Building a Media PC

NVIDIA GPU Motherboard Solutions

2005 Version November 2005

Introduction
This paper provides guidelines, recommendations, and additional resources for system builders, OEMs, ODMs, and others who want to design and deploy innovative media PCs based on NVIDIA GPU Motherboard Solutions. NVIDIAs latest media PC designs reduce expense, chassis size, and noise, while improving video quality and performance. System manufacturers can deliver an exciting digital entertainment experience at affordable prices by using NVIDIA GPU Motherboard Solutions and the recommendations in this paper.

NVIDIA GPU Motherboard Solutions: Featuring NVIDIA GeForce 6 Series GPUs and NVIDIA nForce4 MCPs If you are looking to build a great media PC in a small form factor or for a low price, consider NVIDIA GPU Motherboard Solutions featuring an NVIDIA GeForce 6 Series graphics processing units (GPU), NVIDIA PureVideo HD video processing, and an NVIDIA nForce4 media and communications processor (MCP). This unique combination creates a single motherboard featuring a worldclass Microsoft DirectX 9.0 Shader Model 3.0 GPU, a high-definition video processing engine, and the industrys most highly demanded core logic solution. The NVIDIA GeForce 6 Series GPUs provide a groundbreaking feature set for computing, including full support for Microsoft DirectX 9.0 Shader Model 3.0 that provides unparalleled graphics effects. Delivering a revolutionary superscalar architecture, and an advanced on-chip video processor, GeForce 6 Series GPUs power the ultimate PC experiences. NVIDIA PureVideo technology is a combination of the GeForce 6 Series GPUs high-definition video processor and NVIDIA PureVideo decoder software that delivers unprecedented picture clarity, smooth video, accurate color, and precise image scaling for all video content on any display. NVIDIA nForce4 MCPs include cutting-edge technology featuring; NVIDIA ActiveArmor secure networking, NVIDIA MediaShield storage, NVIDIA native Gigabit Ethernet, SATA 3Gb/s drive support, and more. NVIDIA nForce4 MCPs are designed to deliver world-class system performance.

Building a Media Center PC with NVIDIA GPU Motherboard Solutions

Advantages of NVIDIA GPU Motherboard Solutions

NVIDIA GPU Motherboard Solution for media PCs is an all-in-one digital media center for home entertainment and gaming that maintains the familiar PC form factor. Industrys First Motherboard Featuring High Definition VideoExperience Crisp, Vibrant Video NVIDIA PureVideo technology allows you to experience lifelike HD playback on your PC or HDTV without the expense of additional home theater devices. With dedicated hardware to accelerate MPEG-2/DVD as well as the new Microsoft Windows Media HD Video (WMV HD) standard, your DVDs come to life! Using NVIDIA PureVideo technology, the GPU offloads video decoding from the CPU, resulting in smooth, stutter-free, high-definition video playback. And, since PureVideo supports most current and future HD formats, you can be assured that a PC powered by PureVideo technology will keep up with the pace of tomorrows video technologies and continue to deliver HD content well into the future. Award Winning GeForce 6 Series GPUsPlay the Latest Games with Microsoft DirectX 9.0 Shader Model 3.0 The NVIDIA GeForce 6150 and 6100 GPUs feature a revolutionary design that delivers best-in-class performance on today's digital media and graphics applications. The only GPUs available on a motherboard to support Microsoft DirectX 9.0 Shader Model 3.0, the GeForce 6150 and 6100 GPUs power cuttingedge effects without compromising performance. NVIDIA ActiveArmorUnmatched PC Security NVIDIA ActiveArmor firewall protects your PC from malicious spyware and hacker attacks with instant on protection for network connections. NVIDIA MediaShieldConfidently Store Your Digital Assets Through a simple user interface, NVIDIA MediaShield storage allows you to easily manage multiple hard disk drives so you can safely store your digital assets. With support for a variety of hard disk drive configurations, including the latest SATA 3Gb/s hard drives, MediaShield offers one of the most advanced storage solutions available for desktop PCs. MediaShields unique interface allows you to easily configure or modify your multidisk arrays.

