Tag Archive for 'HTPC'

HTPC Upgrade

Published on 29 May, 2009. 2 Comments Tags: , , , , , .

HTPC Rebuild

I don’t seem to have much luck with silence. The PC that I built back in 2006 was incredibly loud, due to both the power supply and graphics card fans being very noisy ones. Then, when I switched to an iMac last year (and, after, my MacBook), my room was suddenly very quiet – both machines are absolutely silent, and I rarely hear my MacBook’s fan unless the CPU is at 50% load (or more) for a while. However, when I decided to build an HTPC earlier this year, I chose to build it into a Shuttle SFF case. Bad idea. The CPU fan on the Shuttle wasn’t too bad, but the power supply was noisy as hell, which is not what you want when you’re building a PC designed for watching movies on.

So, a few weeks ago, I decided to do an upgrade. Simply put, I sold the Shuttle case on eBay (annoyingly, for only £120), and instead purchased an Antec 300 case, a Corsair HX520 modular PSU, a Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 4550 silent GPU (all new), and a Gigabyte GA-X48-DQ6 from Fr3d (used). The motherboard finally arrived today (after a week in the post, stupid Royal Mail), and I built the machine this afternoon. Finally, I booted it up to install Windows 7 and…wow. What a difference. You can hear it, but it’s pretty much silent compared to the horrible Shuttle. Finally, some peace and quiet again. I might just leave it on 24/7 like I was going to do with the Shuttle. :D

I’ve come across a few problems though – nothing major, but they’re a bit annoying. Firstly, because I have five HDDs (160GB for the OS, 3x1TB drives for storage, and a 500GB drive for overflow), the case is, well, a mess. I like to keep it as tidy as possible, but when you install 5 HDDs, the mass of SATA and power cables is a bit much. Without the HDDs, it’s a lot tidier, but as it is, it’s messy. However, I’ve tucked as much of the cables away as I can, so the airflow is pretty good and there’s plenty of room inside.

Next, because Antec insist on putting the space for the PSU at the bottom of all their cases, the 8 pin ATX power supply cable is too short to be neatly tucked away, so next time I purchase something from or visit OcUK, I’m going to pick up an extension cable for it.

Finally, I ran out of SATA cables and SATA power cables, so I’ve ordered some extras off eBay. Corsair, in future, please include more SATA power connectors. 4 is not enough!

So, overall, I’m very happy with the improvements, and I’ve got a pretty decent HTPC built now. In fact, later this year when Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 is released, I might actually get an LCD, powerful GPU, and use it as a gaming machine too. :D

(Oh, and finally, the photo at the top was taken before I put the CPU cooler, SATA cables, and SATA power cables in. ;) )

HTPCv2

Published on 16 January, 2009. Closed Tags: , , , , , , .

HTPC Overall

In 2007, I decided to build myself an HTPC, however it wasn’t much of a success – first of all, the case I had chosen was too wide for the cabnet where our TV was (and still is), and the BluRay drive I later got for it never worked, because it wasn’t compatible with the AMD chipset or something. I eventually sold it, and got my PS3, but it was a bit of a failure.

However, since I got a TV late last year, I decided to build myself one again, but this time, 1) it would be for my bedroom, and not the lounge, and 2) I decided to base it off an Intel CPU, and using a Shuttle SFF PC as the base. So, I went ahead and ordered the parts, one by one, and I got the last order yesterday, from Scan – the CPU, HDD, DVD burner, and a few other bits I wanted for other stuff. I was actually going to get a Pentium Dual-Core CPU, and Windows Vista Home Premium OEM, but I decided to get a more powerful CPU instead, and use the Windows 7 beta until the final version is out, and I can buy that.

I set about building it today, and, got it up and running successfully – almost. Windows 7 installed without a hitch, and almost everything worked – except for the ethernet card. Because the Shuttle has no WiFi, I *had* to get this working somehow, and the included driver CD wasn’t much help – despite including Vista drivers, it simply refused to work. So, I did a bit of Googling and found someone else who had tried Windows 7 on a similar model, with no success – however, by getting the drivers from the Marvell website, they fixed the problem. So, I did the same, and boom, it worked! I then installed my usual must-have apps for every install I do (Firefox, Wakoopa, Whatpulse, Last.fm, and Steam), and since this is the first Windows box I’ve had for a while, I installed Xfire too, since there’s no Mac-alternative for Xfire, and of course, since it’s an HTPC – the K-Lite Codec Pack. I know codec packs are generally a bit crap, but I’ve never had an issue with the K-Lite one, and it’s one single installer, so I’ve always used it.

