HTPC Section

[Funkmonkey]

I disagree at least on one point, funkmonkey. There have been threads about this subject, I believe in the bluray forum here. We don't have the bandwidth quite yet. Some companies allow limited amounts of dl, maybe even only 25gb a month. My $50 Godfather collection itself is 200gb. Then if your provider offers poorer SQ, poorer PQ, higher compression, who are you going to complain to? People have complained about DRM with BD, but it seems that those who know say that it will only be worse with DLs.

HTPCs are cool in their own right, but what do you think videophiles are loading them with? Bluray.

The time will come. But I don't think it's here quite yet. If you care about convenience (and even that is arguable IMO), then have at it. If you want the best PQ and SQ available, go with bluray. That's what I did. JMO.

I plan on going Blu, and do not disagree with what you said. I was perhaps overemphasizing that an HTPC will become very commonplace, and eventually we will be downloading all content from the net (when the infrastructure and bandwidth, and available quality are up to the task). I feel that this shift is going to happen much sooner than later, but agree that it is still as few years away. I am sure that BluRay drives will be a major part of HTPCs of the next several years, but beyond that it will be downloads to solid state drives and streaming content.

I do think that the time is now to begin an HTPC section, because related posts are scattered across several other topics and not as easy to locate. A dedicated section would undoubtedly continue to grow over the next few years.

 

[krzywica]

I'm not very interested in HTPCs, nor know anything about them, but I thought one or two of you might be interested in this monster build. The guy is the most avid poster of controlled, comparative screen shots, and PQ threads in general. That's how I ran into it, as the link is in his sig, and I like checking out his threads:

Project: Tandem 1.0 HTPC Worklog*PIX*

enjoy?

Oh and I forgot to mention his partition scheme and lack of any network utilization borders on being downright retarded.

 

[jostenmeat]

That is kind of a crappy hardware list...nice PQ and detail in the thread but that guy apparently has not done a lot of research as to silent PC hardware and silent build techniques. Most of the components he has selected are "quieter" per say but not even close to silent.

Cool, but I wouldn't know! I'm not sure how high of a priority silence was in that fellow's setup. Obviously, storage space seemed to be. FWIW, he uses a front projection setup, and most FPs make enough noise on their own. Most FP setups aren't playing back at very modest volumes for that matter.

Oh I see the funk has replied. Cheers, and yeah, I have nothing at all against an HTPC section. I'm sure I would learn some things as I do with most any subforum here.

EDIT: you ought to let him know krzywica. FWIW, that thread is over 2 years old, and before that 2 year old thread even started, he had already done a lot of his research prior. Again, I just have to take your word for it.

 

[krzywica]

I plan on going Blu, and do not disagree with what you said. I was perhaps overemphasizing that an HTPC will become very commonplace, and eventually we will be downloading all content from the net (when the infrastructure and bandwidth are up to the task). I feel that this shift is going to happen much sooner than later, but agree that it is still as few years away.

I do think that the time is now to begin an HTPC section, because related posts are scattered across several other topics and not as easy to locate. A dedicated section would undoubtedly continue to grow over the next few years.

I think to have a dedicated section we would have to have a dedicated moderator or a dedicated senior member a least to start a "How to" article. This would require a massive amount of information gathering and would also touch on some touchy subjects. Such as encoding or "backing up" the Bluray's and HDDVD's, which involves gray areas of DRM laws, probably another reason the staff here frown on dedicated section for this.

 

[krzywica]

Obviously, storage space seemed to be.

EDIT: you ought to let him know krzywica. FWIW, that thread is over 2 years old, and before that 2 year old thread even started, he had already done a lot of his research prior. Again, I just have to take your word for it.

Yeah thats always a huge priority....space is king when it comes to centrally located distributed media in your house.

But I can't help my hand going to my forehead when I see the 25 odd data stores spanned across those drives....I mean if you are going to spend all that money on all the nice gear you can't afford to get a nice RAID Controller? I don't quite know what he was thinking. RAID 5 has been around for what....20 years? Not pointing this toward you at all, and I appreciate the link as he has some excellent hardware and ideas....but the follow through is just rather poor. These are all good reasons to have such a thread as most people don't know where to begin with this sort of thing, much less the caveats.

 

[Sheep]

Check out the HTPC link in my sig and navigate to the "after mod" section, this is the best performing HTPC I have built/seen yet. It is also completely silent from the listening position at 2 in the morning with only the HTPC running. I can only hear it if I go behind the TV and stick my head next to it.



That is kind of a crappy hardware list...nice PQ and detail in the thread but that guy apparently has not done a lot of research as to silent PC hardware and silent build techniques. Most of the components he has selected are "quieter" per say but not even close to silent.

Your rig is very similar to mine. However, a true baller rocks Noctua fans, not Yate Loon. Is that a HD4870 with the Trad? I'll be joining those ranks very shortly.

SheepStar

 

[krzywica]

Your rig is very similar to mine. However, a true baller rocks Noctua fans, not Yate Loon. Is that a HD4870 with the Trad? I'll be joining those ranks very shortly.

SheepStar

lol...yeah whatever Sheep..

You really can't go wrong with either, I have heard the Scythe's are excellent as well. I am actually loving my Nonoxia's which are made by those crafty German fellows. Oh and yes that is a Trad2 and it is an amazing performer Idle/Load Temps are 35c/50c respectively and it is completely silent with the two 92mm Yates.

