with boost to main PC.

AMD: (i'm much less familiar with current AMD gear)
AsRock N68-S3 UCC = $45 (4x SATA, 2x PCI, PCIEx16+x1)
x2 250 = $56
2G DDR3 = $32
R4350 = $32
Total = $165
Or GA-MA78LMT-S2 = $60 = $15 more in total.

Is the AMD board ok?
Advantages / disadvantages?
I'm more leaning to the Intel system at present
Likely to go to MSY tomorrow.
Help is appreciated.

[Fishface]

There is nothing wrong with the AMD system but you may as well go with Intel as you can upgrade your main PC and in the future swap parts about if need be.

My HTPC was running an e4500 and it played Blu-ray no problem.

[pippin88]

Gah, MSY don't have any 4350's with S-Video. Damn.

[Asteroid]

I'd be inclined to grab a late AGP era system from the forums. An A64 or late P4 would be just about garbage now, and the graphics cards of the time (Radeon 9x00) almost universally have S-video output. It'll have two SATA ports too.

In fact I've just done exactly this with a s754 A64 3000+, Asus K8V-X, 1.75GB RAM, ATi R9200SE, D-link Wifi card and an old SATA hdd. Connected to a 51cm CRT via svideo.

Yeah I know it's not quite what you're after but a box like that will be virtually free! When you buy your big panel then spend the coin on a big HTPC.

[pippin88]

Looked into going an old system but there isn't that much around the forums at present and I would still end up with old hardware.

Ended up with:
G41M-Combo = $63 (they didn't have a non combo one, but this way I can dump my DD2 in the HTPC when I upgrade main PC)
E6500 = $82 (put that in my main PC, put E4400 from main into HTPC)
2G DDR3 = $34
Leadtek DVT1000s = $34
Thermaltake V3 = $74

R4350 = $45 shipped from EYO (absolutely the only store I could find with an s-video model)

Chucked it all together this arvo (apart from video card, hasn't arrived)
New hardware is great to put together. Computer design has come a long way.

[pippin88]

Up and running.

Didn't realise the cheap boards don't have onboard fakeraid. Whoops.

Working well with Mediaportal used StreamedMP skin.

Leadtek remote would not work. Tried many things over many hours (literally hours) to try and get it to work. Sometimes direction buttons would work but never the ok button.
In the end after much stuffing around I plugged in a serial IR receiver I had lying around and used WinLIRC to learn the remote. Then spent hours trying to find a way to convert that to mediaportal input. Lots of old programs that don't really exist anymore. Eventually found HIP which converts WinLIRC output to keyboard. HIP in combo with KeyboardInputPlugin for customised keyboard shortcuts has eventually allowed me to get quite a useful remote setup.

Working great with movies and TV series. TV watching works well too.
Had a quick go at getting my music setup and had some troubles, will have to attack it again.

Q: Best way to handle music in Mediaportal?
Q: I have 2x 1.5TB drives (previously in RAID1 array) - best strategy to cover drive failure? Weekly automated copy to second drive?