My Mini-ITX HD-HTPC Project

S

SeegsElite

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Oct 6, 2007
Messages
1,105
UPDATED: (Check end of this post)

So, I've decided that I want to use my Desktop Tower for gaming purposes only and have a seperate computer for a dedicated HTPC. This rig will mostly be used for 720p/1080p x264 and Blu-ray discs

I've done my research and these pieces of hardware seem to fit my needs perfectly. They are cheap and powerful. Exactly what I was looking for. The small form factor will allow it to be portable. I have a bunch of friends with HDTV's and other HDTV's in my house.

Motherboard:
JetWay JNC62K AM2+/AM2 NVIDIA GeForce 8200 Mini ITX AMD Motherboard - Retail

* With the nVidia GeForce 8200 chipset, I can achieve hardware acceleration for pretty much all HD codecs out there. (VC-1, MPEG2, h.264, x264 (up to L5.1))*

Mini-ITX Case:
Foxconn RS233 Black+Light Silver Steel Mini-ITX Tower Computer Case 150W Power Supply - Retail

*This case is small and sexy and the 150watt PSU included should be more than enough for what I need*

Heatsink/Fan:
SILVERSTONE NT07-AM2 80mm CPU Cooler - Retail

* I've read reviews that the stock heatsink/fan is loud. This was recommended by a friend who build a similar rig with the same motherboard and similar cpu.*

CPU:
AMD Athlon 64 X2 4400+ Brisbane 2.3GHz Socket AM2 65W Dual-Core Processor Model ADO4400IAA5DO - OEM

*This CPU could most likely handle most of the HD content itself, its very power for it's price (I know it's older)*

RAM:
GeIL 2GB 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Desktop Memory Model GX22GB6400LX

*The motherboard only has 1 DDR2 DIMM for RAM, and this 2GB stick should suffice for all my needs*

Harddrive:
Western Digital Caviar GP WD7500AACS 750GB

* I have a seperate machine with over 3 TB worth of storage, so I'll be swapping material on and off of this maching from time to time. 750GB should be plenty of room and I think that 1 drive should be enough*
Click to expand...

All the items I'm in the process of buying at the moment. So far I have the motherboard and case bought. I will put in my final invoce to Newegg in the next couple of days to purchase the rest of the hardware. (I'm waiting for my next paycheck :p ) I'll post pictures of stuff when it arrives. Seeing how it's still the holidays, shipping times from UPS are horrendous. My 3 day shipping from UPS is going to take over a week. Items should arrive early next week.

PS. I'm thinking about getting an LCD screen to put in the 5.25" external drive slot. Any thoughts would be appreciated. Preferably something that also has a remote with it. I was looking at this:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811999166&Tpk=Silverstone LCD

If you guys know of something similar (and cheaper) let me know.

UPDATE:

Motherboard came today :D Should be getting another package tommorow:

img2814bd0.jpg


img2816wh0.jpg


img2823nv9.jpg


img2829tf0.jpg


Moar Pics to come tomorrow!!
 
awesome man. im looking to build a smallish htpc in the spring for blu-ray, subscribed. ;)

are you worried about lossless audio? or u just sticking with vanilla DTS and Dolby Digital?

my main concern about building my htpc is the ability to get lossless audio. im interested in the new card asus is coming out with in january...
 
Haste266 said:
awesome man. im looking to build a smallish htpc in the spring for blu-ray, subscribed. ;)

are you worried about lossless audio? or u just sticking with vanilla DTS and Dolby Digital?

my main concern about building my htpc is the ability to get lossless audio. im interested in the new card asus is coming out with in january...
Click to expand...


You can get DTS, DD to passthrough over HDMI and TrueHD can be decoded with fddshow audio decoder and that gets sent over HDMI as mutichannel PCM. I assume DTS-HDMA is next on the list for fddshow.
 
-=Antimatter=- said:
I'd rather have the 4850e, personally:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103255

Is your storage solution networked? That would be much easier than swapping material on and off your HTPC.

Oh, and are you using Vista as the OS?
Click to expand...

Yes, it's all going to be over a network. I think I'll be installing Vista Ultimate 32bit.

There isn't much of a need for a more powerful CPU. If it were the same price, I'd totally go for it.

I just can't wait for my first shipment to come, so I can get some pictures up!!
 
Update!! Everything has been ordered!! Won't get it all till next week, though.
 
So if your storage is networked, why not just stream your files instead of transferring things over?
 
Worklog Rules said:
General guidelines:

The first post in the worklog must contain images.

Worklogs should be computer related...

Worklogs should have pictures posted, not just links to external sites.
Click to expand...

added for length
 
I got this subbed got I'm interested in building one of my own. Let the pics come of the case and HSF.
 
Erasmus354 said:
General guidelines:

The first post in the worklog must contain images.

Worklogs should be computer related...

Worklogs should have pictures posted, not just links to external sites.
Click to expand...

The first package comes on Monday and I said I would post them. Who wants the crappy pics from newegg? If you really wanted to see them, just click the link.
 
SeegsElite said:
The first package comes on Monday and I said I would post them. Who wants the crappy pics from newegg? If you really wanted to see them, just click the link.
Click to expand...

The point is that you should have waited to start your worklog thread until you actually had something to show someone.
 
