MooCow
Prominent Member
Thought I would log my build while we go.
The goal is to replace a few items of kit we have under the telly both by consolidation of items into one box and also will be upgrading to 1080p media playback from digital video files - something my ATV2 cannot do.
It will be replacing my EPIA download and server box in my office - runs MP3 jukebox, backups and file storage for my home network. Its a good enough machine but I don't see the need to have two PCs up all the time. I am either going to virtualise it's services into a VMWare machine on the new HTPC host or replicate them in Windows equivalents.
I can safety say, we have long been a "HTPC" house, long before the likes of HDTV (and with it easy pc connections!) we used to run video CDs from my works laptop all hooked up in super quality composite video
I had an attempt at building a dedicated media PC a while back, using Windows XP Media Centre edition and a Hauppage PVR card. Was clumsy but worked.
Anyway as I have knocked the Sky HD on the head as I can no longer justify it (the daughter watches Nickelodeon and we watch a bit of Atlantic or new Sky One shows, that's about it for paid for channels. Main loss would be the Plus functionality) , I had to come up with a wife friendly PVR solution, preferably something all in one compactish unit that wont be seen or heard.
Acer "Revo" style boxes were straight away discounted. The lack of expansion slots means I would be restricted in tuner choices, plus I am not that overwhelmed by the Atom chipsets when you get into doing any grunt work - including unzipping or encoding duties which may become required, and also lightweight gaming is out with them. Also adding more storage negates any power savings when you have to put a couple of TB on another powered drive externally.
First the components:
A mixture of new and second hand parts have been sourced, one to keep costs down a bit but also to allow me to get some better parts that I will keep hold of.
Case and Power:
Lian Li V350. £45
By design this became the sort of case I was after. No half height card malarkey, and because of the side mounting to the optical drives means I can fit in the cupboard of our media unit without any depth issues - a lot of standard HTPC cases are above my limit especially once you add a PSU lead or some such. Sourced a second hand one from classifieds
Corsair VX450 PSU £37
Bit of a score IMO. This is a very decent rebranded Seasonic PSU and there is nothing close in this sort of price range new. 120mm quiet fan and meshed rear. Should be quiet enough and also has 80+ efficiency rating which should help keep the power costs down on this always on box.
Storage and Optical:
2 X Samsung HD103SJ 1TB Drives.
I have been running a pair of these in my main PC and one in my low power EPIA downloader/home server for a while with no issues. They are quiet enough with proper isolated mounting of some kind and as I can extract them from the machines above it was a no brainer. Should provide ample storage for my media needs for the time being and enough PVR space too. From my other machines
Samsung SH-B123L - just happens to be what turned up on the classifieds. No idea if it (or any) Blu-ray drives provide much in the way of benefits over their counterparts.
CPU, Memory and Motherboard:
CPU £25 - Core 2 Duo E5400. Should be enough for my needs, I can always upgrade or swap it with my Q6600 in my main PC if it starts to struggle, but should be fine with the graphics card taking most the brunt of decoding.
Memory £30 - 8GB DDR3 - with this so cheap at the moment, it seemed rude not to. 30 quid buys me some decent Corsair RAM and as I am going to be running a few background services on this machine may as well buy now.
Motherboard £32 - Gigabyte GA-G41MT-S2P. Chosen for a couple of reasons. Firstly it has decent cool running caps on it so less heat, is passive on northbridge cooling and also it has two PCI x1 slots meaning I can always add another tuner card later.
Fans and CPU Cooling:
CPU cooler £bundled with Bluray £50 - Scythe Big Shuriken. A quiet CPU cooler is a must IMO when going for something that is likely to be on most it's life and this fits the bill. Nice big 120mm fan, low profile and from 10dbA noise too.
Fans £6 each - Antec TrueQuiet 120mm - bit of a punt these where, having never tried them before but am I glad I did! Have had them hooked up to my main PC upstairs and they are inaudible at low speed (come with a two way switch for high/low speed). Rubber isolation mounts and a keen price made them a winner.
Graphics:
Radeon 6450 £30 - passive and low profile capable if needed. Seemed to be another no-brainer after reading reviews. Cheap, passive, 1080p acceleration, fairly low power and deals with HD audio no problem too. I don't expect it to run a lot of gaming stuff but should be capable with some emulation tasks I have planned for future on this machine as well as 3D support should I go for a new TV in the coming months.
Sat S2 Tuner Card:
TBS 6981 - not actually bought this part yet but seems to be a perfect choice. We have no aerial plumbed in our house so will be using the old Sky dish which is currently feeding our Sky HD box.
Whole lot will be hooked into our 46" Panny plasma fed from a single HDMI via my Yamaha RXV371. Control will be a combination of my Harmony One for day to day usage, IR provided by my old Microsoft receiver which I am hoping will be fine, and there will be a wireless mouse and keyboard for internet usage and finally either Ipad or Iphone control using Hippo Remote.
This should produce me some cost savings though, at least that's how I have sold the few hundred upfront costs LOL. The parts it replaces, Sky HD box, ATV2, Panny blu-ray, EPIA server will all be sold off at some point in time so that should recoup some money. Additionally there will be no £60 a month Sky bill coming in which is replaced with a single £30 odd BT bill and the benefits of Infinity 40 meg broadband
The goal is to replace a few items of kit we have under the telly both by consolidation of items into one box and also will be upgrading to 1080p media playback from digital video files - something my ATV2 cannot do.
