New HTPC based on Core i3 - Questions about the case and components (1 Viewer)

[pgroe]

Hello,

(Dieser Thread exisitiert schon einmal auf deutsch.)

i want to build a HTPC for my living room. After looking for capable and good components and reading several threads I now plan to use these components:

==

Case: Antec Micro Fusion Remote
Decided for it because of providing all necessairy capabilities (IR, Display, USB, Sound at the front), has an acceptable look (stands right below the TV) and is affordable (good price considering that there is a PSU included).

Case Fans: Papst 80mm (2x)
The case includes 3 fans (one pulling, two pushing) but I are said to be very loud so I will unmount them and replace by the 2 ones from above (one pull, one push, third grid closed).

Motherboard: MSI H57M-ED65
I was looking for an MSI board (because of the high power efficiency) with the following requirements: at min 2 x S-ATA (accessible from the top because of the case geometry), better 3 ones; Firewire (for my HDV camcorder); 7.1 Sound (good quality in order to make an extra sound card redundant); at min. 3 PCI Express slots (tv card, ci slot, 1 extra); internal adapters for front usb (not really knocks out any board but is needed for the front panel), internal audio headers for the front panel.
First I planned the MSI-H55M (in one of the 3 editions) but I think an extra firewire controller would cost a part of the extra price of the H57 one, would occupy a card slot and would melt down the power efficiency advantage.

CPU: Intel Core i3 530
The smallest of the core i's because it is the most "money efficient" choice for a core i. (Only little less speed than the bigger ones, but much cheaper)

CPU Fan: Scythe Shuiriken Rev B
The case is a low profile case though there is not much space for a cpu fan. I read that this one is a very thin but silent fan. I decided for it although some people wrote about failures after about 6 month.

RAM: Kingston HyperX 4GB Kit DDR3 PC3-10666 CL7
The best RAM-Kit i found combining the following attributes: fast, power efficient, cheap ;-) (everything you need)
I first wanted to equip my htpc with only 2 GB but then I was advised to be more generous in this point because it is hard to find exactly the same RAM data (CL, clock speed, ...) some years later to upgrade the hardware.

TV Card: Digital Devices cineS2 (already present)
Will be expanded with the fitting CI slot as soon as it is supported by MP.

If my requirements in a clear good sound (for radio) are not satisfied, it will further be extended by a good sound card.

==

Based on this assembly I have several questions:

1) Has anyone improvement suggestions? (surely there are ;-) I am very interessted in them)

2) Has anyone made good/bad experiences with a config like this?

3) The case fits exactly (concerning the height) into the desired place (directly below the tv -> only a short hdmi cable required, 12 cm height available). But I'm sure it would be better, if the cpu cooler could pull in air from the top side of the case (which has a grid there).

Thus, is it possible to unmount the stands and replace them by felt (or something like that) to get extra space? Does anyone know, how they are mounted and how much height they need?

4) When the case fans are replaced, is it reasonable to replace the PSU with a more silent one? (Because this final step of fan replacement is much more expansive than the other)

Is it possible to use a PicoPSU with this config? (Concerning power consumption)

Which TFX PSU are advisable which have high power efficiency (80+) and a low noise?

5) I am looking for a keyboard/mouse solution for navigation in some normal applications. Is it reasonable to use a keyboard with a touch screen or even with a trackball integrated? (In order to have a small and compact solution)
I found the KeySonic ACK-540 RF+ and Enermax Aurora Micro Wirless. Has anyone experience with that ones or proposals for better solutions (e.g. more cheaper ones )?

6) Does someone know whether the multi device remote from the philips tv can be recieved by the case built-in IR reciever and can be recieved by MP?
Resp. can every remote be recieved by the built-in IR reciever or can it just recieve the included remote control?

==

I would be glad about your advises and help and thank you in advance for your commitment ;-)

Greets,
pgroe

 

[geoffstewart]

From the reading I've done on the i cores, you want to go with the i5 for HTPC... it is the minimum you need to successfully decode h.264 HD 1080i with proper de-interlacing... I've looked at this a bit but just for interest as I'm not in the market, but this is what I've read.

Cheers.

