HTPC build: Watch it happen!

Righty ho.

Some parts of my HTPC have turned up. Some haven't. Frankly, that gives me time to sit back and consider the bits that I do have, and what I'm going to do with them.

There's been a good thread on HTPCs here linky and I've basically followed Cat5's parts list as stated.

The first thing I've had turn up is the case, which is an Antec NSK1480.

Frankly, I'm so impressed I thought I'd start this thread.

http://www.lawboy.co.uk/htpc/1.jpg

The case. Not that much to look at in this shot. Note the HDD cage and DVD cage

http://www.lawboy.co.uk/htpc/2.jpg

Getting a bit funkier. The DVD cage is not screw fixed, but come out with a "back and up" type manoeuvre. You screw it into the cage, then drop it in and forward to a nice snug fit. Note the black sticky rubber damper pads on DVD and HDD cages.

http://www.lawboy.co.uk/htpc/3.jpg

There are two removable HDD cages. Each has 4 rubber grommets to hold the HDD in place. They each have a carry handle, and each is individually held to the chassis with a thumb screw. Later photos show the holes in teh compartments to thread wires through.

http://www.lawboy.co.uk/htpc/4.jpg

One cage out, showing one below.

http://www.lawboy.co.uk/htpc/5.jpg

There are 3 x 8cm fans in the case. Each has a molex connector, and a separate "low, med, high" speed controller. THis is not the clearest photo in the world, but it's of a 3 position switch. I've not tried the fans yet to determine noise ,but apparently low is 1000rpm, 25 db. I may replace it with a thermaltake 18db version, but will try it with the mobo, etc, to see exactly how noisy it is.

http://www.lawboy.co.uk/htpc/6.jpg

Just demonstrating the wiring from the front of the case, really.

http://www.lawboy.co.uk/htpc/7.jpg

Now to the good stuff. I'm only putting one HDD in the machine, and I'll put it in the upper cage. I am therefore going to hide a LOT of the wiring in the "spare", second, lower HDD cage. This includes ALL the molexs from the three fans, which I have joined together and attached to one power connector from the PSU, the spare MOLEX, a long sata power that I am routing through the cage to join the bluray player, and a sata power cable for the HDD. THis will leave a minimum of wiring in the main body.

http://www.lawboy.co.uk/htpc/8.jpg

As above, demonstrating what will be the "hidden" wires, which I think is quite tidy.

More to follow when I get the internal components and can monitor temps.

Cant go wrong with antec imo

ps needs more parts!

Nice thread, I hope you keep it up-to-date.

The only thing that is putting me off the Antec NSK cases (1480 & 2480) is the fact that the CD/DVD drive is fully exposed (or so I think).

The facia would look so much better with a conceeled "flap" to cover the drive.

am I wrong?

I'd agree with you, actually, but it doesn't bother me. The Sony Bluray drive I have has a black surround and kind of shimmery strip, so it looks OK. Matching the front, or a flap, would look smoother.

The Ram arrived today. More photos when the mobo arrives. If.

Edit: Techbitsonline are supplying the mobo and CPU.

Should have stuck with scan or yoyo or basically f**king anyone else. Bit still not here. Tracking number "pending", so no proof that it's even been posted yet. Order placed 16 Feb. Not happy.

Right, onwards and upwards. Despite the best efforts of Techbits to scupper the whole project (see other thread here http://forums.hexus.net/shopping-ret...ine-avoid.html) we're up and running

http://www.lawboy.co.uk/htpc/9.jpg

Mobo in place. Nice and neat. As you'd expect, not a lot of wiggle room. One thing I found was that, with the hard drive cage being so close to the motherboard, you really have to lower it in with the board horizontal: if you tilt the board, it tends to get stuck, particularly when you're trying to align the backplate.

http://www.lawboy.co.uk/htpc/10.jpg

Same kind of view. Note that I've put the four pin connector under the motherboard to stay nice and tidy. Plenty of clearance under there for it. SATA connectors conveniently by a hole in the HDD cage.

http://www.lawboy.co.uk/htpc/11.jpg

I love Easy connectors.