It will be replacing my EPIA download and server box in my office - runs MP3 jukebox, backups and file storage for my home network. Its a good enough machine but I don't see the need to have two PCs up all the time. I am either going to virtualise it's services into a VMWare machine on the new HTPC host or replicate them in Windows equivalents.
I can safety say, we have long been a "HTPC" house, long before the likes of HDTV (and with it easy pc connections!) we used to run video CDs from my works laptop all hooked up in super quality composite video
I had an attempt at building a dedicated media PC a while back, using Windows XP Media Centre edition and a Hauppage PVR card. Was clumsy but worked.
Anyway as I have knocked the Sky HD on the head as I can no longer justify it (the daughter watches Nickelodeon and we watch a bit of Atlantic or new Sky One shows, that's about it for paid for channels. Main loss would be the Plus functionality) , I had to come up with a wife friendly PVR solution, preferably something all in one compactish unit that wont be seen or heard.
Acer "Revo" style boxes were straight away discounted. The lack of expansion slots means I would be restricted in tuner choices, plus I am not that overwhelmed by the Atom chipsets when you get into doing any grunt work - including unzipping or encoding duties which may become required, and also lightweight gaming is out with them. Also adding more storage negates any power savings when you have to put a couple of TB on another powered drive externally.
First the components:
A mixture of new and second hand parts have been sourced, one to keep costs down a bit but also to allow me to get some better parts that I will keep hold of.
Case and Power:
Lian Li V350. £45
By design this became the sort of case I was after. No half height card malarkey, and because of the side mounting to the optical drives means I can fit in the cupboard of our media unit without any depth issues - a lot of standard HTPC cases are above my limit especially once you add a PSU lead or some such. Sourced a second hand one from classifieds
Corsair VX450 PSU £37
Bit of a score IMO. This is a very decent rebranded Seasonic PSU and there is nothing close in this sort of price range new. 120mm quiet fan and meshed rear. Should be quiet enough and also has 80+ efficiency rating which should help keep the power costs down on this always on box.
Storage and Optical:
2 X Samsung HD103SJ 1TB Drives.
I have been running a pair of these in my main PC and one in my low power EPIA downloader/home server for a while with no issues. They are quiet enough with proper isolated mounting of some kind and as I can extract them from the machines above it was a no brainer. Should provide ample storage for my media needs for the time being and enough PVR space too. From my other machines
Samsung SH-B123L - just happens to be what turned up on the classifieds. No idea if it (or any) Blu-ray drives provide much in the way of benefits over their counterparts.
CPU, Memory and Motherboard:
CPU £25 - Core 2 Duo E5400. Should be enough for my needs, I can always upgrade or swap it with my Q6600 in my main PC if it starts to struggle, but should be fine with the graphics card taking most the brunt of decoding.
Memory £30 - 8GB DDR3 - with this so cheap at the moment, it seemed rude not to. 30 quid buys me some decent Corsair RAM and as I am going to be running a few background services on this machine may as well buy now.
Motherboard £32 - Gigabyte GA-G41MT-S2P. Chosen for a couple of reasons. Firstly it has decent cool running caps on it so less heat, is passive on northbridge cooling and also it has two PCI x1 slots meaning I can always add another tuner card later.
Fans and CPU Cooling:
CPU cooler £bundled with Bluray £50 - Scythe Big Shuriken. A quiet CPU cooler is a must IMO when going for something that is likely to be on most it's life and this fits the bill. Nice big 120mm fan, low profile and from 10dbA noise too.
Fans £6 each - Antec TrueQuiet 120mm - bit of a punt these where, having never tried them before but am I glad I did! Have had them hooked up to my main PC upstairs and they are inaudible at low speed (come with a two way switch for high/low speed). Rubber isolation mounts and a keen price made them a winner.
Graphics:
Radeon 6450 £30 - passive and low profile capable if needed. Seemed to be another no-brainer after reading reviews. Cheap, passive, 1080p acceleration, fairly low power and deals with HD audio no problem too. I don't expect it to run a lot of gaming stuff but should be capable with some emulation tasks I have planned for future on this machine as well as 3D support should I go for a new TV in the coming months.
Sat S2 Tuner Card:
TBS 6981 - not actually bought this part yet but seems to be a perfect choice. We have no aerial plumbed in our house so will be using the old Sky dish which is currently feeding our Sky HD box.
Whole lot will be hooked into our 46" Panny plasma fed from a single HDMI via my Yamaha RXV371. Control will be a combination of my Harmony One for day to day usage, IR provided by my old Microsoft receiver which I am hoping will be fine, and there will be a wireless mouse and keyboard for internet usage and finally either Ipad or Iphone control using Hippo Remote.
This should produce me some cost savings though, at least that's how I have sold the few hundred upfront costs LOL. The parts it replaces, Sky HD box, ATV2, Panny blu-ray, EPIA server will all be sold off at some point in time so that should recoup some money. Additionally there will be no £60 a month Sky bill coming in which is replaced with a single £30 odd BT bill and the benefits of Infinity 40 meg broadband