Geoff

 

[pgroe]

I'm not sure, but I thought that both decoding and de-interlacing (especially VA de-int.) would be done by the graphics core. So is there also a difference in graphic cores between the core i's (except for i5 6x1 whose graphic cores are clocked faster)?

 

[Drewsta]

Hey,

I just completed my HTPC build with the following

I3 530
Asus P7H55-M - Using onboard Intel graphics, HDMI)
1x2G DDR3 1333 (Kingston general ram)
Zalman HD501 (wanted a case that would not grab the kids attention so they wont break it) - supports full atx, when i upgrade my gaming pc, HTPC will be upgraded as well.
Terrabytes of HDD space for a very large Bluray collection
400 PSU
Win7 x64

Playback of all H264 and pure untouched bluray movies is absolutely perfect. it has never even had the slightest flicker using the onboard graphics chip.

I did alot of playing with mediaportal and remotes/keyboards and personally found that i needed a combination of both where-as, i couldn't be stuffed programming remote control buttons etc: i want it to work - that's it so i did alot of reading and decided to go with the "RII mini keyboard" which arrived 2 days ago - one word - LOVE.
It is perfect balance straight out of the box to control Mediaportal and the PC itself when i want to make adjustments/browse.

My aim was to minimize costs at the start:
I will be adding:
Another 2gig DDR3 RAM in the next month for dual channel (not critical though, because i can), but 2Gig is absolute minimum and adequate to keep you going fine.
Beef up my old used 400watt PSU to 500w Silent.
Add bluray DVD drive - no rush, have one in my main PC.


Hope this helps

Drew

 

[drealit]

I have a i3 based setup (refer to my up-to-date "My System" information to the left under my name).

The only issues with i3 currently is the ongoing lack of true 23.976hz (24p) support (every 40 seconds or so there will be a duplicate frame) and the terrible PQ when using a MPC HC/FFDshow dxva based decoder for AVC material (x264 etc.) as I have demonstrated in these 2 comparison screenshots Index of /hosting/i3 (my i3 vs. my HD 4890 discrete gpu), and the fact that you can't use MPC/FFDShow for VC-1 material with hardware acceleration (at least I and many others have found this).

These are 2 very significant flaws and have almost pushed me into the purchasing an add-in card for video output. I need to use Arcsoft's decoder for VC-1 and PDVD10's for AVC material which I'd rather not since I'm not comfortable with the processes required to use them. Basically my ideal setup will allow me to install SAF 4 or 5 and then be completely done with it.

Intel came so close to making me completely happy but fell short with these 2 significant issues... the PQ issues with MPC based decoders being my primary flaw against this setup.

 

[pgroe]

I now have bought and installed the system. But I still have some issues with the correct configuration. MP/TVS was running very unstable on Win7 x64. I am now testing WinXP 32bit but still didn't get work the codecs correctly. (Issues described in SAF 5 thread, because I am trying to use SAF 5). I hope it will get into work correctly.
Which codec config are you using? Did you have to make any tweaks or did it run correctly simply after a clean install?

 

[drealit]

You can't use SAF 4 or 5 as your primary decoding. As I mentioned in my previous post the intel HD graphics chipsets do not work well with anything that is MPC HC based (SAF 4) or FFDShow based (SAF 5 which is basically rebadged MPC HC decoders). The recommended usage is listed in "My System" area which is to use the PowerDVD10 decoders for AVC material (h264, x264, etc.) and Arcsoft's video decoder for VC-1 material.

As I showed in my post I couldn't get SAF to work for VC-1 and also the x264 material played back with either SAF yielded TERRIBLE PQ results as you can see in the 2 screen shots I provided.

 

[o0X0o]

drealit - "...since I'm not comfortable with the processes required to use them". Are you able to share with me the process? I'm having the same problems on an almost identical setup.

I already have a licence for Arcsoft, but if I also need to buy one for PDVD I think I'd rather just get a discrete card.

 

[o0X0o]

I installed PDVD10 which has resolved the PQ issues with x264 material for me as well.

Thanks drealit

 

[pgroe]

I installed PDVD10 which has resolved the PQ issues with x264 material for me as well.

Thanks drealit

Works fine for me, too ... nearly all the time. But in some scenes deinterlacing falls back to "no deinterlacing" while in mediaportal config (in tv section) fallback deinterlace mode is set to "best". Someone some ideas or similiar issues?