http://www.lawboy.co.uk/htpc/12.jpg

Everything in place. Note one memory stick is pretty much under the blu ray drive. With the way I'd wired up the power, etc, the blu ray drive was a bit of a bitch to get in: it has "fins" underneath on the cage which would get caught on wires. Also, as seen below, the 24 pin connector is VERY snug against the bottom of the drive. And be sure to connect the CPU fan before installing the blu ray. Still, I'm quite happy with the wiring.

http://www.lawboy.co.uk/htpc/13.jpg

http://www.lawboy.co.uk/htpc/14.jpg

Not the best photos in the world, but I was trying to show you how the 24 pin power socket connects. I had to massage the wires back: a right angle connector would have been very, very useful, thinking about it, but I don't think anyone offers that, do they? I should have got some decent rounded SATA cables as well, in retrospect.

http://www.lawboy.co.uk/htpc/15.jpg

The finished item. Coming soon: in operation!

I can preview that by saying DVDs look awesome. MAME emulation, which I was just going to toy with, is superb, on a 32 inch flat screen HD set (it's OK, I have the original jamma boards, all legal). Windows looks a teeny tiny bit "jaggy" in places. I've got the most UTD GPU drivers, but will try and take some shots. Mainly, it tends to be like the Skype icon in system tray. Don't know if this is coz the resolution of the icon is larger than skype envisaged.

Age Of Mytholgy works well, at 1600 x 1200 (max), as does Sid Meiers Pirates! (same). This is with the onboard only. Dawn Of War is giving my some jip, but I'm looking into that.

Hey Shooty,

That looks really good mate, I had a quick question, are the PCI expansion slots at the back of the case full height (like in an antec fusion) or 1/2 height that need special adapters for the expansion cards? Also you can get right angled SATA connectors most places sell them, and I often get them with my gigabyte mobos.

Thanks

Hawker

Hi Hawker.

HALF HEIGHT. Can't stress that enough. A few people have been wondering that.

I'm toying with idea of a separate GPU, but would have to be half height AND display port or HDMI. Not sure about these adapter bracket things.

RIght angled sata: Yeah, I know, one of them actually is at the HDD end, but with the way the ports are laid out on the board, using right angled connectors would block most of the other sata sockets!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Shooty*

Now to the good stuff. I'm only putting one HDD in the machine, and I'll put it in the upper cage. I am therefore going to hide a LOT of the wiring in the "spare", second, lower HDD cage. This includes ALL the molexs from the three fans, which I have joined together and attached to one power connector from the PSU, the spare MOLEX, a long sata power that I am routing through the cage to join the bluray player, and a sata power cable for the HDD. THis will leave a minimum of wiring in the main body.

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I have the same case, and did exactly the same with the cables :)

How noisy is it?

Looking very slick ;)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Shooty*

Not the best photos in the world, but I was trying to show you how the 24 pin power socket connects. I had to massage the wires back: a right angle connector would have been very, very useful, thinking about it, but I don't think anyone offers that, do they? I should have got some decent rounded SATA cables as well, in retrospect.

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http://cgi.ebay.com.my/24PIN-ATX-90-...mZ130284324429

They are about, just not in the UK (that I've found).

Maybe a gap in the market for someone to fill ;)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Funkstar

I have the same case, and did exactly the same with the cables :)

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Eh, must be right then :)

As to the noise: Um... louder than a DVD player, not as loud as my main PC. Not loud enough that I've had a second concern about it yet. Also, with my PC, I use it most of the time (except gaming) with no sound, so I tend to hear it. With this HPTC, i'm watching movies, or listening to music, or something, so the sound from that masks it.

All three fans are set to low. Did I mention that? CPU temp ranges between 28 - 40 degrees c depending on room temp.

Prize to Mycarsavw. Epic find.

One other thing to mention: my TV stand is in a wifi dead spot, so after a long and helpful chat with Paul at Scan, I ordered two of these home plugs.

Wow.

You read reviews on amazon saying "only took me ten minutes to set up!". Ten minutes? What, do you not have arms or something? Took me ten SECONDS to get this working fantastically.

