My cheap, compact and quiet HD HTPC

[RedeviL]

I've been running an old AMD XP2000+ in a very ugly case for years as my Media Centre machine running MediaPortal. It's served it's purpose perfectly - until along came HD content and it's very system intensive processing. The poor AMD was no longer able to handle the jandle, so-to speak.

I thought that the new consoles would be a decent media playback device with their built in H.264 decoding - but alas that was nothing more than a smoke and mirrors promise.
The hoops that must be jumped through to get it to do as you want is rediculous.
Not to mention the lack of Blu-ray support on the 360 and the price tag of the PS3!

So I got to thinking - what is it that I want out of a Media machine?
My answer was simple, I want it to play everything - play it well and control it by just a remote.

MediaPortal does everything well, is so customisable and is completely controllable via the remote.
That made life easier by running under Windows so hardware support and setup wouldn't be an issue.

Next was the hardware.

I want something which is small, pleasing to the eye and quiet.
It's going to be in the lounge in plain view - while I ignored the old case, I'm not the only user or person living with it!

I want the machine to be able to play x264, H.264 and all the older codec formats - this would mean a high powered CPU or a hardware decoding video card which would mean a PCIe 16x slot.

Additionally I want to use my Hauppauge Nova-S-Plus from my previous machine to receive the NZ Freeview channels and record shows so a PCI slot is required.

Audio output needs to be 5 channel via S/PDIF into my receiver.
Video will need to be via DVI to allow for HDCP during playback.

Since I want Blu-ray and HD-DVD I need a single optical drive to handle this.

Storage isn't really required - other than space for 2 drives.
My main machine in another room has the storage, so wired network connectivity is a must.

OS wise, XP is the only option. Vista would just waste resources.

What I found to tick all these boxes is as follows:
Shuttle SD30G2 Plus BLACK
Intel Core 2 Duo E7200 2.53GHz 1066MHz FSB 45nm
Apacer 2GB Dual Kit (2x1GB) DDR-800 PC-6400 240pin CL5
LG GGC-H20L Blu-ray and HD DVD Reader + DVD Writer SATA
XFX PV-T86J-UAH3 Geforce 8500GT Silent Heatsink 256MB

I reused my HDD's from the previous machine and the Nova-S-Plus as stated above.

Everything installed without issue, there was no touching components - no rubbing.
It all just fit together and worked first time.

And here it is!
Complete and running.
Well almost. Still waiting for the S/PDIF optional extra and still tweaking and testing MediaPortal.
But at this stage everything works other than Blu-ray/HD-DVD playback.

[ThaClown]

Very nice presentation... really cool. what PSU are you using?

[RedeviL]

Just the 250w one which came with the Shuttle barebones case/mobo.

After assembling it I started burning it in - thrashing everything and it held up with no video blackouts of spontanious reboots. So no need to go higher!

[TommySharp]

Hey man, a ballpark price would be great?

Looks nice and neat, whatare your thoughts on fan noise etc?

[RedeviL]

I had a $1000NZ limit, and I came in spot on that.

As for noise, the ICE and PSU fans are extremely quiet.
The only noise noticable from the machine is the old 7200RPM Western Digital IDE drive I have in it. Would like to replace it and the SATA with a single larger quieter drive but due to the money constraint I went for reusing the old media PC's drives.

Even to my suprise the LG optical drive is silent on disc insertion and during DVD/Blu-ray/HD-DVD playback.

[TommySharp]

Cool man.... I have a big HP media centre downstairs with my tuners in it so my ideal client pc won't need anything except a decent processor and hardware HD accelerated graphics card. Am going to see if I can get it to run off a CF card for extra queitness.

The Vista MCE extenders come in at NZ$400 so my perfect box would come in at a similar price..... Doubt I'll manage for some time though. :-)

[RedeviL]

Sofar it's handled all HD content I've thrown at it without a hitch!

Haven't tested HD MKV's to see if the CPU is handling the load of if it's all on the video card - but most definitly with Blu-ray/HD-DVD playback the cards taking the load and not even noticing.

I would most definitly recommend the new Shuttles as a small MediaPC.
The build quality and over all amount of thought put into the layout I just couldn't find with any of the others.

[mudds]

Hi Redevil

Good to hear you got your shuttle running well. I have been using an older shuttle with MP and SD content and it works well. I'm ready to do the upgrade to HD and your setup looks great. Have you tried a DVB-T HD card yet? Just wondering what option to go for to get Freeview HD.

Did you get your SPDIF going? Looks pretty hard to get the shuttle SPDIF out option these days but the circuit is pretty simple so I'm planning on making it up. Just a couple of resistors and a capacitor.

Cheers
Andy
Auckland

[RedeviL]

I haven't tried a DVB-T card, I must admit I have been tempted though.

I'm still waiting for the SPDIF connector to arrive from the US. It is hard to get them, far too hard.
I had to get a friend in the US to buy it for me, have it shipped to himself and then ship it to me.
Should arrive this week if all goes well!

I did look at building my own adapter. Seen a few SPDIF output backplanes in machines which I could butcher.
But the plug on the motherboard is quite unique, couldn't find anything that would fit it.

[mudds]

I'll have a hunt around and see if I can find a plug that will fit the motherboard SPDIF out. Not quite sure there is such a big problem with Shuttle supplying the SPDIF option. I would have thought it would be popular given the lack of space to add an audio card in the Shuttle.