Build my HTPC!

[Scull]

So I'm putting together a HTPC/media server and I want suggestions.

I have no parts for it except for the monitor and OS (Vista 64), so everything else is up for suggestion and debate.

The requirements:
1) Quiet. This will sit in the living room and I'd like it to run quietly.
2) DVD, Blu-Ray and HD-DVD playback
3) HDMI out for audio/video
4) Massive storage. I sit on just over 3 terabytes of media right now and would really like to centralize all of it, and maybe even setup RAID mirroring so I won't lose anything to bad hard drives.

I'd like to stay as close to $1000 as possible.

Go team COG! Suggest away!

[Tron]

Toms Hardware just posted a $1250 system.

Used a Quad Core (not i7)
4870 X2
2 gigs of ram

Looked pretty solid.

[biosc1]

http://www.colonyofgamers.com/cogforums/showthread.php?t=4393

There you go. Feel free to ask away. I am still tweaking the software, but so far I have Blu-Ray and HD-DVD support, AVI support, etc..

I went for low power/quiet.

The E7400 chip I put in works fantastically.
2GB of the cheapest RAM I could find.
Gigabyte GA-EG45M-DS2H mATX board with built in Intel X4500HD with HDMI out can easily handle Blu-Rays.

Storage, I went with a 1TB WD Green drive.

The NMedia 1000B case I ended up with, can support up to 4 drives, so throw a few 1TB's or 1.5TB's in there.

For a remote, I picked up a nice remote for about $30 that came with an IR receiver and blaster. I'll be picking up an IR keyboard soon. My reasoning for going IR instead of RF was that I want to use my Logitech Harmony remote with the device.

Now, I'm just fiddling with the software.

I'm using Arcsoft's TotalTheatre package, though others may suggest PowerDVD, for playing my HD discs. Newest version (.129) of TotalTheatre seems to fix a lot of the issues people were having.

Using Sharkey's Codec pack for the codecs for Vista Ultimate.

Using a RoboCopy script to pull the media from my main desktops to this one. My HTPC only has one function. I don't want it ripping movies, etc...that I can handle on my main desktop, but it still needs to pull those new movies down by one-way syncing of the media directories....so I can delete on my mains, but not have it deleted on my HTPC.

I just summed it up the other day. Total cost was around $900 Cdn.

Here's a stupid website I made for a course I am being forced to take on web development:

http://students.signalflare.ca/bblumel/Assignment1/htpc_home.html

I threw that together in about a day, so don't judge me :p

[Wraith]

You want to have 3TB+ of storage (or 6TB+ if mirrored) in a quiet HTPC?

You could get 2 x 1.5TB drives for $260 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148337), though that's only about 2.7TB usable.

SPCR review of Seagate's 1.5TB HDD (http://www.silentpcreview.com/article909-page1.html)

[TrackZero]

Toms Hardware just posted a $1250 system.

Used a Quad Core (not i7)
4870 X2
2 gigs of ram

Looked pretty solid.

Any reason you'd need two video cards for this?

[Wraith]

Any reason you'd need two video cards for this?I think that's a "4870 X2", which is a single card, not two 4870s.

Though for an HTPC, that's going to be overkill (and likely not going to be quiet enough).

[GigaFuzz]

Any reason you'd need two video cards for this?

The 4870 X2 is just one card, but with two GPUs. That said, why the hell does he need top-spec graphics card for a media centre?

[biosc1]

The 4870 X2 is just one card, but with two GPUs. That said, why the hell does he need top-spec graphics card for a media centre?

Could be going with assumption of wanting to play games on the main tv? Like Burnout Paradise, etc on the PC?

[GigaFuzz]

Could be going with assumption of wanting to play games on the main tv? Like Burnout Paradise, etc on the PC?

The OP made no mention of games at all. With a media centre, I'd imagine you're better off going with a cool, quiet card. That and the X2 is huge. It'd probably limit your choice of case somewhat.

[biosc1]

The OP made no mention of games at all. With a media centre, I'd imagine you're better off going with a cool, quiet card. That and the X2 is huge. It'd probably limit your choice of case somewhat.

Oh, absolutely. I was just trying to find reason behind why Tom's Hardware made such a system, without actually trying to dig around to find the article. It's definitely overkill and I may say heat inducing and noisy.

Currently, I'm running a passively cooled onboard Intel X4500HD that is fine, but I may be upping that to ATI 4830 passively cooled chip to take some load away from the CPU and allow the occasional bout of Left4Dead :)

[GigaFuzz]

Oh, absolutely. I was just trying to find reason behind why Tom's Hardware made such a system, without actually trying to dig around to find the article. It's definitely overkill and I may say heat inducing and noisy.

