Vicious's HTPC Build

[ViciousXUSMC]

Been awhile since I posted my builds. I have a few new machines to introduce to everybody. The newest one is the HTPC

Total Cost ~$350.00 not including the adapter I got for the TV or the Shelf to put it on.

Log:

My HDD was DEAD ON ARRIVAL :(



But here is the rest of the build so far:

The Case:


The Parts: (most of them)


Mobo w/ CPU installed:


Mobo w/ CPU top:


Mobo w/ Ram & CPU cooler installed:


All built w/ no wire management (not much I can do :( lots of cords no space):


Up and running (with the bad hard drive):


The Pats List - http://secure.newegg.com/WishList/PublicWishDetail.aspx?WishListNumber=11010688


Here is a final build with the new 1TB Samsung Drive (2 day sale $99) and a bit of wire management (about as good as it gets)


Here is a size comparison my Antec P182SE vs the new HTPC case:


It got pretty good scores in Vistas WEI.

HDD is partitions ~55GB for C: and 900GB for D:

1.75GB of the 2GB of ram is usable by windows.

Its much smaller than my desktop but not quite as small as I wish it was and its pretty heavy. Power draw is great. 60-65w while playing movies.

Has internet, remote, keyboard, mouse, so its fully functional and was not very expensive.

For ~$99 it would be easy to put a blueray/hddvd combo drive in there and this thing would barely cost more than a good player and do so much more.

Only part miss match is the wireless card, it did not have the low profile bracket so I had to make my own.

[Paradigm Shifter]

Nice looking build, mate. :)

I admit to going for a full ATX HTPC case when I built mine, as I didn't like any of the mATX boards available at the time. Now, however, there are one or two that I'd be prepared to use. Ah well, never mind. ;)

[Frag Maniac]

Holy crap that thing looks like a little pup compared to the P182. Love your size reference tool and reflection of the JD in the P182's beautiful glossy finish. I'm considering a P182 for my next build, although it will be for gaming, movies, music and HDTV. I can see building a dedicated HTPC rig if you want to record large volume stuff often, but as little as I'd do something like that I can get by using one rig for everything.

[maherie]

I had to use the Silverstone LC20M it's massive and I'm thinking I'd like to go smaller only have one HDD in the machine... I'm wondering do you need graphics cards or can you get away with on board... some boards have HDMI or DVI on board these days....

[ViciousXUSMC]

Well there were 2 reasons I went with AMD, they have the better IGP options and they had the lower power cpu.

The 4850E is only a 45w cpu and dirt cheap, and the mobo has the HD3200 IGP.

It handles 1080P without even trying, and it has VGA, DVI & HDMI outputs! so it just screamed out HTPC to me.

When it comes to decoding and stuff thats honestly a cpu thing more than gpu, but the HD3200 does have hardware level decoding support for MPEG2 and Blueray and stuff to help offload the cpu.

This little case can hold 2 hard drives. one goes on the outside of the cage, and one can fit in the 5.5" bay.

I also did not even notice I had the JD in the reflection until somebody else mentioned it lol. I actually drink Jager more than anything and there are two bottles of it up there but not in the reflection. I should have wiped it off too before taking a picture since it has dust on it but I just snapped these pics really fast while I was on the go.

[maherie]

wow it's been a while since I built my HTPC, I might give it a work over early next year, your post has inspired me. Also back when I built the beast I was going for space and performance over looks and fuctionality.

Now rethinking it... I'd like to have a smaller case, with a cheap harddrive in it so I can run everything else of the server I have here...

One question though man, in MCE vista (I have it already) does it allow you to add content over the network or does it have to be on the local harddrive?

Oh and, 2GB enough? mine only has two and ram is cheap so would 4gb not be better to help system performance?

[JohnnyWakko]

Whats a HTPC?

[g00seberry]

Whats a HTPC?

Home Theatre PC

[Paradigm Shifter]

I had to use the Silverstone LC20M it's massive and I'm thinking I'd like to go smaller only have one HDD in the machine... I'm wondering do you need graphics cards or can you get away with on board... some boards have HDMI or DVI on board these days....

I've got the same case, I think. Enormous thing. I'll have to check exactly what model it is later now. Need to quieten it down a little too - since I did some fan replacing in my gaming rig, the HTPC is louder than the gaming rig. :lol:

Need to get a fan controller for the Opteron system, though - that thing sounds like a wind tunnel. It's partly the cases' fault - an old Chieftec server case. Built like a tank, but... let's just say there is a reason why it comes with wheels. :lol:

...

