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Cenbro HTPC Setup

B

Bicarus

Weaksauce
Joined
Feb 6, 2006
Messages
69
Hello all.

Today will recieve the last of my HTPC/File Server hardware, and Pics will follow.

Just a quick rundown of hardware:

Case: Chenbro ES34069
http://usa.chenbro.com/corporatesite/products_detail.php?serno=100
Mobo: JetWay JNC62K AM2+/AM2 NVIDIA GeForce 8200
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813153114
Processor: AMD Athlon X2 BE-2400 Brisbane 2.3GHz
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103215
HD's 4x: Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 ST3250310AS
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148261
Memory: Kingston 2GB 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820134581
DVD/CDrw combo slimline: LITE-ON Black 8X DVD-ROM 24X CD-R/W
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827106224
OS: Win2k3
Additional Software: GameEx
http://www.gameex.net/

To save space inside, I opted to use 1 of the 250g's split into 2 partitions (1 for OS and programs, and other for emulators) the remainig 3 drives will be used for DVD's. Windows2k3 is installed along with GameEx and running smoothly. Once I get the slim DVD in I'll be ripping the DVD's to the hard drives.


More to come.
 
That would work, although you can get much better deals for larger hard drives.. and I'm unsure about the NC62K drivers under Win2k3. If it works, let us know.
 
The only issue I have seen with the Win2k3 driver installation is I apparently didn't copy all the audio setup folders for the install. From time to time after reboot it says it found a new hardware device (audio) and needs the disk.

Outside of that I am suprised how well the 8200 runs even though it's on board using shared memory. (World of Warcraft, TBC) runs quite smoothly which was a nice bonus.

When I get the slim dvd drive tonight I'll reinstall from scratch all the drivers and let you know what issues (if any ) show up.
 
Why get such small HD's? Even the WD 640 gig drives aren't too much more.

I'm curious as to how that Chenbro case works out, it looks slick.
 
I don't have that many DVD's nor will most likely buy a ton of them. After guestimating my current DVD collection (approx 24) and my at most 2 dvd purchase per year.. I'll be set for sometime. I'll be using up approx 120g of that 750g (approx)space with a raw rip anyways...



If in the future I require more space I'll just buy bigger HD's... :p
 
Bicarus said:
I don't have that many DVD's nor will most likely buy a ton of them. After guestimating my current DVD collection (approx 24) and my at most 2 dvd purchase per year.. I'll be set for sometime. I'll be using up approx 120g of that 750g (approx)space with a raw rip anyways...



If in the future I require more space I'll just buy bigger HD's... :p
Click to expand...

It'd be cheaper to get one or two larger drives then.

For example, you could get two of these:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136218

For $170 total and get 1.2 TB of storage. As opposed to spending $220 on those four 250GB drives.

It's better bang for you buck.
 
Yea I have to agree on the HDD thing...why are you getting 4 drives? Are you doing RAID? You could save a lot of money by going a different direction on the hard drives. You can shave a $100 off by getting a single 1Tb drive. Also with more drives you will use more electricity and there is greater chance of data loss due to drive failure.
 
w1retap said:
That would work, although you can get much better deals for larger hard drives.. and I'm unsure about the NC62K drivers under Win2k3. If it works, let us know.
Click to expand...

Hardware accleration of HD materal only works under Vista last time I checked; support for all XP based OSes and considering that this is a Server OS it might just not work period since those features aren't really tested/implemented for server platforms for the obvious reasons. They're a very low priority.
 
Agreed on the hd part, but this topic got me wondering, what other (lesser known) cases would people consider using in their home theatre set up?
 
dakine` said:
Agreed on the hd part, but this topic got me wondering, what other (lesser known) cases would people consider using in their home theatre set up?
Click to expand...
I think the OP may tuck it away somewhere as a file server (?). I don't see a slot for an optical drive. Interesting case choice though, a mini-itx file server with an external power brick and some goodies built in.

OP gonna have to agree with everyone here about hard drive space. Do you really want to strain that little power brick with all of those low-capacity hard drives? Going with different hard drives is a win-win imho: less energy usage, less heat, lower price, more capacity and less likely to blow up that power brick ;). You can go with Valve's idea and get two 640gb hard drives, or just pick out some other hard drives that are known for low energy consumption.

Otherwise it's shaping up to be a nice little project, have fun and remember to post some pics or start a thread in the gallery.
 
Seems everyone is hounding me on my drive purchase... ease up you rich folks.. ;)

Sure I would love to have 4x1tb drives or even 500g drives but I put myself on a strict budget for this machine at this time. Eventually - yes I'll be getting bigger drives, and at that time i'll rotate the current 250's into my other PC. So nothing is going to waste with what I thought out. This machine will also be my MP3 jukebox with Vinyl(TM) and will free up 4+g of space on my current PC. It will also be a partial file server too.. (might as well get as much as I can out of it...)

This isn't the "end all" htpc build, nor was it inteded to be.
 
Another concern is the low-power external power brick that the Chenbro case uses. It may take a little research to verify the energy consumption of the parts you're using.

I "think" the cpu you chose uses 65watts, here's a similar cpu that uses 45watts.

Four (4) hard drives will drain the Chenbro's power brick as well. You may want to give Valve's idea some thought and buy Two hard drives instead. His idea will save you about $50, will create less heat, and use much less energy than the Four hard drives you selected. See, our ideas would actually save you money ;)
 
Here are the wattage rundown

AMD Athlon™ X2 Dual-Core BE-2400: 45w http://products.amd.com/en-us/DesktopCPUFilter.aspx
NC62K: Can't find specific Watt use. Lets say at least 65 watt
ST3250310AS:
Power Requirement Idle (Ready) 0.8Watts
Power Requirement Spin Up (Max) 2.0Watts (x4 = 8watts at max use +/- 1 watt seeks,etc
We can guestimate approx 10watts of power for all 4 drives depending on use.

