New Media pc build sugesstion

AnthonyMillard

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New media pc build.

Hi all, and hopefully this post will be of some interest to you, I am about to build a new media pc and would
like to write up what I am thinking to see if I am completely barking mad, on the right track or if it simply
won’t work.

A bit of background first.

I currently us the Dell XPS M170 laptop as my media centre, this is good at delivering everything, however it
will not do either Blu-Ray or HD-DVD unless it’s been re-ripped. As I have several HD-DVD disks and the XBox360
has died (again) I am hoping to at least be able to play these. The laptop is also limited in that I am unable
to upgrade most of it if anything comes along in the future. The laptop is also destined to be a new media
streamer in another room as its current streamer broke recently

This is all connected to an iScan VP50 Pro, an Onkyo 875 amp and the Panasonic TH-42PHD8.
A 32gig iPod Touch will be used with the Onkyo to provide music capabilities without the plasma/media pc being
turned on.
The speakers are old, and only 5.1 of them, these will be upgraded to the Mirage Omnisat V2FS when the new
media pc has been paid off ;)

The new media centre, although its primary purpose will be for media it will also need to play half decent
games and be able to do large processing jobs on the VPC's I use for work.

So enough rambling, here is the current setup ideas.

HTML:
Part            Model                                                   Supplier                Price
Case            Zalman HD160XT+ Home Theatre PC - Black                 Quiet PC                399.99
Motherboard     Asus Striker II Formula nForce 780i 775) PCI-Ex DDR2    Aria                    192.64
Graphics        2 X Sparkle GeForce 9600 GT 512 passive cooled          Overclockers            123.36 (X2)
Processor       Intel Core 2 Quad Q9450 LGA775 'Yorkfield' 2.66GHz      Aria                    211.44
Heatsink        Zalman CNPS9500-AT CPU Cooler                           Overclockers            29.99
Hard Drives     (OS) 500Gb Western Digital SATA - 16MB - 7200RPM        Aria                    95.94
                (Media) 750Gb Western Digital Caviar SATA-16MB-7200rpm  Aria                    59.87
Memory          2 XCorsair 4GB DDR2 XMS2 Dominator PC2-8500C5 TwinX (2x2GB) Supplied with Airflow Fan
                                                                        Overclockers            116.61 (X2)
PSU             Nesteq Semi-Fanless ASM PSUs 620W                       quiet pc                115.00
Optical         LG GGW-H20L B/Ray Rewriter                              Overclockers            180.94
Sound           Auzentech X-Fi Prelude 7.1 Sound Card                   Overclockers            124.5
                HDMI TrueHD daughter board when available                                       50ish

Other stuff     Arctic silver 5 thermal compound                        Overclockers            7.04
                Replacement quiet fans for case fans (Scythe's)         (If needed)
                Hard drive dampers                                      (If needed)
                AcousticPack deluxe v2 acoustic material kit            Overclockers            24.99

                                                                        Total                   1,922
                                                                        Circa 2K when delivery added on


Some notes below and the parts, sorry for the long post and hopefully someone if still interested in reading it,
do you think this will provide what I need being a future proof media pc which can fly HD and decent games which
is no louder than the current dell laptop.
Any help or suggestions will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance
Tony




Notes on parts.
Case,
This case is cheaper at places like overclockers, however, only quiet pc seams to have it in stock, I did find
it £60 cheaper at www.dcsplc.co.uk but never had any dealings with these and it does seem too cheap, if you
know what I mean. anyone who has had any experience with these suppliers I would be greatly appreciated. The
case is a bit OTT I know, and the built in screen a wow factor more than anything else, I do like using Media
Portal as the media software and hoping to use their second monitor logic to run the menu on the small screen
when the plasma is busy. It will also allow (hopefully) access to playing music which is not yet on the touch.

Gfx,
Also looking at the "Asus GeForce 8600 GTS Silent Fanless HTDP 256MB GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI (PCI-Express)", which
looks to be more powerful a processor and again passive cooled, however, I think the 512mb will make up for
the 10% drop in processor power. Also with 2 of them SLI's together, and the motherboard allowing an
additional 1 I think this will fly both games and HD.

