Looking at a new HTPC

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djskankho

Gawd
Joined
Jan 5, 2004
Messages
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Hi everyone! Been a really long time since I've posted anything here but I'm looking to build a new htpc and I need the [H] stamp of approval before I buy. So, I think it will primarily be used for streaming shows, etc. from the internet at first but there may be a few upgrades I'm interested in down the road.

So, here's the build. Pretty standard from what I've been reading.

Antec Minuet 350
Asus M3N78-VM
AMD 4850e
4GB OCZ DDR2 800
Western Digital Scorpio Black 320
Win7 MCE 32-bit most likely

All for ~$340

I will probably pick up a Dinovo Mini as soon as I can find one for around $100 again (Dell cancelled my order the other week :( ). Future upgrades may include HVR-2250 for some broadcast or clear QAM recording and probably a blu-ray drive. And then there's an ever so slight chance that I'd get a low-profile 9600gt to drop in there for some light gaming but I don't know how realistic that is.

My old HTPC was loud and whiny and ended up not getting much use because of it. So I'm trying to avoid that as much as possible this time.

The components that I'm still worrying about most are the case and the hard drive. I've looked at a green 1tb and black 640gb for the HD but decided the laptop drive would be the quietest/coolest choice. And for the case, I looked at the NSK-2480 but came to the conclusion that, while it's a really nice case, it's just too large for the space I have.

Let me know if you have any comments/suggestions. Your input is appreciated. I just finished my taxes and I'm looking to spend that refund asap ;)
 
Any discrete video card in that case will cook... There's almost no airflow except for around the single 80mm exhaust and the power supply fan, which probably doesn't even run past 50% until it's quite hot.

Are you going to be content with a 320gig HD? That seems small, to me... Of course, I have over 3TB of HD space in my media pc because I don't have a separate server.

Since that case has an external 3.5" slot, I'd probably get a 2x 2.5" hotswap bay to put there, like this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811999195

It doesn't seem like you're building a power-system, so your case and components all look good, however... Recording shows takes up a lot of HD space in a hurry, I have a 500gig dedicated to recorded TV, and I'm still running an analog tuner (in Canada, there's no unencrypted local digital channels on cable :( )
 
I think 320gb will be enough to start. Ideally, I want some sort of attached storage storage for media files, back-ups, etc. at some point. Though, if that doesn't work out, I could always drop a 1-2tb drive in this machine I guess.

That hot swap enclosure is really cool but I think I will take my chances just trying to strap the drive in to start. A rubber band sort of deal would be nice but I'm not sure exactly how to do that in the Minuet.
 
So I cheaped out and ordered the 500GB Green drive from ZZF because it was a pretty decent deal with the motherboard. Am I going to regret and/or notice this?
 
djskankho said:
So I cheaped out and ordered the 500GB Green drive from ZZF because it was a pretty decent deal with the motherboard. Am I going to regret and/or notice this?
Click to expand...

Going for the Green Drive? Not in a media application, they're not the fastest drives ever but you really dont need that much speed when playing media.
They're still a lot faster than the standard drives from a few years ago.
 
TorchV said:
Going for the Green Drive? Not in a media application, they're not the fastest drives ever but you really dont need that much speed when playing media.
They're still a lot faster than the standard drives from a few years ago.
Click to expand...
Not too worried about performance, I was more wondering about noise and heat. I suppose I can still get the other drive if this one doesn't work out and use the 500GB for storage elsewhere.
 
Theoretically, the green drives should be cooler as they use considerably less power than the standard hard drive.

They also spin at lower speeds, 5400 RPM vs 7200 RPM, so they will be quieter. My 640GB Green is much quietert than my Samsung F1s.

My 640 Green also blows my two year old 160GB Hitachi drive out of the water in terms of read and write speed.
 
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