New HTPC Build, thoughts?

Dan_D

Extremely [H]
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Feb 9, 2002
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Well I just completed the first stage of my HTPC build. Here are the specs:

Silvetstone SST-GD01B-MXR case
Thermaltake ToughPower 750watt PSU
Intel DP35DP P35 chipset motherboard (Media Series)
Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 [email protected] w/Artic Freezer 7 CPU cooler
Corsair XMS2 TWIN2X4096-6400C5DHX Memory modules (2x2048MB DDR2 800MHz)
EVGA 8800GTS 320MB Superclocked Edition (I plan on replacing this with something quieter, but similarly powerful.)
Maxtor Diamond Max 10 300GB HDD (I will be replacing this soon as well.)
Samsung 20x SATA DVD-R/RW drive (I will be purchasing a Blu-Ray/HD-DVD combo drive.)
Operating System: Windows Vista Ultimate x64 Edition

So that's it for right now. It's working great and I've got most things setup the way I'd like them. The largest problem is that the video card is loud as hell for something like this. HTPC is somewhat new to me as is silent computing. My gaming rigs and server/workstation systems are built with performance and expansion in mind so this is somewhat of a departure from my usual build.

This is also my first Silverstone case and it is nothing short of fantastic. I'm impressed with the build quality and the clean lines of the case. I'll post some pics probably this week some time.

I am looking for TV-Tuner card recommendations as well as video card recommendations. I'm looking for something at least as powerful as the card that is in there but I want it to be silent or near silent using the stock cooler. (I'm used to buying based on performance alone.) I've thought about simply replacing the cooling on the card that's in there with something that isn't as noisy, so that's an option too. I want to keep the gaming performance at least where it is, otherwise I'd simply buy a lower end card or something with passive cooling to do the job.

I'm going to be purchasing some drives for it as well. I'll probably go with a RAID 1 setup on a pair of 750GB or 1TB drives. I'm going to keep the build limited to 1 or 2 drives and no more as I want to keep the heat down inside the case. The system can hold plenty of drives, I just don't want to put more in there than I have to.
 
How about that Palit 9600 GT just reviewed? Looks like a killer HTPC card that can handle gaming probably just as well as your 8800GTS.
 
Why not just replace the video card HSF with an aftermarket one? Thermalright makes great coolers, but most of the aftermarket ones are pretty good. Or just find a 8800GT with a pre-installed aftermarket cooler. I think the Egg had an MSI for about $190 last week.
 
Why not just replace the video card HSF with an aftermarket one? Thermalright makes great coolers, but most of the aftermarket ones are pretty good. Or just find a 8800GT with a pre-installed aftermarket cooler. I think the Egg had an MSI for about $190 last week.

As I said, that is a possibility as well. Just looking for opinions here.
 
Your HTPC is on the verge of kicking my desktop in the balls. :eek:

I'd switch the PSU out for a Corsair 620HX personally... from what I've read it would be quieter. I can't suggest a TV tuner but I can tell you to avoid the HVR-1600 as it (currently) doesn't work with x64 according to Hauppauge. They blame Microsoft and Microsoft blames them.
 
Your HTPC is on the verge of kicking my desktop in the balls. :eek:

I'd switch the PSU out for a Corsair 620HX personally... from what I've read it would be quieter. I can't suggest a TV tuner but I can tell you to avoid the HVR-1600 as it (currently) doesn't work with x64 according to Hauppauge. They blame Microsoft and Microsoft blames them.

Good advice. As for the PSU I just used what I had lying around. I don't think the PSU is that loud, but then again I probably just can't hear it above the fan.
 
The Samsung Spinpoint Drives are fairly quiet...I personally use a single 500GB in my HTPC as I use my WHS box for most of my storage anyway.

As far as TV tuners, what are you looking to do here? For example do you want the ability to record OTA, QAM, multiple tuners for multiple recordings..etc?
 
The Samsung Spinpoint Drives are fairly quiet...I personally use a single 500GB in my HTPC as I use my WHS box for most of my storage anyway.

As far as TV tuners, what are you looking to do here? For example do you want the ability to record OTA, QAM, multiple tuners for multiple recordings..etc?

Single tuner should be fine I think, but I do want to be able to record HD content, TV shows and have general DVR type functionality.
 
HD content over digital cable can only be done in two ways:

1. You have to buy a PC from a vendor that offers OCUR Digital Tuners

or

2. Catpure HD from the firewire port on your cable box. This is definately not a sure thing, is a messy way of doing it, and rarely works.

Now..if you want to record HD over OTA or QAM, you can do so with an Avermedia Combo Card, Happague 1600's, ATI 650, and there's even the HD Homerun, which runs on your LAN.

The Avermedia, which I personally use has beta drivers to use QAM within Vista Media Center. Unfortunately, I only receive 2 chanels via QAM, PBS and CBS...both stations that suck...lol.

For OTA reception, you can go to this website to give you an idea of what channels you can expect to receive and what type of antenna you will need to get them.

www.antennaweb.org
 
HD content over digital cable can only be done in two ways:

1. You have to buy a PC from a vendor that offers OCUR Digital Tuners

or

2. Catpure HD from the firewire port on your cable box. This is definately not a sure thing, is a messy way of doing it, and rarely works.

