GALLERY! Show off your HTPC!

My HTPC setup (it was still work in progress at the time...).

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My build:

Samsung 46" DLP 720p

Windows Vista Home Premium
DFI Infinity RS482
X2 3800+
3gb DDR400
250 SATA + 500 SATA + 250 USB hard drives
Samsung SATA DVD burner
x850xt
2 x Hauppaguge HVR-1600 (ATSC + NTSC tuners)
Lian-Li PC-V300A (SFF case)

Amazingly enough, I use VGA. It looks awesome! I might go DVI to HDMI ... but haven't decided for sure yet. Test is crystal clear. Color via my PC looks better than through the built-in HD tuner in the tv. Awesome setup!
 
Basic overview of the living room.
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different angle
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Panasonic 63' HDTV, xbox 360 with accessories, cable box, gf's gamecube.
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Hiding in the back is the HTPC
Athlon 3000+
1gig ram
500gig hd
7600 nvidia card
SB Audigy 2
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Dvd collection along with some artwork and sword.
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let me know what ya think!!!
 
Why not get a nice desktop/htpc case to put your htpc components in? Would definately look better than the battery backup you have in view. Then you could hide the battery backup and the subwoofer behind your stand. Add to that some wire management. Other than that it looks nice.



 
Well, my TV is kind of lame by comparison to the rest of my system, but it's the biggest that will fit in my roommate's stand, so... I'll probably upgrade to a 42-50" widescreen sometime in the next year or so.

Like so many others in this post, I have the Antec NSK2400 HTPC case, though mine sports a tinted acrylic panel across the top half to hide the DVD drive and to match my Harman/Kardon AVR245 receiver. I have all SoundStage speakers, center, front towers, rear bookshelfs, just waiting on some extra money to get a sub for the set.

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Why not get a nice desktop/htpc case to put your htpc components in? Would definately look better than the battery backup you have in view. Then you could hide the battery backup and the subwoofer behind your stand. Add to that some wire management. Other than that it looks nice
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Thx I appreciate the feedback. I am going to get a nice "proper" case for my htpc soon. Good stuff, keep this thread alive!
 
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taken a while ago. Waiting to make a decision on a new tv. May just get a dlp for the living room instead. any suggestions?
 
Here is my HTPC.

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It consists of...

AMD 4400+ 939, DFI Expert, Mushkin 2x1G PC4000 Redlines, Evga 8800GTS 320, Seagate 7200.10 500GB & 320GB, Nvidia DualTV MCE, Creative Audigy 4 Pro, OCZ PS 600,Plextor 716 & 760, Zalman 9500 AM2, Silverstone Crown

Looking to get rid of the LG and get a Pioneer Elite 60" :)
 
Very nice TV i have the twin brother :D Hey what resolution are you running on it and how do you have it setup to run the resolution like DVI to Hdmi to Hdmi or how so?



Gh()st said:
Here's mine. Currently still very much a WIP, as I'm still trying to finagle the front-end software, and movie storage database. See my sig for the HTPC specs. The receiver is a Pioneer VSX-1016TXV-K. I'm using it as an HDMI switch between the HTPC, and the Verizon Fios HDTV STB. You'll have to forgive the corded keyboard/mouse, as I haven't picked up a Media keyboard and remote as of yet.

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I would like a new TV but that is going to have to wait ;(

I need to do some wire management behind there... but honestly it is so dark back there that you cant see anything.... but the flash shows a lot : (

specs in the sig
 
HurtMeP1nty007 said:
Basic overview of the living room.

different angle

Panasonic 63' HDTV, xbox 360 with accessories, cable box, gf's gamecube.


Hiding in the back is the HTPC
Athlon 3000+
1gig ram
500gig hd
7600 nvidia card
SB Audigy 2

Dvd collection along with some artwork and sword.


let me know what ya think!!!
Click to expand...


Your sword is upside down. It should reset with the blade up.
 
:eek:

i still have yet to buy another game other than zelda. still waiting for some worthy games. oh well, i have plenty of ps2 titles i've yet to play.
 
Casej18 said:
Very nice TV i have the twin brother :D
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Thanks! I was originally shopping for the 50 or 56 version, but CC was running a sale on 61's at that time. It was only $200 more to go from the 56 to a 61. They were still in the $2200-$2600 range, so $200 was a small step at that point for the size difference.

