Who Has A Gaming/HTPC?

[olds]

I use my 3 year old gaming rig as a HTPC but it's in a tower case. I'd like to build an new gaming/htpc in a small form factor case. But gaming performance and htpc performance/noise levels don't seem to go hand in hand.

How did you combat this?

 

[Fallen Kell]

Big case, with huge heatsinks, and big fans. Personally I have an Antec Fusion Remote MAX case, which fits a Noctua NH-D14. My graphics card is a little out of date, one of the fanless HD5750's, but it still plays everything I play at 1080p. I replaced the included tri-cool fans in the case with either Scythe (for the 120mm's) or Noctua (for the 140mm) fans. The heatsink fans use the two included voltage resistors, and the side 140mm and rear exhaust have 7V resistors. The front intake fan I believe has no resistor on it as doing so would affect coolling of the hard drives too much.

But you are correct. If you want to do this in a "small form factor" case, it just will not happen. That said, this case goes fine in my media/component rack, as it is no larger than my amplifier, or A/V pre-processor, and just a little larger than the Denon DVD player I have.

If you search in this forum for topics by me, I think I posted pictures a little while back.

System specs:
Intel i7-2600k cpu
MSI Z68a-GD80 motherboard
16GB DDR3 1600mhz RAM
Intel 120GB 510 series SSD
4x Western Digital 2TB Green hard drives
Blu-ray burner/HD-DVD player/DVD+/-RW combo drive
HD5750 passive video card
Antec Fusion Remote MAX case

 

[olds]

Found the thread, thanks.
http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2170406

This is the case?

 

[Aikouka]

They do make cases that are about the size of an audio/video receiver, which would work a lot better than some super small mini-ITX case.

 

[olds]

They do make cases that are about the size of an audio/video receiver, which would work a lot better than some super small mini-ITX case.

My bad, that's what I meant vs my present tower case.

 

[mshan]

Silverstone GD04 / GD05:

http://www.silentpcreview.com/silverstone-gd05


http://www.silverstonetek.com/product.php?pid=233&area=usa

 

[lavaheadache]

I have a setup like you mention

Phenom II X6 1090t BE
8gigs ddr3
GTX480
thermaltake v3 case

It actually works quite nice for htpc and gaming duties

I have a thread in video talking about my thoughts about the 480

 

[pauldun170]

20ft HDMI cable
20ft usb extender.
Another extender for IR reciever
Routed cables through floor.
PC's are down in the basement.
Keyboard Mouse receiver is under the floorboards (basement ceiling under the living room couch but I could also have just put in the TV stand
Turn them off and on using iPhone\Itouch (WOL) or take them in out of sleep with MCE remote...or TV remote (aux button on our FIOS remote)

Noise and heat are not an issue since I'm not bound by form factor or noise.
Its all in a separate area of the house.

I haven't loaded up my HTPC with a new vid card yet but since my gaming PC is right next to it all I have to do switch inputs on the TV and switch two usb cables over.

I know its not the answer you were looking for but its another way to handle the issue.

 

[olds]

Ya, no basement.

 

[Rio Rebel]

I bought a Silverstone case (different model, but about the same size - big and roomy and horizontal). I don't use it for games, but it's a combination HTPC/Blu-ray/HD-DVD player and media server (4 hard drives). I use an i3 processor so I don't need a video card. I love this - the only thing it won't do is play 3D video, but it could if I added a video card to it. My next move is to get a Ceton tuner card and eliminate the cable boxes (and have a vast space to record tv)

 

[olds]

Thanks for the input.
I think what I may do is buy a case that will hold an ATX mobo and put my present parts in it. Then start upgrading from there. Need a good TV card first off.

How will the rest of this old rig stack up? All I am playing now is COD4 (plays that fine) but I eventually want to play MW3 and possibly BF3.

Asus P5B-Deluxe
E6600 CPU
8800 GTS
4 GB DDR2
550 w PSU
OS is Vista

 

[pauldun170]

Thanks for the input.
I think what I may do is buy a case that will hold an ATX mobo and put my present parts in it. Then start upgrading from there. Need a good TV card first off.

How will the rest of this old rig stack up? All I am playing now is COD4 (plays that fine) but I eventually want to play MW3 and possibly BF3.

Asus P5B-Deluxe
E6600 CPU
8800 GTS
4 GB DDR2
550 w PSU
OS is Vista

The 8800 GTS might not cut it anymore.
If this were a straight HTPC, I'd say everything would be fine but for double duty and the games you want to play...might be time to invest in a new system.