Currently, I'm running a passively cooled onboard Intel X4500HD that is fine, but I may be upping that to ATI 4830 passively cooled chip to take some load away from the CPU and allow the occasional bout of Left4Dead :)

The Tom's Hardware article had nothing to do with HTPCs, it seems. They were just doing a '$1250 Mid-Range PC'. Thing. Overkill for a media centre.

[biosc1]

Yah, I found the article...anything but an HTPC...plus an ugly case ;) (IMHO)

[Tron]

Any reason you'd need two video cards for this?

Thats the model. It's only one video card.

[Tron]

The 4870 X2 is just one card, but with two GPUs. That said, why the hell does he need top-spec graphics card for a media centre?

Some people like to game on PCs :p

[Scull]

I had considered attempting to game with the HTPC, but in reality I don't get to use the consoles I have hooked up to the TV very often, so the chances of actually using the PC for gaming is slim to none. Ideally, on board video will be all I need, and possibly go with the nVidia Hybrid SLI solution if I decide to game on the HTPC.

As for the 6+ TB of hard drive space, I know I'm dreaming when I ask for quiet. It may not work out to have that much storage sitting in the entertainment center, but by God I'm going to try anyway :) Eventually I'll probably have a closet server somewhere, but for now, this is the experement I'm going with.

I may eventually use this as the DVR as well, especially once DirecTV gets off their asses and releases the PC reciever they promised two years ago.

[biosc1]

As for the 6+ TB of hard drive space, I know I'm dreaming when I ask for quiet. It may not work out to have that much storage sitting in the entertainment center, but by God I'm going to try anyway :) Eventually I'll probably have a closet server somewhere, but for now, this is the experement I'm going with.


Shouldn't necessarily be too loud. Especially considering that, at most, you'll have 2 drives spinning at once, if you split it among 4 1.5TB drives. Otherwise, you may look into a NAS device to store the majority of your content on the network. You can even take it s step further and create a script that moves files that were "just watched" to the NAS, and pull files that have never been watched or have been watched a certain amount of times from the NAS...so that your favourites and unwatched media is kept on the HTPC itself and other shows you can pull on demand from the NAS that you could situate somewhere else in a closet or something.

[Stmfuller]

The 4870 X2 is just one card, but with two GPUs. That said, why the hell does he need top-spec graphics card for a media centre?

yeah, I agree a 4870 x2 card is probably too much. Although having a little extra power in the GPU dept couldn't hurt. I ended up with a 4850 by visiontek and it's really quiet.

Another thing to consider to dampen sound would be to go with a cpu fan that was of the 120mm variety, Other than it taking up gobs and gobs of real estate on the motherboard, it's very quiet too. Almost completely unnoticeable for my living room setup. I mean, everything is off in the living room right now and I can hear it...but it's no louder than the sound your fridge makes.

As for the Hard drive issue...yeah, having 3-4 hdds in your computer could add to the sound problem a lot. At that point, you might want to consider a NAS with like a direct esata connection or something that you can put in a cabinet to help dampen the sound. But, if you're going RAID and want to keep it all in one box. May I suggest 4-5 of the 1.5 tb drives mentioned earlier in a RAID 5 connection? It's a little slower overall, but you'll be all set in case of hdd failure. Of course if you want to do that, you're either going to need a server quality mobo or a RAID 5 controller card. Neither are especially inexpensive.

[Wraith]

And 4 x 1.5TB drives has already eaten up over half that $1000 budget.

[TrackZero]

As for the 6+ TB of hard drive space, I know I'm dreaming when I ask for quiet. It may not work out to have that much storage sitting in the entertainment center, but by God I'm going to try anyway :) Eventually I'll probably have a closet server somewhere, but for now, this is the experement I'm going with.


No reason you can't have a NAS elsewhere on your network and put all the storage there.

[TrackZero]

And 4 x 1.5TB drives has already eaten up over half that $1000 budget.

Don't hate the man, he's trying to live a dream! ;)

[Wraith]

Don't hate the man, he's trying to live a dream! ;)Well, he could still do it, he just might have to up his overall budget a bit. (I don't think anyone here would recommend skimping too much on the power supply or motherboard.)

[Ancalagon]

No reason you can't have a NAS elsewhere on your network and put all the storage there.

Yeah, thats what I'd recommend. have a look at this (http://arstechnica.com/open-source/reviews/2009/02/hands-on-neuros-link-an-ubuntu-based-media-extender.ars), could be interesting to you. Not a Windows Media Device, and needs some configuration, but could be handy.

Also, for a graphics card, I'd recommend a 4650 or 4670. Both should have ample power for gaming. I mean, yeah you'll have to turn details down a lot, but they both dont consume much power, and can be run passively. Plus they will rock at assisting with video decoding, and I think they can output sound via HDMI too.