I was thinking about getting the Dell Studio 15, or whatever that tiny little system is they're offering right now. But the mobo/IGP is horrible. Might have a hunt for an ITX AMD board. I'm sure I saw one a while ago. Even had a 16x PCI-E slot, IIRC (although it's 4x electrical)... a 3870 would probably do quite well in there. :D

[ViciousXUSMC]

wow it's been a while since I built my HTPC, I might give it a work over early next year, your post has inspired me. Also back when I built the beast I was going for space and performance over looks and fuctionality.

Now rethinking it... I'd like to have a smaller case, with a cheap harddrive in it so I can run everything else of the server I have here...

One question though man, in MCE vista (I have it already) does it allow you to add content over the network or does it have to be on the local harddrive?

Oh and, 2GB enough? mine only has two and ram is cheap so would 4gb not be better to help system performance?

Yes you can 'watch" networked folders/files in WMC thats what WMC calls adding a folder to its library.

Anything that most of the family would be interested in I am placing on the HDD, my stuff like my music & anime I stream from the network.

I have subtitle and dual audio issues with some of my anime, so I have to use the moues and play it in media player classic for some of them.

[maherie]

[quote]wow it's been a while since I built my HTPC, I might give it a work over early next year, your post has inspired me. Also back when I built the beast I was going for space and performance over looks and fuctionality.

Now rethinking it... I'd like to have a smaller case, with a cheap harddrive in it so I can run everything else of the server I have here...

One question though man, in MCE vista (I have it already) does it allow you to add content over the network or does it have to be on the local harddrive?

Oh and, 2GB enough? mine only has two and ram is cheap so would 4gb not be better to help system performance?

Yes you can 'watch" networked folders/files in WMC thats what WMC calls adding a folder to its library.

Anything that most of the family would be interested in I am placing on the HDD, my stuff like my music & anime I stream from the network.

I have subtitle and dual audio issues with some of my anime, so I have to use the moues and play it in media player classic for some of them.

Yeah I thought so, it must have been my network over in Ireland I always had problems, but home here in Australia it seems to work better, I still struggle to play 10GB 1080p files over the network though... any ideas?

[ViciousXUSMC]

1080p is probably the problem, high bitrate.

Not sure your setup but its pretty well known that streaming 1080p is not easy to accomplish (read possible) wirelessly.

A good wireless N setup could probably pull it off otherwise wired is the way to go for that. I would definitely have any 1080p files directly on the hard drive. Anything you can do to lower the bitrate would help too. x264 is the highest qualiy @ low bitrate codec out there and thus why it is used for almost any HD stuff.

[maherie]

Yeah it's wired, I only have wireless for girlfriends laptop.

Most if not all are MKV's encoded at x264 though so I think I should be right there...

It's a shame, I wanted to get a HTPC to steam 1080p stuff directly too... Anyway thanks for your help!

On last thing, hows your remote working for you?

[DaFox]

Does your 1080p content work fine when played from the local hdd?

[maherie]

Does your 1080p content work fine when played from the local hdd?

Yes and no... so I guess no... it's a PD830 2GB with a 7900GTX in it... so it goes alright, but not 100% sometimes it lags... I really should have though about that... likely cause.

Vicious, does your little amd setup play 1080p content alright?

[ViciousXUSMC]

Yeah it plays 1080p easy, remember its a cpu thing not a gpu thing mostly. There are some cards (the HD3200 IGP being one of them) that can help the cpu by supporting hardware level decoding of files but they have to be using the right codec and be the right kind of file for that support.

edit: oh the remote is fantastic. Its exactly what I hoped it would be. It gets great reception to the HTPC and has a great button assortment and layout. Really makes WMC feel like a piece of entertainment equipment instead of a PC.

[Frag Maniac]

I'm still trying to understand why one would want to build two entirely different PCs just to do what one could? The only thing that makes sense to me is if you have a home theater setup in the living room and a gaming PC in a dedicated gaming room.

[ViciousXUSMC]

Close, the Desktop is in my bedroom (aka the game room) and the HTPC is in the living room.

So anything on my PC I can watch alone in my room, but if I want to sit in the living area with the kids or family it needs to be avalable in the living area.

Also I was going to get a HAVA so I could turn the HTPC into a DIVO and record stuff off of TV but we just got a DIVO from our new TV service so I skipped that part.