LITE-ON Black 8X DVD-ROM: Cannot find specific watt use but can assume around 5-10

  • CPU: 45
  • Mobo: 65 (guestimate)
  • 4x HD's: 10 watt's constant use
  • DVD Drive: again guestimate 10 on high watt usage.
  • Total wattage (guestimate): 130watt

The Brick states on the box that it can handle up to 180watt so we'll se for sure if it flakes out or not.

And on a side note this case accepts 4 drives... If I wanted to just have 2 drives I wouldn't of purchsed the case to begin with.. :p
 
You don't have to buy four 1 terabyte drives. You could have bought one which would be more then equal to your four 250 gig drives at less cost. Thats what everyone is commenting on.
 
Yes I could of, but I want redundancy... 1x Drive won't give me that.. And 2 1tb drives would of been over budget at the time I purchased them.
 
There are some odd choices here, like the HD setup, but I think that is secondary to the OS. WHy did you choose 2k3? At this point I don't see a compelling reason to go with that old of an OS, plus with the ability to offload HD content to a gpu under Vista, it seems Vista home permium would have been a better choice...
 
Again... Price..

I have win2k3 sitting around doing nothing.. cost $0.00

Purchase vista would of been money spent.
 
edit: just realized that you already purchased all of this and I see no reason in commenting or criticizing the choices made. Congrats on the machine, hope it fills your needs nicely.
 
Thx Dversus...

Actually had all but the Slim DVD/CDrom... need that to re-install the Mobo Software as it is a DVDrom install CD...

At the time I just copied what I thought was the setup files, but apparently mis-copied the audio setup.. right now no audio due to it.
 
AH I see. As an fyi, I saw this little thing at bestbuy yesterday that goes into a optical drive slot and it gives you a remote and windows media center-like software. It was only like $40 too... if I can find a link I will show...
 
Modred189 said:
AH I see. As an fyi, I saw this little thing at bestbuy yesterday that goes into a optical drive slot and it gives you a remote and windows media center-like software. It was only like $40 too... if I can find a link I will show...
Click to expand...

Very few of those are worth the money, the decent, actually work, ones are around $70-100.
 
A little update: one of the HD's was doa...

Good news though is that everything powers up and has been running now for a good solid 5 hours (while I setup GameEx - very config intensive setup)..

The psu brick is barely warm. Windows is running nicely, and I am currently ripping my first dvd.

Hardware Update:
================
Unbenounced to me after I received the light-on slim dvd the supplied pata converter (that came with the Chenbro case) places the 4pin power connector right over Sata Connector 3 on the mobo.. So for now I'll be 1 drive short (pita let me tell ya.) until I get pci sata card and then hustle to squeeze it into the case as well.

Have a few pic's that i'll post tomorrow, just to update...

Bic
 
Sorry for the delay in pics (and quality). Here are some preliminary ones after everything was squeezed into the system. (note that one of the HD's is dead, thus the open HD spot.. :( ) Also after the pic's were taken I exchanged out the flat IDE cable with a rounded one.. much better fit.

Will take some screenies of CPU-Z, etc tonight when I get home. And eventually when I hook it up to my TV.. :p On a side note.. the Sata cables that came with the case, have those clips on them like what was posted earlier this month on the frontpage.


In process of getting DVD's ripped over.. For you DVD expert rippers out there, what progrm do you recommend to grab the entire CD (i.e. title+movie - commercial junk).

mvc192six9.jpg


mvc193spq3.jpg


mvc194szv0.jpg


mvc195szo1.jpg
 
For the DVD ripping, I am using DVDFab. SO far it has done everything I wanted. I leave them in the .iso format that it creates, but you can fins other programs to convert them over into other file types. I like the .iso format because I know I am not getting any compression. And with 2Tb of storage I have the room.
 
Bicarus said:
Hello all.

Today will recieve the last of my HTPC/File Server hardware, and Pics will follow.

Just a quick rundown of hardware:

Case: Chenbro ES34069
http://usa.chenbro.com/corporatesite/products_detail.php?serno=100
Mobo: JetWay JNC62K AM2+/AM2 NVIDIA GeForce 8200
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813153114
Processor: AMD Athlon X2 BE-2400 Brisbane 2.3GHz
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103215
HD's 4x: Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 ST3250310AS
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148261
Memory: Kingston 2GB 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820134581
DVD/CDrw combo slimline: LITE-ON Black 8X DVD-ROM 24X CD-R/W
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827106224
OS: Win2k3
Additional Software: GameEx
http://www.gameex.net/

To save space inside, I opted to use 1 of the 250g's split into 2 partitions (1 for OS and programs, and other for emulators) the remainig 3 drives will be used for DVD's. Windows2k3 is installed along with GameEx and running smoothly. Once I get the slim DVD in I'll be ripping the DVD's to the hard drives.


More to come.
Click to expand...

I'm getting close to doing a similar build as yours using the Chenbro ES34069, and am curious which power supply you're using...the 120w or the 180w. I'm most likely going to go with an e7400 or 5050e cpu, but am concerned the power supply won't be able to handle the processor, 4/5 drives, case fans, etc.

Any insight you can lend would be surely appreciated.
 
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