Ongoing Building a new MP client (1 Viewer)

[VdR]

I want to build a new MP client. Not that I need one, I just want to build one.

It's to replace my Z552 client, it's an old, slow, big ugly brick. Reasons enough to convince me.

There's two things I'm looking for: Speed of the GUI. The Pentium and even more the atom client are just not crisp, it's great on my overclocked i7 2500k, but I do not use that machine as an MP client really. And: silent, as in fan less, HDD less and ODD less.

For the case I love the looks of the Streacom FC5, but I want the one without ODD slot that should become available soon. For speed I'm willing to go for an i5 2300 and I will use the SSD from the existing Z552 client.

Anyone have experience, good or bad, with the iGPU in the i5? Totally smooth on 1080p24?

The client will only have W7 and MP installed. What else can I do to get speed? Is the amount of RAM going to have a big influence? Would a RAM drive help in some way. What about 32bit versus 64bit, MP is a 32bit application, so 64bit is not going to help on speed, maybe on the contrary?


VdR

 

[VdR]

Done some more research.

The FC5 case is recommended up to 65W thermal for the CPU, that excludes the i5. Should use an i3. But then the later i3 2125, because it has the Intel HD 3000 graphics, rather than the 2000. Apparently there is a significant performance difference.

I would like to use a mini-ITX board, although a micro-ATX would fit. But it is difficult to find a mini-ITX that is listed as compatible with the FC5 case, has a SPDif output on the back AND is available. Now thinking of the mini-ITX MSI H61I-E35 with an additional SPDif bracket.


VdR

 

[m0t0k0]

I went from an atom in a REVO to my i3 2100 and the difference was night and day. Everything is snappy and responsive (having an SSD makes a huge difference as well, so reused one from my atom build)

If your only using it as a client and not gaming then I would not bother with the HD3000 as I have not encountered anything I cannot play. In fact the CPU alone of the 2100 can cope with anything anyway. But I still use LAV audio filters as this will happily off load the video onto the iGPU (in fact LAV is all you need unless you want to do some post processing)

There is no need for loads of RAM 4GB is more than enough (W7 will run fine on 2GB)
Just using 32bit OS is fine but if dont already own the OS there is no reason not to get 64bit

A RAM disk can be very usefull for your Time shift drive as it has very low latency and high throughput.
If you want to go down that route I would stick 8GB in your server and dedicate 6GBs to a RAM drive for your timeshift. Finding a free RAM drive program which supports drives over 4GBs may be tricky.
http://www.raymond.cc/blog/12-ram-disk-software-benchmarked-for-fastest-read-and-write-speed/

 

[VdR]

Thanks for that.

For this client. I will see if the savings to change from the 2125 to the 2100 are worth it. No games only MP. I too only use the LAV filters. 4 GB memory seems the right number. I'll install W7 64 bit to be fully future proof. Of course I will use an SSD.

Now I'm just waiting for the Streacom FC5 without ODD slot to become available.

The server is a completely separate problem that I will have to tackle some time. It still runs XP. It has 4x 1TB in raid5. But since XP does not support an HDD over 3TB, I set up two raid5's that each use half of each of the four 1TB disk creating two dynamic discs that are combined to one logical drive. Works like a charm, but far too complicated and I don't know how to move this to W7 and one raid5 without somehow backing up all the files. Ugly.

 

[m0t0k0]

For the server I would recommend Windows Home Server 2011 mainly because it only costs £40 but it can also backup all the clients on your network nightly.
Its a god send if you want to play with things and then mess them up. As you can just restore to last night backup from over the network (much faster than restoring from a portable HDD)

Migrating your data is going to be a tricky one. I guess your going to call all your friends and see if you can borrow some portable HDDs!

 

[VdR]

Choices made:

Streacom FC5 WS black
12V 120W power supply with 150W PicoPSU
Intel DH67GD (low power, CIR i/f, s/pdif out)
Intel i3 2125
Corsair XMS3 2x 4GB
OCZ Vertex 2 60GB (re-use)
Windows 7 Ultimate 64bit
MP 1.2.2 with StreamedMP and moving pictures
HP MCE remote (re-use)
Logitech KM400 wireless keyboard (re-use)
Panasonic 46" HD NeoPlasma display (re-use)

 

[Jay_UK]

Nice build... not cheap...but nice...

I'm tempted

J.

 

[VdR]

Most of the parts are in. Just still missing the power supply. The case is really cool. If only I would have some time to start the build ...

 

[hulkhaugen]

Cool, pretty close to what i'm about to put together Here's my setup so far:

Streacom F1C
Intel 520 Series SSD 120GB
Corsair Vengeance DDR3-1600 8 GB
Western Digital My Book Live 2 TB (NAS)
Samsung UE46D6505
Harman/Kardon SB16

I'm waiting on Ivy Bridge, want to have the Intel 4000 graphics. Also thinking of using a PicoPSU, but wonder if anyone has any experience with the Iwill IWI-H33 PSU? Can't find much info about it, but it's much easier available. Would the H77 chipset be the better choice for a HTPC? Don't need overkill or oc, but wan't a fresh setup...

 

[Jay_UK]

Hi there,

I am condsidering another client:

AMD A6-3650
Asus F1A75-I DELUXE
Corsair XMS 2 x 2GB
64GB M4 SSD
Streacom FC5 WS

I have never tried Intel for a HTPC, obviously a few have commented about the 24p issue - is this really an issue?

Maybe I should give it a try???

I thought Ivy Bridge had been delayed??

J.