Finished my HTPC systems - with extras

[Gold_Disk]

I have now finished my HTPC (after about 6 months). I wanted to create the whole thing for my bedroom so I would not need space for a TV etc. Well now I've finished it at the whole thing breaks down like this:

System:

Shuttle SN41G2 in Black

AMD Athlon 2600+
512Mb 3200/400 Kingston RAM
160Gb Seagate Super Quiet Baracuda 7200rpm 8Mb Cache Hard Drive
ATI Radeon 9000 Pro
Black Gold Media Centre Digital TV Card
Black Sony 4x DVD Writer
Black Floppy Drive

Modifications:

80mm Silent Fan
No motherboard fans
No graphics card fan
Unplugged ALL lights

Extras:

External 120Gb 7200rpm Hard Drive

19” Samsung SyncMaster 192 TFT Monitor
Logitech Z-680 5.1 Speakers

USB to PS2 adapter for using Playstation 2 pads on PC, only play one game and thats Pro Evolution 3!

What do you think to it?

I am looking to get a silent PSU at the mo. Future plans consist of getting 1Gb of RAM and upgrading the CPU to 3200+. That won't happen for a while though.

[Chenks]

pics please

[Alan]

Sounds spot on for a HTPC. - especially the sound!! Any pictures?

[Proplus]

What about a remote control?

[Gold_Disk]

Yeah sorry, also got a remote control with the TV card to control virtually everything :).

I will get you some pics, what do you want them of?

[Chenks]

well apart from naked pics of ur g/f :D
how about the box and your layout ?

[jimborocks]

Gold_Disk

I'm just about to start building a HTPC around the shuttle aniversary edition. I've got my processor and ram and I'm thinking of getting the nebula TV card over the Black Gold Media Centre Digital TV Card...how has the Black Gold Media Centre Digital TV Card been for recording programmes onto the hard drive? Have you had any issues? Has unplugging the motherboard fan caused any crashes...basically how stable is the machine! Did your tv card fit in no problem next to your graphics card and is the graphics card passively cooled?

Cheers

[Gold_Disk]

The nebula TV card is cerainly a good card and thats the one I was originally going to go for. I tested the recording with the Black Gold Media Centre Digital TV Card last night and recorded an episode of ER. I got a free trial of DigiGuide (£8/year). You just simply go into that program right click the program you want to record and make a few settings. Very simple. I have not tried recording without using this program yet though. Seems simple enough.

I had a quick flick through the recorded program and the quality is nothing short of excellent. The recorded last 65 minutes and took up 2Gb of space! This was on the highest quality settings. I need to play around with the settings and stuff for the next recording.

My graphics card was replaced with a Vantec Iceberg VGA & Chipset Cooler. I installed the biggest heatsink in this set and it cools the card perfectly. No noisy fans! There was no problem at all installing the graphics card and TV card, keep in mind the nebula looks bigger though! I have a DVD drive, floppy and HDD too in the Shuttle and theres plenty of room. I will do some cable management when I get round to it!

I replaced the motherboard fan with a Zalman NB47J Northbridge Heatsink. The system never crashes and is as stable as a PC can be running Windows!

My layout is not sorted yet as I am moving it out in about 4 months and was all bulit for that. I will put my Shuttle next to my monitor and take some pics for you guys though. My shuttle is currently under my 28" Widescreen TV you see. I use the Shuttle for watching etc via TV out on my widescreen. I have to say that its good quality!

[jimborocks]

Gold_disk

Thanks for the reply it has helped me greatly...especially the last bit about using the shuttle to watch TV on your 28 inch widescreen as that's exactly what I plan to do.

cheers again

[Gold_Disk]

No problem jimborocks. I thought this post may help a few thinking about the same thing :).

Not sure what video card you've got but if you have an ATI you can get TV/DVD displayed on your TV and still use your desktop on your monitor (thats if you are connecting a monitor). I've never done it and not exactly sure how to do it but it is called Theater mode or something I think.

