Just Finished my HTPC

S

Sunin

[H]ard|DCer of the Month - August 2008
Joined
Dec 27, 2005
Messages
3,421
Its in a Micro ATX case, but being a [H]ard type person I couldn't just let it live a life of luxury....

The 2nd picture is the HTPC
http://www.flickr.com/gp/24842648@N02/hG2kh6

E6600 @ 3.6Ghz with TRUE HSF with dual fans in push/pull
1.35v to the CPU (1.5v in bios) Temps never cross 52c
4 Gb DDR26500
ASUS P5E-VM HDMI
LG Blu/HD Combo Drive
Samsung DVD Drive
Vista Ultimate 64bit
74Gb Raptor
2 TB WD Mybook

I have the box folding 24/7 and since the Folding SMP client is unnoticeable I will be able to rip and watch movies without any issues at all and still contribute to the research for cancer and other illnesses! Gotta love it!

Is that a [H]ard enough HTPC?


 
That is pretty sweet. But I think the cpu might be a little too much. What do you need 2 dvd drives for? How quiet is it?
 
Is that a [H]ard enough HTPC?
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When i think of a HTPC it is something which should go in a home cinema/tv room and be used to play media/photos/perhaps games etc, it should fit it with the surroundings and be as quiet as possible.

What you have just looks like any other PC. I mean why have the 74GB raptor? What does that give you, except the horrible noise of the seeks, because i can assure you media playback/ripping movies/folding at home gets absolutely 0 benefit from it.
 
rokar said:
That is pretty sweet. But I think the cpu might be a little too much. What do you need 2 dvd drives for? How quiet is it?
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Since I have about 1100 DVD's I figured I could rip from both drives. I can't hear it at all I would say sub 25db

 
Toytown said:
When i think of a HTPC it is something which should go in a home cinema/tv room and be used to play media/photos/perhaps games etc, it should fit it with the surroundings and be as quiet as possible.

What you have just looks like any other PC. I mean why have the 74GB raptor? What does that give you, except the horrible noise of the seeks, because i can assure you media playback/ripping movies/folding at home gets absolutely 0 benefit from it.
Click to expand...

I'm less than 3 feet away from the unit and can't hear the raptor as it is on rubber feet, and I can't hear a thing. The raptor is just a spare I had laying around so yes no benefit, but it was free for me to use in the system so I did.

 
Interesting build. What case is that and does it blend in with the rest of your home cinema kit? Didn't realize there was a decent HTPC micro-ATX case that could take a TRUE.

Not sure about the noise - if you can't hear that raptor from 3 feet away, that must be one noisy PC. 1.5 vcore is a bit high and I suppose you need those fans running fast enough to keep it at 52c. If the noise gets to you, you may want to lower your overclock.
 
Nice build!

I have to inquire about the raptor though, did you just have one left over from a previous build? I can't seem to figure out where the HDD would be a bottleneck in either ripping or playback or encoding, also 4GB of RAM? (although with RAM prices being what they are and all, heh, why not). Finally what kinda display you got hooked up to this?
 
devman said:
Nice build!

I have to inquire about the raptor though, did you just have one left over from a previous build? I can't seem to figure out where the HDD would be a bottleneck in either ripping or playback or encoding, also 4GB of RAM? (although with RAM prices being what they are and all, heh, why not). Finally what kinda display you got hooked up to this?
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4gig for 2 reasons. Dual ripping, and running Folding @ Home which takes about a 600megish. Yeah ram was 32.99 how can you pass that up. its 2x2gb.. so only taking up 2 slots...

Yes the HD was a retired drive from my main gaming rig... so free = use it! :)

I am also going to put a sound card in there and I have a WD 2TB my book that will be used as the primary storage via firewire 400. I plan to mirror it for safety sake. Its a start..



 
Toytown said:
When i think of a HTPC it is something which should go in a home cinema/tv room and be used to play media/photos/perhaps games etc, it should fit it with the surroundings and be as quiet as possible.

What you have just looks like any other PC. I mean why have the 74GB raptor? What does that give you, except the horrible noise of the seeks, because i can assure you media playback/ripping movies/folding at home gets absolutely 0 benefit from it.
Click to expand...

Agreed.... Not my first choice of parts for an HTPC. Not even a gaming HTPC.
 
I can't believe all the people slamming you on re-using hardware. If it doesn't bother you, then stick with it. Re-using old hardware is a very viable alternative (and cheap). I personally would have swapped hard drives with another system if the seek noise from the Raptor bugged me. Now if you were using eight 60mm Delta fans, then I would fan the flames on you. :p
 
I think you have to remove some fans, and change the hard drive to the more silent one. Many people prefer silent HTPC by using silent parts, rather than using top performance parts.

Regards,
LimLim
 
Sunin said:
How many of you have used raptors... why does everyone think they are loud... I'm telling you I don't hear the raptor at all!

Also picked up this:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16815116015

To make the HTPC an HD DVR also! :)
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Nice, thats the one I just bought for my HTPC as well, so I hope it works out! (for the both of us)

I own a 74GB raptor, its in side my antec Sonata II mounted on rubber grommets, I honestly can barely hear it unless its really cranking away at something. I don't' know why people are giving you such crap about it, if I had a leftover raptor I 'd probably use it too instead of buying another drive.
 
