Project Bloaty

[directhex]

I've always liked being able to watch all my assorted crap in the living room. When I was a student, we had a machine built from mostly scrap (a second hand Celeron 1.7 was as flashy as it got), which was used to watch videos and listen to music from the file server upstairs.

Now I'm back at home, and whilst arrangements have changed, my desire to access my media in the living room hasn't. So, in keeping with the current trends, I wanted a Media Center PC. Play back media from the network, and toss in Freeview (which we don't have) for good measure.

So, first of all, the planned spec. The most obvious feature is something to fit into the living room without being too obtrusive - no ATX nonsense. beyond that, I decided that a Shuttle was a bit of a funny shape for the living room, and lacks space for two tuners (watching and recording). I came across a rather nice mATX case, the SIlverstone SST-LCC11.

Inside, there's only really one option for low noise, low heat - the Intel Pentium M. I picked out a 1.7Ghz chip in my spec, and a matching AOpen motherboard. Beyond that were a few basic choices - two 160Gb Samsung Spinpoint SATA disks for data, and a 40Gb Seagate Barracuda for the OS. Dual-layer NEC DVD writer. Some RAM, a GeForce 5200, and a pair of Hauppauge WinTV Nova T's.

All this was ordered sometime yesterday morning, having decided the night before I could afford it with payday coming up. And, in keeping with my fat-ass HTPC theme, and Invader Zim computer naming scheme, I decided I would christen the box Bloaty

[directhex]

So. Bloaty. I got home from work today to two large boxes. The first, from linitx.com, contained the case, a Silverstone SST-LCC11S. Words or pictures cannot do this case justice:



It's stunning. It really is. It's also pretty damned small:



It has some interesting design points - the motherboard mounts to the top of the case, not the bottom, so everything is suspended upside down. So, you assemble the PC upside-down, and flip it over. Clever stuff.

[directhex]

The second box came from the ever-present kustompcs.co.uk, containing about half the neccessary components:



The CPU and motherboard, the data disks, and a CPU cooler. 500 quid for the lot. Unfortunately, I hadn't realied that the motherboard comes supplied with a low-profile cooler, rendering an extra one pretty useless. Never mind. Other than that, assembly wasn't too tricky - the main sticking point is that the case fan at the front of the case is somewhat too big, and conflicts with SATA power conectors. However, some jiggery-pokery, and it all fit:





Now I',m waiting on the remaining parts from Scan.co.uk, and sitting with an unneeded CPU cooler - and I can't power on the system yet, because the RAM hasn't come. never mind. More as it happens.

[Jonny M]

Any reason for picking the AOpen?

Edit: Just seen the use of the Pentium-M. Should learn to read threads.

Looks like a very interesting project. No doubt you will be running something Linux-based on it?

[directhex]

Any reason for picking the AOpen?

s' what kustom sold, cheaper than the dfi at cpucity

Looks like a very interesting project. No doubt you will be running something Linux-based on it?

i expect so. i have some windows server 2003 trials, so if i feel like it i could isntall windows and a (free or shareware) windows-based tuner app. largely i want to do some HEAVY hacking on it to fix all & anything that isn't perfect (yes, i mean C programming if needed). you don't get that freedom with the windows apps.

[DaBeeeenster]

You need MythTV. Windows Media Center Edition pales in comparison.

[directhex]

You need MythTV. Windows Media Center Edition pales in comparison.

yeah, i know. i'll give freevo a play too, to be fair

[DaBeeeenster]

What distro were you thinking of? I have gentoo on my HTPC but it was a bit of a nightmare to get working. Patching kernels for 3 days is not my idea of fun!

[directhex]

i tend to use debian for all my computing needs. i may well end up having to do some major kernel hackery anyway, to get all the spiffy Pentium M things like speedstep working. Plus, i want a pretty bootsplash, which isn't in stock debian kernels. and some dvb-t drivers might help, i'm pretty sure those'll need to be compiled in separately

[Jonny M]

If it helps, I just installed Ubuntu (Debian-based) on my 1.7 Centrino laptop, and the speedstepping worked out of the box (got the CPU speed monitor displaying in Gnome and it scales from 600Mhz - 1700 Mhz.

[directhex]

interesting. i might have a play...

[directhex]

well, my IR receiver has arrived from Germany



and yet Scan appear to have not even shipped my remaining bits yet. nice one, Scan.

[ikkitousen]

hey one question mate the front of the sliverstone case looks like wood so is it? also the freeview card you are using what one is it i am intrested in doing something like that with my fathers Mirco-ATX pc its only a 800Mhz pc tho was thinking of hooking it up to the 36inch tv not sure if the font will be clear for websurfing tho

[ikkitousen]

lol nevermind about the wood just found out it was walnut wood think i might do it with that case its a sweet looking case where did you get it from mate?

[directhex]

hey one question mate the front of the sliverstone case looks like wood so is it?

the black silverstone has what's described as 'wood effect', and wanting to avoid a nasty plasticy situation i got the silver version.

[directhex]

lol nevermind about the wood just found out it was walnut wood think i might do it with that case its a sweet looking case where did you get it from mate?

i got it from linitx.com, though kustompcs.co.uk also sell them.