I'll second the recommendation for the 4850e, more for the 45w rating than the fast speed. I think in the smaller quarters of a mini ITX case, the less heat, less power is worth it. Will you make up the difference in less power on your utility bill - maybe after a couple of years running 24/7, I dunno. But the less heat/power means all of your parts will have a longer life expectancy. I also think with the 4850e, you could go with the stock hsf (so your end price is similiar). Since it is a lower power cpu, it needs less cooling so the stock hsf should be plenty quiet. I have the 4050e in my htpc (same line as 4850e, but 2.3) and am happy with the stock hsf.

I have a pair of GP WD7500AACS 750GB (and 4x 1gb of the same line) in my media server. I really think the WD GP series are great for storage and htpc use - less heat/power. However, the original versions of that series are a bit dated and you can do better now. This is going to seem odd, but maybe consider the 640gb version - the WD6400AACS (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136298) - yea, its the same price, so you are paying more for less space, but you get better performance and use less power (2 platters vs. 3). I think if you were running these two drives side-by-side as your OS/boot, you'd see a difference.
 
I appreciate all the recommendations guys, but all the parts have been ordered.

Also, I never said that I wasn't going to be using my network for receiving the files. In fact, it would be a hassle if I wasn't. I guess I used confusing words. My bad.

To Erasmus354, does it bother you that much? There will be pics up in a couple days.
 
It will be interesting to see pics of the Foxconn case, I saw it a few days ago and fell in love with it. :) Couldn't find any review of it though.

And it looks like you ordered the last one because it's out of stock at newegg. :D
 
Shaman said:
It will be interesting to see pics of the Foxconn case, I saw it a few days ago and fell in love with it. :) Couldn't find any review of it though.

And it looks like you ordered the last one because it's out of stock at newegg. :D
Click to expand...

I had to order it from somewhere else. Newegg was still out of stock when I wanted to order.

It does look amazingly nice. I should have pics up in a few days as soon as FedEx and UPS deliver my stuff.
 
Yeah, seriously, that Foxconn case look really good for a cheap Mini-ITX build. It's not too plain as other cases but it is unique for the price.

Where did you purchase the Foxconn case from? Newegg is still OOS...
 
I hope everything can fit under the optical bay or you wont be able to put anything in there.
 
Don't get that CPU!

Get an X2 4050e or 4850e instead. Lower heat than what you picked. Should help a lot in keeping that tiny rig cool.
 
lol, please read what I've already stated. I'll just say it again....

1. Heat shouldnt be an issue with the heatsink/fan I bought.
2. The 4400+ was cheap.
3.(and the most important part) I already bought the 4400+.
 
SeegsElite said:
I can always remove it. ;)
Click to expand...

so you can't have an optical? Maybe a slim will fit but that rules out a BR at the moment. That is my only dislike for the case. I was going to build a mini itx htpc, but decided to do a normal size due to price differences.
 
Power5 said:
so you can't have an optical? Maybe a slim will fit but that rules out a BR at the moment. That is my only dislike for the case. I was going to build a mini itx htpc, but decided to do a normal size due to price differences.
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How does that rule out BR? There's a reason why I have a 750GB harddrive. :p
 
SeegsElite said:
How does that rule out BR? There's a reason why I have a 750GB harddrive. :p
Click to expand...

So you can fit 15-30 rips on it? Anyways, nice little system your building but I would have gone with the 8000 series Zotac board instead.
 
CrimandEvil said:
Considering that a BR holds 25-50 gigs that's more believe then 50+ rips.
Click to expand...

The 750GB hard drive will only hold 15-20 rips, if he encodes it and such he can shrink that down and get more on the hard drive. Though he did say he has 3TB elsewhere so he should be fine for awhile. I have a couple 750 with 1:1 .ISO Blu-rays and only get 16-18 on my drives.
 
theDreamer said:
The 750GB hard drive will only hold 15-20 rips, if he encodes it and such he can shrink that down and get more on the hard drive. Though he did say he has 3TB elsewhere so he should be fine for awhile. I have a couple 750 with 1:1 .ISO Blu-rays and only get 16-18 on my drives.
Click to expand...

Which is what I said, the OP thinks he's going to get 50+ rips onto it. He will if he encodes them down a bit.... maybe.
 
CrimandEvil said:
Which is what I said, the OP thinks he's going to get 50+ rips onto it. He will if he encodes them down a bit.... maybe.
Click to expand...

When did I say 50+?

All I need is the m2ts file. I don't need all the other crap. It's a waste of space. Unless its a film I like. Then I'll just mux the video/audio into the m2ts file with the main movie. Usually they're around 25GB depending on how long the movie is and what the film is encoded in (vc-1, mpeg2, h.264).

I bet I can get around 20-25 BD's on there. Most likely though, there will only be 5-10 and the rest will be 720p and 1080p encodes.
 
OMG. Where's the case!?!?! The suspense is killing me.

Can we gets some shots of the NT07? That HSF have always interested me..
 
Sorry, not you. I meant cesium666 and got you confused with him.
SeegsElite said:
When did I say 50+?

All I need is the m2ts file. I don't need all the other crap. It's a waste of space. Unless its a film I like. Then I'll just mux the video/audio into the m2ts file with the main movie. Usually they're around 25GB depending on how long the movie is and what the film is encoded in (vc-1, mpeg2, h.264).

I bet I can get around 20-25 BD's on there. Most likely though, there will only be 5-10 and the rest will be 720p and 1080p encodes.
Click to expand...
 
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