Designing for the NVIDIA Media Center PC ExperienceSystem Configurations

CPU and Memory
NVIDIA GPU Motherboard Solutions support AMD64 processors including AMD Athlon 64 processor which deliver powerful desktop performance for a unique digital experience. The AMD Athlon 64 processors advanced HyperTransport technology, integrated DDR memory controller, and Cool'n'Quiet technology are capable of handling various multimedia tasks with efficient power consumption. NVIDIA recommends using the combination of an AMD Athlon 64 3500+ and 1GB PC-3200 DDR RAM for media center PC.

Motherboard Form Factor

NVIDIA recommends using the standard micro-ATX form factor to build compact or slim media PCs.

Building a Media Center PC with NVIDIA GPU Motherboard Solutions

Noise and Heat Management

As the primary device for home entertainment, media PCs should run quietly and remain cool, just like any other consumer electronics device. Acoustic levels should be estimated early in the design process to ensure a high-quality user experience. NVIDIA recommends 20 decibels of emitted sound power in idle mode and fewer than 26 decibels when the PC is in active mode.

Home Theater Quality Video

Movie and video display quality is one of the most compelling features of the media PC. NVIDIA GPU Motherboard Solutions provide unique features: PureVideo technology and NVIDIA Media Center software.

PureVideo Technology
NVIDIA GeForce GPUs, featuring hardware dedicated to video processing deliver high-definition video, superb picture clarity, and full-resolution video enhancement to the media center PC. PureVideo eliminates the stuttering, double images, blurring, and "noise" commonly associated with playing movies on a PC, while delivering precise, vivid colors on any display.

NVIDIA Media Center Software

NVIDIA provides a host of software designed to enhance the video and TV experience for Microsoft Media Center Edition 2005. Custom settings for media center systems allow you to control the color scheme, brightness, contrast, hue, saturation, gamma, and digital vibrance of live TV and DVD moviesall from the simple-to-use Microsoft Media Center remote control. The NVIDIA PureVideo Decoder delivers rich Dolby Digital surround sound audio and crisp TV and video playback. Additionally, an easy-to-use wizard makes setting up a high-definition or digital TV a breeze, bringing a truly cinematic experience to your home PC.

NVIDIA DualTV Tuner

NVIDIA brings hardware MPEG-2 encoding to media center PC through the Designed for Media Center Edition" certified NVIDIA DualTV tuner card. Unlike software encode-based solutions that rely on the CPU, NVIDIA's DualTV delivers superior quality TV and PVR on a PC with hardware MPEG-2 encode, advanced 3D comb filter, and 3D noise reduction technology. DualTV allows flexible TV viewing and recording options. With dual tuner support, you can record two different shows at once or watch one show while recording another without sacrificing PC performance.

Photo Display
Built on the award-winning GeForce display architecture, NVIDIA GPU Motherboard Solutions bring high-quality RAMDACs to media PCs for crisp image quality and high-resolution photo presentations. NVIDIA Digital Vibrance Control (DVC) technology provides color control settings so you can easily adjust the levels of digital vibrance, brightness, contrast, and gamma in your photos.

Audio
NVIDIA GPU Motherboard Solutions support all the major multichannel audio (5.1, 7.1) solutions, including high-definition audio (HDA), to deliver a Dolby-quality surround sound entertainment experience into a media center PC.

Building a Media Center PC with NVIDIA GPU Motherboard Solutions

NVIDIA MediaShield Storage

NVIDIA GPU Motherboard Solutions provide MediaShield storage technology to address the security issue of consumers digital media assets. MediaShield offers a unique management interface that lets consumers easily configure or change their multidisk arrays under RAID technologys protection. MediaShield can supply four different models of RAID protectionincluding RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 0+1 or RAID 5to meet different consumers requirements. NVIDIA recommends using highperformance hard drives with generous storage space and fast data transfer rates in media center PCs. For the entry level systems, NVIDIA recommends using two 160GB 7200rpm SATA hard disks.

NVIDIA PureVideo DecoderOptical Storage

A recordable DVD drive helps consumers transfer personal photos, recorded TV shows, and other multimedia files onto DVD. DVD writing capability is supported through the addition of third-party software. NVIDIA GPU Motherboard Solution provide the NVIDIA PureVideo Decoder, the first software decoder to receive the Designed for Media Center Edition certification. The NVIDIA PureVideo Decoder delivers unmatched color fidelity and smooth DVD, video, and TV viewing and is the best way to experience PureVideo on a media center PC.

