New Build,Main Rig and HTPC

Inquitus

Updating my main rig and turning it's guts into a HTPC.

OK I have a 7800GTX, X2 4400+,Zalman CNPS7700-CU Heatsink, 2GB G.Skill LE, XFI Fatility, DFI Lanparty UT Sli Expert. Thats all going into the HTPC.

New Rig is being formed as follows

Thermalright HR-03 Rev.A VGA Cooler (£35.08) - To Cool the 7800GTX Quietly in the HTPC
2 x Scythe S-FLEX 800RPM Ultra Quiet 120mm Fan - 3/4 pin (£21.76) Case Fans HTPC
2 x Scythe S-FLEX 1600RPM Ultra Quiet 120mm Fan - 3/4 Pin (£26.60) Heat Sink Fans Main Rig
2 x Scythe S-FLEX 1200RPM Ultra Quiet 120mm Fan - 3/4 pin (£26.60) Case Fans Main Rig
Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Compound (3.5g) (£7.25)
OCZ 4GB (2 x 2GB) PC2-6400C5 Dual Channel Vista Gold Series DDR2 (OCZ2G8004GK) (£193.59) - Ram Main Rig
OcUK GeForce 8800 GTX 768MB GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - OEM (£326.69) - GPU Main Rig
EVGA nForce 680i SLi (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard (122-CK-NF68-A1) (£175.44) - Mobo Main Rig
2 x Hitachi Deskstar T7K500 NCQ 500GB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (£133.08) - Raid 0 Main Rig
AcoustiFan DustProof Quiet 92mm Fan - 3 pin (£18.14) - GPU Cooler Fan HTPC
Seasonic M12 Modular 700W Silent ATX2.0 Power Supply (£133.09) - PSU Main Rig
Thermalright Ultra-120 Extreme (Socket AM2/LGA775) Heatsink (£44.76) - CPU Heatsink Main Rig
Windows Vista Home Premium OEM (£80.73) - HTPC OS

Any thoughts appreciated, want a decent Rig, but not willing to go mental, did that a few years ago with an Extreme Prometiea and all the trimmings......

Getting an SLI Board to allow an extra card to go in at a later date. Have an E6600 I got off boards for a decent price.

Got an Stacker 830 I bought a year or 2 ago when it came out, and I never used it.

And obviously going to OC it as far as I get with it 24hr Prime Stable.

Tnx,

Inqui

I'll Slap together a build log like Liamo's for the laugh, plus it gives me a good chance to play round with my N95 and all it's blogging, photie goodness

RuggieBear

/me subscribes for builders blog

awhir

nice 1 man.

you gota beat the 3d mark score like ya did last time

Inquitus

OK First box of Gadget Goodness arrived today.

The HTPC Case, an OrigenAE (DIGN) X15e read about it here:

Manufacturer: http://www.origenae.com/en/htpc_x15e.htm

Review: http://www.overclock3d.net/reviews.php?type=3&id=74&page=5&desc=origenae_x15e_htpc_atx_case

And some Piccies (all captured on My N95 and Auto Uploaded to Flickr and my Blog (under construction ) great piece of kit I have to say, well impressed with it)









Inqui

Inquitus

Also note the Laptop of the Future my daughter just got the latest Alienware Lappy with a custom paint job

L31mr0d

lol your second picture makes the case look bigger than the TV.

awhir

L31mr0d wrote:

lol your second picture makes the case look bigger than the TV.

lol ya the camoflaged table

DirkVoodoo

NIce finish on that case, what's it like on the inside?

Does that doll between the laptop hinges do anything?

Inquitus

OK Boxes arrived time to start a buildin



For the main rig, mostly



Beware the enemy



The Stacker recovered from the loft

Inquitus

Disaster - Stacker and Mobo Studs have parted company during sojourn in the loft. None of the ones I have in my spares box fit.

Peats have a Sharkoon Screw Set for sale, no Guarantee the thread and the spacers will match tho, can try PC World tomorrow......otherwise am a bit screwed (pun not intended), suppose I'll have to get onto Coolermaster and wait an eternity.

Inqui

Anyone in the Swords / Northside area got some spare spacers I can nick? Can travel with Mobo Tray to try them out

awhir

Inquitus wrote:

Disaster - Stacker and Mobo Studs have parted company during sojourn in the loft. None of the ones I have in my spares box fit.

Peats have a Sharkoon Screw Set for sale, no Guarantee the thread and the spacers will match tho, can try PC World tomorrow......otherwise am a bit screwed (pun not intended), suppose I'll have to get onto Coolermaster and wait an eternity.

Inqui

Anyone in the Swords / Northside area got some spare spacers I can nick? Can travel with Mobo Tray to try them out

what you mean ? did it come with no spacers ?

Inquitus

awhir wrote:

what you mean ? did it come with no spacers ?

It came with spacers alright, but I bought it in 2005 when they came out 1st, and never used it, has been in the loft for nigh on 2 years. The spacers must have parted company with it at some stage, I remember the box they came in, but can't find it for the life of me.