 

[Zorander]

I built this system early 2010 for purely HTPC purpose:

CPU: Intel Core i3-530
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-H55M-USB3
RAM: 2x2GB Kingston KHX1600C8D3K2
PSU: Corsair VX-450
Case: Silverstone GD05 Black

I opted to go with the stock Intel HSF, which is certainly the noisiest component in the system. Replacing it with a low-profile, quiet cooler would certainly bring the system to quiet level.

Earlier this year, I threw in a Gigabyte HD6850 which brought gaming performance to a whole new level and unfortunately also to the noise level. I blame it on the card's aggressive fan setting though (does not ever go below 50%, even in idle and at sub-40C ambient temperature). I planned to tweak the fan setting via software but never seem to find the time (inclination) to do it. Otherwise, I'm happy with the performance and it remains stable even when the CPU box is gasping for air in the rack.

 

[BonzaiDuck]

Rightly or wrongly, I chose to build my latest system for total eclectic capability. I wanted HTPC features, gaming, multi-monitor and "incredible" performance.

I don't care much about the size of the case, although I can see how you might want an HTPC to be as small as a "stereo component" in your home-theater setup.

But here, my desk (and computers) are in the living room. My 42" LCD-LED LG HDTV is in . . . the living room. My old component stereo system . . . is in the living room. So a 30' DVI-to-HDMI cable connects the PC to the HDTV. Currently a coax cable connects my cable-provider's set-top box to the PC. I use a separate LCD monitor for regular computing and gaming.

That leaves me with the puzzling (puzzling in a positive way) behavior of my Hauppauge 2250 HD tuner-capture card. Which . . . . I was planning to explain in a new thread (and long initial post) to solicit any insights that may arise from my Anandtech colleagues here.

The HVR-2250 isn't supposed to guarantee successful recording of premium channels . . but it seems to do so. The set-top-box from Charter -- a CISCO (rebranded Scientific Atlanta Explorer 4640HDC -- is supposed to provide only SD 480p transmission through the coax cable, but I think it's better than that.

I had noticed that HD channels coming into the PC as I described and viewed in Media Center (Win 7) appeared in a 36" diagonal window format on my 42" HDTV. Then I noticed that some legacy channels in 4:3 aspect ratio were as big as they could be for that aspect ratio. And THEN . . . I noticed that the small-window phenomenon would somehow correct itself when I click the "channel guide" button and then exit the channel lineup.

Whatever the quirks and whatever is going on, it's satisfactory enough to use until I explore further my provider's $2/mo cableCARD offer, other products like Ceton InfiniTV, SiliconDust HomeRunTV, the Hauppauge WinTV-DCR-2650 and other products that provide HDMI or USB input to the computer. I have yet to find out whether my provider deploys "SDV" input, or something that allows instead for accessing two channels (or more ) at once.

 

[alcoholbob]

Small form factor then you better have liquid nitrogen cooling...

If size isn't a concern then you 25lbs of dynamat would help a lot with sound absorption

 

[The Boston Dangler]

for m-atx, i like the silverstone gd-02. i used 2 nexus 80mm and soft screws, and a scythe big shuriken cooler.

 

[BonzaiDuck]

for m-atx, i like the silverstone gd-02. i used 2 nexus 80mm and soft screws, and a scythe big shuriken cooler.

That's nice. In my situation, if I'm going to have a desktop in the room anyway, I'll just let my old stereo-component home-entertainment center gather dust until I can bear to give it away to GoodWill Industries.

Thing is, I've got enough "spare"' computers to build one of those Silverstone jobs from the parts. Meanwhile, a $45 HDMI cable feeds my HDTV across the room, and it seems to suffice . . .

 

[Fallen Kell]

Found the thread, thanks.
http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2170406

This is the case?

Sorry, just saw your question. No, that is not the case. This is: http://store.antec.com/Product/enclosure-veris_media/fusion-remote-max/0-761345-15727-8.aspx
Amazon has them: http://www.amazon.com/Antec-FUSION-REMOTE-MAX-Fusion/dp/B001ER6CF0

Here is a review: http://www.silentpcreview.com/Antec_Fusion_Remote_Max

As stated, it will fit a Noctua NH-D14 CPU cooler, which means pretty much anything will fit (160 mm height, 140 mm width, 158 mm depth). I am not going to lie, it is tight, and would benefit from a power supply with angled 4 pin molex connectors for the optical drive, as well as angled SATA cables.

