I haven’t built a HTPC before and haven’t built any kind of PC for nearly 3 years, but many and often before that. Im going to try and document (at least some of) this build, which I hope might be of use to others doing or thinking about doing a HTPC build.
I have been specing this build for about 6 months, I bought a few bits and pieces during that time, but didn’t take the final step and order the majority of the parts until last week.
Why so long specing? Long story, but the two major delays were deciding on a case and deciding on a motherboard. Its taken me over 4 months or hard looking to find a board I was happy with
Aim of this project
Create a quiet and low power PC that I can use to watch/record freeview TV, watch DVD and Blu-Ray. (Cant get cable or satelite TV where I live atm)
I wasn’t too bothered about how small the case was, but I did want it to look like Hi-Fi equipment not a PC. I didn’t have a fixed budget and was happy to buy everything new rather than reusing old stuff lying around. Originally I wanted to also play games on this, but along the road I realised it was going to go against my quiet and low power requirement, so there is no need to point out to me this wont run Crisis very well
I can still fit a dedicated GFX card in there if everything goes ****-up
Some of my choices probably seem a bit “wrong”. I know I don’t need a 450W PSU for example, but there was always some reason for my choices (I hope so anyway).
Parts List (bought and currently building):
Processor: AMD Athlon X2 5050e Socket AM2 45W
Motherboard: Asus M4A78-EM (mATX)
Memory: OCZ 4GB Kit (2x2GB) 800MHz/PC2-6400 Platinum
Graphics Card(s): ATI radeon HD 3200 (integrated to motherboard)
TV Card: Hauppauge NOVA-T-500
Hard Drive(s): 500GB Samsung HD502HI EcoGreen
Optical Drive(s): LG GGC-H20L Black
Cooling: Zalman CNPS8700-NT & 2 x 120mm Sharkoon Silent Eagle
Sound Card: ALC887 (integrated to motherboard)
Case: Antec Fusion Remote Silver (v2) (only takes mATX)
Power Supply: 450W Be Quiet Dark Power PRO
Keyboard/Mouse: Gyration GC215 GO 2.4GHz Optical Air Suite
Why I chose these parts:
Processor: Low power, low heat (slightly slower than intel, don’t care much)
Motherboard: Needed integrated GFX that would run blu-ray and reasonable integrated sound chip.
Memory: One of the fastest 800 chips on the boards compatible list. Im too chicken to experiment Ive had good experience with OCZ in the past.
Graphics Card(s): Should run Blu-Ray and older games OK. Ive tried to setup cooling specifically to tackle the overheating these chipset boards often suffer from.
TV Card: heard good things about this and someone in a forum said this worked OK with Linux I know the bundled software is useless, I don’t plan to use it.
Hard Drive(s): Quiet and low power hdd that give reasonable performance – seemed ideal choice. I dont need big capacity I want to use external storage for media (maybe eSata drives – haven’t decided yet).
Optical Drive(s): Rushed this choice at the end, someone said it was not that noisy – hoping it works out OK
Cooling: I did consider passive cooling for the CPU, but decided to go for extra airflow over the MB instead. Sharkoon push more air and quieter than the stock case fans.
Sound Card: I think dedicated sound card would be a bit of overkill
Case: This like all HTPC cases has its problems, but I think it has less than the rest. Im fine with it being quiet large. I actually wanted black, but got the silver cheap on a special offer
Power Supply: This is meant to be deathly quiet and reliable. 450W is overkill, but they don’t make a lower watt one
Keyboard/Mouse: Saw this demonstrated on Youtube. I like the idea of using a mouse from my sofa. The Logitech alternative seemed gimmicky and more expensive for little benefit.
Cost
Total cost of parts so far: £659.10 (inc vat)
Does not include operating system or screen
Still to order or undecided:
Screen:
I still need to buy a new TV, but I’m only going to order this once I get the system up and working OK
Maybe the Sony Bravia KDL32V5500U
Operating System:
I haven’t totally decided on this yet, but I’m planning to do WinXP32 / Mythbuntu64 dual boot. Myth will be the main OS, XP is just so I have the option of playing (older) games if I really want to. My first time using linux so expecting that to be an adventure.
Some build pics below:
My Parts have arrived
So many cables! This case does not seem big anymore
IT ALL FITS! Just...
Current Build Progress
I’ve now done most of the physical building. Getting all the cables to fit in has been a pain. Things are so close together in this case I have loads of extra cabling floating around that I don’t need. Worst problem so far has been the lack of space between the PSU and optical drive. The drop in design on the 5.25 caddy means I cant plug in the PSU cables until I drop in the caddy, but when I do that I have hardly any room to work between the two. I considered asking my girlfriend to plug in the PSU cables because of her smaller fingers, but thought better of it and mashed mine instead until I finally got it done
Next I will be tackling the BIOS and OSs (plural). I might take a bit of a rest first though as my fingers are hurting atm
I have been specing this build for about 6 months, I bought a few bits and pieces during that time, but didn’t take the final step and order the majority of the parts until last week.
