New HTPC build for friend

JSW

JSW

JSW

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Am building a HTPC for a friend.

He will mainly use it for surfing the net to be honest and watching the odd dvd rip.

He only requested it was small enough to put under his 42" HD TV so this is what I came up with:

AMD Athlon 64 X2 4850e 2.5GHz Socket AM2 Energy Efficient 1MB L2 Cache Retail Boxed Processor

Gigabyte GA-MA78GM-S2H 780G Socket AM2+ onboard VGA 8 channel audio mATX Motherboard

OCZ 2GB Kit (2x1GB) DDR2 800MHz/PC2-6400 CL 4-4-4-15 PLATINUM XTC with LIFETIME WARRANTY

Samsung HD502IJ SpinPoint F1 500GB Hard Drive SATAII 7200rpm 16MB Cache - OEM

Hiper Silver Media Center Case With 200W PSU - Only 53mm High, Width 430mm, Length 270mm.

Pioneer KD-08 Slimline Notebook DVDRW Black Bare Drive - OEM

KeySonic 2.4Ghz Wireless Compact Keyboard with Integrated TouchPad

Silverstone NT07 AM2 Low Profile Heat Sink Fan RMA'd do not get one really poor build quality

Akasa AK-392 CPU Cooler (Socket AM2)

Edimax EW-7318USg 54Mbps Turbo USB 2.0 Network Adapter (Works out the box with Linux)

OS= Ubuntu








HD and DVDR fitted into place


The sata cable is a really tight fit and the one which came with the mobo wouldn't fit the connector was too long and the L shaped one bent downwards which was no good.
As luck had it I had one in a drawer which had a slighty shorter connector which fits perfectly.



Unable to fit mobo yet as waiting on the CPU Cooler which should be here Thursday.

Hoping to install Ubuntu on this to save him the expense of Windows.
 
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I would have preferred a 1u copper cooler but just couldn't source one in the UK :mad:

Plenty available across the pond but ends up very expensive with the postage, I am trying to build this for him cheap as poss but without hopefully compromising the performance.
 
Well the Silversone cooler came Thursday and I wasn't very impressed, looked very cheap and poorly made :mad:

Put everything together and noticed the screws connecting the heatsink to the backplate were too long and hit the back of the case and raised the mobo 5mm!!!, anyway cable tied all the cables out the way and powered up...... the fan did not come on :mad: tried case fan header and still didn't come on.
Took the fan off the heatsink and it started spinning :D so just rested it on the heatsink and it made a right racket, the blades where catching on something but couldn't tell what.
so turned the fan upside down and rested on the heatsink and it was silent.
Installed Ubuntu as it was evening and ocuk was closed so I couldn't investigate another fan, not that it would have helped as on further investigation if you screwed down one side of the fan the other side was up in the air! yes the heatsink is curved! so when you tighten all four screws the fan is actually bent and will not work! RMA that then.

Friday morning went to OCUK and purchased the akasa copper cooler
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showp...=821&name=Akasa AK-392 CPU Cooler (Socket AM2)
Which for some reason I had overlooked thinking it was too big :rolleyes: bloody hell its heavy for such a small cooler. Took the rear side of the case off lifted the mobo and slid the silverstone backplate out then slid the akasa one in tighten screws back up and ready to go :D

Spent all day playing installing ATI driver (worked first time yay) and VLC and codecs etc etc and hundreds of updates.

Played various DVD's, Xvids and divx's all without problem and never once did I hear the fan on the cooler and I was messing for a good few hours.

The pc was connected to my 2405 via DVI so I hadn't tested the sound until today when I took it to my mates to be connected to his HDTV via HDMI and guess what no sound. Messed around for a bit and finally could hear the test tone ok in the sound properties box but still could not get sound from VLC or any system sounds :confused: will look into that later after doing some more research.

Will add pics later as image shack is playing up for me at the mo and taking for ever to upload a pic.
 

The silverstone cooler looks ok here


Can see its very poor here and slightly curved!


The akasa perfect :)
 
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