Thinking of building a HTPC

[Reines]

Recently I have been thinking of building a HTPC, does anyone here have any experience with this? Currently all my media is on my main computer, and I have WMP11 sharing it to my Xbox360 in the living room, and Windows file sharing (Samba) sharing it to my media player in my bedroom... The problem with this is 1) My main PC has to be on to watch anything, and 2) My media player doesn't support HD or wmv 3) The 360 doesn't support mkv or old versions of divx.

Ideally I would like to try out XBMC (http://xbmc.org/) as it looks really promising, though I have heard it's rather poor on Windows (Yes I have reasons for not choosing Linux for it...). I think I'll probably be giving Media Portal (http://www.team-mediaportal.com/) a try.

Anyway I already have a spare CPU and graphics card lying around so they can go in it. I'm going to rip the media HDDs out of this comp for it, so no need to buy them either.


Intel Pentium 4 3.0GHz with HT
GeForce 8500GT 256Mb DVI/HDMI
Seagate 7200.11 1Tb Sata-II (TV Episodes)
Seagate 7200.10 500Gb Sata-II (Movies)
Seagate 7200.10 320Gb Sata-II (OS + Music)
2GB Corsair XMS2 DDR2 PC2-6400 (http://www.scan.co.uk/Product.aspx?WebProductId=402849)
Antec NSK2480-UK uATX 80+ PSU (http://www.scan.co.uk/Product.aspx?WebProductId=787236)
Gigabyte GA-G31M-S2L (http://www.scan.co.uk/Product.aspx?WebProductId=848059)
Zalman CNPS7500-CU LED 110mm (http://www.scan.co.uk/Product.aspx?WebProductId=613814)
Scythe Hard Disk Stabiliser II (http://www.scan.co.uk/Product.aspx?WebProductId=530380)
Samsung SH-S203P SATA Lightscribe (http://www.scan.co.uk/Product.aspx?WebProductId=815123)
Philips SRM5100/00 Vista MCE Remote (http://www.scan.co.uk/Product.aspx?WebProductId=583848)


(I have not linked the stuff that I already own.)

http://www.scan.co.uk/Images/Products/787236-a.jpg

PS. I haven't included any kind of tuner card. I very rarely watch real TV so I will maybe look into that later on.

[garfield]

Looks pretty good mate, the only thing is, you have your music on the same drive as the OS, have you partitioned it? if windows fails (as if it ever does) what about when it comes to format/recovery?

[Reines]

Cheers. At the moment the drives are all in this computer, and the OS is on a 74Gb WD Raptor. When I move them to the HTPC I will probably partition the OS off from the Music yes.

[smartybones]

PS. I haven't included any kind of tuner card. I very rarely watch real TV so I will maybe look into that later on.

i have been reading up on some satellite kit for the PC... a external USB box that receives HD tv content (there is also a internal PCI version), and you are also able to unscramble encrypted content including all the Sky channels.. I have not seen it working personaly on the sky channels, but i do have it from a very reliable source who has it working. only problem is it needs its own dish and LNB, as the box powers up the LNB, if you already have a sky box connected to a quad LNB they are both trying to power it and messes the whole thing up...

[Reines]

Any idea if it is something like this (http://www.kustompcs.co.uk/acatalog/skymceintegration.html)? That guide looks like it'd work perfectly, though the parts come to over £200, which is more than the rest of the system put together :(

[gctlincs]

anyone ever looked at linux MCE as the OS for a Media center rather than MS ?

It does quite well for what it is - and has some good support for hardware

[Reines]

anyone ever looked at linux MCE as the OS for a Media center rather than MS ?

It does quite well for what it is - and has some good support for hardware
Yes briefly, it is not bad. A really good one for linux seems to be XBMC (there is also a Windows version of it though I hear it sucks on Windows for some reason).

[Dae]

The spec looks ok for what you want, your biggest problem is going to be fan noise from the number of fans inside the case.
The last thing you want to hear when watching a film or TV programme is whining fans in the background. :o

So you might want to consider passively cooling as much as possible.

The Scythe Ninja Mini (http://www.scan.co.uk/Product.aspx?WebProductId=657369) CPU cooler (minus its fan) is known to fit into that case quite well.

And you might also want to consider replacing the standard 2x 120mm antec fans on the side of the case
with the following fans as they run a bit quieter than the std ones:

Noctua NF-S12 800 RPM (http://www.scan.co.uk/Product.aspx?WebProductId=532628) / Noctua NF-S12 1200 RPM (http://www.scan.co.uk/Product.aspx?WebProductId=532626)

Or

Scythe S-FLEX 800 RPM (http://www.scan.co.uk/Product.aspx?WebProductId=533396) / Scythe S-FLEX 1200 RPM (http://www.scan.co.uk/Product.aspx?WebProductId=533395)

Noctua & Scythe fans are quite well thought of in quiet air cooling circles.
But if you intend to vary the rpm of the fans (i.e. as the case temps rises/falls) the Scythes would be the better choice
as the Noctua' can be a bit 'whinier' when not being ran at a fixed rpm (although this disappears above 1000rpm).

As for the graphics card cooler you could do a lot worse than a Zalman VNF100 (http://www.scan.co.uk/Product.aspx?WebProductId=614468),
but you might want to check the total height inc card before purchasing as space is at a premium in that case.
Most aftermarket passive coolers for the 8xxx series wont fit in that case.

The above will cost a bit more money, but I think it would be money well spent as it will improve your viewing experience.

And after passively cooling the CPU and graphics, and fitting some quiet fans your only source of noise is going to be the PSU and the Hard drives ;)

N.B
IIRC there is only 2 hard drive mounting brackets in that Antec case, although you may be able to fit a third drive in the lower/upper optical drive bay with a 5.25" to 3.5" bay adapter... and if you really want to silence the hard drives at some point then these Quietdrive (http://www.quietpc.com/gb-en-gbp/products/harddrivesolutions/quietdrive) cases do the job very well.

Good Luck :)

[garfield]

Rather than start a new topic, thought i would bump this one up

Am also thinking of doing one of these now, but am going to be starting from TOTAL scratch, ie NO case, nothing.

Any advice on parts is appreciated, but I don't really want to go over the £500 mark if possible.

[Reines]

The spec looks ok for what you want, your biggest problem is going to be fan noise from the number of fans inside the case.
Possibly, though after being used to using an Xbox360 for playing media I don't think it could get much worse :P

Not too keen on trying passive cooling for the CPU, it will be put under quite a load, the Zalman fan is good and quiet anyway. The graphics card is already passive cooled so it isn't a problem. I might try replacing the case fans as you suggested, though will probably wait until I've got it all bought and only do it if I feel it would help.

As for the HDDs, yeah there is only 2 slots, though the plan is to put the 3rd into a 5.25" bay like you said.

I'm not quite sure about the setup still though, going uATX is nice though I don't know if only having 1 PCI-E and 1 PCI slot (heatsink from the GFX card blocks the second) is going to be enough :\ Once the GFX and Tuner are in that's them all used. I don't like leaving no room for expansion.