I've been running a dual-purpose Gaming/HTPC for months, and it was well past due time to build a dedicated HTPC.
First step was what I require from it:
Small
Quiet
Cheap (~$500NZ)
DVI and HDMI video out (projector and Plasma)
SPDIF optical audio out (receiver)
H.264 hardware decoding
Low power consumption
Blu-ray/HD-DVD capable
I looked at the Mini-ITX form factor and it quickly became the obvious choice.
I then looked into Intel Core 2 Duo based boards, but most either required additional components which then pushed the price beyond my goal budget or pushed power consumption beyond what I considered acceptable since this will be on 24/7.
I'm not a fan of sleep or hibernate for desktops, and had no interest in going down this path, so flat out low power consumption was the final decider.
This lead me to go for an Nvidia ION board, sporting an N330 Atom teamed with a hardware H.264 decoding GPU.
I wanted network connectivity to be wireless, as well as something with the outputs to cover all of the above. The only one which covered all of these was the ZOTAC ION A-U Mini-ITX Mainboard. This model had wireless as well as an external 90w PSU. Reviews clocked full load power consumption in the range of 50w, with as low as 10~15w idle.
Teamed with 2GB of DDR2-667 this covered the board.
Not to mention by default the memory bus runs at 533Mhz, 667 allows for the bus to be pushed up yeilding an Atom running at 2.0GHz.
After some very vigorous testing, it turned out to be _very_ stable as well as produce only a couple of extra degrees of heat.
The case was the next issue, I didn’t want one with a PSU which was accessed from the rear. Since I wouldn’t use that space and it’ll leave a large empty hole when the PSU is removed. Additionally the case needed to have an externally accessible 5.25″ bay for the LG Blu-ray/HD-DVD drive I currently have. This turned out to be an extremely hard set of requirements to cater to. The cases without a PSU had Slimline optical drive slots, where the cases with external 5.25″ bays had an external facing PSU.
I was about to change my requirements when I came across the Aywun A1-8989 Black cube mini-iTX case.
It looked decent enough, had an internally located removable PSU and was _cheap_.
TV recording duties are based around a Pinnacle PCTV Nano USB Stick receiving DVB-T.
Storage in the machine didn't need to be large, but needed to be quiet and power considerate.
While 3.5" drives are cheap, they tend to be noisy and require a fair amount of power.
This left me with 2.5" drives - I scored a 40GB drive for the OS for a few dollars and a 160GB on special. This all came close to budget, but did exceed a small amount.
Once assembled I found that the remote software from Pinnacle can't customise the remote which came with the PCTV Nano.
This was rather disappointing, and it seems I'm the only one with this issue so haven't found any solution - even after bashing my head against the software configuration for 3 hours.
This means I need a remote, currently I'm leaning towards a Hauppauge MCE Remote Kit.
Still working on making a final decision on this.
The machine hasn't made the move from the computer room to the lounge quite yet, still a bit of tweaking and setup to go - but I have finished MediaPortal install and configuration, other than TV. Sofar the ION board has preformed exceptionally!
720p and 1080p streamed MKV's work flawlessly, teamed with SAF the machine doesn't exceed ~25% CPU load.
Blu-ray and HD-DVD playback via PowerDVD 7 (included with LG drive) work quite happily with the GPU and also sit ~30%.
~5% isn't bad for playback and decrypting!
As for pictures, they can be seen here, as well as the full story: Red's Media PC
More to come as I progress! ^_^
First step was what I require from it:
Small
Quiet
Cheap (~$500NZ)
DVI and HDMI video out (projector and Plasma)
SPDIF optical audio out (receiver)
H.264 hardware decoding
Low power consumption
Blu-ray/HD-DVD capable
I looked at the Mini-ITX form factor and it quickly became the obvious choice.
I then looked into Intel Core 2 Duo based boards, but most either required additional components which then pushed the price beyond my goal budget or pushed power consumption beyond what I considered acceptable since this will be on 24/7.
I'm not a fan of sleep or hibernate for desktops, and had no interest in going down this path, so flat out low power consumption was the final decider.
This lead me to go for an Nvidia ION board, sporting an N330 Atom teamed with a hardware H.264 decoding GPU.
I wanted network connectivity to be wireless, as well as something with the outputs to cover all of the above. The only one which covered all of these was the ZOTAC ION A-U Mini-ITX Mainboard. This model had wireless as well as an external 90w PSU. Reviews clocked full load power consumption in the range of 50w, with as low as 10~15w idle.
Teamed with 2GB of DDR2-667 this covered the board.
Not to mention by default the memory bus runs at 533Mhz, 667 allows for the bus to be pushed up yeilding an Atom running at 2.0GHz.
After some very vigorous testing, it turned out to be _very_ stable as well as produce only a couple of extra degrees of heat.
The case was the next issue, I didn’t want one with a PSU which was accessed from the rear. Since I wouldn’t use that space and it’ll leave a large empty hole when the PSU is removed. Additionally the case needed to have an externally accessible 5.25″ bay for the LG Blu-ray/HD-DVD drive I currently have. This turned out to be an extremely hard set of requirements to cater to. The cases without a PSU had Slimline optical drive slots, where the cases with external 5.25″ bays had an external facing PSU.
I was about to change my requirements when I came across the Aywun A1-8989 Black cube mini-iTX case.
It looked decent enough, had an internally located removable PSU and was _cheap_.
TV recording duties are based around a Pinnacle PCTV Nano USB Stick receiving DVB-T.
Storage in the machine didn't need to be large, but needed to be quiet and power considerate.
While 3.5" drives are cheap, they tend to be noisy and require a fair amount of power.
This left me with 2.5" drives - I scored a 40GB drive for the OS for a few dollars and a 160GB on special. This all came close to budget, but did exceed a small amount.
Once assembled I found that the remote software from Pinnacle can't customise the remote which came with the PCTV Nano.
This was rather disappointing, and it seems I'm the only one with this issue so haven't found any solution - even after bashing my head against the software configuration for 3 hours.
This means I need a remote, currently I'm leaning towards a Hauppauge MCE Remote Kit.
Still working on making a final decision on this.
The machine hasn't made the move from the computer room to the lounge quite yet, still a bit of tweaking and setup to go - but I have finished MediaPortal install and configuration, other than TV. Sofar the ION board has preformed exceptionally!
720p and 1080p streamed MKV's work flawlessly, teamed with SAF the machine doesn't exceed ~25% CPU load.
Blu-ray and HD-DVD playback via PowerDVD 7 (included with LG drive) work quite happily with the GPU and also sit ~30%.
~5% isn't bad for playback and decrypting!
As for pictures, they can be seen here, as well as the full story: Red's Media PC
More to come as I progress! ^_^