Not as bad as it sounds mind you, all the hardware came together perfectly, everything installed just fine and it's probably been the easiest build I've ever done! It's not without a few little niggles though...
1. I went for a 500GB Samsung Spinpoint hard drive as I'd read everywhere that they are deliciously quiet. Not so much with mine! I find it makes a racket when it's being accessed. Have I installed it right? I've built an HTPC using an Antec NSK2400 case, it has rubber grommets on the hard drive screws...could I have tightened those too tight or something? The rest of the PC is brilliantly silent, can hardly tell it's on. Can most definately hear the hard drive grinding away though.
2. Device Manager shows one outstanding item that needs a driver: "SM Bus Controller". What is it and where might I find the drivers for it? I've checked windows update but it finds nothing for tha.
3. Not getting any HDMI sound. I'm not sure if I should be mind you? I've got a Gigabyte Radeon HD 2600Pro connected via a DVI --> HDMI cable to a Samsung 32" HD LCD. I get the image, but I don't seem to get any sound. The Sound option in Control Panel shows "Digital Output Device (HDMI), 2- High Definition Audio Device, Working". It's certainly not working though. I do have 5.1 speakers connected too and they work fine (although a little crackly?), but it'd be nice to use the TV speakers when need be.
4. Windows Media Centre. This is my first media-based build so I'm new to this aspect but I've got a BlackGold Dual Tuner installed, that installed fine. When I load Media Centre, I go to the TV setup wizard thing and it starts off fine, asks for my post code, downloads program guide and such but then when it gets to the Scanning for Services stage, it finds nothing and I can't continue. To test, I took the aerial out of the PC and connected it to the TV and that does find all the digital channels. What am I doing wrong here?
5. Though the PC is very quiet (apart from hard drive), I want to make sure the fans are doing a good enough job of cooling. Is there a way I can monitor temperatures from within Windows as opposed to via Bios? If there was a Vista Sidebar Gadget that shows temperatures, that'd be even better!
I'm running Vista Home Premium 64bit and my complete spec can be found here.
Any help on the above niggles would be greatly appreciated!
1. I went for a 500GB Samsung Spinpoint hard drive as I'd read everywhere that they are deliciously quiet. Not so much with mine! I find it makes a racket when it's being accessed. Have I installed it right? I've built an HTPC using an Antec NSK2400 case, it has rubber grommets on the hard drive screws...could I have tightened those too tight or something? The rest of the PC is brilliantly silent, can hardly tell it's on. Can most definately hear the hard drive grinding away though.
2. Device Manager shows one outstanding item that needs a driver: "SM Bus Controller". What is it and where might I find the drivers for it? I've checked windows update but it finds nothing for tha.
3. Not getting any HDMI sound. I'm not sure if I should be mind you? I've got a Gigabyte Radeon HD 2600Pro connected via a DVI --> HDMI cable to a Samsung 32" HD LCD. I get the image, but I don't seem to get any sound. The Sound option in Control Panel shows "Digital Output Device (HDMI), 2- High Definition Audio Device, Working". It's certainly not working though. I do have 5.1 speakers connected too and they work fine (although a little crackly?), but it'd be nice to use the TV speakers when need be.
4. Windows Media Centre. This is my first media-based build so I'm new to this aspect but I've got a BlackGold Dual Tuner installed, that installed fine. When I load Media Centre, I go to the TV setup wizard thing and it starts off fine, asks for my post code, downloads program guide and such but then when it gets to the Scanning for Services stage, it finds nothing and I can't continue. To test, I took the aerial out of the PC and connected it to the TV and that does find all the digital channels. What am I doing wrong here?
5. Though the PC is very quiet (apart from hard drive), I want to make sure the fans are doing a good enough job of cooling. Is there a way I can monitor temperatures from within Windows as opposed to via Bios? If there was a Vista Sidebar Gadget that shows temperatures, that'd be even better!
I'm running Vista Home Premium 64bit and my complete spec can be found here.
Any help on the above niggles would be greatly appreciated!