Built my new HTPC from scraps laying around :)

[Kroze]

Awww yea.
Intel Q6600
4gb DDr2 Ram
Radeon 4870
4 HDDs totalling less than 1.5TB :sneaky:

 

[Charlie98]

That'll work!

The 4x HDD's would drive me nuts, though...

 

[smitbret]

You should head to the unRAID forums. It is full of people with CM Stacker cases that have a Sempron system that has all 18 of the HDDs they have ever owned for a total of 3TBs of storage and things like that. It's kind of awesome.

 

[Charlie98]

...that has all 18 of the HDDs they have ever owned for a total of 3TBs of storage and things like that. It's kind of awesome.

Naaaa.... not really. That would be a small fortune in SATA cables alone!

 

[smitbret]

Naaaa.... not really. That would be a small fortune in SATA cables alone!

Some are IDE......

My thought is always that they could recoup the cost of new HDDs just from power-saving alone.

That's why it's cool. They just do it, because.......

 

[poofyhairguy]

Pretty awesome HTPC OP. I had a Q6600 HTPC for years that ran XBMC and MySQL while other services like Plex and Air Video. I recently upgraded to a Mini ITX celeron for the power usage, but I still keep the old girl around as a desktop for the wife. Works great with a modern SSD.

You should head to the unRAID forums. It is full of people with CM Stacker cases that have a Sempron system that has all 18 of the HDDs they have ever owned for a total of 3TBs of storage and things like that. It's kind of awesome.

Unraid is held back by all those slow drives. Heck I wish every drive was 7200 RPM in my big unraid server like it is in my little one.

 

[Kroze]

I overclocked it to 3.0ghz on a stock heatsink & fan and for some reason it's running incredibly cool. Had to removed 2 of the useless 80gb hard drive as it's making a whining sound.

 

[Raduque]

Nice. Your HTPC > my HTPC.

AMD 4400X2 939
4GB DDR2
Asus A8N-LE
XFX R5 230
80gb 2.5" 5400rpm
LiteOn DVD/DVDRW/HDDVD/BRD

Talk about scraps!

It can play High bitrate L4.1 1080p x264 with DXVA at 15% cpu usage, though. It also bitstreams everything to my AVR, and it does it all through 7MC.

 

[Charlie98]

That's why it's cool. They just do it, because.......

No, I'm just kidding... I think it's pretty neat, too. A technical exercise, so to speak.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Nice. Your HTPC > my HTPC.

AMD 4400X2 939
4GB DDR2
Asus A8N-LE
XFX R5 230
80gb 2.5" 5400rpm
LiteOn DVD/DVDRW/HDDVD/BRD

Talk about scraps!

It can play High bitrate L4.1 1080p x264 with DXVA at 15% cpu usage, though. It also bitstreams everything to my AVR, and it does it all through 7MC.

Uhh, right, a S939 CPU, and DDR2? I call Shens on that.

 

[smitbret]

Uhh, right, a S939 CPU, and DDR2? I call Shens on that.

Why? With a video card that offloads decoding from the CPU, it was no problem with my old 4400+. If it hadn't had Windows overhead, it may have been able to anyway.

 

[WT]

Why? With a video card that offloads decoding from the CPU, it was no problem with my old 4400+. If it hadn't had Windows overhead, it may have been able to anyway.

I think Larry's point was S939 never supported DDR2 RAM, it used DDR1. The memory controller interface wasn't designed for DDR2.

Technically, I have DDR2 running on an old Asrock 939Dual SATA2 board, but that is a super oddball board that offers a CPU upgrade slot that fits an AM2 socket (and DDR2 RAM slots) to upgrade the original board's 939 socket. Oh, and it supports both AGP and PCIe as well !

 

[AnitaPeterson]

That's a nice HTPC, and I'm sure it will play whatever type of media you throw at it, no matter how demanding. I have that same CPU for HTPC duty. It replaced a machine similar to Raduque's (above).

