It is currently Fri Mar 29, 2024 5:37 am

All times are UTC - 7 hours [ DST ]

Recent News:



Post new topic Reply to topic  [ 4 posts ] 
Author Message
 Post subject: My HTPC Build
PostPosted: Mon Apr 04, 2011 8:47 pm 
Offline
1.5TB storage
1.5TB storage
User avatar

Joined: Sat Jan 16, 2010 10:54 pm
Posts: 73
Location: Dayton, OH
Thanks: 4
Thanked: 4 times in 3 posts
In 2007 I purchased an Alienware Hanger 18 for almost $3K and before it was built/shipped, I was suffering severe buyers remorse so I canceled the order. Ever since that day, I have been dreaming of building a sleek HTPC the size of a cable-box. There were several cases that caught my eye, and for several years I kept watching and waiting for the right components to come along that would meet all of my requirements and fit into something that would look nice in my living-room. This year, the AMD E-350 APU finally pushed me over the edge. Once settled on that, I had to finally pick out that all-important case.

The case I REALLY wanted was the Moncaso 312B by Moneual. Of course with a $250 price-tag, and page after page of parts mis-matching horror-stories at AVS, I kept looking. However, case after case fell short of my expectations for aesthetics. I kept coming back to the moncaso and last week, I finally took the plunge…This is my build:

MEM 2Gx2|CRUC CT2KIT25664BA1067 R 1 44.99
SSD 50G|OCZ OCZSSD2-2VTX50G 2.5" R 1 129.99
HDD 500G|WD WD5000BUDT 5K 32M % 1 59.99
MB ASUS|E35M1-M PRO M1 ZACTE R 1 144.99
BLU-RAY DRIVE LITE-ON| IHOS104-08 R 1 49.99
CABLE OKGEAR| GC18SATA RT 1 5.49
HTPC CASE MONEUAL|MONCASO 312B RT 1 234.99
picoPSU 150 XT Power Supply w/ 80W AC-DC Adapter 1 64.00
Front Panel Express Custom Back-Plate to mount picoPSU 1 34.81
REPLACEMENT BLUE LENS AND BR BEZEL 1 0.00

TOTAL COST (minus software) 769.24

Now, I could have kept the cost down in several areas, mainly the case and the SSD (those alone ran $365) but the case was a must for me, and the SSD was a luxury. I figured, the SSD would help make up for any deficiencies with the low-power processor… right? I also wanted to keep the system as low-power as possible, so I decided to go with the picoPSU, and to ensure that LOOKED good, I ordered a custom plate to be cut/milled from Front Panel Express to cover the hole where an ATX power supply would go (thanks to AVS Forum member riffer for the help) and as a bonus I can now mount a 60mm fan and plug mount for the pico.

I ordered all of the parts on Sunday morning, and for the most part they arrived on Wednesday and Thursday. The Moneual blue-lens replacement and Blu-Ray bezel replacement as well as the custom back-panel didn’t arrive until the following Monday.

The parts pile:
Image


The stripped out case:
Image


Motherboard in place:
Image

A large concern is that the optical drive will hit your memory or a large processor fan. This motherboard negates both of those worries:
Image

Another pit-fall is attempting to line up the optical drive button with the button in the case. Many people say this was the most difficult task and had to get creative. I found that the button was responsive enough, but if I moved the optical drive closer, then any bump or jar would eject the tray. My solution was to take a bit of foam sponge (from a spare dish-scrubber!!) and cut out a piece to super-glue to the case button. It worked FANTASTIC. Moneual should just add a foam piece for us!
Image

The case has two removable HDD trays. The one on the left holds 1 3.5" HDD and the one on the right holds 2 X 3.5" HDDs. I used the one on the left to route/hide the cables, and the one on the right holds both of my 2.5" HDDs (one optical, and one 500gig AV drive). Final pick with all of the pieces in place except the back-plate:
Image

Custom back-plate from Front Panel Express:
Image

Replacement blue-lens (the stock orange is really ugly) and Blu-Ray bezel (a simple e-mail to Moneual got these in the mail to me same day (all I had to do was forward the New Egg confirmation e-mail to the rep.:
Image


Replacement blue lens in place and system powered up:
Image

Overall the build couldn't have been easier. Within 60 minutes of unpacking the parts I was loading Win7 and 39 min after that I had booted the thing up to the windows welcome screen for the first time.

