Just built a new HTPC for personal use. I named it HTPC1. (Quite original I know.) This functions as a secondary workstation in the house, but it also acts as my “server” and “funstation” (no it doesn’t have a bouncy castle, but it has just about everything else.) I like to document systems that I build here on my website. I believe articles such as these help to give more context to the concepts in the A+ Exam Cram 6th edition. If you have any specific questions about this article, feel free to contact me. Let’s begin.
The purposes for this PC include:
– Central location for music, pictures, and video
– Ability to watch Netflix/Hulu in HD
– Run Windows 8 with Windows Media Center.
– Over-the-air TV capabilities
– Connect to the Internet… etc…
I wanted the computer to have the following:
– USB 3 ports, RAID 1 capabilities, microATX, space for 1 SSD drive and 2 SATA magnetic drives
– Compatibility with Windows 8
– Quiet case with plenty of airflow
– Quality video and audio signal
– … and Ludicrous Speed. Because light speed is too slow. 🙂
So, I came up with the following design. Take a look at the pics and the list of components I used. I did of course tidy up the cables in the case after I took a few of the photos, but space was very limited!
Here we see the PSU on the bottom right. The hard drives all mount to a frame that is laid over the power supply area. In that chassis I have an SSD (hidden from view), and two Western Digital 1 TB drives. One of the drawbacks of this design is that one of the magnetic drives has to be upside down.
In this picture we see the CPU and RAM on the left hand side. The optical player sits above them.
Here’s the system with both the hard drive and optical frames installed. Everything is connected, just a bit of house cleaning to do and cable management. It’s a tight fit in this particular case (Silverstone), but the case has two fans on the left, one on the right, and an opening on the bottom for the power supply. It has run cool so far.
The back of the case. The motherboard has built in USB 3.0 ports, DVI, HDMI, DisplayPort, 5.1 surround, plus SPDIF Optical output, RJ45, and eSATA. I added a TV tuner.
Front of the case. Pretty clean design. Six inches tall, has USB 3.0 ports, and audio. You might also notice a bottle of wine in the background. This was necessary when the case and power supply cables were giving me some trouble. But it all worked out (with a little tweaking) and I was able to get it running on the TV.
This is the Intel RAID option ROM. The board I used can do RAID 0, 1, 5, and recovery partitions. I chose RAID 1 so that I could mirror all data that is written to the system. This shot shows a 750 GB partition which I later scrapped and decided to just use the entire 1 TB (or 931.5 GB to be precise.) CTRL+I gets you into this utility. It worked flawlessly for me. I moved a ton of data over the network (gigabit Ethernet) and it consistently wrote 50 MB/s to the mirror. Not too bad. With some tweaking, we could get it to 100 MB/s or so (for network reads/writes, faster for local.)
Here’s Windows 8 running. On the screen you see the Computer Management window in the Disk Management screen, plus a Command Prompt open. The pictures don’t do it justice, but on this TV (Sony Bravia 50″) it looks pretty good. I increased the DPI of the text for easier reading.
Finally, the TV function within Windows Media Center. HD channels come in real nice. Records great with no slow down (even to the mirror.) You might also notice a Tivo which I still prefer for watching TV because it is so user-friendly. Plus, my local cable company encrypts most channels, so you need to have a CableCard. But, I hooked up an antenna to the top of my house, and connected that to the computer’s TV tuner, and it picks up about 60 channels, about half of which are HD. (Cable TV might go out the window.)
Components (with links):
– Case: Silverstone GD05. For the most part, I like this case, pretty quiet. My concerns with this case are: limited space, and somewhat weak construction. For example, I could easily bend the back wall with my hands. Also, I had to apply some pressure when installing the mobo to line up the screws with the standoffs. In addition, I don’t like mounting hard drives upside down (though its done all the time) – and that portion of the frame appears to vibrate a bit even though there are soft hard drive grommets. I had a bit of a shorting problem – touching the front panel of the case or optical drive would cause the system to reboot. It appeared that I had a fan wire touching the back wall of the case. I tightened up the cabling, added some rubber standoffs under the power supply, and reseated everything, plus made sure no wires were touching the case, cards or the mobo, and now it works fine. So in general, the case has worked out okay so far, and very good price, and it is pretty stylish. I was also looking at Lian Li, Antec, and Thermaltake cases, but this met all of my needs. However, I usually use Antec, and I know that most of the concerns (and the shorting issue) I listed would not be concerns with an Antec case, such as the one I used on the Media PC. Of course, there is a price difference.