So far, I’m pretty happy with it – it handles 1080p video no problem, and Windows 7 is very stable so far, so no problems there. I also ordered a Microsoft Media Centre Remote off eBay, so I can use my Harmony Remote with it (the remote itself includes an IR reciever, which is what I wanted). It’s not arrived yet though.

It seems that Microsoft have actually discontinued the remote, which is a great pity, because it’s a good remote overall (I had one with my last HTPC) and the only way to get an IR reciever otherwise is to order another brand remote, and all the ones I’ve found look pretty cheap – plus, only a few of them offer true Media Centre compatibility.

Anyway, the all important specs:

  • Shuttle XPC SG33G5B SFF PC
  • Intel Core 2 Duo E7300 @ 2.66GHz
  • OCZ 2GB PC2-6400 DDR2 RAM
  • Samsung SpinPoint F1 500GB HDD
  • Sony DRU-V200 DVD Burner
  • Akasa Internal Card Reader
  • Microsoft Media Centre Remote

I also had a rather clever idea – I could make my room even more minimalistic (and a bit quieter) if I put both the HTPC and the Sky+HD box into the roof – it’s cooler up there (better cooling), and they’ll be out of the way. Only, it’s not exactly easy to do this, since I would have to 1) get a power source up there, 2) get the Sky wiring into the roof somehow, and 3) route two HDMI cables down to my TV. If we owned this house, I can’t see that being a problem, since I could just drill holes all over the place, but we don’t own it, and I don’t want to make the landlord angry. I’m guessing they’ll already be slightly cross for the hole in my bedroom wall for the Sky+HD cabling, so I don’t want to make it worse. :P

HTPC

Published on 23 November, 2008. 3 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , .

I’ve been considering building an HTPC again (I used to have one for the TV downstairs, but I swapped it for a PS3 which I use a lot more often). The reason for this is because since I have a TV in my bedroom now, I want a way to play DVDs and downloaded TV shows on it. I am considering getting a BluRay player, but I think I would use the HTPC a lot more, and I can always use my PS3 downstairs for BluRay, or get a BluRay player at a later date for my room.

Anyway, I’ve poked around a few forums and so on, and I think this would form an ideal one – I can put it in the corner of my bedroom, it’s small yet powerful, has an HDMI output, and should be able to handle 1080p video playback perfectly, on Vista Home Premium (which I’d need another £75 for an OEM copy).

Shuttle XPC SG33G5B (£246.74)
Intel Pentium Dual-Core E5200 @ 2.50GHz (£68.14)
Samsung SpinPoint F1 250GB HDD (£37.59)
OCZ 2GB (2x1GB) Dual Channel DDR2 800MHz PC2-6400 RAM (£25.84)
Pioneer 20x DVD±RW SATA DVD Writer (£19.96)
Total cost: £408.83 (£399.84 if I pick the components up from OcUK)

I think this would make a very solid HTPC, as it’s both powerful and small, and, while it is a tad pricey, it shouldn’t need upgrading for at least another year, if not more. I could maybe bring the price down a bit if I used a cheaper HDD, less RAM, or a DVD-ROM drive, but the price difference would be about £20-30 total anyway so it’s not really worth it. Also, if I added a mid-range graphics card at a later date it could probably handle a few games, too, such as Half Life 2, and maybe Call of Duty 4 at a low resolution.

I did consider an Apple TV instead, but the lack of format support put me off it – most of my movies and TV shows are HD, but they’re mkv files, which, as of now, I don’t think any stand-alone device can play without modification, plus you can add software at any time to a PC to make it even better.

So, anyway, I’m hoping to maybe ask for that for Christmas. I think it would make a pretty good HTPC. Comments? :D