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Hi there, I've just finished building my first super HTPC (as I like to call 'em) and a need took me to post my results (my system) here.
First off I have to say that my camera died a few days ago so you'd have to bear with stock photos (of the items) for the time being...
Anyhow before describing the system let me say that my crafting abilities are close to nil, but I do have an eye for choosing good hardware for my/one's need. This means that I had to work with stock items, and not the slightest customization of any physical objects went in.
My goal was to build the fastest possible system which is less than 5 Liters in volume (smaller than modern consoles). So here it is:
(note: since I'm European all prices are in Euro)
The case I used is called "E-2010" itx case. I bought it from an Austrian guy who had it supplied from a Chinese vendor, it's not easy to be found and indeed it may be the only case that measures less than 5L (it's 280x240x70, all in mm) yet it can house a full height pci express card.
Here's how it looks:
http://image.made-in-china.com/2f0j00ZeftoHYMZBkj/Micro-Itx-ATX-Computer-Case-E-mini-2010-.jpg
http://i00.i.aliimg.com/photo/v0/221326612_4/Slim_Mini_ITX_Case_E_2010.jpg (this pic is not of my system)
As you can see its build quality is a bit flimsy, but the way in which I have it placed only the front can be seen, so it actually looks quite decent.
Price: 40€
The motherboard of my choice was Zotac Z68-ITX. It comes with an mSata connector (which will come handy later).
Price: 140€
For CPU I preferred the i7-2500K since the difference from the 2600k is minor in performance yet steep in pricing.
Price: 160€
Memory: I bought the cheapest I can find because -again- the differences in Ram Perfomance these days are minimal at best. So 8GB of 1333MHz DDR3 it is.
Price: 35€
And now the interesting part begins
In such a small case one can easily think that any high caliber GPU would not fit either due to thermal or plain physical issues. Yet the Powercolor HD6850 single slot I bought not only fit, but it actually did so quite comfortably (exactly undeneath the case's grill holes).
It cost: 160€
So that to fit it facing upwards (the case could only take cards that face downwards, suicidal for such power hungry modules) I had to buy a 6'' right-turned PCI-E Extender
Price: 50€
but also an inverted PCI-Express bracket, so that my card could mount perfectly on the back of my case.
Price: 10€
Of course I also had to remove (unscrew) the Optical/HDD cage that came with the case so that to fit the card (the case has 280MM depth, the card was/is 240mm). Which would create an issue since there was no room for HDD left anymore. But this time around my choice of Mainboard came to the rescue. You see it supports mSata disks (AFAIK the first with this feature).
So I mounted to it an 80GB Intel 310 SSD, which in Real time performance is about as fast as any modern SSD
Price: 140€
(I could go for an 120GB Sandforce SSD, but the cost would be over twice than what I paid, so I figured it wouldn't worth the cost for the time being - I guess I'll simply upgrade in the close future, when prices go down)
Lastly (to top it of) one can rightfully wonder how come so much hardware can be supplied with power efficiently, especially since a normal PSU cannot fit in such a small case. My solution came in the form of PW-200-M pico-PSU which is the only PSU of such small footprint which can handle 13.5A of +12v
Price: 40€
Of course I aslo had to buy an AC-DC adapter capable of suppling my pico-PSU with enough Amps and the only I found was/is this one (16A, 12V, 192w)
Price: 60€
As you may be able to see the above PC cost me in the total 835€ (add a 10% over that amount to be adjusted to USD prices). That's thrice the amount one would pay for a console these days (which are someting of an equal size), but now consider the gains:
It's far faster than anything that small.
It boots in 20 seconds (cold boot; milliseconds if it's in sleep mode).
It plays everything comfortably at 1080p
I adjusted it (through bios and afterburner) to be *completely* silent when it's idle or playing a movie. While when it games it's barely audible (and the sound is being covered by the games' sounds), certainly less loud than X360. My temps never exceed the acceptable limits.
Through the power of Media-Portal, it's my family's (wifey's and kids') media center for everyting, from Live TV, to Movies, Youtube, even Gaming and basic surfing. Plus I've skinned MP so everything looks very slick.
It uses the excess of it's computing power (4 cores if you can remember) to seed Live TV streams to the network (for anyone who has an adroid phone and/or a laptop/PC).
I've tried the two most popular emulators (for PS2 and Wii) and it can play them at full frames. So I can literally buy games for Nintendo Wii (for the kids) and having them play on my TV (w/t actually having a Nintendo wii) @ 1080p!!
There's nothing that I threw at it that it cannot chew through its bones. Oh forgot to add, I even managed to overclock my GPU (@ 870/1150) all the while having it under-volted (15% less voltage), same with the CPU (the UV part I mean).
As you may see, it's the ultimate machine that small. I post it here mainly so that I can see if there are others that ever had experimented with ultra small HTPCs. In fact I would be glad to see if someone else did sth similar (and what *exactly* did he do).