– PSU: Antec VP-450. Good power supply, extremely quiet. 450 watts seems to be plenty. I believe I could add a powerful x16 GPU if I wanted with power to spare (for example, if I wanted to play Blu-rays), but that shouldn’t be necessary on this system. One issue was the SATA power cable. There were three connectors on one chain. I used them for the three hard drives, but there wasn’t quite enough length. I had to really get creative to get those three to work with my setup. There was another on a separate chain with a Molex and a Berg, but I needed that for the optical drive. It all worked out in the end, but if you use this PSU, and are going to have a lot of drives, I recommend having a SATA to Molex power adapter or two. They just might come in handy. I also considered a Rosewill 430 PSU, but this one won out due to the amount of connectors.
– Motherboard: Intel DH77EB. Nice little microATX board. I wanted to go AMD for this system, but I couldn’t find a board that did everything I wanted. And this was the only Intel board that met all the requirements: Win8 compatible, SATA 6 Gb/s, USB 3, microATX form factor, RAID 1, HDMI (including audio) etc… It works great. The only thing I would add is an additional 3 or 4-pin fan power connector. The case I used has three fans, but the board only has two connectors for it. The third had to go to a Molex adapter. Now, the on-board HDMI connection provides high-quality video and audio signal, but if you wanted to install a Blu-ray player and watch Blu-ray movies on the computer, I would recommend an add-on, PCIe x16, silent video card such as the Asus EAH5450 (which I used in Media PC) or the EVGA nVidia 9800GT (which does have a fan, and is therefore not completely silent). Blu-ray players often require a more powerful, and independent, video card. And if you also want to play games on the HTPC, this video upgrade pretty much becomes a necessity.
– CPU: Intel i5-3450. This is one of the Ivy Bridge CPUs that came out in April of 2012. 3.1 GHz with Turbo Boost up to 3.5. LGA1155, 77 W TDP. The fan is quieter than the fans that came with the Sandy Bridge CPUs. My only complaint is how the fan housing is difficult to marry to the board. It requires a couple tries. Then again, this has always been the case with Intel heat sink/fan components. Not a big deal, but enthusiasts might want to upgrade to another fan/heat sink for various reasons.
– RAM: Kingston KVR16N11H/8 times 2. Standard Kingston RAM that I usually use. Dual Channel 1600 MHz (PC3-12800), but as usual, a high CL.
– HDD 1: Samsung SSD 128 GB (Holds the OS). Prices are still volatile on SSDs. watch for good deals.
– OS: Windows 8 full. I got the full version because I need it for various work reasons. But for most people out there, the Windows 8 Upgrade is enough. Now, of course, there are lots of pros and cons to using Windows 8 (and Windows in general.) I also have a Linux box that seconds as an HTPC. I just like to tinker with all of them. But as usual, my recommendation to a person considering Windows 8 is to think about why you need it. If you don’t need the latest OS, I don’t recommend getting it.
To use Windows Media Center in Windows 8 (called the Windows 8 Media Center Pack), you have a certain amount of time to get it for free at this link. Microsoft sends you a code that you need to plug into Windows 8. I’ve heard that Microsoft plans to charge for it later… we’ll see what happens.
– HDD 2 and 3: Western Digital 1 TB Blue. I bought a couple Blacks for Media PC, but to be honest, I like the Blues better. They are quieter, and according to my tests, are just as fast in a normal working environment. (These contain the data)
– TV Tuner: Hauppauge HVR-2250. This thing is great. Dual tuners, picks up channels well. I got the version with the remote control. But if you want a different remote, you can just buy the card and this Windows Media Center remote control. If you have encrypted cable, you won’t be too happy, as the card will not pick up encrypted channels without using a STB (making it pointless in my opinion). Clear QAM on the other hand comes in fine. Best of all, it works amazingly with over-the-air signals if you have a decent antenna hooked up to it. This Channel Master antenna works darn good (if installed in the attic or on top of the house.) It’ll pick up city channels in HD as long as you are within 40 miles or so and have decent placement of the antenna. If you are interested in a TV tuner that also accepts CableCard, consider the Hauppauge WinTV DCR-2650 or SiliconDust HDHomeRun PRIME CableCard TV 3-Tuner, or other similar CableCard TV tuner. Those are often external devices that connect to the PC by way of USB.
– HDMI cable: Bluerigger 6′. Inexpensive. Works perfect, we’ll see how it holds up. I wouldn’t recommend it for environments where you have to unplug and plug in the cable often.
– Keyboard: Logitech K400 wireless. This is a nice product. Wireless keyboard plus touchpad. works very well, and is pretty quick. Wireless receiver plugs into USB. I recommend using a USB 3 port for it on the front of the computer.
And there you have it. HTPC1 is fully operational. Hope you enjoyed this article. Feel free to contact me with any comments.
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