Building a HTPC.. got pleanty of bits already but..

[Oli Collett]

Right, I want to build a HTPC to act basically as a DVD player and a media player to play music from myself and my flatmates pc's shared over itunes on a wireless network.

Now I've already got loads of components, here's a rough list:

Athlon 2400+
Athlon 1800+
Athlon 1700+
Duron 700
3-4 Socket A motherboards
20 gig hard disk

Now it obviously wants to be quiet. I will also need a sound card with digital out to my amp (I was thinking of an m-audio revolution 5.1) and a cheap video card which will provide a DV output (for future digital screens etc.) and s-video. I will also need a case, PSU and some form of dvd-player combo thing. Also, the obvious, it wants to be as quiet as possible.

Firstly, how slow a processor could I use? Would the duron 700 be up to the task? I'm thinking with HD-DVD around the corner it might struggle? What cooling could I use? I'm guessing that if i had a passive PSU and CPU cooler then everything would just die because the heat wouldn't move.. Would the best bet be to get a low noise PSU acting as intake + exhaust and some kind of passive socket A cooler? (if I can get one..)

If I could have some recommendations, especially with cases that would be great, I've looked at a fair few HTPC cases but they seem to cost a fortune for what they are!

[Oli Collett]

Been doing a bit more research

It seems the best case to go for is one of the Silverstone ones. Are the PSU's that come with them up to scratch? Doesnt seem to be much to choose from between them except some come with remote controls, but would it not be possible to use some kind of other infa red controller like the windows media center one? Although I guess thats only compatible with media player and i'd be using winDVD/itunes...

Looks like i'll also need a mATX motherboard due to the size constraints.

[six5tring]

Right, lets see... so you don't want to put a tuner in the unit? how slow really depend on what you want to run for the front end. if it's just a windows interface you can get away with very little using a dedicated gfx card and hardware acceleration on the dvd player.

Hardware:

- I would reccomend using the 1800+ or 2400+ (just so things are kept nippy).
- Get a motherboard with a digital audio output and that will save you the soundcard.
- Graphics, always liked the 9600 for passively cooled and has a little beef if you occasionally game (though not up to high settings gaming now). However a fx5200 should be plenty really!
- Cooling.. if you have a good airflow go for a passive heat sink however I would recommend going for something quiet with a fan you can always using controllers to slow it down.
- The WMCE remote basic functions work on some programs. Certainly power dvd works, media player works so should think others do too!

If you want to start recording then I reccomend moving to a 120gb disk as space will dissapear quickly.

Hope that helps a little,

Six

ps. don't worry if it gets fairly warm :)

[Oli Collett]

Right, lets see... so you don't want to put a tuner in the unit? how slow really depend on what you want to run for the front end. if it's just a windows interface you can get away with very little using a dedicated gfx card and hardware acceleration on the dvd player.

Hardware:

- I would reccomend using the 1800+ or 2400+ (just so things are kept nippy).
- Get a motherboard with a digital audio output and that will save you the soundcard.
- Graphics, always liked the 9600 for passively cooled and has a little beef if you occasionally game (though not up to high settings gaming now). However a fx5200 should be plenty really!
- Cooling.. if you have a good airflow go for a passive heat sink however I would recommend going for something quiet with a fan you can always using controllers to slow it down.
- The WMCE remote basic functions work on some programs. Certainly power dvd works, media player works so should think others do too!

If you want to start recording then I reccomend moving to a 120gb disk as space will dissapear quickly.

Hope that helps a little,

Six

ps. don't worry if it gets fairly warm :)



Right, I've found this motherboard:
http://www.asus.com/products/mb/socketa/a7s8x-mx/overview.htm#

That says its got an S/PDIF output, will the quality be top notch, though? I'm guessing that since the digital output is just a stream and doesn't go through any processing it should be ok?

Seems to be pleanty of graphics cards around the £30 mark that will do, I definitely won't be doing any gaming, I guess if HDTV comes around in a year or two and needs something more substantial I can always upgrade.

Is there a guide somewhere for stripping down windows to improve performance? Because I'm not going to want hardly anything on there..