Here is a build thread which I actually forgot that I did on another forum.....I actually posted it here too but it went unanswered.

Ok guys so I was so excited to get my Thermalright TRad2 on Friday. It performs amazingly well as it has lowered my temps 30c+ on both idle and load for my 4870.

However, the twin Yate loons seem to blow air right across into my PWM, CPU, and NB area, creating much higher temps for all of those components.

This is a HTPC case and as such is completely silent at the expense of airflow. I think the issue is that I am not getting enough intake of fresh air to sustain the best possible temps.

So I went crazy on www.performance-pcs.com last night and ordered some new stuff.


Airflow of my case currently blowing hot air right onto the CPU.


Plan on putting one of the Nonoxia 80mm fans here. Not sure if it should be a push or pull yet. Thoughts?


Plan on putting another Nanoxia 80mm here to pull fresh air into the case.


Here is the parts list....
1x 140mm Yate Loon Silent Case Fan

3x 80mm Nanoxia FX08 Fans

Thermalright AXP 140 HTPC CPU HS

2x 60mm SilentX IXP Ixtrema Pro Fans

 

[krzywica]

So my girlfriend cleaned the house and I couldn't find the camera for step 2, IE-modding and cutting the case and mounting everything.


Here are some pics and a link to the gallery if you care to take a peak.


Thermalright AXP-140 ---------The cooler is so big I had to move my memory to DIMM's 2 and 4.


AXP-140 and 140mm Yate Loon




One of the Nanoxia F08's. These things move a ton of air and are silent.


CPU temps before mod 38c/75c
CPU Temps after mod 27c/45c

 

[Funkmonkey]

I think to have a dedicated section we would have to have a dedicated moderator or a dedicated senior member a least to start a "How to" article. This would require a massive amount of information gathering and would also touch on some touchy subjects. Such as encoding or "backing up" the Bluray's and HDDVD's, which involves gray areas of DRM laws, probably another reason the staff here frown on dedicated section for this.

I get ya, but it would be helpful... isn't that what this thread is about? petitioning for a dedicated HTPC/media streaming device section?

 

[ChunkyDark]

Your rig is very similar to mine. However, a true baller rocks Noctua fans, not Yate Loon.
SheepStar

My coffee is now on my monitor.

And I used the Scythe mini, but kept the fans/PS that came with my Antec NSK2480 case since I couldn't hear it from a couple of feet away.
I would like to geek out and replace the cover with some clear plastic just cause it looks so cool inside.

Oh, and I would also like to see a HTPC section.

 

[krzywica]

That is probably the best solution to this series of threads (I made one to the same extent last year and was promptly shot down) I have seen yet. Maybe one of our more learned/venerable people would do a write up on the building of an HTPC and what components to particularly pay attention to when shopping. This would have to be very well thought out, though, since as well all know, PC parts change faster than just about anything else in the world. Coming up with a build that would be specific enough to make shopping for the parts easy, but general enough to last over atleast a couple generations of equipment would probably be somewhat time consuming. Anyone up to the task?

Mike

I can do such a build thread if there is enough interest generated and I would either want a dedicated section/subsection of the forum or a sticky or both.

I'm not going to compile a huge list, take my HTPC apart, put it back together step by step, take pictures of each step, and then link all the parts, do a walkthrough of several application setups......if its just going to get barried in the forums somewhere never to be seen again.

 

[Nemo128]

I'd do a couple writeups. The best baselines to start with for the HTPC itself are:

1. Budget DYI AV build with local storage
2. Performance DYI AV/WOW-gaming build with local storage
3. High performance DYI AV/Crysis-gaming build with local storage

From there, everything else is just modifications, like replacing local storage with NAS or a server and passive cooling for silence. Then there are the OEM solutions, which will cost more in $ but give you a simpler setup experience. Those could use some focus in the area of software installs, codec config.

With Vista, making an HTPC remote controlled is a lot easier, but standby modes in the BIOS matter, so explaining to people what to look for and recommending products is a good idea.

Showing people as many cooling options as possible, rather than just suggesting Noctua fans because SilentPCReview loves them, would be good too... *chuckle*

The HTPC case market is expanding. There are so many more options today than years ago. Power supplies are more critical today than a lot of people want to admit. It looks like we're finally getting away from the "More watts is better!" mentality and focusing on their efficiency, amperage output, noise level, and component quality.

Then there's the NMT devices that are getting very popular. I've noticed a lot of sites talk about them or review them, but don't really go into details or have horribly organized information on them. For someone who already has a massive storage array and just wants to stream AV to their TV or receiver, these devices are sometimes a far better solution than an HTPC.

As mentioned earlier, there might be some resistance regarding the ripping of BDs and HD-DVDs. There is commercially available software for the purpose, so we'd be well within our rights to discuss methods of streaming those videos and archiving the discs themselves. Personally, I prefer browsing through my files and picking what I want to use, rather than going to a cabinet, looking for discs, and needing to switch them physically in the player when I want to use something.

Discussing the pros/cons of all these different solutions could shed some light on a segment that's previously been elusive to some people. Plus, there's a section just for interconnects. I don't think a section for Mutimedia Integration would be a bad addition. =)