Now..if you want to record HD over OTA or QAM, you can do so with an Avermedia Combo Card, Happague 1600's, ATI 650, and there's even the HD Homerun, which runs on your LAN.

The Avermedia, which I personally use has beta drivers to use QAM within Vista Media Center. Unfortunately, I only receive 2 chanels via QAM, PBS and CBS...both stations that suck...lol.

For OTA reception, you can go to this website to give you an idea of what channels you can expect to receive and what type of antenna you will need to get them.

www.antennaweb.org

Thanks. That's very useful information. Now among the three cards you mentioned, which is your preference. I know which one you said you own, but why that one? In retrospect would one of the others have been a better choice?
 
Well..I chose the avermedia for a few of reasons:

1. They'll fit easily into low profile cases like my new Origen.
2. They are quite small and non-obtrusive.
3. They are PCI-E which my motherboard has 2 slots for.
4. They have beta drivers that allow QAM in Vista MCE.
5. The quality is good, though I don't think any analog quality is great.
 
Well..I chose the avermedia for a few of reasons:

1. They'll fit easily into low profile cases like my new Origen.
2. They are quite small and non-obtrusive.
3. They are PCI-E which my motherboard has 2 slots for.
4. They have beta drivers that allow QAM in Vista MCE.
5. The quality is good, though I don't think any analog quality is great.

Good information. I'll do some more research and see what I come up with.
 
I've got an update. I think I'm going to keep the 8800GTS 320MB card in the HTPC. I decided to make damned sure where all the noisy parts where in the machine. I pulled the video card and swapped it with an 8600GT I had on hand and while I had the case off, I noticed that the noise was not only still there, but that it came from the front. So it would appear that the issue is that I've got noisy 92mm fans up there. So I'll switch them out for something quieter. Or I might even use a fan speed controller (shudder, I hate those.)

The PSU isn't that noisy at all. It is actually very quiet. So that isn't an issue. The CPU cooler is inaudible at all and the 80mm fans the case came with are also extremely quiet. I've got those two front fans disconnected right now. I'm not a huge fan of that, but I'm monitoring the temperatures in the Intel software just to make sure things stay within a safe range.

So I guess I'm just on the hunt for quiet 92mm fans, more drives, and tuner cards. On that front I think I'm going to grab two 500GB Seagate 7200.11 drives and RAID 1 them. I'll also probably be going with two ATI 650 TV Tuners in PCIe x1.
 
I'm not 100% sure, but when i was building my HTPC rig. I got comments that the 8800 GTS, GTX, some first release 8500s and 8600s don't support HDCP over DVI/HDMI. So if you're going for HD playback I guess your 8800GTS won't cut the deal.

I also thought that the 8800 series except the GT don't have PureVideo HD for the offloading of HD decoding.

May have changed or maybe supported now, but that's what I remembered when I was building mine.

...just a thought
 
Some 8800GTS 320MB/640MB and 8800GTX cards do support HDCP over DVI/HDMI. It's all up to manufacturer of those cards whether or not to include it HDCP in their cards. However, dunno if Dan_D's particular 8800GTS 320MB supports HDCP.

As for offloading HD decoding, Dan_D really doesn't need it. He has a QUAD-CORE CPU in his HTPC. That should be more than enough for watching any HD content.
 
I've got an update. I think I'm going to keep the 8800GTS 320MB card in the HTPC. I decided to make damned sure where all the noisy parts where in the machine. I pulled the video card and swapped it with an 8600GT I had on hand and while I had the case off, I noticed that the noise was not only still there, but that it came from the front. So it would appear that the issue is that I've got noisy 92mm fans up there. So I'll switch them out for something quieter. Or I might even use a fan speed controller (shudder, I hate those.)

For making my PC quiet, I prefer to make selective use of 5v or 7v resistor cables for the fans I use. They're much more convenient than any manual fan controllers and I've used them for 3rd party GPU and CPU cooling solutions.
http://www.quietpc.com/gb-en-gbp/products/casefanaccessories/resistors

However, automatic fan controllers like the T-Balancer are brilliant if you're trying to orchestrate cooling for an entire system, usually a high end overclocked PC (rather than an HTPC), while keeping everything quiet.
 
Some 8800GTS 320MB/640MB and 8800GTX cards do support HDCP over DVI/HDMI. It's all up to manufacturer of those cards whether or not to include it HDCP in their cards. However, dunno if Dan_D's particular 8800GTS 320MB supports HDCP.

As for offloading HD decoding, Dan_D really doesn't need it. He has a QUAD-CORE CPU in his HTPC. That should be more than enough for watching any HD content.

I'm about to find out if the card I have does HDCP. I just got the rest of my parts today.