Yeah, my Raptors are very quiet, its all about the mounting, stuck in a cheap steel case bolted in, they will vibrate the crap out of it. But in a solid quality case, with proper isolation mounting they are only noticable doing a real seek-fest.

Eventually when SSD's are cheaper, then they will be best for OS but for now a Raptor gives you a snappy OS install. I also prefer to keep the OS install seperate from my media data. The Seagate 7200.11's are fantastic for storage of data.

Also, one caveat about dual DVD drives. Some games... ex: Crysis ... have funky copy protection scheme's that dont work on SATA based Optical drives. So I have the NEC IDE x16 drive still in to avoid this issue.

The LG can really do fine in an external enclosure as well, esp an eSata one, as it is snappier than usb2.0 hosting.

Once I have all the setup/software bugs worked out, Ill switch over to a real HTPC and Ill use an eSata/usb2.0 port external case to host the LG to maximize the flexibility of my investment.
 
ShagnWagn said:
I can't believe all the people slamming you on re-using hardware. If it doesn't bother you, then stick with it. Re-using old hardware is a very viable alternative (and cheap). I personally would have swapped hard drives with another system if the seek noise from the Raptor bugged me. Now if you were using eight 60mm Delta fans, then I would fan the flames on you. :p
Click to expand...

I've gone the route with reusing hardware for an HTPC... Being that it is an HTPC, most people have different requirements. It's not that his build is bad, but it is much more needed for a true HTPC. It's not that we're/I'm slamming him, but it really is more of just a regular computer build.

I've got two HTPC's and on one of them, I've gone as far as to suspend a laptop drive in order to keep the thing VERY quiet.
 
doox00 said:
how is your divx/xvid playback with vista 64 in media center?
Click to expand...

32-bit Xvid works fine in x64 Vista media center, you don't get any preview thumbnails as it tries to use a x64 codec to do it with (which I don't have for xvid). One thing that was tricky to get working was AC3 audio in x64 had to use the CLI to invoke a 32bit command to install the codec correctly.

"rundll32 setupapi.dll,InstallHinfSection DefaultInstall 0 X:\path\to\AC3ACM.inf"
 
Have you succesfully encoded 2 DVD's while folding? If so, grats. That's an HTPC with some balls :cool:

 
Ehh, non-modular power supplies for the loss! I realize it doesn't make a difference to most people, I guess it's just an OCD complex of mine. Even running a P182 w/ no clear panels I've gotta have the cables I do have ran completely tucked out of sight.
 
5.0_Capri said:
Ehh, non-modular power supplies for the loss! I realize it doesn't make a difference to most people, I guess it's just an OCD complex of mine. Even running a P182 w/ no clear panels I've gotta have the cables I do have ran completely tucked out of sight.
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Considering it was non-modular I think I did one HELLUVA job wiring it... 90% of the cables are not in view!

Also I'm considering selling my E6600 and going Q6600 which although is over kill for an HTPC will do better at folding and ensure being able to decode two DVD's at once.

This weekend I intend on giving it its first duties and begin ripping my collection.

 
Hey Sunin, could you post more pictures of the overall setup? (case and such)

What brand of ram did you use?
 
Sure:

Case: Antec NSK3480 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811129035
MOBO: ASUS P5E-VM HDMI (Dual Channel Memory) http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131237
CPU: E6600 @ 3.6Ghz (I'm still considering moving to a quad)
HSF: Thermalright Ultra 120 Extreme (TRUE) from www.jab-tech.com
Memory: A-DATA 2x2Gb DDR26400 running 1:1 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820211188
Videocard: MSI X1550 256mb http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127294
DVD: Samsung 20x http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827151153
BD/HD Combo Drive: LG Combo Drive http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827136133
Harddrive: Raptor 74gig (Had as a spare)
Tuner: Hauppauge WinTV-HVR 1800 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16815116015
Media Keyboard: nMedia PC http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16823202003
Mass Storage: WD My Book 2TB (1 of an estimate 16 needed) http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136146
Firewire card: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16815265003 x2
Audio: using mobo right now, but I have an Creative X-FI, but not sure I want to deal with the driver issues http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16829102014

Anyways that was the build.

Here is a pictures of the setup with the case off:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/24842648@N02/2351111385/

 
I did decide to upgrade it to a Quad core. I managed to get it stable at 3.2Ghz, but that is mainly due to the voltage regulation of the mobo. I was seeing .2v vdroop, when pushing 1.6v in bios, which doesn't play nicely with a stable OC!

 
well the good htpc's are just gaming systems with tvtuners in them... bragging about how quiet and cool it runs is really where the argument is..

nice build though! youll find youll be doing plenty of multitasking with your htpc, no reason to skimp on the cpu!
 
Yep 2x Folding @ Home clients, MCE, 2x Ripping DVD's, Recording TV Shows... etc... so yeah... I foresaw the need for a quad. Funny thing is this box will be more taxed then even my gaming rig!

 
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