This is why I always tell people to avoid dedicated media players/boxes. Size aside, the PC is much more customizable and versatile.

 

[SwampDog35]

Nice Looking build.

 

[Charlie98]

This is why I always tell people to avoid dedicated media players/boxes. Size aside, the PC is much more customizable and versatile.

Some of the bigger HTPC enclosures are fairly versatile, you could even sub them in for a desktop computer box. Personally, I went with a mATX PC case for my HTPC... but that was to accommodate a specific dimensional requirement in my cabinet, otherwise I probably would have gone with an HTPC case. The only caveat to that would be the influx of mITX boards and cube cases, I see great potential for that in an HTPC role vs a traditional HTPC case.

 

[poofyhairguy]

The only caveat to that would be the influx of mITX boards and cube cases, I see great potential for that in an HTPC role vs a traditional HTPC case.

Truth.

This year I went through and replaced my big Micro ATX HTPCs from 2010 in four of my rooms with mITX builds, nettops or NUCs. I get the size advantage of a set top box, with the power, beauty and customizability of PC HTPC software (XBMC in particular).

I don't even think cost is a huge issue. For my bathroom client I bought an ION2 nettop off Ebay that works great for $60. No set top box anywhere near that amount is as nice as that thing running AEON.

The real barrier to entry is configuration skill, but hey small price to pay for best-in-class.

 

[Kroze]

I'm debating whether or not to put the HTPC into the Silver Lian Li case. Why?

1. The power supply that's currently in the NZXT case is bottom mounted. The Silver Lian Li is top mounted. My HTPC is currently sitting on floor that's carpeted. I don't know how it's affecting the power supply since there's no airflow going through it.

2. Noise. While the black case is great with ventilation and runs extremely cool, the noise from the PS, case fans, and GPU is a little loud...

Let me know what you think I should do.

 

[MongGrel]

Nice did about the same thing recently with an old I-7 920 and a EVGA 260 216 and a P6T I scored cheap.

Have a L5639 gonna stick in that rig tomorrow, it's even running a couple old Raptors in Raid0 and a small 500 Caviar Black for storage.

Not sure what I'll even do the 920 then, dump it maybe the wife still uses one of my old Q9650 rigs and seems to refuse to leave it.

My sister in law still uses my old Q6600.

*edit* personally, I'd just get it off the ground.

But if you're in a building mood I guess go for it, seems a lot of work when you've a good one running.

I like those little HAFs, what I put mine in.

 

[Kroze]

Yea the Cooler Master HAF is nice but it look out of place sitting beside my TV & Receiver.

 

[MongGrel]

Seems your pretty dead set on putting it in the Lian.

Though that isn't a bad thing.

:thumbsup:

 

[Charlie98]

Yea the Cooler Master HAF is nice but it look out of place sitting beside my TV & Receiver.

Plus it's wide open... no noise abatement.

Can't you flip the PSU over and have the fan draw from inside the case? That would get it up out of the carpet. What case is the one you have it in now? ...I don't recognize it. You could easily close up the open fan ports, add a little sound damping, and be on your way.

 

[Kroze]

It's in the NZXT case (middle) in the picture. I guess I can turn the PS upside down but the wiring is going to be all messy..

 

[MongGrel]

Not if ya reroute it cmon he he.

 

[Kroze]

Everything is running beautifully with XBMC. I also play these games (on desktop) with everything maxed out @ 720P using the xbox controller. Gaming with a home theater surround sound is amazing.

Even with an extended gaming session, the CPU temp peaked @ 50 degrees and the GPU peaked @ 62 degrees.

I'm replacing the radeon 4870 with a radeon 5770 in a couple of days though for noise reduction instead of replacing the case...

 

[SolMiester]

Awww yea.
Intel Q6600
4gb DDr2 Ram
Radeon 4870
4 HDDs totalling less than 1.5TB :sneaky:

Great effort, though I wouldnt install all the HDD...My sever has all the space I need, every other device just streams from the server, why double up?