Final Specifications:

Silvetstone SST-GD01B-MXR case w/Remote
Thermaltake ToughPower 650watt PSU
Intel DP35DP P35 chipset motherboard (Media Series)
Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 [email protected] w/Artic Freezer Pro 7 CPU cooler
Corsair XMS2 TWIN2X4096-6400C5DHX Memory modules (2x2048MB DDR2 800MHz)
EVGA 8800GTS 320MB Superclocked Edition
Visiontek ATI HD-650 TV Tuner card
2x Western Digital 500GB 16MB cache 7200rpm Hard Disk Drives (RAID-1)
LG DVD-Rom/R/RW-/+/Blu-Ray/HD-DVD combination drive (SATA)
Operating System: Windows Vista Ultimate x64 Edition
 
Another thing I've done is install a Zalman fan speed controller to control my fans in the front of the case. This has silenced them to a point where they are inaudible. This controller is internal and as a result it is nicely hidden. I set it and dropped it into the case. I'm now done with that part. So far this thing is silent, (unless the video card is at full speed which only happens if I play games on it, which is fine.)

Pretty sweet setup. Now I just need to get all the software configured.
 
Nice!

So what temps are you getting with the Q6600 and AC7Pro?
 
Nice!

So what temps are you getting with the Q6600 and AC7Pro?

It reports 43c idle and 56c under load. Its' very quiet and so far I'm happy with the build. I wish the inside could be a little neater wiring wise, but after constantly messing with it, I've got it where I can live with it. I'm just not used to working with such cramped cases.
 
Great temps. My Q6600 with a Scythe Ninja in a fairly free flowing case runs at 60C full load. Of course I'm running at 3.4 so there's more heat, but your temps are pretty good for that case.
 
Great temps. My Q6600 with a Scythe Ninja in a fairly free flowing case runs at 60C full load. Of course I'm running at 3.4 so there's more heat, but your temps are pretty good for that case.

Well being that this is an HTPC I'm running it at stock. I'm pretty happy with the temps especially considering that this is also a B3 stepping Q6600.

The ATI TV Wonder HD 650 card is giving me problems right now. I'm having the usual ATI driver issues that I've always had with their tuners.
 
Update:

System is performing well. Got my new drives in and everything seems to be working well. Unfortunately I couldn't get the TV Tuner to work, so that's going back tomorrow. Also on the question about HDCP everything worked GREAT. Blu-Ray and HD-DVD both tested ok on my TV and system. So it would seem my video card is fully compliant.

Very happy with the results thus far. All isn't perfect, but it is pretty good. I'm having overscan issues with Power DVD in fullscreen mode. I am however fine if I use media center, but that only works for regular DVD playback and that's not even working right. Media Center is choking on the DVD's. It's dropping frames and it is annoying me.
 
The Samsung Spinpoint Drives are fairly quiet...I personally use a single 500GB in my HTPC as I use my WHS box for most of my storage anyway.

I've got some Western Digital SE16 drives in my main HTPC and they're pretty quiet. The P180B case they are in makes them silent from the distance I sit.

For my other case (NSK-2480), I found the only way I could get silence was to use a laptop drive... and suspend it. I can't hear the drive unless my ear is right next to it. It's actually one of the better things I've done for computer silencing.
 
Great temps. My Q6600 with a Scythe Ninja in a fairly free flowing case runs at 60C full load. Of course I'm running at 3.4 so there's more heat, but your temps are pretty good for that case.

Well that puts me pretty much exactly on par with you.. I just finished building my HTPC with a Q6600 (G0) @ 3.4ghz and a Zalman CNPS 9500 AM2 (adapted it with the LGA775 mounts). I am running high 30's to low 40's on idle and after 8 hours of stressing the cpu @ 100% for about 8 hours with Everest Ultimate, I pegged exactly at 60c.. http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1276631

Well being that this is an HTPC I'm running it at stock. I'm pretty happy with the temps especially considering that this is also a B3 stepping Q6600.

The ATI TV Wonder HD 650 card is giving me problems right now. I'm having the usual ATI driver issues that I've always had with their tuners.

I've been following your thread and I am just itching to buy my TV tuner card.. But it seems EVERY card out there has "some" kind of issue.. I have Charter Cable and all I want to do is watch my cable TV via the HTPC and play some DVD's from our DVD library.. Do you have any suggestions with the next card that you are going to try Dan? I also have an EVGA 8800GTS (albeit a 640mb version).
 
Well that puts me pretty much exactly on par with you.. I just finished building my HTPC with a Q6600 (G0) @ 3.4ghz and a Zalman CNPS 9500 AM2 (adapted it with the LGA775 mounts). I am running high 30's to low 40's on idle and after 8 hours of stressing the cpu @ 100% for about 8 hours with Everest Ultimate, I pegged exactly at 60c.. http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1276631



I've been following your thread and I am just itching to buy my TV tuner card.. But it seems EVERY card out there has "some" kind of issue.. I have Charter Cable and all I want to do is watch my cable TV via the HTPC and play some DVD's from our DVD library.. Do you have any suggestions with the next card that you are going to try Dan? I also have an EVGA 8800GTS (albeit a 640mb version).

I went with the Happauge WinTV 1800 PCI-Express. So far it works fine, but as usual it won't handle the encrypted cable signals. So that's an issue as I don't have a cable box, so there isn't a way for me to output the signal to anything else after decryption. I plan on upgrading my cable and getting the box however.
 
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