Ongoing New dedicated MPPC in progress (1 Viewer)

[elconejito]

Hello all,

I used to post here pretty frequently until those silly things such as work got in the way. Anyway, I decided to build a new media PC from (almost) scratch and install Mediaportal on it. I previously had MP installed on my desktop PC and that worked fine for a long time, but I found myself leaving the computer on almost all the time to either record or compress recordings. And quite frankly that computer was pretty loud and I could hear it and see it (blue LEDs) from my bedroom.

So I started on a mission to build a new dedicated MP box that would stay on 24/7 and do so quietly and reliably. WAF isn't an issue since its just me for now so i can afford to tinker a bit.

Here is a list of what's inside:

Motherboard: DFI RS482 Infinity
VGA, DVI, and TV-out (S-Video, composite, or component depending on cable), 7.1 surround audio or digital optical passthrough. DX9 capable with shared memory.
CPU: AMD Athlon 64 3200+
HSF: Zalman CNPS7000B Aluminum/Copper
RAM: *1GB Corsair XMS DDR400 (2x512mb)
HD: Samsung 320GB Spinpoint T Series HD321KJ
DVD: NEC ND-3550A 16x IDE DVD Burner
TV Card: *Hauppage PVR-150MCE
NIC: *Linksys WMP54Gv4 Wireless card
PSU: Dynapower 300W
Remote: MCE US Version

* = parts reused from old computer

All of this is in a cheapo $30 case for now until I get all the kinks worked out. Then I may or may not move it to a nicer case. It is also attached to a small 15" LCD I have lying around for testing before I hook it up to my TV.

For anyone who is interested in the "long story" I have it on my blog where I have plenty of photos of the parts and more details on my selection process. (Warning, in case you haven't noticed I can be a bit long-winded)
harvsworld.com

Any comments and suggestions are welcome, as I mentioned this is a work in progress so I'm all for trying out software or even hardware (budget permitting).

A question to those people with a dedicated box regarding how you "manage" the TV? By that I mean, is your PC off or suspended all day until its needed? Is the TV on the whole time that the PC is on? I use a settop box so MP will have to tune channels and potentially turn on the TV when I'm not home or worse, when I'm asleep. So I'm not sure how to handle that...

I will mention a bit of a headache I had with this particular motherboard (which has all the makings of a great HTPC board). I kept getting crashes and BSOD which I just could not figure out. Long story short it ended up that I needed to increase the voltage to memory to 2.7V from stock 2.6V. I've been running it that way for a day and a half now while running Prime95 so i think that is the cure, just in case that helps anybody else.

I'll post here again once I've gotten MP installed and running in a few days.

 

[geov]

I would love to create a silent box, but I always end up with a heating problem...
I have tried about 10 different system-fans that are supposed to be silent...but all make noise. My CPU-fan also causes interference on my TV-out...so I've just settled for a noisy box with three system-fans that cool the CPU down so that the CPU-fan never goes faster than 30%.
Perhaps you have a good idea....do you have any problems with heat?

Regards
GeoV

 

[elconejito]

I would love to create a silent box, but I always end up with a heating problem...
I have tried about 10 different system-fans that are supposed to be silent...but all make noise. My CPU-fan also causes interference on my TV-out...so I've just settled for a noisy box with three system-fans that cool the CPU down so that the CPU-fan never goes faster than 30%.
Perhaps you have a good idea....do you have any problems with heat?

Regards
GeoV

The Zalman fan I mentioned above is absolutely S I L E N T at it's lowest speed setting. I have another one in my main desktop (Intel Core2Duo) which is also silent at that speed.

If you purchase one of these you should turn off the motherboard CPU fan control. Because the principle is have a larger fan that turns slowly to move same amount of air as a faster spinning smaller fan (such as the stock HSF) many mobos will give an error due to low RPM. The kit comes with a fan control that you plug in between the fan and the motherboard that has a dial you turn to control the speed. If you turn it to the silent setting it really is silent. Depending on your case, that may or may not be enough to keep your CPU cool. I turned mine up about a fifth of the way so that it was equally as loud as the HDD and power supply. It keeps the CPU at about 33degrees Celsius without load and about 45degrees Celsius at full load (while running Prime95 CPU maxxed at 100%).

In the photo below the control is the black box against the back wall of the case. I could put it outside the case too if I wanted since the cable is long enough.

link to larger image

I figure once I enable AMD Cool 'n Quiet the idle CPU temp should go down even further and since it will rarely be running at 100% I figure heat really shouldn't be a problem.

This case has only the CPU fan and the power supply fan (also notice it has one large fan as well), but it does have alot of room in it for air to "flow" as you can see by the picture. From my sofa it is inaudible except for really heavy HDD seeks (again shouldn't be a common problem). More noticeable is the blinking red HDD light.

I would highly recommend the Zalman fans. They also have an "All Copper" version which is a bit more expensive but dissappates heat better. This version is an aluminum-copper mix and cost i think about $30 at newegg.

 

[elconejito]

I forgot to post this here, but I finally got this system hooked up to my CRT TV. I wrote about it in my blog here.

Eveything was going VERY well except for the well known scheduling bug. It appears that it has been fixed in SVN, but now the blaster isn't working

Hope to have that cleared up and soon and then it should be all ready to go!

The HTPC is in the lower left corner by the TV. It is sitting on top of a bass-tube that used to be in my car. One of the cables was a bit too short and I had to prop it up somehow. I've replaced the cable and will take more pictures soon. I am considering putting it actually underneath the TV...