[six5tring]

you also I have the Asus A7N8X-VM 400 which kustom sell.. and I think that too have spdif. I used to have my DFI board running spdif coax to my decoder and it used to be crystal clear. Just use a digital coax for the job.

So far as cutting down windows. I wouldn't really bother. My spare 1ghz duron with a radeon 9600 and 256mb ram rig used to be fine for playing dvd's on windows xp (pro).

Six

[Oli Collett]

you also I have the Asus A7N8X-VM 400 which kustom sell.. and I think that too have spdif. I used to have my DFI board running spdif coax to my decoder and it used to be crystal clear. Just use a digital coax for the job.

So far as cutting down windows. I wouldn't really bother. My spare 1ghz duron with a radeon 9600 and 256mb ram rig used to be fine for playing dvd's on windows xp (pro).

Six

Do they come with proper digital coax connectors? Or will i need a 3.5mm adapter?

I remembered i've already got a GF4MX and 512mb of ram, which will do the trick i think! The only game I'll be playing on there will be PES which isn't very demanding and I only run it at 800*600 for the TV.

I've narrowed it down to this case:
http://kustompcs.co.uk/acatalog/info_1272.html
And this PSU.. don't know how quiet it is?
http://kustompcs.co.uk/acatalog/info_1753.html

I was going to have a 92mm Nexus intake fan and leave the PSU to suck the air out, should be enough I think? Not sure what to cool the CPU with, though, I expect space will be a little tight in the case!

[suffolkpaul]

i have the ASUS A7v8x deluxe - its a £40 card nowadays. the digital out is of the phone type rather than the optical that you can get on the M-audio cards - the optical will be better if you want to hook it up anything external liek an existing surround sound amp maybe??

jsut a thought but there are Coolermaster alluminium HTPC cases knocking aroudn ebay at the moment for £40, which aint too bad,

[Oli Collett]

i have the ASUS A7v8x deluxe - its a £40 card nowadays. the digital out is of the phone type rather than the optical that you can get on the M-audio cards - the optical will be better if you want to hook it up anything external liek an existing surround sound amp maybe??

jsut a thought but there are Coolermaster alluminium HTPC cases knocking aroudn ebay at the moment for £40, which aint too bad,

I've got that motherboard on this PC actually.. I'm pretty set on this case though, it looks pretty sweet too so will go nicely with this PC..

I was thinking maybe I can use a full ATX board rather than a small one but I don't think any of the boards I have feature an optical out, even though i'm sure one or two have 5.1 sound built in, I can't recall seeing an adaptor thing with a coax output

[suffolkpaul]

if your using it for a media pc- you cant rely on the onboard audio - it will really show up through a hifi (if thats how you will use it) the problem with the m-audio card is that is usues a breakout box in the front of the case - which will be pig ugly on a media pc. maybe get an external USB audigy card or similar then it can be tucked around the back of the unit and you can have as many audio cables roiund there as you like.

[Oli Collett]

if your using it for a media pc- you cant rely on the onboard audio - it will really show up through a hifi (if thats how you will use it) the problem with the m-audio card is that is usues a breakout box in the front of the case - which will be pig ugly on a media pc. maybe get an external USB audigy card or similar then it can be tucked around the back of the unit and you can have as many audio cables roiund there as you like.

M-audio revo doesn't.. I'm not sure how the sound quality is going to be shown up, though, its just streaming the audio, its not processing it?

[six5tring]

why not try with onboard first.. you can always add a soundcard afterwards! I'm happy with onboard on my media center! - six

[Oli Collett]

Yeah I guess I can give it a go.

I can't make my mind up on the case now, I think the LC-10M is a bit pricey for what it is.. I'm now looking at getting an LC-17 and fitting an iMon seperately. The LC-10, 14, 16 and 17 seem to be pretty big so I'm guessing it won't be a problem fitting a large-ish CPU heatsink, although I can't find much information on this, I could probably fit a thermalright on with a low rpm fan?

