Raw power needed but...

[TheBigCheese]

...it has to be silent.

I am in the early stages of planning the ultimate HTPC, it's going to be used for gaming, video encoding (including 1080p video) and used as a PVR (waking up from sleep to record).

Because of what I want it to do there has to be some real grunt to it and so I am thinking of an I7 920.

Am I right in thinking that the encoding power of the 920 far exceeds even the top AMD chip?

I have been considering overclocking it as well to try and get some more speed out of it, I have never overclocked anything before so unless there is an idiot proof guide I was considering buying one of OCUKs preoverclocked bundles.

However as it will be an HTPC I don't want to be hearing it whirring, so if it is overclocked is has to be as near silent as possible.

So...

Is the I7 920 the best chip to be looking at?
Is it easy to overclock for a complete noob?
Is it possible to have it running overclocked virtually silently on air?

I look forward to any replies, setting the rest of the system I am pretty happy with but this is a bit of a stumbling block for me!

Many thanks

 

[Big.Wayne]

I am in the early stages of planning the ultimate HTPC

What's the approx budget?

 

[JonJ678]

Overclocking the X58 chipset is easy as long as you're reasonably bright, it's a lot simpler than P45 and quad core chips were. For encoding/number processing the 920 is where it's at.

A hot quad core, overclocked, on air, silently isn't possible unless ambients are very low indeed. About the only approach that will work is water cooling, with a triple radiator outside the case. There's a build log on here where someone has the radiator sitting behind the TV with a single fan on it. I think this is a brilliant solution, but it depends on your budget.

If playing games => powerful gpu, then while cooling doesn't matter (just plumb it into the cpu loop) the psu will need to be more powerful, and finding a high power, silent psu is difficult. I suppose it's budget dependent.

 

[TheBigCheese]

Thanks for the quick replies

I haven't set a budget as yet, more thinking what I will need and go from there, probably around £1000 I suppose. I will be harvesting an 8800GTX GPU from my current machine so that's a small saving.

Hmmm, thinking about it I don't suppose it matters if the machine makes some noise while it is encoding, it's just when we will be watching films / TV etc. that obviously we won't want it humming away.

I was thinking of the Antec 1200 case, the one with the 200mm fan in the top. I use Antec 900s currently and find they work brilliantly. Reading a review of the 1200 it seems to keep case temperature around 20-22 degrees which sounds good to me!

Whilst I like to think of myself as reasonably bright and would probably attempt overclocking with a bit of guidance I definitely don't trust myself with water cooling, so while I can certainly see the benefits, it's not for me.

Would it still be very quick at encoding if I kept the processor at stock speed? I was looking on THW but the CPU comparison charts either don't include Handbrake which I will be using or seem to be a bit out of date, which don't help me with decision making.

 

[Big.Wayne]

I haven't set a budget as yet, more thinking what I will need and go from there, probably around £1000 I suppose.

Total overkill!

You could build a killer HTPC for half that!

I will be harvesting an 8800GTX GPU from my current machine so that's a small saving

Are you intending to sell that or use that?

8800GTX is entirely not suitable for a HTPC especially if its gonna be left running 24/7, all your budget will go on running costs (electricty bill ££)

I was thinking of the Antec 1200 case, the one with the 200mm fan in the top

Is this for a HTPC or some mutant hybrid machine?

 

[TheBigCheese]

Ha ha, I haven't said about what HDDs I plan to put in it yet

It will be a gaming machine as well as an HTPC, I want the whole works in one box which is why I would be spending extra on it.

It certainly won't be on 24/7, I wouldn't entertain the idea if it did have to be, I'd just buy a new PVR.

I've read about (I believe it's called) S3 sleep mode, basically it will shut the PC down completely (fans and all) until it needs to wake up to record something then it will shut down again. I'll be getting an SSD as my boot drive to aid that. HDD wise I'm looking at Samsung 1.5TBs (several of) as long as they are able to stream full HD content without any slowdown or choppiness.

The 8800GTX will be used as the graphics card and will come into play when I'm gaming.

Is this for a HTPC or some mutant hybrid machine?

It's a complete all in one machine...should be fun

 

[Orcvader]

I recommend getting the H50 to cool the 920 then if you want it silent. The 8800GTX is kinda weak for gaming though :| I would get a 5770 if you can, or a 4770 if you don't want to spend too much.

 

[sastusbulbas]

Regarding a decent HTPC, my own take on this was to go for something along the lines of an Intel 860 with a Gigabyte P55 UD2 and a powercolor passive 5770 with a Seasonic X series PSU and Crucial M225 with a sammy F3 in a quiet caddy. (Putting a bucket load of 1.5's seems pointless and I now feel any more than four drives then it's server build time)

I think the 860 is more than good enough running stock for any new game and video encoding task, and therefor well suited to the ultimate HTPC.

My other choice would be a P45 mobo wth a Q9550s 65w quad core. Quite simply due to it being a 65w quad.

 

[Rroff]

BTW I wouldn't depend on sleep mode to do the job for you - its very unpredictable - often sleep just plain doesn't work or has issues commonly:

Doesn't wake up on schedule.
After certain number of sleep/wakes goes unresponsive requiring power cycle.
Devices like network cards/wireless adapters, optical drives and soundcards not coming back out of sleep mode ever until the system is rebooted.


My personaly reccomendation if your wanting a system that is both quiet, power efficent and powerful would be as above one of the S model Q9x50 65watt CPUs - along with either prolimatech megahalems with a slowspeed fan or coolermaster V8 with the fan set to low speed (has variable fan speed controller) - the next biggest issue will be finding a PSU thats quiet or passively cooled.

 

[Hades]

Watercooling would help a lot here I think.

 

[Hotwired]

Your spec says high-end home computer but that's flying in the face of the comparatively low end stuff a HTPC is normally filled with.

Silence for heavy cooling = space for large heat dissipating system and case ventilation.

A small HTPC case isn't meant to be filled with hot high end kit because its ventilation is rubbish and it's crowded in there.

If it's not in a HTPC case then it's just a normal build surely?


Of course then with a normal case all those issues go away.

 

[sastusbulbas]

An HTPC does not need to be small though, as it is for home theatre it can be used for video encoding and such too, or as the main storage set up with many hard drives.

I am sure many have HTPC and small form mixed up, I am about to build my own HTPC based on a full size motherboard, quite simply because I do not see teh need to go small or sacrifice performance and suffer due to expected trends.

My audio equipment is 19" wide, so as long as it can sit within an AV rack and be as quiet as the DVD, LD or even a video recorder it's quiet enough. A full size passice card is better for full quality audio over HDMI I believe than current on board such as 785G, and a full size mother board will allow a decent sound card, TV card, and so forth. With a proper sized case such as an LS13 teh inside will have better air flow than some small cases and will allow more drives plus two optical drives to be used.

 

[feeddagoat]

I would look at both intels and AMD -E components (cant remember what intels low power components are called). Also if your gamming at 1080p a mid range GPU would suit you perfectly. To keep heat and there for noise down possibly an HD5750 or HD4850 would be good. You should'nt need to run your CPU to much over 3GHz for films and gaming. Only encoding or photo editing might you want to ramp it up. If you do go i7 920 don't disreguard mATX boards as they too seem to OC well. Li-lan do some nice cases IMO which would look good in a living room andshould have some room for watercooling.

+1 for the H50, very good performance for cheap watercooling. The balance is always gonna be between low cost, speed and loudness. At most you can only have 2 of these.