Casej18 said:
Hey what resolution are you running on it and how do you have it setup to run the resolution like DVI to Hdmi to Hdmi or how so?
Click to expand...

To adjust for overscan (I can't seem to find any info on whether these sammy's do/will do 1:1 pixel ) I have it set to 1808x1004 using the Nvidia overscan adjustment utility. Even though the drivers allow for 1920x1080 ouput, I'm still having to pull the resolution back a little to fit the screen properly.

I'm using a DVI to HDMI cable I bought from monoprice. The HDMI side is plugged into the Pioneer receiver. ( It has 2 HDMI input/1HDMI ouput ) I'm also using HDMI from the HDTV STB, and then using the Pioneer to switch between the sources.
 
TV: Samsung HLS56-87w
Speakers: Kef Q series [Q3 and Q6c]
Reciever: Denon AVR-1601
HTPC: Silverstone LC16B-M w/ Asus A8N-VM CSM (3200+, 2GB, NeoHE 380) - about to throw in an 8500/8600 for HDCP purposes.

Case: (just started putting it all together)


Here is the setup from the side:


Here it is booting up (720p mode)


Close up of the 720p mode, back when I had winXP MCE 2005 freshly installed on it....
 
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Vsink had to be bent a bit to allow proper clearance for my cpu heatsink.

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i cut and resoldered sata plug, allowing them to stack in order to fit under my vga cooler. i also had to fan the bga sink to make room for the ram.

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made a custume mount for hdd #3 and fount one from scyth, nearly identical, the weekend after i finished :(

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antec fusion
msi km4m-v
athlon xp-m 2500 @ 166 x 15 1.625v 44c-56c
corsair cmx2048-4400pro
aiw x800xt ac cooler ocz bga sinks
bluegears pci card
liteon dvd-rw
two 500gig western digital sata driver raid 0 dvds only
one 250 gig western digital pata os games and other essentials
thermaltake tr2 430w
XP MCE and some archiving tools for cover art and info

all over clocking was done via pin bridging. my mobo does not support anything in the bios and this was quite a headache in the doing. well the clock and multi were easy but the voltage took a few days to sort out.

cpu fan spins at about 970rpm and cannot be heard when top os on.
120mm case fans spin at 930ish and cannot be heard unless in flow path.
psu fan only become audible when my ethernet switch get to close to the side vents.
lighton drive is loud as shit but i lock it at 4x during dvd play back.
 
Added the VFD to my shuttle today. I only wish the plastic was glossy black like my old shuttle front, but I'm going to try to use my old front later.

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so here she is, sitting on the rack and showing off her sexy self. sorry for the slightly odd lighting and shadows, but i have to go to class and don't have time to set up well distributed lighting for a better shot. i'll have more pics soon to detail how i mounted everything and the other internal mods you can't see from here. suffice to say, it looks a whole lot nicer this way then with a big 'ol plastic dvd drive behind the flip down door

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and now for other mods/procedure

in the next two pics, you can see the front panel before mounting. i had the slot made by a local machinist, realizing there's no way with a dremel i'm going to make an accurate cut through 1/2" thick aluminum. i gave him the specs but he did the cutting, and it cost me $40 (but he did a really good job). i had him machine out part of the back panel as you'll see in the coming photos.

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here you can see the back of the panel where the panel was taken down to 1/16" thickness 1/4" above and 1/2" below the slot. this is so the drive could mount as close as possible to the front of the panel, so the cd could be pushed in and retreived with reasonable ease. also, i figured that less metal would result in less scratching of discs, which this seems to have accomplished well.
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the mounting plate that the cd rom sits on top of is right here. i then used double sided sticky pads to affix the cd drive to the plate because they provide easy attachment and some vibration dampening
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in the coming photo, you can see the mods done to the front of the case to accomodate the slot loading drive. the 4 posts are what the mounting plate sits on top of. the hard drive bracket was scrapped completely and the 4 circled holes are what the hard drive is screwed into. i screwed a motherboard standoff into each of the bottom hard drive mount holes so the drive would be spaced off the case bottom a bit. the right angle red lines was the bit of case that i had to cut off (there was material inside the lines) so the drive would mount correctly. it was a small bit of material and didn't really effect chassis stability.
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this next pic show the mods for a power supply with a 120mm fan
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i cut a hole with a holesaw so that hot air could exhaust via the bottom of the case. i also had to make new mounting holes for the ps because the stock holes put it upside down (fan facing upwards instead of downwards). i wanted to utilize the power supply as a rear cooling element, since the only active cooling in the case is next to the hard drive in the front corner. the factory operation of the power supply is that the 120mm fan is an intake, and the air passes through the power supply and out the back. i wanted the ps to take in air from inside the case and exhaust it via the 120mm fan. i did this by blocking off the grill on the back of the power supply with a plate, shown here
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i opened up the power supply and turned the fan upside down so it would be exhaust instead of intake. i then used my drill press to drill a ton of holes (swiss cheesing is fun!) in the side of the power supply panel, so it would be able to draw in air from the inside of the case.