[jimborocks]

Gold_Disk

I'm thinking of buying a radeon 9600. I think I'll buy the cheapest one not the PRO or XT as it is passively cooled (no fan-no noise!!!)
I can pick one up for £85 which leaves some pennies for a 160 GB SATA hard drive (Samsung also very quite) although i may just go for the 200 Gb Westen Digital hard drive which is also supposed to be really silent.

I'm doing away with my old HI-FI, my VCR, my DVD and my freeview box (the wife is over the moon!!! less clutter).

I just had to make sure that the picture quality on my 28 inch TV would be good so I've just ordered this cable which is S-Video to Scart

http://www.audiovisualonline.co.uk/dynamic/eshop_products.set/ref/106/display.html

Should do the job...I hope.

[Gold_Disk]

Sounds perfect m8. When I was choosing a graphics card I was told by many people (all experts) that the 9000 Pro would be better for DVD playback so if I were I would go for the same card, I was not dissapointed!

As far as the hard drive goes get the biggest you can afford! Simple as that m8. I have 100Gb of MP3 albums but even without that you will prob want to record quite a lot of TV etc to the hard drive.

When you get it all set up you will need to change a few setting in the ATi settings.

Go to display settings - settings - advanced - displays and in here make sure you have TV out turned on, then click the button with the circle in and make sure thats on. There are loads of other settings in there that you might want to change but its all personal preference so have a play around and see what you think.

[jimborocks]

Gold_Disk

Just been checking out the 9000 pro. The ones I can see have fans in them and seem to be about a year old. The 9600 that Kustom sell looks like an updated version which is passively cooled (no fan just heatsink) and seems to have faster clock speeds etc. I'm no expert but I think this should do the job and I'm not into the latest fast games...more likely to play Tiger Woods or similar. I do want a graphic card that is good for DVD playback and that i can tweak to provide excellent quality pictures from DVD/TV. I'll also be running DVD region free which I've heard removes Macrovision on "the fly" and can lead to better results in picture quality through upsampling of the dvd source. The link regarding this is

http://www.firingsquad.com/guides/building_home_theater_pc/

I found this really helpfull...see what you think

[Gold_Disk]

Thanks m8 I'm checking that site out now.

I don't play games either m8 which is why I went for the 9000 Pro. Purely for DVD playback. The 9000 Pro is actually cheaper than a 9600.

This is one of the responses when deciding what g.card to get: 'While the 9600 is a better card for 3d purposes, I think that you should stick with the 9000pro for DVD viewing. The 9000pro is a better chipset and from a better manufacturer than the 9200'

[Proplus]

Yup, I had a ATi 9000 AIW before, worked a treat for DVD playback, gaming on it wasn't too bad as well. Well recommended for those thinking of building a HTPC as (if you can find them) relatively cheap now.

[Gold_Disk]

An update on the Black Gold Media Centre Digital TV Card. I was having a few starter problems with the card as when I was doing anything on my PC the sound would skip (on TV and Radio).

I e-mailed customer services last night about 10:30 or something. I got a reply back within 5 minutes with a couple of patches attached. Now thats what I call service! I thought I would have to wait a couple of days or something.

I am going to re-install Windows today and install the TV card again with these patches. I'll let you know how it goes. If everything goes OK I would recommend this card to anyone.

By the way I watched TV (via the card) on my 28" WS TV last night. The picture quality was nothing short of excellent!

[jimborocks]

Thanks again Gold_Disk. It certainly makes it easier to choose products with info. like you have gave me. Customer service sounds spot on and the fact the picture quailty is excellent is what i wanted to hear. I'm hoping that when i go down to kustom they will have both cards set-up so i can see the different graphic interfaces and ask them a couple of compatability questions.

Cheers again for your help and I'll keep you posted on what I decide in the way of hardware and the small matter of building the thing!!!

J

[vampalan]

Why choose "Black Gold Media Centre" cards vs a Nebula card? What was the deciding factor in choice?

[jimborocks]

vampalan

Just bought the nebula digi-tv card from kustom today. I bought this over the black gold as the support is excellent and it looks better(from screenshots anyway!!!). The black gold uses windows media player9 for its GUI and I don't like that at the best of times. I wanted a complete out of box solution with good support and thats why I bought it.

Hope this helps

J