I’ve been running the HTPC I built here: http://www.nyspeed.com/showthread.php?214455-HTPC-build
for about 8 months now and decided it was time to build something with a little more power. We’re making the big jump and pulling the plug on Fios TV soon to go 100% streaming and downloading.
The nettop still runs XBMC flawlessly but it struggles with Hulu Desktop and NHL’s Gamecenter Live when you select HD quality. So the nettop has been shuffled off to the bedroom TV as part of my new shared XBMC library (more on that in another thread maybe).
I decided to go Intel this time, Core i3, one of the 35watt version to keep heat down. Heat is a major HTPC issue since the more you create the more cooling you need and the more cooling you add the more noise the system makes. Not good when it’s sitting in your entertainment center.
Most of these parts were chosen with heat/noise considerations in mind over max performance. The Silverstone case has 3 filtered 120mm fans. I had to add the fan controller because the motherboard would only control one of them plus the CPU fan and I didn’t want them running full power (and full noise) all the time. I have all 3 connected to the controller running about 2/3rds speed and you can’t hear the PC from more than a foot away. The power supply is also running a 120mm (bigger fans = slower speeds = less noise) and it too is designed to run cooler and vary it’s fan speed based on temps. I went cheap on the hard drive because space isn’t an issue with all media being shared from my 4TB file server downstairs. The system temp was reporting 35C and processor 27C Sunday when it was 77 in my living room after playing several HD files so cooling is excellent.
I shopped around and have about $430 into it. The case blends in well with my other components and short of sticking your head inside the cabinet you can’t tell it’s running even when the room is silent. It plays everything I’ve thrown at it perfectly, including Hulu Plus HD. The only issue I’m having is that hardware acceleration isn’t fully supported in XBMC for the onboard Intel graphics. I haven’t put much time into researching it though since the processor only hits 15-18% doing the h.264 decoding itself streaming a 12GB 1080p mkv from the server.
UPDATE: Got the hardware acceleration working by installing the latest nightly build of XBMC.
The tuner (connected to a DB4 antenna in my attic leftover from my Dish days) allows me to pull in NBC, CBS, ABC, Fox and PBS in HD and even DVR them to my hard drive if need be. Overall I’m very happy with this latest addition to my entirely too wired house, and being able to drop cable will pay for this thing in just a few months.
I still really like the dual core atom/ion2 combo as a pure XBMC and youtube machine and would definitely recommend them for that but I really wanted Hulu desktop and NHL gamecenter to work fullscreen in HD once I drop cable.
Actually, now I’m recommending the E-350 AMD based nettops for basic XBMC small form factor nettops. More power than the Atom/Ion2 but still not having to step up to a full sized/priced PC.
Nice.
How do you like the TV Tuner?
I’ve been debating picking one up recently.
You’re not too concerned about your CPU fan failing I assume? I know the CPU will auto shut down if it overheats, but it’s nice to shut down early if the CPU fan stops running just to prevent it from happening in the first place. I don’t think I’d ever not hook up the cpu fan to the cpu plug on the mainboard. PSU is debatable (I doubt a psu fan on a htpc will run much anyway). I just regulate the CPU fan speed through Speedfan on my HTPC to keep noise down. That way when it does get warm, Speedfan throttles up the speed to keep it cool.
Looks like a nice set up though for sure.
I’m still deciding on what software to use on mine.
Currently I use none, because I’m lazy!
The CPU fan is still controlled by the motherboard so if there are any problems there it will shut the system down. The 3 fans I have plugged into the controller are all case fans and even if something happened to kill all 3 the system has it’s auto-shutdown temps set in the bios. The fan for the PSU is controlled by the PSU.
I LOVE the tuner card. Tonight I got Windows Media Center working with the tuner and it pulled down full local guide info for all the channels I get with the tuner, lets me pause live TV, DVR from a guide that looks just like the Fios guide etc etc. It’s just a single tuner card so I can only record one thing at a time but really I only got the tuner to Bills games and local news. Every show I watch is automatically downloaded with Sickbeard from the newsgroups and that automatically updates XBMC. I now have XBMC running on one central database on my server so the 3 computers I have running XBMC all share the same info. This means if I stop watching a movie at say 1:15:20 in the living room then hit play on that movie in the bedroom it will prompt me asking if I want to resume at 1:15:20 or start from the beginning. It also keeps track of everything you watch and puts check boxes next to anything you’ve seen. I’ve been slowly working my way through all 17 seasons of Top Gear starting with season 1, episode 1 so now it doesn’t matter if I watch it in my den, the living room or my bedroom because they all check off from the same list.
Tomorrow’s project is to get Windows Media Center working on the other two TV’s as media center extenders and see if it lets me share the antenna tuner from the main HTPC. I have no idea if media center supports this.
The final piece of the puzzle fell into place today when I discovered www.slacker.com. I was getting some grief from the wife because she likes the music channels we get from Fios, especially the seasonal ones around Christmas. Well, Slacker has pretty much the exact same interface for it’s music so I dropped a shortcut on the quicklaunch bar and crossed that off my list.
All that’s left is to buy the season pass to NHL Gamecenter Live, set up a an account at www.switchvpn.com so I can bypass the local blackouts and it’s so long to my huge cable bill each month.
You won’t pull Toronto without going to a large outdoor aerial antenna. I know one person who did it to get CBC HD and even then it was hit and miss depending on atmospheric conditions. I’m guessing Rochester will be the same.
thanks Jay.
Rochester is only like 5-10 miles further than buffalo for me.
Buff is about 35, and roch is about 45
That’s why I was kinda concerned about where the towers are located.
I wanted to make sure I can get them from my house with whatever I buy :]
Here is my newegg order from HTPC that I built, I had a friend help me pick out the components
Western Digital Caviar Green WD20EARS 2TB SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive
CORSAIR Builder Series CX500 V2 500W ATX12V v2.3 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC Power Supply
ASUS DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS Black SATA 24X DVD Burner - Bulk - OEM
Antec Black Aluminum / Steel Fusion Remote Black Micro ATX Media Center / HTPC Case
BIOSTAR TH67+ LGA 1155 Intel H67 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 Micro ATX Intel Motherboard
Hauppauge WinTV-HVR 1850 (updated version of 1800) MCE Kit 1128 PCI-Express x1 Interface
Intel Core i5-2400 Sandy Bridge 3.1GHz (3.4GHz Turbo Boost) LGA 1155 95W Quad-Core Desktop Processor BX80623I52400
G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666) Desktop Memory Model F3-10666CL9D-4GBRL
Microsoft Windows 7 Home
ZALMAN CNPS9500A-LED 92mm 2 Ball CPU Cooler
and a video card I bought separately
The only thing I am having issues with is DVR through windows media. I am getting lines across the screen when I record programs randomly, like there is some intereference or something. Most of the time it records without any issues, but its annoying when your looking forward to watching something and it records like crap.