Right, who wants to see some screen shots? You do? OK, here we go:

http://www.lawboy.co.uk/htpc/16.jpg

The stand. Strictly, I think my TV stand is meant to be a stereo stand, so it's only 35 cm deep. The HTPC is 41 cm, so I've put it on the top, otherwise it would stick out too much.

http://www.lawboy.co.uk/htpc/17.jpg

Stupidly large fonts and graphics, but I am planning on using this from half way across the room, after all.

http://www.lawboy.co.uk/htpc/18.jpg

Media centre, using the "gallery" registry setting, instead of "play", so you can have DVD library. I was really keen to use Windows 7 on this rig because the Media Centre is so much better, in terms of your photo folders not appearing in Video section (i.e. being able to specify which media should appear where), but using a combination of Menu Mender and careful folder placement, i'm fairly happy with it now. However, the mobo drivers really, really did not like Windows 7. Which is fair enough.

http://www.lawboy.co.uk/htpc/19.jpg

A photo purely to show my age

http://www.lawboy.co.uk/htpc/20.jpg

internet explorer. LARGE font for the above reasons. Sorry, photo a bit dark: all except top one taken witout flash to prevent glare, and the sun kept going behind clouds.

http://www.lawboy.co.uk/htpc/21.jpg

MAME: Rolling THunder

http://www.lawboy.co.uk/htpc/24.jpg
http://www.lawboy.co.uk/htpc/25.jpg

Dawn Of War. It lives!

Oh, something else I should point out:

When I first started it up, at top resolution in Windows, tehre was a black border all around the disaply. It would not go to the edges. I had to go into the catalyst centre (or whatever. I'm not an ATI user normally) and stretch the display or something. There was a techical term for it. I thought that was a bit odd. I'll get the exact phrasing later for you.

Edit: If anyone likes the TV program thumbnails shown above, I can upload them in a zip for you to have.

what program do you use to rip all the cartoons to your htpc? i am looking to build one myself. thanks

I get the VOBs from DVDs, then use Vdub MPEG to turn them into AVIs.

That's for the cartoons, and I did it ages ago. Strictly, if I could be bothered, I'd go back now and do what I did for my movies, which is to use CloneDVD. I may yet do that.

Glad to hear everything has gone well!! :)

Ahhhh, cool, its looking really good up and running. Im looking at changing the case for my HTPC but I want something full height, and the new fusion is just too expensive and I dont care about the Imon. With your case is there any way to remove the grey front bezel easily, for example to respray it back? Im curious as I would do something like that if I got one.

Thanks again,

Hawker

Great job and I must say you have an exellent selection of cartoons there :) nice to see someone else who knows what starfleet is :mrgreen:
Well maybe not heman but I was never a fan of that one.

I <3 Commander Makara

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Shooty*

When I first started it up, at top resolution in Windows, tehre was a black border all around the disaply. It would not go to the edges. I had to go into the catalyst centre (or whatever. I'm not an ATI user normally) and stretch the display or something. There was a techical term for it. I thought that was a bit odd. I'll get the exact phrasing later for you.

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GPU Scaling under the Digital Panel Attributes?

need to crop this down

http://www.sfxb.co.uk/sfgfx/bigbigmakarabackdrop.bmp

http://www.daixjunction.ishcom.net/I...ers/Makara.jpg
http://images.myreviewer.com/medium/0000208603.jpg
She is dam hot :)


I'm one of the few people who seem to remember watching this as a kid, I managed to pick up a vhs a while ago. :D
I really should get the dvd box set

EDIT:2nd image link broken :( put a new pic in

Quote:

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Originally Posted by [GSV]Trig

GPU Scaling under the Digital Panel Attributes?

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yeah, that's the one :)

Hey shooty,

Can you remove the front bezel from the case easily?

Thanks

Hawker

Hawker, I WILL get back to you on that once I've taken on enough booze to contemplate wrenching it off.

I'm half way there right now. Give me a wee while.

Ah sorry Shooty, I just thought you might have missed it in amongst everything else, no rush :)

Hawker

Shooty* I would be interested to know how you find the Mobo. as I've been looking at that exact board myself. Which CPU you using with it ?

Specs HERE. :)

Yep, THAT processor.