[six5tring]

dunno.. I've just spend £80 something on a VFD alone! so £150 for the case and display doesn't seem too bad really!

spec wise... these heat sinks look good... http://kustompcs.co.uk/acatalog/info_2602.html i use a zalman 6500 passive flower thing but have to have a slow fan blowning over is to keep some air flow!

six

[Oli Collett]

dunno.. I've just spend £80 something on a VFD alone! so £150 for the case and display doesn't seem too bad really!

spec wise... these heat sinks look good... http://kustompcs.co.uk/acatalog/info_2602.html i use a zalman 6500 passive flower thing but have to have a slow fan blowning over is to keep some air flow!

six

Well I was more keen on the remote than a VDU, think I'm going for a different remote and i'm going to get an LC17B.. it has far greater cooling and pleanty of room.

[six5tring]

OK. I just love being able to turn my screen off and still see what I'm listening to! Will be good to see how everything comes off! - six

[Ronson]

Case - I just picked up the new Silverstone 16M. Costs a little more than the 10M but looks gorgeous. One very useful thing is that it uses 80mm exhaust fans instead of 60mm - much easier to replace (and you will want to replace them as the Silverstone fans are rubbish IMO, - nowhere near silent, very clicky and also shift little air, I put 2 x Nexus 80mms in mine). Also plenty of roomin the case for a Nexus CPU cooler.

PSU - I went with an Antec fanless. I was worried about temps but I used a nulti-meter probe to check the air temp around the PSU after it had been running for 5-6 hours during the software build process and it was well under 40C. Although if you're going to cram a lot of PCI cards and HDDs in it you might have problems - I've only got 2 HDDs on the other side of the case, plus a passively cooled (by a Zalman) VGA card.

DVD - Samsung TSH-552U 16 x 16 Dual Layer DVD±RW ReWriter (Black). Under £30, virtually silent even without messing about with drive speed software (it was a revelation, I hadn't expected to find a drive this quiet).

Stripping down Windows - Google for the BlackViper services guide which should help you squeeze a little more performance out.

[Oli Collett]

Case - I just picked up the new Silverstone 16M. Costs a little more than the 10M but looks gorgeous. One very useful thing is that it uses 80mm exhaust fans instead of 60mm - much easier to replace (and you will want to replace them as the Silverstone fans are rubbish IMO, - nowhere near silent, very clicky and also shift little air, I put 2 x Nexus 80mms in mine). Also plenty of roomin the case for a Nexus CPU cooler.

PSU - I went with an Antec fanless. I was worried about temps but I used a nulti-meter probe to check the air temp around the PSU after it had been running for 5-6 hours during the software build process and it was well under 40C. Although if you're going to cram a lot of PCI cards and HDDs in it you might have problems - I've only got 2 HDDs on the other side of the case, plus a passively cooled (by a Zalman) VGA card.

DVD - Samsung TSH-552U 16 x 16 Dual Layer DVD±RW ReWriter (Black). Under £30, virtually silent even without messing about with drive speed software (it was a revelation, I hadn't expected to find a drive this quiet).

Stripping down Windows - Google for the BlackViper services guide which should help you squeeze a little more performance out.


Sounds nice!

In the end I went for:
Silverstone 17 - apparently its a little less crowded than the 16 and again, the 92/80mm fan config looked good.
Nexus nx3000 - If it gets too noisy I can always replace it when i've got the cash
Acoustifan dustproof fans - I'll experiment running them at the lowest settings possible so I should hopefully be able to keep things pretty quiet
Thermalright si-97 - Should easily cool the 2400+ with a slow running 92mm fan
Samsung DVD-Rom - I've already got a dvd burner and I'm tight on money! Hopefully should look good in the case too.

Asus mATX motherboard - If the onboard sound is rubbish I can always get a new card.

I'll probably add some soundproofing at a later date if needed as well.

[Oli Collett]

Right, got it all together!

I can't believe how quiet it is, the only part that is audible is the hard disk that I'll swap out at a later date when I start looking at using it to record and stuff, apart from that its superb!

[six5tring]

gdgd.. glad that it all meet expectations :) you got some piccys! - six

[Oli Collett]

I'll get some up in a week or so, i'm moving this weekend so everything is all over the place!