Sound,
Looking at the Auzentech range of cards as they have a daughter card coming out in July which if all things
said are true will allow full HD audit via HDMI to be passed to the amplifier, it does have the following
comment on their sight which I don’t fully understand and may sideline this card until the full details of the
HMDI add on are known
"The SPDIF Input port on the Auzen X-Fi Prelude 7.1 is not available with Auzen X-Tension HDMI1.3."

Hard drives,
I know 500gb is big for an OS but the price was just too silly to pass up, most of the media will be stored on
several terabits of NAS drives located in my home office.

Motherboard,
A bit of a beast I know, but powerful for the future and passively cooled.

Memory,
8gb I know is way OTT for the media pc, but as the motherboard can take it and its only a ton for 4gb its worth
just maxing the machine out now while I have the money. Also I will be able to run several work VPC's at once
if/when needed.

Power supply,
Not sure on this one, I wanted something quiet, but not sure if 620W will be big enough or if the noise is too
much.

Heat sink,
Again, not sure on this one, I am limited with the size of the case to have a really good heat sink such as the "Scythe Orochi Ten Heatpipe Fanless CPU

Cooler" or the "Scythe Ninja-CU Full Copper Heatsink with Quiet Fan".


I may need to have a good think if I need the screen built into the case as the touch will be providing offline music, a different case would give me the

height to have a really good heat sink, however, I am struggling finding a really nice looks media pc case.
 
I would have to say that spec of PC is way over for any current HD vieweing but if you have the money go ahead.

Have a look at the HTPC sticky from mickwall but some comments;

I would not use a touch screen case - too much of a gimmick for me from 10feet away. I moved away from a VFD case as you could not see the info whilst sitting on the sofa. If you want to be able to control your media centre without the screen try rudeo remote control software - capable of controlling MCE over wifi on a PDA/WM phone.

Samsung Spinpoint Hard disks are very popular because of their cost (500GB ~£60) and very quiet.

Mobo is very expensive Gigabyte DS3R range is very popular for DDR2/DDR3 and RAID option but only one PCI-E x16.

Graphics card is over the top for HD an ATI 2600 or 3450 passive would be upto the job. Not sure about gaming requirements.

Nesteq Semi-Fanless PSU have a good reputation but i would use a power calcuator to make sure it has enough grunt for SLI. Does it have 2 x external PCI-E graphics power adapters?

No mention of an OS but i assume it is Vista 64bit with over 4GB RAM?
 
Thanks for your comments,

I am missing my XBox360 and def not buying a third and until I can find a fix (not tried the XClamp fix yet) I am without a games system (got the PS3 but only using at as a bluray player at the moment)

So I want to be able to get a half decent gaming experiance from the media pc as well as handling the HD content.

The OS will be Vista Ultimate or possibly XP 64 (may dual boot over time if I have apps that wont work on vista and not a great lover of vista anyway)

Quietpc.co.uk is saying the WD drives are the quietest drives around at the moment but thanks for the import on the samsung, I will look into these and see how they compare.

I will also have a look at the motherboard and graphics card you suggested as well, I like the idea of the SLI though (PSU does support 2) and hopefully that will give me good gaming performance while remaining quiet.

I got the harmony 895 remote which I still havent setup correctly, I think I will ditch the case for a more compatable case (height) if I can find a good looking one, the silverstone 20 (I think) was close but didn't like the finish on the front - more looking around I think.

Again thanks for your input.
 
New media pc build.
Notes on parts.
Case,
This case is cheaper at places like overclockers, however, only quiet pc seams to have it in stock, I did find
it £60 cheaper at www.dcsplc.co.uk but never had any dealings with these and it does seem too cheap, if you
know what I mean. anyone who has had any experience with these suppliers I would be greatly appreciated. The
case is a bit OTT I know, and the built in screen a wow factor more than anything else, I do like using Media
Portal as the media software and hoping to use their second monitor logic to run the menu on the small screen
when the plasma is busy. It will also allow (hopefully) access to playing music which is not yet on the touch..

Could the cheaper Zalman case be the old model XT?


Hard drives,
I know 500gb is big for an OS but the price was just too silly to pass up, most of the media will be stored on
several terabits of NAS drives located in my home office.

