Building First HTPC Machine - Recommendations?

Glenagoolie

Hi,
While I've an old PC converted to run WMC and Xbox Extender I'm now looking
to build a HTPC that will look good under the tv.

I've an existing Pinnacle 7010ix card hooked up to FreeSat and Irish DTT which
I'm looking to reuse.
Also looking to install a SSD drive on the new machine for quick startup and also make it quiet.

If people have any recommendations on a case(which will take the tuner card), processor, ram etc a newbie would appreciate the help.
Can people recommend good website for these parts that delivery to Ireland?

Appreciated
Ronan

Bob_Harris

HD5450 GPU

45W CPU, low power consumption, low heat output and the possibility of passive cooling. If not passive cooling then a 120mm fan moving very slowly (and quietly) over the heat-sink will keep it cooled.

You might get away with an AM3 Sempron 140 if you just want it do be a HTPC and let the graphics card do the donkey work with hardware accelerated video decoding.

An alternative to a SSD would be a 2.5in HDD in a silencing caddy. I have a 500gb Samsung (Samsung = very quiet hard drives) in a 3.5in silencing caddy, which fits into a DVD/CD drive bay. Works very well.

The most difficult part will be to get it as quiet as possible. Get all the parts from hardwareversand.de along with a good few Xilence 120mm fans. Volt mod them down to 5v or 7v (or plug them into the motherboard and use speedfan to run them at 50%) and they run silent, while still moving air.

Glenagoolie

Thanks Bob, that's great info, thanks for the tip on the harddrive.
hardwareversand.de don't take PayPal or CC so if anyone has any other
suggested retailers I'd appreciate it.

BigEejit

If you want something a bit beefier:

Asus 5570 silent:
http://uk.asus.com/product.aspx?P_ID=NgyhGji4qX6FpFiO&templete=2

Athlon IIX4 610e(AD610EHDK42GM),2.4GHz,512KB,rev.C3,45W,SocketAM3

Asus M4A78-AM socket AM3 mobo with DDR2 support:
http://uk.asus.com/product.aspx?P_ID=o4PDbHmAktEj6ez2&templete=2
Your Pinnacle 7010ix should fit in behind the graphics card and just add in some DDR2 800 ram .... I think this is the mobo I have, they have several M4A78 models, it has built in graphics but I went for this model because it has raid built into the mobo.

I have this setup (minus the pinnacle card) and it flies with Win 7. I have a scythe shuriken cpu cooler that runs nice and quiet. And a ssd for the boot drive and 2 x 1tb seagates suspended on bungee cord (mirrored) that contain my data.

It all fits into a Antec Fusion Remote Veris Black MATX Media Center Case:
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/148791
(this is the case with a VFD, to be honest if was going for one again I would go for the one without the VFD). I have a LG blu ray that works fine and the eject button lines up fine with the case eject button... I also have a noctua 120mm fan held in with those rubber doohickeys instead of the Antec fan.

PSU = Fanless FSP Zen 400W
http://www.hardwareheaven.com/reviews/701/pg1/fsp-zen-400w-fanless-psu-introduction.html



This all runs damn near silent but after playing games for a while, the graphics card was pretty hot. I put in a very small undervolted quiet fan blowing on it, Scythe Mini-Kaze Ultra - 40:
http://www.kustompcs.co.uk/acatalog/info_2548.html
This is undervolted with a zalman fanmate. I also put one of them blowing on the hard disks just because it would extend their life (colder = better for disks, not too cold of course ) Note that I used one of those double sided sticky foam pads to hold it in place but decouple it from the board/chassis to keep hum down.

Glenagoolie

Thanks BigEejit. Great stuff, especially the links.

Some homework for the weekend!

Glenagoolie

Thanks for the recommendations.

This is the list so far.

Case - Antec Fusion
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/148791
Ideally would like something that isn't so deep(41cm).

Motherboard - ASUS M4A78L-M
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/181965

Processor - AMD Athlon II X2
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/177051

RAM
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/178942

HardDrive - SamSung 5400 - Not sure if too slow for HTPC?
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/164274

Graphics Card - HIS HD 5450 512MB
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/199176

PowerSupply -
How do you work out the power supply for a box like this?


Tuner Card - My Existing Pinnacle 7010ix Card
http://www.bigpockets.co.uk/product.php?product=pinnacl001

Concerned if the card will fit into a 14cm high case.


I think that all fits together (?!) . Any thoughts or suggestions are very welcome

R

Bob_Harris

For a HTPC that will have live TV (interlaced source) I would definitely upgrade the HD4350 to a silent HD5450. Much better de-interlacing, de-noising, edge sharpening, dynamic contrast, etc. Also it has very low power consumption.

As for the power supply, you won't need a very high wattage one. My HTPC runs at about 70 watts, with 12 of those watts going to a USB wlan adapter.

The case you get will determine the power supply anyway, some M-ATX cases need M-ATX power supplies which are hard to find. Other M-ATX cases can hold a standard ATX power supply which there are plenty of.

slave1

hardwareversand.de don't take PayPal

Yes they do, ordered off them first week in August via PayPal (3% charge)

Glenagoolie

Hi,
Thought I'd update with the machine built at hardwareversand.de (They do they Paypal as slave1 pointed out).

Using the machine configuration option on the website I built the following.
Box - Antec Fusion-R Media Center
Power - Pure Power 350 watt
RAM - 2 x 2GB Corsair ValueSelect.
Motherboard - Gigabyte GA - 880GM-UD2H
Processor - AMD Athlon II X2 250
HardDrive - EcoGreen F2 500GB SATA II

I paid the €20 for them to build the box and they did it overnight and posted the next day.
Inc Postage etc came to €488 (damn just noticed the vat added €78!)

Thanks for everyone's input. Installed the Pinnacle 7010ix and working well.
Installed WMC7 and Media Browser.
Just need to get it hooked up to sound system

I didn't get a separate video card, the inbuilt video (HDMI) working fine so far.

Ronan