here you can see the block off plate doing it's job blocking off the back of the power supply
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and a bottom shot of the unit with the fan running, exhausting air
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the system is attractive, functional, and quiet so i feel i've done a good job in my modifications. i also still have a free 5.25" bay behind the door so this leaves me with options and expandability.
 
Haven't seen any watercooled HTPCs in here. I'll post pics of my HTPC, which I think I'm going to need to water cool.

It ran 45 at idle and 50C at load in my server case, but now in the Silverstone HTPC case, which is inside an enclosed IKEA cabinet(also causing heating, I'm sure) it is running over 60C at Idle, I'm a little afraid to run it hard. It's an Intel 6400 OCed to 3.2 Ghz.

Anyone watercooling? Suggestions for a system?

my specs:

Intel 6400 2.13ghz OCed to 3.2 Ghz
SILVERSTONE SST-LC17-S ATX HTPC case
ASUS P5N-E SLI LGA 775 NVIDIA nForce 650i SLI
2 GB OCz Platinum 800mhz
BFG Nvidia 7950GT OC 256mb vid card
 
i have been having trouble finding water cooled HTPC's as a reference but im going koolance because of space, number of items beings cooled and i dont need low temps just easy to rougte and quiet. my other setup was for overclocking and works well.
 
haha you linked 3 posts up :) hard to see the guts though. whats in it?.. posted in the WC gallery? i also have a spare pc in that case. i like it for what i payed.
 
Tangent inc. said:
haha you linked 3 posts up :) hard to see the guts though. whats in it?.. posted in the WC gallery? i also have a spare pc in that case. i like it for what i payed.
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Core 2 Duo (E6300 @ 3.36)
1GB Ram
7900GS
250GB Barracuda

No tv tuner yet, but I don't consider that essential for an HTPC. ;)
 
i agree... not essential. thats what my SA explorer 8000 is for. put a 250gig seagate sata in it and TimeWarner (isp) reinstalled the OS on it automatically on boot as if it just crashed. a bit over 150 hours of SD shows. i am waiting for the day TimeWarner sticks me with the price of the dvr when it dies on me:p
 
ya know, i can't remember and it isn't on their website anymore. i bought it last year over the summer, they prolly discontinued it.

with my homemade stand:
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Tangent inc. said:
i agree... not essential. thats what my SA explorer 8000 is for. put a 250gig seagate sata in it and TimeWarner (isp) reinstalled the OS on it automatically on boot as if it just crashed. a bit over 150 hours of SD shows. i am waiting for the day TimeWarner sticks me with the price of the dvr when it dies on me:p
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That'll be $650ish...

typing this from the TW Texas Regional NOC...

DOah, busted. Jk

I'll edit this with my pics tonight. Just to clear it up, there's nothing wrong with the silverstone case, It idles at 47C if the doors are open to the IKEA cabinet, it doesn't get hot unless the doors are closed. (I have two small, curious children that want to play with everything)I just don't want the sound of a fan to blow the hot air out of the cabinet, although I probably should, since there are other components in the cabinet.

ohh, and forgot the most important part of my specs:

my specs:

42" LG Plasma
Scientific Atlanta 8300HD STB/DVR
Intel 6400 2.13ghz OCed to 3.2 Ghz
SILVERSTONE SST-LC17-S ATX HTPC case
ASUS P5N-E SLI LGA 775 NVIDIA nForce 650i SLI
2 GB OCz Platinum 800mhz
BFG Nvidia 7950GT OC 256mb vid card
 
haha... Doah! is right. i can still swap the drive out so im not worried to much. on the 8000 no tamper seals get in the way as long as you just tilt the top off. the seal is in the lower right corner on mine. hope i dont break the tape swappin the hdd back:p

as far as i know the HD box's hdd size is monitored by the OS so no swapping drives :(
when i my new tv arrives ill read more into it.
 
th3 godfather said:
ya know, i can't remember and it isn't on their website anymore. i bought it last year over the summer, they prolly discontinued it.

with my homemade stand:
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That riser looks very slick on your stand. Job well done!
 