Why so long specing? Long story, but the two major delays were deciding on a case and deciding on a motherboard. Its taken me over 4 months or hard looking to find a board I was happy with
Aim of this project
Create a quiet and low power PC that I can use to watch/record freeview TV, watch DVD and Blu-Ray. (Cant get cable or satelite TV where I live atm)
I wasn’t too bothered about how small the case was, but I did want it to look like Hi-Fi equipment not a PC. I didn’t have a fixed budget and was happy to buy everything new rather than reusing old stuff lying around. Originally I wanted to also play games on this, but along the road I realised it was going to go against my quiet and low power requirement, so there is no need to point out to me this wont run Crisis very well
I can still fit a dedicated GFX card in there if everything goes ****-up
Some of my choices probably seem a bit “wrong”. I know I don’t need a 450W PSU for example, but there was always some reason for my choices (I hope so anyway).
Parts List (bought and currently building):
Processor: AMD Athlon X2 5050e Socket AM2 45W
Motherboard: Asus M4A78-EM (mATX)
Memory: OCZ 4GB Kit (2x2GB) 800MHz/PC2-6400 Platinum
Graphics Card(s): ATI radeon HD 3200 (integrated to motherboard)
TV Card: Hauppauge NOVA-T-500
Hard Drive(s): 500GB Samsung HD502HI EcoGreen
Optical Drive(s): LG GGC-H20L Black
Cooling: Zalman CNPS8700-NT & 2 x 120mm Sharkoon Silent Eagle
Sound Card: ALC887 (integrated to motherboard)
Case: Antec Fusion Remote Silver (v2) (only takes mATX)
Power Supply: 450W Be Quiet Dark Power PRO
Keyboard/Mouse: Gyration GC215 GO 2.4GHz Optical Air Suite
Why I chose these parts:
Processor: Low power, low heat (slightly slower than intel, don’t care much)
Motherboard: Needed integrated GFX that would run blu-ray and reasonable integrated sound chip.
Memory: One of the fastest 800 chips on the boards compatible list. Im too chicken to experiment
Ive had good experience with OCZ in the past.Graphics Card(s): Should run Blu-Ray and older games OK. Ive tried to setup cooling specifically to tackle the overheating these chipset boards often suffer from.
TV Card: heard good things about this and someone in a forum said this worked OK with Linux
I know the bundled software is useless, I don’t plan to use it.Hard Drive(s): Quiet and low power hdd that give reasonable performance – seemed ideal choice. I dont need big capacity I want to use external storage for media (maybe eSata drives – haven’t decided yet).
Optical Drive(s): Rushed this choice at the end, someone said it was not that noisy – hoping it works out OK
Cooling: I did consider passive cooling for the CPU, but decided to go for extra airflow over the MB instead. Sharkoon push more air and quieter than the stock case fans.
Sound Card: I think dedicated sound card would be a bit of overkill
Case: This like all HTPC cases has its problems, but I think it has less than the rest. Im fine with it being quiet large. I actually wanted black, but got the silver cheap on a special offer
Power Supply: This is meant to be deathly quiet and reliable. 450W is overkill, but they don’t make a lower watt one
Keyboard/Mouse: Saw this demonstrated on Youtube. I like the idea of using a mouse from my sofa. The Logitech alternative seemed gimmicky and more expensive for little benefit.
Cost
Total cost of parts so far: £659.10 (inc vat)
Does not include operating system or screen
Still to order or undecided:
Screen:
I still need to buy a new TV, but I’m only going to order this once I get the system up and working OK
Maybe the Sony Bravia KDL32V5500U
Operating System:
I haven’t totally decided on this yet, but I’m planning to do WinXP32 / Mythbuntu64 dual boot. Myth will be the main OS, XP is just so I have the option of playing (older) games if I really want to. My first time using linux so expecting that to be an adventure.
Some build pics below:
My Parts have arrived
So many cables! This case does not seem big anymore
IT ALL FITS! Just...
Current Build Progress
I’ve now done most of the physical building. Getting all the cables to fit in has been a pain. Things are so close together in this case I have loads of extra cabling floating around that I don’t need. Worst problem so far has been the lack of space between the PSU and optical drive. The drop in design on the 5.25 caddy means I cant plug in the PSU cables until I drop in the caddy, but when I do that I have hardly any room to work between the two. I considered asking my girlfriend to plug in the PSU cables because of her smaller fingers, but thought better of it and mashed mine instead until I finally got it done
Next I will be tackling the BIOS and OSs (plural). I might take a bit of a rest first though as my fingers are hurting atm