I think the Western Digital quiet drives are the new "Green Power" series. Have a look at SilentPCreview.com for info. I think you might find the GP to be a bit slow for an OS drive- given the rest of your spec.

Heat sink,
Again, not sure on this one, I am limited with the size of the case to have a really good heat sink such as the "Scythe Orochi Ten Heatpipe Fanless CPU

Cooler" or the "Scythe Ninja-CU Full Copper Heatsink with Quiet Fan".

The Scythe Ninja Mini seems to be a popular choice where the CPU has restricted "headroom". It may be worth leaving the stock Intel cooler on until you know that the CPU fan is actually going to be a problem - it isn't loud so it may not be (obviously depending how much heat your CPU will be creating).


I may need to have a good think if I need the screen built into the case as the touch will be providing offline music, a different case would give me the height to have a really good heat sink, however, I am struggling finding a really nice looks media pc case.

Me too, I've been looking for something minimalist, ATX and not too pricey for a while...
Given your spec (i.e. high end -> quite a bit of heat), I would suggest you also look at:
Omaura TF11 (can get an OLED) - assuming they ever arrive in the UK, black only
OrigenAE S16 - VFD or TFT - black or silver
OrigenAE X11 (VFD) or X15 (TFT), again black and silver.
the HFX Mini might be worth a look too.
 
Me too, I've been looking for something minimalist, ATX and not too pricey for a while...
Given your spec (i.e. high end -> quite a bit of heat), I would suggest you also look at:
Omaura TF11 (can get an OLED) - assuming they ever arrive in the UK, black only
OrigenAE S16 - VFD or TFT - black or silver
OrigenAE X11 (VFD) or X15 (TFT), again black and silver.
the HFX Mini might be worth a look too.

The OriginAE cases are lovely - but it seems as though only SpeicalTech deal in them, and they have only limited stock which is then whisked away by people pre-ordering months ago.

The H6 is the one I really liked, and in the last 3 months, they have had no stock - I visted the site every other day, and posted in their forums to no avail :(

The Omaura's are also spanktastically gorgous as well...:smashin:
 
The OriginAE cases are lovely - but it seems as though only SpeicalTech deal in them, and they have only limited stock which is then whisked away by people pre-ordering months ago.

The H6 is the one I really liked, and in the last 3 months, they have had no stock - I visted the site every other day, and posted in their forums to no avail :(

The Omaura's are also spanktastically gorgous as well...:smashin:

Some OrigenAE cases (S-Series) seem to be order-able through KustomPCs. Not seen any other outlets, and no idea what the lead times would be.

Have you considered the Zalman HD135? It shares the central optical disk drive placement to the H6, although I've read the airflow is poor, but that may be something that can be fixed by putting some decent fans inside it. As I mentioned in another thread, I'm tempted by the Chieftec HE-01 or HE-02
 
Well you have sold me on the OrigenAE series, such a beautifully designed case, and with the option of a 175mm in height it means I can get a full sized heat sink if needed as that was one of my concerns with the Zalman case.

I take on board the "see what the stock cooler is like" first and pick up a "Scythe Ninja" or a "Orochi Ten Heatpipe Fanless" if needed after I have tried the original fan.

Thanks also for the details on the WD drives, looks like the spinpoints are the way to go, I will look into these later tonight.

Lots more investigating tonight, but all good as I am on the right track (I think), its def going to be one of the OrigenAE cases, just need to decide if I will benefit from the full screen display or if a normal lcd display would be better.

After giving it a bit of throught I am coming to the conclusion that the full HD screen would be intrusive in the living room as it will be in full view and just under the plasma where the LCD display will not divert the eyes so much.
Will have a look at the bochure later. If the full screen has the ability to be off most of the time though and only in use when needed then I can see lots of uses with this as it will allow me to control what my download pc (seperate unit in office) is doing without exiting media portal if I am able to push a second monitor display through this screen and not a clone from the plasma.

With any luck I will be able to update the list of components tomorrow and see what stock is available.

The CPU is not available until next week (10th) anyway so I got some time on my hands

Thanks again for all your help sorting this system.

Regards
Tony
 

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