I did find:

1 MSI NF2 Mobo with CPU, must be an Athlon XP2800 or so.
1 Double Rad
1 Single Rad
1 Reservior+Ehiem Pump
1 Geforce 2 MX
1 Thermaltake Shark Case
A selection of Pentium II / III and Mobo's
2 GB of 256 and 512 DDR Ram must of it PC4000 or better
1 ATI X300
2 Logitech Game Pads
1 Prismiq Media Player
2 15" TFT
1 Mimo Pre-N Router and PCI Card

and that was just in the boxes I opened

Need to have a fire sale on Boards I think

awhir

Inquitus wrote:

It came with spacers alright, but I bought it in 2005 when they came out 1st, and never used it, has been in the loft for nigh on 2 years. The spacers must have parted company with it at some stage, I remember the box they came in, but can't find it for the life of me.

I did find:

1 MSI NF2 Mobo with CPU, must be an Athlon XP2800 or so.
1 Double Rad
1 Single Rad
1 Reservior+Ehiem Pump
1 Geforce 2 MX
1 Thermaltake Shark Case
A selection of Pentium II / III and Mobo's
2 GB of 256 and 512 DDR Ram must of it PC4000 or better
1 ATI X300
2 Logitech Game Pads
1 Prismiq Media Player
2 15" TFT
1 Mimo Pre-N Router and PCI Card

and that was just in the boxes I opened

Need to have a fire sale on Boards I think

lol nice 1 .

they can pay for ur spacers

Inquitus

Ok Coolermaster are going to send me some new Spacers, nice of them, no questions asked.

But......the missus was getting pissed with all the boxes lying around to I pushed ahead using brass spacers with the wrong thread that went a few turns in and gave the right height for the backplate etc. Note to Case Manufacturers FFS all use the same bloody threads and sizes.

With the kids safely tucked up in bed, and down the mother-in-laws the next day, I spent 4-5 hours putting the rig together installing Vista and generally getting it up and running.

Missus was helping me get the case out of the loft and as I passed it down to her she slipped on the ladder landed on her back with the case falling on top of her...........good job she fell that way I reckon, case took minimal damage (all jokes aside she was fine)

Anyways heres the pics

1st up the Spacer issue, I was happy that I got 3 good turns on each of these and I don't think they are going anywhere, I may swap them for the Coolermaster ones once they arrive, the Thermalright Heatsink had a blemish on it's surface and could do with a lapping when I have time, so might kill both birds with one stone (temps are good tho)



Backplate seems to line up fine before I screw down the mobo



A good look at the Spacers



Not a great shot, but you can see that the finish Thermalright give these is a bit shoddy considering their prices.



Heatsink mounted



If these cards get any bigger PC's will start taking off



Slotted in, time to remove the handle............

[url=hthttp://www.flickr.com/photos/9925433@N04/858676637/][/url]

That's better



All in, nearly



Quickly rig it up to some spare bits lying around to install vista and copy all the latest drivers over from the old rig (soon to be HTPC)



The Old faithful sitting in the corner about to be replaced



Started on the HTPC Build last night, feckers didn't ship the IR Module with it, was missing on arrival, so gonna be delayed until that gets here. Also found the Thernalright HR-03 Rev A GPU Cooler I bought to silence my rather loud 7800GTX doesnt quite fit in the case when mounted, so had to pick up a Zalman VF 900-CU today instead.

Gonna get it up and running as is today anyways, I want to play with the Touch Screen TFT. The TV Tuner and MCE Remote are still in this post so it'll be the end of the week before it's complete. Also need to take some measurements now the Mobo and CPU are in to see whats the most effective and quiet cooling solution available.

Inqui

youcancallmeal

lol your hardly going to be using what looks like a crappy 17" monitor with your new rig? That would be a horrendous waste of an 8800!?

Also are you going to be installing a TV card in your HTPC, if so which one?

Inquitus

Getting a 24" or a 27" Dell Monitor to go with it, probably the 24" to fit in that space, just waiting for my expense claim for my trip to China to be processed so i have the cash on my card. My existing monitor also gets regularly "decorated" by my 3 yo daughter armed with a deadly array of crayons, felt tips and biro's.

Though tbh I am more interested in benchmarking and overclocking then gaming these days, having 2 kids limits the opportunity. Give it 6months and the 8800GTX wont even be able to push that monitor with all the eye candy turned up anyways.

Just putting a PVR-150 MCE in the HTPC, with the limitations of my digital Chorus service and TV Tuner cards, there's no point putting anything else in.

Inqui

Inquitus

Preliminary OC results:

Max OC 3.7GHZ very unstable

Max Benchmarking OC 3.6GHZ
Super Pi 1M: 14.875secs
VCore. 1.5V
Idle 46C Load 54C
GPU: 660/1100
3D Mark 06: 12310

Max Orthos 8hr Stable OC 3.4GHZ (only run to date)

The 3.7 GHZ Boot corrupted the registry and turned my valid vista install into a "This is not a valid copy of Vista" version, tho System restore sorted it out.

Seem to have got a very decent OC'ing 8800GTX it was just the OEM version from Overclockers.

getting a HR-05 to put on it which should give some additional headroom and enable me to push 13k in 3D Mark 06

I also have the guts of a decent WC kit in the loft - Double Rad, Single Rad, Pump and a CPU Block with a 775 kit.

Don't think it will fit in the Stacker 830 tho tbh, there was more room in the original Stacker. Wouldnt mind getting one of those Mountain mods cases, it would be nice to build a WC Rig which actually had plenty of space to play with, last 3 I have built have been a case of jamming everything in as best you can.

Inqui