I loaded Shark007 codec pack, and off I went. The first time I played a blu-ray I had stuttering, but I forgot to switch the codec pack to FFDShow DXVA... the result was the poor little processor trying the play Avatar all by itself which quickly pegged it at 100%. Once I made the switch to the right setting to use the hardware acceleration, the proc hovered around 40-60% playing a Blu-Ray. Everything was smooth as silk.

Overall, I am extremely happy, and so is the wife (and thats all that counts right?)!!

_________________
DIY WHS
AMD Athlon II X2 240
2Gb RAM
13 TB, mixed drives
400+ DVDs and 80 BD ripped using MakeMKV

~My beautiful wife is always asking me if I love my computers more than her...I don't understand it!


Top
 Profile  
Thanks  

Attention Guest: Remove this ad by Registering with the MediaSmartServer.net Forums. It's Free!
 Post subject: Re: My HTPC Build
PostPosted: Tue Apr 05, 2011 2:18 pm 
Offline
1TB storage
1TB storage

Joined: Thu Apr 29, 2010 2:22 pm
Posts: 42
Thanks: 3
Thanked: 2 times in 2 posts
Sweet man, I was looking at those same parts.

How is that zacate motherboard working out? I was concerned about if it'd dissipate enough heat, but thought it'd be cool to pair with an SSD and external power supply and go completely silent. It definitely seems like zacate is the way to go right now for an HTPC.


Top
 Profile  
Thanks  
 Post subject: Re: My HTPC Build
PostPosted: Tue Apr 05, 2011 2:22 pm 
Offline
1TB storage
1TB storage

Joined: Thu Apr 29, 2010 2:22 pm
Posts: 42
Thanks: 3
Thanked: 2 times in 2 posts
You mentioned your running Win7, so using media center I'm assuming right? Does the system boot fairly quickly? How's the speed of navigating through media center with coverart, fanart, etc. if you use those?

I was thinking about going the xbmc linux route...but I'd definitely be more comfortable in windows.


Top
 Profile  
Thanks  
 Post subject: Re: My HTPC Build
PostPosted: Tue Apr 05, 2011 3:12 pm 
Offline
1.5TB storage
1.5TB storage
User avatar

Joined: Sat Jan 16, 2010 10:54 pm
Posts: 73
Location: Dayton, OH
Thanks: 4
Thanked: 4 times in 3 posts
bvone21 wrote:
You mentioned your running Win7, so using media center I'm assuming right? Does the system boot fairly quickly? How's the speed of navigating through media center with coverart, fanart, etc. if you use those?


So far I have seen no problems. I just timed the boot. I have my login account set to store the password, and windows media center set to load from boot, so from a cold machine to navigating in WMC is exactly 59 seconds and it takes exactly 7 seconds to shut back down.

Now, when I first loaded windows, the boot time was around 33 seconds, but now that I am loading into WMC, and loading My Movies and some other goodies, the total boot time is just under 1 minute. Still faster than my cable-box!


bvone21 wrote:
I was thinking about going the xbmc linux route...but I'd definitely be more comfortable in windows.

I would LOVE to use XBMC exclusively. Especially with this APU chipset. Having hardware acceleration built into the front-end makes maintaining the system easier without using FFDshow (or similar) or in my case the shark007 codec pack.

_________________
DIY WHS
AMD Athlon II X2 240
2Gb RAM
13 TB, mixed drives
400+ DVDs and 80 BD ripped using MakeMKV

~My beautiful wife is always asking me if I love my computers more than her...I don't understand it!


Top
 Profile  
Thanks  
Display posts from previous:  Sort by  
Post new topic Reply to topic  [ 4 posts ] 

All times are UTC - 7 hours [ DST ]


Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 15 guests


You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot post attachments in this forum

Search for:
Jump to:  
Powered by phpBB® Forum Software © phpBB Group