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Soon to be Watercooled. It gets way too hot in the cabinet, but I have rugrats so It has to stay in there.

my specs:

42" LG Plasma
Scientific Atlanta 8300HD STB/DVR
Intel 6400 2.13ghz OCed to 3.2 Ghz
SILVERSTONE SST-LC17-S ATX HTPC case
ASUS P5N-E SLI LGA 775 NVIDIA nForce 650i SLI
2 GB OCz Platinum 800mhz
BFG Nvidia 7950GT OC 256mb vid card
Gyration Wireless RF keyboard/mouse set(wicked cool)
 
wcing wont decrease the temp in the cabinet it still dumps the same heat out of the case..

unless you mounted the RAD so the fans were blowing air out of the cabinet...

looks good, that TV looks really high...
 
Yeah, I'll probably clip the radiator to the back of the cabinet, so that it is pulling air from out of the cabinet. The case pretty much butts right up the the back of the cabinet, so I think it won't make the hoses too long.

The couch is really far away from the TV, our living room is huge.

EDIT*

I moved the shelf up to the top so that the fans are blowing out of the hole in the cabinet and now I running at 52 Celsius, which is more than acceptable for me now. I'm happy with my set up now.
 
I installed ADS HDTV card with remote into my sony vaio 2.54ghz P4 Intel 760mb Ram, 120 Gig HD, projecting from a ceiling mounted BenQ SVGA projector that I installed myself plus a credit card sized remote onto a 100 inch screen that I have been enjoying for 2.5 years now. Getting very close to needing a new bulb, in fact. I have about 2,500 hours of use on that projector now.

Also have a Sony 5 DVD player piping into that as well, looking to buy an upconverting one but normal DVDs are just awesome on it. I feel like I am in my own theatre with that size of screen! Yes, I am typing to you all on it now while I lay back in my bed. The Sony DVD player also feeds into a 500 watt surround sound amp via the fiber optic cable and handles all the 5.1 channels with no extra noise distortion added by old fashioned wire.

But I do have my own homemade monster cables coming out of the amp powering both a dual coil 15 inch subwoofer, two 8 inch subwoofers, quad Linnaeum concert quality 360 degree tweeters(which I don't think are even available for the commercial consumer anymore). I also have a set of dbx/Bose made ported 3 by 2 satellite system hooked into that. All said and done, if I count each speaker individually there are 15 playing from just the front not including surround speakers. Explosions in movies have been known to knock things off tables and walls. :D

But playing The Who is where it really rocks. I have to play pick up afterwards as a result of all the stuff knocked to the floor! (not to mention when the neighbors are not around!!!) :D :p :D
 
The Antec NSK2400 was awesome to work in, and this Foxconn mobo is absolutely amazing. It feels like a full atx motherboard.

Specs
Antec Solution Series NSK2400 Black
Foxconn G9657MA
Intel Core 2 Duo E4300 Allendale 1.8GHz
mushkin 2GB (2 x 1GB
GIGABYTE GV-NX85T256H GeForce 8500GT 256MB
Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD5000AAKS 500GB 7200 RPM
Windows Vista Ultimate











Of course UPS beat the crap out of my boxes:



The motherboard came with a rather huge poster of how to install the CPU and other goodies... who on earth does that with white gloves? :D

 
MurphysLaww said:
Yeah, I'll probably clip the radiator to the back of the cabinet, so that it is pulling air from out of the cabinet. The case pretty much butts right up the the back of the cabinet, so I think it won't make the hoses too long.

The couch is really far away from the TV, our living room is huge.

EDIT*

I moved the shelf up to the top so that the fans are blowing out of the hole in the cabinet and now I running at 52 Celsius, which is more than acceptable for me now. I'm happy with my set up now.
Click to expand...

With the new update of Speedfan, I was finally seeing my real core temps which were hitting 60C at idle and 70+ on load, so I cut a hole in the top of the PC directly over the CPU and installed a 120mm fan blowing down on it and now it's running at about 50C at idle and 58C at load. I'm relatively happy with this, but you can hear the fan now slightly. I'll still probably watercool it at some point.
 
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