I've not noticed any problems with CPU or mobo at all. There is occassional choppiness of VOB/ DVD playback in media centre, but I think this is due to windows itself (something to do with opening media centre, closing it, reopening it) rather than any problems with the system coping with HDMI output.

hawker: no, it doesn't seem easily removable... BUT it woul be easy to msking tape it... there is a little recess running all the wa around before it joins the case which is about 5mm deep and wide.

Hey Shooty,

Thats great, thanks for letting me know. Newspaper and masking tape itll have to be then :). I think Im going to get the NSK2480 (which is a bit bigger than yours, as ive had enough of 1/2 height cards, theyre not really upto the job). Also I can get it with a 380W PSU for &#163;60 brand new.

Hawker

Looks great to be honest - I have a shuttle with VMC running and cant live without it - I dont have sky plus like you do, just a freeview card. Surprised by the size of the unit, I did consider the case when I was planning mine, but thought that it would be too big. Looks sweet though.

Now if they would only enable hardware decoding of bluray HD material from within VMC, then that would be great.

Oh and btw - the cartoons rule - I grew up with those too - Jayce and Centurions were awesome!!! :)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Hawker1986

I think Im going to get the NSK2480... I can get it with a 380W PSU for &#163;60 brand new.

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From where?! :surprised:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by NightshadowUK

From where?! :surprised:

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Well from an online retailer, I shan't say which, but someone who works there is a good friend and is willing to do me a good price.

Hawker

Quote:

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Originally Posted by jonathan_phang

Oh and btw - the cartoons rule - I grew up with those too - Jayce and Centurions were awesome!!! :)

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Word.

Update:

In case anyone is looking for a really, really, REALLY good add on for Media Centre, I give you MediaBrowser:

http://www.mediabrowser.tv/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=1010

THIS
IS
THE
SH1T.

In a good way.

I'll grab some screenies of what it does, but it's found media information for some of my most obscure TV programs (Jayce, Street Hawk, Sledge Hammer) along with COver art, synopses (plural), backgrounds. It has configurable views (thumbs, coverflow, etc). Really, really good. Seriously. I spent AGEs looking for something that did what this does. It beats the living crap out of MyMovies (IMHO).

I've combined it with Salami meta scraper, just to I can get all the genres, etc as I want them. Oh, and you can search by actors, etc.

Serious wow factor.

Hmmm... that looks famailiar. It was called Starfleet? Pob255?? On in the early to mid 80s?

Anyone remember this

What, terrahawks? Check out my earlier screen shots, bottom of page 1 ;)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Shooty*

That's for the cartoons, and I did it ages ago. Strictly, if I could be bothered, I'd go back now and do what I did for my movies, which is to use CloneDVD. I may yet do that.

---

I did a search for CloneDVD, but found 2 different versions, from different companies.
Which one are you using?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Zadock

Anyone remember this

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Quote:

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Originally Posted by Shooty*

What, terrahawks? Check out my earlier screen shots, bottom of page 1 ;)

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Hehe, nice collection, got quite a few of those myself.


Have you tried playing Bluray movies on it? and how does it cope with those?

Shooty* - any chance of a pic of the size of the Antec case in comparisson to your Sky box (or just an idea of how much bigger it is)?

Yep, sure thing, was going to post a batch of new shots, gimme a wee while though, I'm accumulating Fred Astaire movies for the missus.

Photos coming soon. Nippers been poorly and I've been playing with the new version of mediaBrowser.

As regards BluRay: Once I swtiched to VGA instead of HDMI, it was great. Probably going to watch Quantum of Solace this weekend. The Duchess looked great (**** film though). TBH, standard DVDs look awesome too.

Lovely lookin PC, have been thinking about buying that case for a while, some really good pictures of the build as its always nice to see an install. Thanks for posting these

Also, if you are thinking about changing the stock fans a few of these may be nice and quiet

http://www.specialtech.co.uk/spshop/...cat=879&page=1

I have a few of the 120mm versions and for the price they are excellent, not high airflow but really are silent.

Right, sorry about the delay, here's some size comparison photos for ya:

http://www.lawboy.co.uk/htpc/26.jpg

http://www.lawboy.co.uk/htpc/27.jpg