HTPC Project

[nathan]

Yes, i know the name is boring, but so am i......

Anyways, here are the planned specs;

Silverstone LC14 with vfd and remote (have)

Abit AB9 (ordered)

Core 2 Duo 6300 (have)

Geil ddr2 2gb (have)

4 x 400GB HDDs (have)

FSP Epsilon 700w PSU (HAVE thanks to oc3d)

x1600pro (have)

Dvd Writer (have)

Nebula Freeview Tuner (have, will upgrade in the future to a dual tuner)

Silverstone LC14 with vfd and remote

Inside Case A

Inside Case B

C2D E6300 & 2x1GB Geil 800

4x 400GB HDD's, X1600 pro hdmi and Dvd Writer

X1600 Pro HDMI

Fitted HDD's and Optical Drive

Update!

After having sooooo many problems, finally more or less finished! Had a hard drive fail on me so im down to 3x 400GB instead. I'll post pics of the finished internals when i get round to opening it up again. That should be when i look at the cooling situation. Anyhoo!

As you may of seen in another thread, this is my new set up!

Really liking Windows Media Centre

This is the "My Movies" add on which allows you rip all of your dvds onto your hard drive, it grabs all the info for you.

I know frag will like this one!

Have another addon called "webguide", it allows you to schedual recordings or even watch them from over the internet. Here's me logging in from my phone!

I just set up supernatural to record whilst at the shops, really is a great bit of software!

I really happy this is finally up and running after a long list of problems. I'll post more pics on here when i put some quiter fans and hs in.

 

[ai_01]

lookin good, makes me wanna build a htpc myself

 

[underclocker]

like the sound of this, fancy building a HTPC myself although I may go down the Media Centre Extender route instead...

 

[nathan]

only thing i have left to decide is if i go mce xp or vista ultimate :S

leaning towards XP atm.

 

[Ham]

Nathan you need to add some IMG tags.

Other than that looking sharp!

 

[Doddsy]

2TB of storage, nice! You just using it as a htpc or more of a media centre?

 

[chudley]

Bloomin heck mate, how many films do you wanna fit onto 2TB worth of HD. :yumyum:

 

[woppy101]

i would get the 7900gs much better than the 7600gt

 

[Ham]

i would get the 7900gs much better than the 7600gt

Why would he need it in an HTPC?

 

[Rastalovich]

Indeed, many people just use their older cards they have lying around the place - as long as they have nice outputs, and inputs in some cases. Although some like to use a tv card if they`re going that way.

Nice 4x 500g, how u gonna arrange them ? What thoughts of Raid ?

 

[Alm]

looks great!

 

[nathan]

2GB of storage, nice! You just using it as a htpc or more of a media centre?

Is a home theater pc and media centre thing not the same thing?

Indeed, many people just use their older cards they have lying around the place - as long as they have nice outputs, and inputs in some cases. Although some like to use a tv card if they`re going that way.

Nice 4x 500g, how u gonna arrange them ? What thoughts of Raid ?

think i'm gonna put them in raid 0 and hope for the best that i never loose one of them.

 

[limqareb]

great mate gl i am going to the same for my friend using more or less the same cpu , mobo and gfx card as you,

gl mate

 

[markkleb]

Thats a pretty high end HTPC. I really love the case too.

 

[nathan]

i would get the 7900gs much better than the 7600gt

Dont think the gs has a HDMI port.

 

[FarFarAway]

The GT is better than the GS, and HDMI is a good thing

Looking good Nathan!

 

[Doddsy]

Is a home theater pc and media centre thing not the same thing?

Sort of, I associate a home theater pc as being more for mainly watching movies where as a media centre is used for watching tv, listening to music etc. Just wasn't sure of your uses for it.

think i'm gonna put them in raid 0 and hope for the best that i never loose one of them.

You'd be a lot safer going RAID 5 and you wouldn't lose much performance. Although some people just don't feel alive without some risk!

 

[nathan]

Sort of, I associate a home theater pc as being more for mainly watching movies where as a media centre is used for watching tv, listening to music etc. Just wasn't sure of your uses for it.

You'd be a lot safer going RAID 5 and you wouldn't lose much performance. Although some people just don't feel alive without some risk!

i'd be using it for a media centre, pretty much anything actually. If i went fown the RAID 5 route, i'd loose a lot of space just so i could rebuild the raid should a drive fail. Not sure. I'll have to give this some more thought.

 

[FarFarAway]

Pah RAID 0 will be fine. I wouldn't have thought the data on there will be 100% needed...and if it is get a NAS and back it up regular

 

[nathan]

Just about to order the rest (good ol scan finance ). Just reading around on the net to find the ideal hard drives. Needs to be pretty quite and cheap, burst speed not too fussed about.

I read somewhere that you can alter the seek speed to make them quiter, is this true?

thanks for all your help/comments guys!

EDIT: From what i've read, samsung spinpoints seem to be the leader. Scan havent any 500gb in stock, so i'm gonna go for 400gb ones instead, should still give me plenty of space. Also the 7600GT isnt in stock so i will go for the 1600pro instead.