need some help with my second HTPC build (1 Viewer)

[montecristo]

hi guys,

i'm in the planning stage of building me a second HTPC.
my first one i build 11 months ago. it's working very well but i think i did some serious overkill at the time (spend a lot of money on it and it is way too noisy).

thats were i need your help for the second one.

what do i want to reach for my second HTPC?:
-no noise at all (passively cooled)
-no overkill
-as cheap as possible
-the case i will design and build myself
-must be able to playback full HD blu ray without any problems or delays
-must be very fast (i don't want to wait a minute to load)

what parts have i chosen so far?:
-INTEL DG45FC mini ITX motherboard (€125)
-INTEL core 2 duo E7400 processor (€105)
-asus triton 75 processor cooling (passively) (€25)
-GEIL 2GB DDR 2-800 Retail, GX22GB6400LX memory (€29)
-LG CH08LS10 blu ray drive (€99)
-SILVERSTONE nightjar ST30NF,fanless 300W PSU (€129)
-SEAGATE 250GB ST3250410AS HDD (for OS and software only) (€49)
-samsung 1TB HD103UJ HDD (2X with option of a 3th and 4th one) (€75)


remarks:
i will take the harddrives from my other HTPC for cutting costs and to test this new HTPC first. that will be 1 seagate 250GB and 2 samsung 1TB drives.
i do want to add another 2 1TB drives in the future as my current data drives are already almost full.
now that i think of it, i might as well take the memory and bluray drive from the old one just for testing the new one. that saves me another few €.
in the old one i have the famous LG bluray and 4GB memory. i've also been thinking of buying a slim bluray but it costs more and it reads only at 2X and i don't know if that is good enough for playback.


questions:
- can the PSU handle all this?
- can the CPU handle all this, or is it overkill?
-what about the integrated video (hdmi) on the MB, is it any good, can it playback bluray HD without any problem or stutter (i want a really good picture quality for DVD and bluray)
- the optical audio output, is the sound quality good and powerfull (i don't want to cranck the amp all the way up to hear something)? can i play besides dolby also DTS and other (HD) audio tracks?


if any remarks or sugesstions please let me know.
i want to start this as soon as possible. i'm out of the country in a few weeks and won't be back somewhere in november.
i don't wanna wait that long to get started.




yours,

montecristo

 

[Gixxer]

have u thought about putting all those hard drives you have and you want to buy, into a server. that would reduce htpc heat a lot, and therefore you could reduce noise of fans.

 

[montecristo]

i've been thinking about this a lot. but it's very expensive to build a server. so i will wait with buiding a server.
when the day comes a have 4 HD with movies and music i will consider to put it all on a server wich will give the advantage of connecting more than one HTPC.
i do not have any intention of placing any fans in this HTPC.


montecristo

 

[Gixxer]

i've been thinking about this a lot. but it's very expensive to build a server. so i will wait with buiding a server.
when the day comes a have 4 HD with movies and music i will consider to put it all on a server wich will give the advantage of connecting more than one HTPC.
i do not have any intention of placing any fans in this HTPC.


montecristo

i build my server for 250Euros (all new parts), and now is in charge of doing much more than just sharing media, so i think its worth it plus not that expensive.

even if you dont put fans into it, getting rid of hard drives inside will reduce noise (from hard drives) and heat alot.

not trying to convince you anyway. im looking forward for your setup cause i might start a cheap htpc in some months

 

[montecristo]

what kind of server did you build? which parts? cause for 250 euro's i might consider to build a server as well besides my new HTPC. then i only have to put 1 HDD in my case (maybe a SSD, but still to expensive).

what do you think of my HTPC configuration? is it any good and sufficient enough?

montecristo

 

[Gixxer]

i cant help you much with the htpc setup, for me it looks very good but thats because i use a very old computer as htpc and no blueray or high def is possible. ive also got two laptops which do ok, but that does not help either to give you my opinion.. so ill leave that to other users with better htpc experience.

as for the server, i simply put together a amd 4850e cpu, a asus motherboard which has 2 ethernet and plenty of sata conectors, 2 gb ram (as its running xp) and a tacens standard power supply.

i can give you full specs if you want, but what i am saying is that to record dvb-t, share media, do backups, download, and some other basic stuff; you dont need to spend much more money. as i said, all this was for 250euros and makes my live so much easier to have all media on the same computer 24/7.

 

[ichessblumen]

looks okay to me. for better bluray playback I'd advise Intel Q45 Chipset.
nevertheless I'd say have a good convection in your hombrewed case or have a 120 mm emergency fan starts when temps are too high.

just wonder, why you will not build in a tv card?

for your purposes will a 120W-150W PSU do the job. an external DC PSU plus internal DC/DC converter is enough. saves space and heat in the case.

greetz
ieb

 

[Gixxer]

i agree, have a 120mm fan ready to turn on when temperatures go above a certain value. you dont want anything burning out.

 

[montecristo]

ichessblumen,

intel Q45 chipset: does it mean i should take another MB then? what do you advise then?

an external PSU supply sounds very interesting. i've been thinking about something like this before, but i don't now how to do this. i mean, how am i gonna connect everything?

you talk about an external DC supply and an internal DC/DC converter.
how am i gonna use this? can i connect everything? where can i buy this? what brand/type do you advise to buy?
if i can do like this then i'm definitely gonna do it that way.

edit:
i just found the intel DQ45CB MB
unfortunately it lacks a HDMI video output and it is not a mini-ITX board. i really prefer a HDMI video and at least a mini-ITX MB.
i do now you can a HDMI to DVI with a adapter piece but i don't know if it will influence the video quality.


montecristo

 

[Owlsroost]

Why are you planning to use a 3.5" disk for the OS/system drive ?

A 2.5" (laptop size) disk will be much quieter and cooler running, and the other large disks can be arranged to spin down when not being accessed - heat is going to be your big problem in this system with passive cooling.

Tony