You could start with a mobo with integrated graphics and add the GPU, and if you get a Hybrid CrossFire mobo, you can use both GPUs for additional power savings and possibly a performance boost.

[Scull]

I have considered throwing together a FreeNAS box and pushing all my data from there, and it is still a very real possibility, but the goal for this experiment is to see if I can reduce the number of devices in the equation. Right now I have the 360 and PS3 acting as media extenders and 4 other computers on the network where various media is stored. I want to remove the 360 and PS3 from the living room and still be able to get to all the media, and I don't want to have 4 other devices that need to be on to access everything. It is almost impossible to get the wife to use the 360 or PS3 as a media device, and it just gets more difficult if she needs to turn on another device and connect it to the network.

My ultimate goal here is to have a TV, HTPC and reciever and nothing else that she needs to muck about with. Eventually I'd like to get rid of all my physical media from the living space, and when that time rolls around I'll certainly need a new storage solution, but for now, what I have should be doable without too much compromise.

This is what I've thrown together:
http://c1.neweggimages.com/ProductImageCompressAll/22-148-337-03.jpg x4
Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 ST31500341AS 1.5TB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive (bare drive) - OEM (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148337)
http://c1.neweggimages.com/ProductImageCompressAll/17-256-045-13.jpg
SILVERSTONE ST70F 700W ATX12V / EPS12V SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS Certified Modular Active PFC Power Supply - Retail (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817256045)
http://c1.neweggimages.com/ProductImageCompressAll/20-148-163-06.jpg
Crucial 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model CT2KIT12864AA800 - Retail (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148163)
http://images17.newegg.com/is/image/newegg/13-128-363-TS?$S60$
GIGABYTE GA-E7AUM-DS2H LGA 775 NVIDIA GeForce 9400 HDMI Micro ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128363)
http://c1.neweggimages.com/ProductImageCompressAll/19-115-206-02.jpg
Intel Core 2 Duo E7400 Wolfdale 2.8GHz LGA 775 65W Dual-Core Processor Model BX80571E7400 - Retail (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115206)
http://c1.neweggimages.com/ProductImageCompressAll/27-136-154-02.jpg
LG Black LG Blu-ray/HD DVD-ROM & 16X DVD±R DVD Burner SATA Model GGC-H20LK - OEM (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827136154)
http://c1.neweggimages.com/ProductImageCompressAll/11-204-030-03.jpg
nMEDIAPC Black Aluminum panel & Steel HTPC 1000B Micro ATX Media Center / HTPC Case - Retail (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811204030)

Subtotal:$1,127.90

Only a bit more than I wanted to spend, but also lacking a discreet video card. I'm going to see how well it performs with on board video before I add anything else to it.

Edit: I may want to add 2 GB of RAM as I will be using Vista, and I neglected to add the IR reciever and remote, so add another ~$60, and it should be more than sufficient for my needs right?

[axion]

May as well grab more RAM, as it's probably going to only cost another couple bucks.

[biosc1]

I got the NMedia LCD front panel module the other day. It's a bit of a pain to install, but it looks nice. Though, I think you can definitely live without it as I don't think it's worth the price, especially since a lot of the programs have on screen controls these days.

[Jackel]

Look for a better price on those Seagate drives. I've seen dell put them on sale twice in the last 2 weeks. Once for 106 (free shipping) and yesterday for 86 (no free shipping).

[Tron]

why do you need 4x1.5TB drives?

That's a shitload of kiddie porn.

[Stmfuller]

that setup looks pretty good...although you look to be over budget :)

[biosc1]

Do you need such a beast of a PSU? Wouldn't 700W be overkill? You can easily save $30 by going down to the non-modular 500W version of the same brand?

Or save even more ($59 after $20 MiR) on a Corsair 450W (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817256045)

[Scull]

Do you need such a beast of a PSU? Wouldn't 700W be overkill? You can easily save $30 by going down to the non-modular 500W version of the same brand?

Or save even more ($59 after $20 MiR) on a Corsair 450W (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817256045)
No I probably don't need that much of a PSU, but I do want a modular one for improved airflow as I'll be setting the fans down as slow as they'll go. I could step down a bit to a 430W supply for $75. Actually now that you mention it, I'm not 100% sure that my case of choice will fit a full size ATX PSU. I may need to go with a smaller mATX.

Edit: Nope, I'm good with a full size PSU.

why do you need 4x1.5TB drives?

That's a shitload of kiddie porn.
I need 4x1.5 TB drives because the 2 TB drives are too expensive still :)

[biosc1]

Having that case right next to me, there is plenty of room under the drive cages to tuck away the wires of a non-modular PSU. The air fan takes are in from the sides, not from the bottom front where you'll be tucking the wires away. So, going with that case and a non-modular PSU is still an option.