Secure Networking
NVIDIA GPU Motherboard Solutions provide Gigabit Ethernet technology for highspeed internet connection and ActiveArmor Firewall technology for optimized protection.

Gigabit Ethernet
By providing a dedicated Gigabit Ethernet port and integrating the Media Access Control (MAC) technology into the high-performance NVIDIA nForce media and communications processors (MCPs), NVIDIA delivers the industrys fastest Gigabit Ethernet desktop solution. Gigabit Ethernet handles the increasingly large files of todays demanding media applications, and speeds up any operation that involves moving data over a network. Consumers can take advantage of it to share and transfer multimedia files much faster than before.

NVIDIA ActiveArmor Firewall

NVIDIA ActiveArmor firewall protects your PC from malicious spyware and hacker attacks with instant on protection for network connections.

Input Devices
NVIDIA recommends using a wireless keyboard and mouse to control the media PC, with an MCE remote control as an option.

Keyboard and Mouse

A good wireless keyboard and mouse are important for media PC users. The wireless range, the size, compact form factors, ergonomic consideration, and customized features are key to choosing the right product.

Building a Media Center PC with NVIDIA GPU Motherboard Solutions

Software Applications
The software application package is important for demonstrating the multimedia power of media center PCs. A customized software and control interfaces improve the efficiency and differentiate the media PCs. NVIDIA recommends system builders to include the following software categories as a basic software package and exact combination will depend on the different price point. Operation System: Office Productivity: Microsoft Windows XP SP2 version Microsoft Works 8 Adobe Acrobat Reader Finance: Media: Microsoft Money 2005 Microsoft Media Player 10 RealPlayer Apple iTunes Game: WildTangent Game Channel Selected 2D/3D game NVIDIA Software: NVIDIA nView multi-display software NVIDIA nTune V3 NVIDIA NVMixer 5 NVIDIA PureVideo Decoder NVIDIA ActiveArmor Firewall NVIDIA MediaShield Antivirus: Symantec Norton Antivirus 2005

Premium Application: Adobe Premiere Standard Edition Adobe Photoshop Album Starter Edition Adobe Photoshop Elements 2.0 Greeting Card Factory Deluxe DigitalMedia Plus:Burn,Copy CD ,Backup,Label Microsoft Plus! Digital Media Edition Roxio - Easy Media Creator 7 Symantec Ghost Norton System Works 2005

Building a Media Center PC with NVIDIA GPU Motherboard Solutions

Summary of Hardware Specifications for Media Center PCs

The following table lists the recommended hardware configurations and options. NVIDIA strongly encourages system builders to differentiate Media PCs at the chassis design, noise and heat controls, and hardware configurations.

Processor Core logic Memory Memory expansion Graphics card TV Tuner* Display Hard disk Optical driver Sound Speakers Mouse and keyboard Chassis Power Expansion slots Front Productivity Network

Recommends AMD Athlon 64 3500+ 2.2GHz NVIDIA nForce 430 1GB (2X512M) PC-3200 RAM 2 DIMMS; 128-bit Interface 4 DIMM, up to 4GB Integrated NVIDIA GeForce 6150 Optional 17" LCD 320 GB RAID 1(2 X160GB) DL 16X DVD+/-R/RW HD 7.1 audio 5.1 system PS/2 Keyboard + Mouse Micro ATX 300W (2) PCI x1 (1) PCI Express 16 2USB 2.0, 9-in-1 card reader audio connector 10/100/1000M

Other Choice AMD Athlon 64 3000+ ~ 3800+ NVIDIA nForce 430 512MB ~ 2GB PC-3200 RAM 2 DIMMS; 128-bit Interface 4 DIMM, up to 4GB NVIDIA GeForce 6600 Passive NVIDIA DualTV Tuner with PVR and FM Tuner 17" CRT or 15"/17" LCD 2X120GB ~ 2X250GB 7200rpm (RAID 1) 8X or 16X DVD+/-R/RW HD 7.1 audio Other 5.1 or 7.1 audio system Other PS/2 Keyboard + Mouse Micro ATX 300W (2) PCI x1 (1) PCI Express 16 2USB 2.0, 9-in-1 card reader audio connector 10/100/1000M

*Choose TV standard appropriate to your region