My HTPC build with pics.....

apple_man77

apple_man77

apple_man77

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Joined
25 Aug 2010
Posts
535
Hello,

Thought I'd post build pics from my htpc. Nothing pretty to look at unfortunately but its my first build and things will be changed eventually. :)

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Current specs:

Lian Li PC 354B case
Intel i3 540 cpu running @ 3.06 Ghz
Gigabyte H55M Motherboard
Corsair DDR 3 memory (4gb)
Seagate Barracuda 2TB Hard Drive
Corsair HX 500W PSU
Samsung Blu ray / DVD RW drive
Windows 7 Premium 64 Bit.

Running XBMC as a media centre.

However it doesn't like running XBMC and struggles with 1080p files. the CPU load goes up and above 80% for some reason.

I've ordered a ATI Radeon HD5450 Graphics card which I'm hoping will take some load off the CPU as it doesn't seem to be running well with the integrated GPU/CPU :mad:
 
I plan to swap the three fans for sharkoon silent eagle se 120mm fans and add a forth one at the rear for improved and quieter airflow.

I also want to braid the cables inside and neaten then up a bit and add another 2tb hard drive for now.

However I'm reluctant to spend anymore money on it until the GFX card arrives and I can get XBMC running properly.
 
You should have more than enough grunt for 1080p

What codec are you using to decode the H264 video

Try using coreavc and mediabrowser rather than XBMC which seems to hate win7 64bit for me also.
 
Thanks Jimmy,

I'm not sure its ripped using makemkV and just playing it through xbmc.

Its not letting me enable dxva in the xbmc which may be the problem. I still want to use XBMC as I really like the layout and its 95% I built the PC.

CoreAVC looks good however I'm not going to pay for anything else at the moment until I see what the graphics card does.

I'm hoping it will allow me to enable DXVA and take the load of the CPU so the files will play but whether thats asking for to much I don't know.

I thought the spec of my HTPC would have been plenty to play 1080p files on XBMC!!
 
I've tried media browser but it says wmc can't find the path or something so won't play any of the files stored on the computer.

I'm just going to have to hope the new gfx card works on Tuesday or it'll be a case of paying someone to get it working or sell it and lose a fair chunk of money!!
 
As DIABLO says bit to early to give up :) I've just finished the physical part of my build but I think I'm only about half way there .

The mobo and cpu should play 1080p video so it must be a software set up problem . Someone on here will have the answer to the problem :)
 
Thanks for the replies.

I know its a bit early but I was either going to get a new subwoofer or this and opted for this which I can't get working even though everyone keeps saying it should easily play hd which I dont doubt for one second but mine just wont. I really want to stick with xbmc and not move to media browser etc as that's why I built the htpc in the first place after seeing it and really liking it.

I just don't know what else to do. I've been through all the settings for the CPU, mobo, graphics and still can't get it to play. I've updated all the drivers and checked this several times. Ive checked everything is working properly which windows says it is so for a bit of. computer building noob I'm stumped :-(
 
Well I'm no expert but I know where I'd start :)

I'd try and make sure it's not a problem with :

Hardware
Settings
DVD rip

Go here and down load a couple of sample videos one in 720 and one in 1080 and try playing it in windows media player . If they play ok try them in XBMC .

I've just installed XMBC on my phenom 955 PC running window 7 to check this out and it plays the files fine , I've also tried them on my Zotac ion htpc and again they are fine .

If they play ok in windows media player but not XMBC you know it's an XMBC problem . If they play fine in both I'd look at the dvd rip settings , which I don't really know mch about but I'd start with a lower quality rip and see if that works and take it from there .
 
Thanks for your replies.

I think I'm out of my depth and seriously fed up I've tried downloading someHD movie files winzip unzips then and won't do nothing with the. So I deleted winzip and tried just downloading the file which is a rar file and nothing on my computer will play it.

I was trying to keep the hard drive clean and not fill it with to much junk but with just trying to get things to work I've got files of all types all over which I have to keep locating and deleting.

If the card doesn't work Tuesday then I'll just take it somewhere for a pro to sort it out as I'm well and truely stuck with it and feel as though the more I try the more I'm messing things up :mad:
 
apple_man77 why not start a complete fresh.
Re install Windows from fresh and re do it all. Using the software people are telling you instead of XBMC which too doesnt work for me so now i use Media Center with Media Browser.
 
I've just been playing gladiator the vcpu was at 70% and CPU at 20% played fine. 10 minutes in vcpu 13% and CPU 80%.

Obviously something's causing the CPU to take over from the vcpu which I'm guessing is the graphics side of things??

I might have to look at re-installing things after Tuesday but I'm hoping a dedicated gfx card will fix things. Even if it's masking a problem aslong as it works properly I'll be happy.

I really wanted to stick with xbmc the amount of people using it with slower systems it should work somehow!!
 
spent the day setting up media browser and renaming half my media to correct names to pull metadata. Seems pretty slick, don't think I'll be using anything else from now.
 
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