...that is all for the time being (sorry for extremely the long post
)
First off I have to say that my camera died a few days ago so you'd have to bear with stock photos (of the items) for the time being...
Anyhow before describing the system let me say that my crafting abilities are close to nil, but I do have an eye for choosing good hardware for my/one's need. This means that I had to work with stock items, and not the slightest customization of any physical objects went in.
My goal was to build the fastest possible system which is less than 5 Liters in volume (smaller than modern consoles). So here it is:
(note: since I'm European all prices are in Euro)
The case I used is called "E-2010" itx case. I bought it from an Austrian guy who had it supplied from a Chinese vendor, it's not easy to be found and indeed it may be the only case that measures less than 5L (it's 280x240x70, all in mm) yet it can house a full height pci express card.
Here's how it looks:
http://image.made-in-china.com/2f0j00ZeftoHYMZBkj/Micro-Itx-ATX-Computer-Case-E-mini-2010-.jpg
http://i00.i.aliimg.com/photo/v0/221326612_4/Slim_Mini_ITX_Case_E_2010.jpg (this pic is not of my system)
As you can see its build quality is a bit flimsy, but the way in which I have it placed only the front can be seen, so it actually looks quite decent.
Price: 40€
The motherboard of my choice was Zotac Z68-ITX. It comes with an mSata connector (which will come handy later).
Price: 140€
For CPU I preferred the i7-2500K since the difference from the 2600k is minor in performance yet steep in pricing.
Price: 160€
Memory: I bought the cheapest I can find because -again- the differences in Ram Perfomance these days are minimal at best. So 8GB of 1333MHz DDR3 it is.
Price: 35€
And now the interesting part begins
In such a small case one can easily think that any high caliber GPU would not fit either due to thermal or plain physical issues. Yet the Powercolor HD6850 single slot I bought not only fit, but it actually did so quite comfortably (exactly undeneath the case's grill holes).
It cost: 160€
So that to fit it facing upwards (the case could only take cards that face downwards, suicidal for such power hungry modules) I had to buy a 6'' right-turned PCI-E Extender
Price: 50€
but also an inverted PCI-Express bracket, so that my card could mount perfectly on the back of my case.
Price: 10€
Of course I also had to remove (unscrew) the Optical/HDD cage that came with the case so that to fit the card (the case has 280MM depth, the card was/is 240mm). Which would create an issue since there was no room for HDD left anymore. But this time around my choice of Mainboard came to the rescue. You see it supports mSata disks (AFAIK the first with this feature).
So I mounted to it an 80GB Intel 310 SSD, which in Real time performance is about as fast as any modern SSD
Price: 140€
(I could go for an 120GB Sandforce SSD, but the cost would be over twice than what I paid, so I figured it wouldn't worth the cost for the time being - I guess I'll simply upgrade in the close future, when prices go down)
Lastly (to top it of) one can rightfully wonder how come so much hardware can be supplied with power efficiently, especially since a normal PSU cannot fit in such a small case. My solution came in the form of PW-200-M pico-PSU which is the only PSU of such small footprint which can handle 13.5A of +12v
Price: 40€
Of course I aslo had to buy an AC-DC adapter capable of suppling my pico-PSU with enough Amps and the only I found was/is this one (16A, 12V, 192w)
Price: 60€
As you may be able to see the above PC cost me in the total 835€ (add a 10% over that amount to be adjusted to USD prices). That's thrice the amount one would pay for a console these days (which are someting of an equal size), but now consider the gains:
It's far faster than anything that small.
It boots in 20 seconds (cold boot; milliseconds if it's in sleep mode).
It plays everything comfortably at 1080p
I adjusted it (through bios and afterburner) to be *completely* silent when it's idle or playing a movie. While when it games it's barely audible (and the sound is being covered by the games' sounds), certainly less loud than X360. My temps never exceed the acceptable limits.
Through the power of Media-Portal, it's my family's (wifey's and kids') media center for everyting, from Live TV, to Movies, Youtube, even Gaming and basic surfing. Plus I've skinned MP so everything looks very slick.
It uses the excess of it's computing power (4 cores if you can remember) to seed Live TV streams to the network (for anyone who has an adroid phone and/or a laptop/PC).
I've tried the two most popular emulators (for PS2 and Wii) and it can play them at full frames. So I can literally buy games for Nintendo Wii (for the kids) and having them play on my TV (w/t actually having a Nintendo wii) @ 1080p!!
There's nothing that I threw at it that it cannot chew through its bones. Oh forgot to add, I even managed to overclock my GPU (@ 870/1150) all the while having it under-volted (15% less voltage), same with the CPU (the UV part I mean).
As you may see, it's the ultimate machine that small. I post it here mainly so that I can see if there are others that ever had experimented with ultra small HTPCs. In fact I would be glad to see if someone else did sth similar (and what *exactly* did he do).
...that is all for the time being (sorry for extremely the long post
)