LC11M HTPC system review

[robomonkey]

Hi,

I've been lurking for awhile (being a regular user of XBMC), however with the impending release of xbox 360 and the very likely possibility of me getting one, I needed a replacement for XBMC.

I've been a Tivo user for around 2-3 years and have been hacking it for just as long, currently I have upgraded the HDD, installed a turbonet and the web inteface, and I still love it, it just sits there 24/7 working.

So I wanted a solution that would replace both these boxes.....

Enter Media Portal.

After reading much on the forums here, and looking at various cases, I decided on the LC11, mainly because its slimline (like the Tivo) and not in your face with lights, curves and buttons, just plain aluminum with the minimum of buttons.

The cons for the case I found are obvioulsy:-
max of 2 PCI cards
micro ATX
slimline PSU (supplied with 300w)

Then I thought about spec and components to put inside. My biggest concern was the GPU, which then raises questions about the physical size, heat, and noise from a cooler. After more research I figured out the minimium card was a Nvidia FX5200\ ATI X300. I looked at several fanless AGP\PCIe cards, and was leaning towards going the full hog and getting an Nvidia 6600 when I found ATI's integrated X200 Xpresss series, after that I quickly settled an MSI board, with SATA1, PCIe, onboard sound, with both S-video and composite outs!!.

So my system is:-
Silverstone LC11M @ £154
MSI RS480M2-IL @ £67
Athlon 64 3000+ @ £82
Zalman CPNS7000BCU @27
Cosair 1GB DDR XMS3200C2PT @ £112

Total £442

I already had a spinpoint 160GB SATA drive, and a Plextor 712SA DVD Burner, these would have added around £140 to the price, making it £582, say £600 with shipping etc.


I bought everything from two suppliers:-
- Case and Nova-t www.scan.co.uk
- Everything else from www.overclockers.co.uk

It took me around 3-4 hours to put together, and get it as tidy as I could, (I've got some images if anyones able to host them for me).

A few things I noticed when installing, whilst the case is very nice, there are a couple of niggling problems:-
1. The USB cable for the VFD display is terminated with a standard USB connector not, a mobo connector, it does come with a converter,but it is bulky and I didn't like it, plus the cable is around 1.5 meters long!!!, bit too long methinks.
2. The USB connector cables from the front ports very thick and hard to maniputate into any tidy setup.
3. There are generally no cable routes around the case, i know hardly no maunfacturers include this but for a high end case I wondered/hoped they would.

Also a note to anyone else building this case be slightly careful if you choose the Zalman cooler, I got the 7000 model, because its a few millimeters smaller than the 7700, but fitting the 7000 in the case, man its tight!!! but it works a charm, very quiet indeed.

If anyone has any qu.s let me know.

[egonspengleruk]

What have you done about the case fans?
I have the same case but mine is quite loud.....have you replaced them?

[egonspengleruk]

How are you finding the onboard graphics? And the TV Out ?
Is the chipset fast enough for the DirectX9 side of things....and is the picture clear on your TV. Im running a ATI 9550 and I dont know if its my tv (cheap widescreen) but I get crap TV out off the card. I was in the same boat as you moving from XBMC so I am used to the really nice clear graphics on the XBOX...and just not getting that at the minute.

I went down the end of line Skt A + Sempron route (cheap!) but have had all sorts of crap with the board. So im looking at selling the board/cpu/mem route to my dad as an upgrade for him and reinvesting in a similar setup to you.

I can host the images if you want.
Email me at mat key at hot mail dot com.

[egonspengleruk]

How did you manage to fit the Zalman fan? Just checked on the Zalman site and they say its incompatible with the board...http://www.zalman.co.kr/product/cooler/7000(AB)_754-939-940MBlist_eng.htm

[wizard84]

i would like to buy a new cpu-fan....is there any way to put into the case the CNPS7700-Cu?it's too large?

[robomonkey]

What have you done about the case fans?
I have the same case but mine is quite loud.....have you replaced them?

Currently I've only got the one stock case fan by the CPU installed which is pretty quiet, not noticable anyhow.

How did you manage to fit the Zalman fan? Just checked on the Zalman site and they say its incompatible with the board...http://www.zalman.co.kr/product/cooler/7000(AB)_754-939-940MBlist_eng.htm

Huh!, never saw that, admittidly it was tight screwing the thumb screws onto the board but it went on and works ok.

How are you finding the onboard graphics? And the TV Out ?

Hmmm, not convinced on this one, to all intents and purposes it works fine. using overlay the picture is spotless however the GUI is slow to respond when watching TV in fullscreen mode, when I switch to VMR windowless or renderless I intermittently get a horizontal slicing effect where the picture is off by 1-2mm, but the GUI is lightening fast. I think this is the GPU but not sure was going to post in the support forum about it anyone experienced this??


Overall I'm very happywith it, especially given that if I decide I do need a bigger GPU I can utilise the PCI-e board and install whatever I want.