New HTPC

[bandphan]

Ordered the new components for my "htpc" yesterday.

AMD Athlon II X3 435 Rana 2.9GHz
GIGABYTE GA-MA785GM-US2H AM3/AM2+/AM2 AMD 785G
CORSAIR XMS2 4GB (2 x 2GB) x 2 =8g
Pioneer Black Blu-ray Disc/DVD/CD Writer SATA
SAPPHIRE Radeon HD 5770 100283L Video Card
HITACHI Deskstar HD31000 IDK/7K 1TB X 4
CORSAIR CMPSU-750TX 750W
miXart 8 CN sound card (not really htpc but..)

This will be my primary Bluray server to both of my displays, and it will all be stuffed into a old dell 4600 case(just for fn effect)

 

[GlocksRock]

Sounds like a nice machine, are you going to post pics?

 

[adwilk]

An old Dell case? I think the connectors for the front panel are proprietary and it could be a pain in the arse to connect the power, reset buttons and whatnot. It might require a little modding, no biggie if you know what you're doing. I like that idea a lot.

 

[bandphan]

Sounds like a nice machine, are you going to post pics?

Yep

An old Dell case? I think the connectors for the front panel are proprietary and it could be a pain in the arse to connect the power, reset buttons and whatnot. It might require a little modding, no biggie if you know what you're doing. I like that idea a lot.

The power/hdd/status connector is standard. Gonna use a rework for the old USB ports. Re-molexed system fan connections and thats it

 

[adwilk]

Yep



The power/hdd/status connector is standard. Gonna use a rework for the old USB ports. Re-molexed system fan connections and thats it

Oh, nice...

 

[ChunkyDark]

This will be my primary Bluray server to both of my displays, and it will all be stuffed into a old dell 4600 case(just for fn effect)

Saw an old packard bell machine over the weekend that was thinking it would be funny to use the case for a HTPC. Sure it doesn't look as cool, but just getting peoples reactions when they see it and the big ol' floppy drive

Good luck on your new machine, let us know how it turns out!

 

[tbergman]

What are you going to run for an OS/media center interface?

 

[njedpx3]

sounds nice Bandphan. The stealth "Dell" look ... theft insurance

Later,

Forest Man

 

[bandphan]

What are you going to run for an OS/media center interface?

7 64 ultimate, both my displays are DNLA compliant, so as for streamer Ive been using TVersity and Boxee, still playing around with others.

 

[BoredSysAdmin]

Do you intend to run raid on these hitachi drives?

 

[bandphan]

Do you intend to run raid on these hitachi drives?

Thats the plan Might go with a pci controller no sure yet

 

[BoredSysAdmin]

You might want to check if you can find hitachi/ibm tools to enable TLER feature ( disabled by default on desktop hd) on this drives or else risk loosing all your data.
Plus you don't want PCI controller, but PCI-e

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

So are you getting a new HTPC case?

What about a CPU cooler? Those OEM stock CPU coolers really suck (Intel & AMD). I think even a $15 Cooler Master Hyper CPU cooler does a much better job at cooling and is a lot quieter than those lousy OEM CPU coolers.

What about a 120mm chasis fan?

I have four 1TB Hitachi Deskstar HDDs; just like any HDD out there, those Deskstar HDDs will get hot unless you have a fan blowing at them.

I have the Radeon 5750, so I bet the 5770 will be even bigger. Is there room in the PC case for it?

Other than that, everything looks great.

Oh, and I would not do the RAID thing. What happens if something gets corrupted and it corrupts the ENTIRE 4 HDDs in the RAID?

 

[krzywica]

those Deskstar HDDs will get hot unless you have a fun blowing at them.

I always love it when I get fun blowing on me.

Oh, and I would not do the RAID thing. What happens if something gets corrupted and it corrupts the ENTIRE 4 HDDs in the RAID?

I think he means a parity raid array like 5, 6, or 10. Your thinking Striping (Raid 0) which has no fault tolerance, redundancy, or parity.

 

[BoredSysAdmin]

I always love it when I get fun blowing on me.

I think he means a parity raid array like 5, 6, or 10. Your thinking Striping (Raid 0) which has no fault tolerance, redundancy, or parity.

I haven't had ibm drive in a while, but yea - other people [newegg] said it's running hot.

Even with Raid 5/6 if running desktop sata drives w/o trer support, in combination with certain controller - you risk loosing entire array since.

If you still can change them for WD 1tb Black Caviar you'd get faster drives plus guaranteed Tler support (w/WDTler utility from WD)

 

[bandphan]

The mobo has RAID 10 available. This was the consideration

 

[bandphan]

So are you getting a new HTPC case?

What about a CPU cooler? Those OEM stock CPU coolers really suck (Intel & AMD). I think even a $15 Cooler Master Hyper CPU cooler does a much better job at cooling and is a lot quieter than those lousy OEM CPU coolers.

What about a 120mm chasis fan?

I have four 1TB Hitachi Deskstar HDDs; just like any HDD out there, those Deskstar HDDs will get hot unless you have a fan blowing at them.

I have the Radeon 5750, so I bet the 5770 will be even bigger. Is there room in the PC case for it?

Other than that, everything looks great.

Oh, and I would not do the RAID thing. What happens if something gets corrupted and it corrupts the ENTIRE 4 HDDs in the RAID?

Ill measure temps after install and make any adjustments then. I was considering cutting out the Dell Logo on the side panel and installing a 120mm fan there. I want to keep the dell case just for effect since it will not be in either of my main rooms but the office. All distribution will be thru a gigabyte network.

 

[GlocksRock]

A gigabit network is definitely the way to go, I upgraded all my stuff to gigabit, with the exception of the wiring, I already had cat5e in the walls, so I'm sticking with it and it's still plenty fast, I don't know that I would see a noticable increase in speed by going to all cat 6.

 

[Alex2507]

How many watts is it and how low can it go?

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

A gigabit network is definitely the way to go, I upgraded all my stuff to gigabit, with the exception of the wiring, I already had cat5e in the walls, so I'm sticking with it and it's still plenty fast, I don't know that I would see a noticable increase in speed by going to all cat 6.

What are you doing with this network?

Is it for streaming your ISO files from the HDDs to the PCs?