My new media rack

Kian · 2008-04-25, 13:18

hi guys,

after 2 months of ordering equipment and configuration i finally managed to get everything working as it should:

See attached pics...

and here are the details of the media equipment:

AV Receiver: Cheap and old Sony Dolby AV receiver (will be replaced by a Onkyo SR 605, once my speakers are repaired)

HTPC:
Case: Silverstone GD01MX
CPU: AMD 4200+ EE
MB: Asus M2A HDMI 690g uATX
RAM: 2gb ddr2-800 MDT
HDD: 2x 500GB Samsung
Fancontroller: 2x Zalman fancontrollers for manually setting the RPM of the case fans
PSU: Seasonic 430w
Graphics: onboard ATI x1250 (using 1080p resolution via HDMI)
Sound: onboard ALC883
DVD: Pioneer DVD-Rom
remote: DiNovo Mini with ueberoptions software for full MP control

this configuration together with the Zalman Fan mates allow me to have a very silent HTPC.

The HTPC is connected to a Samsung LE40A558 LCD Screen (40 inches). Other devices on the pics are a nintendo wii and the wii fit board, which is actually fun to use...

Upcoming objectives: exchange dvd rom drive with Blue Ray drive and get a passive graphics card. the onboard ATI x1250 is not capable of playing Blue Ray media. But maybe, i will go for a 780g mainboard anyway... Furthermore, i am thinking about buying an ipod touch, so that it connects to my htpc via VNC. (allegedly there is a software which allows me to only display a virtual keyboard on the ipod touch)

greetz,

Kian

nicolas · 2008-04-25, 17:56

nice one,someone likes black I think

and damn ! the smallest keyboard I ever seen

finrudd341 · 2008-04-26, 05:48

Looks good - how's the DeNovo remote working for you? I am still researching what remote I will use, and this one seemed quite a good option. Does it have full MP control? I'd be interested to hear what you think of this compared to a standard Media Centre style remote?

Kian · 2008-04-26, 10:32

@finrudd
as you can see on the pick, my HTPC is inside the lowboard. As I dont like it being open, I prefer having the lid closed. So what happens is that, there is not direct IR connection which renders the IMON Remote useless. So I looked for an alternative, which uses Bluetooth. Therefore i ended up with couple of devices and first bought the Keysonic ACK 540 RF. As it was a relatively "huge" Bluetooth keyboard i was not really happy with it. So in the end I bought the DiNovo mini which i could fully adapt to MediaPortal. This does not work out of the box, but rather you need to download a so called "ueberoptions software" which allows you to assign ALL buttons in Mediaportal. so it actually works like a charm.

The only drawback i see between the Bluetooth devices and the IMON remote, is that I need to manually turn on the HTPC at the case, whilst the remote did that when pressing the power button. But this of course required the lid of my lowboard to be open.

I hope that i could help you out somehow.
best,

kian

finrudd341 · 2008-04-26, 14:30

Thanks Kian - it does sound like a great solution, and I think I am leaning towards this for my setup. I can see that the power on/off thing is a pain, but I could live with that.

Thanks for the feedback.

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2008-04-25, 17:56	#2 (permalink)
nicolas Portal Member Join Date: Apr 2008 Posts: 10 Thanks: 1 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts Country:	nice one,someone likes black I think and damn ! the smallest keyboard I ever seen

2008-04-26, 05:48	#3 (permalink)
finrudd341 Portal Member Join Date: Feb 2008 Location: Singapore Posts: 47 Thanks: 7 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts Country: My System	Looks good - how's the DeNovo remote working for you? I am still researching what remote I will use, and this one seemed quite a good option. Does it have full MP control? I'd be interested to hear what you think of this compared to a standard Media Centre style remote?

2008-04-26, 10:32	#4 (permalink)
Kian Portal Member Join Date: Jan 2008 Posts: 63 Thanks: 0 Thanked 2 Times in 2 Posts Country:	@finrudd as you can see on the pick, my HTPC is inside the lowboard. As I dont like it being open, I prefer having the lid closed. So what happens is that, there is not direct IR connection which renders the IMON Remote useless. So I looked for an alternative, which uses Bluetooth. Therefore i ended up with couple of devices and first bought the Keysonic ACK 540 RF. As it was a relatively "huge" Bluetooth keyboard i was not really happy with it. So in the end I bought the DiNovo mini which i could fully adapt to MediaPortal. This does not work out of the box, but rather you need to download a so called "ueberoptions software" which allows you to assign ALL buttons in Mediaportal. so it actually works like a charm. The only drawback i see between the Bluetooth devices and the IMON remote, is that I need to manually turn on the HTPC at the case, whilst the remote did that when pressing the power button. But this of course required the lid of my lowboard to be open. I hope that i could help you out somehow. best, kian

2008-04-26, 14:30	#5 (permalink)
finrudd341 Portal Member Join Date: Feb 2008 Location: Singapore Posts: 47 Thanks: 7 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts Country: My System	Thanks Kian - it does sound like a great solution, and I think I am leaning towards this for my setup. I can see that the power on/off thing is a pain, but I could live with that. Thanks for the feedback.