 

[BurnItDwn]

I used to run my HTPC in an Antec Overture 2, was decently quiet, accomidated a lot of hardware, and wasn't too hot ...
http://www.thetechlounge.com/article/228/Antec-Overture-2-ATX-Desktop-Case/

These Days, I've moved my Antec P180 to the basement home theater.... I've got a Phenom 2 in there with a 4870 and it's not silent, but it's decently quiet and it's about 12 feet or so behind the front row of the theater so I don't hear it at all from there...

 

[thelastjuju]

I don't mean to be rude to those with non gaming HTPC's, but I'm just curious what the point is? IMO, gaming on a PC to an 1080p HDTV is the absolute main reason I built an HTPC.

Otherwise, you might as well just stream netflix videos off an Xbox 360..

.. and you're never going to get a dead silent setup.. you ever hear the Xbox 360's fan?? Sounds like if I were to manually set my video card's fan speed to 100% or something.. I don't know how people tolerate it! D:

 

[BurnItDwn]

I don't mean to be rude to those with non gaming HTPC's, but I'm just curious what the point is? IMO, gaming on a PC to an 1080p HDTV is the absolute main reason I built an HTPC.

Otherwise, you might as well just stream netflix videos off an Xbox 360..

.. and you're never going to get a dead silent setup.. you ever hear the Xbox 360's fan?? Sounds like if I were to manually set my video card's fan speed to 100% or something.. I don't know how people tolerate it! D:

In the distant past, I used to use a HTPC running myth with a video capture card as a DVR... i auto skipped commercials, auto transcoded to divx, and essentially kept like 200+ hours of content. Also used it to play music from my network.... This was before Ps3 or Xbox 360 existed, and before DVR's were commonplace...

That said, now my HTPC is also a decently capable gaming machine in case I want to play on the 106 inch 1080p display .... but usually I prefer my triple headed eyefinity setup ....

 

[kalrith]

Silverstone GD04 / GD05:

http://www.silentpcreview.com/silverstone-gd05

This.

I just switched my HTPC to that case. It looks great. It doesn't require half-height cards. And it's got at least a decent amount of room for a heatsink. The install was pretty simple, and there's a surprising amount of space in there.

I run a pretty low-heat system, so I 7-volted the fans. The system is extremely quiet, almost silent, now. I occasionally hear the sound of the hard drive, but most of the time I can't hear it at all unless I'm literally 1 foot away from it. Of course, I have a silent video card and power supply, so YMMV.

@thelastjuju, different people have different uses for an HTPC. You game on yours. I do no gaming whatsoever on mine. I use mine as a DVR for OTA TV and also for internet TV, watching various TV/movies I have saved on there, listening to music either online or from ripped CDs, VOIP box for MagicJack, file server, etc.

 

[WT]

HTPC/Gaming PC ??? Does not compute :|

As much as I'd like to play some CoH:OF on my 42" panel, I just cant see it working from the comfort of my sofa, with a mouse somehow in the mix. Congrats if you can pull it off, but the mouse thing just kills it for me. Guess I should spring for a Logitech Air Mouse.

 

[pauldun170]

I don't mean to be rude to those with non gaming HTPC's, but I'm just curious what the point is? IMO, gaming on a PC to an 1080p HDTV is the absolute main reason I built an HTPC.

Otherwise, you might as well just stream netflix videos off an Xbox 360..

.. and you're never going to get a dead silent setup.. you ever hear the Xbox 360's fan?? Sounds like if I were to manually set my video card's fan speed to 100% or something.. I don't know how people tolerate it! D:

Dont have a gaming console and I dont use netflix.
I do have a very large library.

My setup is dead silent (unless you are in the basement with all the computers)

 

[Zargon]

for BF3 you are going to want a newer quad and a beefy GPU. if it was just MW3 I would say just update the GPU some

paying alittle more for the upgraded HSF on a card is killer for a SFF/HTPC build.

my htpc currently has a dirt 3 edition sapphire 6950 thats significantly quieter than the reference 6950.

I am getting ready to swap in a accelero equiped 5870 to see how quiet it is instead
but I have a MATX tower gaming case in mine, and I can hear the HDD making noise so its not 'ideal'.

how SFF are you looking to go?