The next HTPC project

Jackal5 · Post by **Jackal5** » Tue May 05, 2009 9:30 am

With TV season about to end in a few short weeks, I've started planning my next HTPC project.

New Gear:
Case: Moneual MONCOSA 312B
Motherboard: Gigabyte E7AUM-DS2H mATX Nvidia 9400 HDMI
CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 3GHz
HDD: Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 ST31000333AS 1TB SATA 2.0
Optical: Plextor Blu Ray
HDTV Tuner: Hauppauge WinTV-HVR-2250 Media Center Kit Dual TV Tuner 1213
Memory: CORSAIR 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400)
PSU:PC Power & Cooling Silencer PPCS370X 370w

Reused Gear:
HDD:
WD Scorpio 160GB 2.5 SATA
SAMSUNG Spinpoint M6 HM500LI 500GB 2.5 SATA
Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 ST31000333AS 1TB SATA 2.0
WiFI: Netgear WG111 v.2
Keyboard/Mouse: Logitech diNovo Edge Bluetooth
Antenna: Terrestrial Digital DB2 Multi-Directional HDTV

I still haven't decided on a CPU heatsink.

The case is smaller than my old Antec NSK 2400 and taller than my GMC AVC-S7-B cases and can hold 3 3.5 HDDs. I'm planning on using the 160gb as the OS and progams, the 500gb for music (no, I don't have that much music), a 1tb for recording HDTV and the other 1TB for ripped media. Might seem like overkill but I don't plan onbuilding another HTPC for some time to come. I don't anything about running RAID setups and I'm not sure it would be better or not.

The 2 2.5 drives will be held in a bracket that I bought from A-Tech.

The case uses low profile cards and has limited space for fans which means I may not be able to use passive cooling on the CPU.

I still have some thing that I want to try with some of those Scythe slim fans.

It's hard to tell from the case picture but I'm pretty sure that there is no vibration dampening for the HDDs. So that's another thing to look into. I'm planning on ordering the case in the next week or so.

Riffer · Post by **Riffer** » Tue May 05, 2009 1:24 pm

I love the looks of that case.

Jackal5 · Post by **Jackal5** » Tue May 05, 2009 2:42 pm

Yeah, when I saw it and found out it was smaller than the Antec I knew it would be the next case for me. Full size PSU and Optical drive. Space for 3 full size HDDs. I'll be glad to get away from Antec.

Jackal5 · Post by **Jackal5** » Fri May 22, 2009 8:20 am

Ok. I've ordered most of the parts.

New Gear:
Motherboard: Gigabyte E7AUM-DS2H mATX Nvidia 9400 HDMI
Optical: Plextor PX-310A Blu Ray
PSU:Seasonic M12II 430-GM 430w
Scythe SCSK-1000 100mm "SHURIKEN"

Already picked up:
Case: Moneual MONCOSA 312B
CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 3GHz
Memory: CORSAIR 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400)

Left to get:
HDTV Tuner: Hauppauge WinTV-HVR-2250 Media Center Kit Dual TV Tuner 1213

Reused Gear:
HDDs:
WD Scorpio 160GB 2.5 SATA
SAMSUNG Spinpoint M6 HM500LI 500GB 2.5 SATA
Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 ST31000333AS 1TB SATA 2.0
WiFI: Netgear WG111 v.2
Keyboard/Mouse: Logitech diNovo Edge Bluetooth
Antenna: Terrestrial Digital DB2 Multi-Directional HDTV

If I splurge, I'll pick up a Black Magic Intensity Pro later.

I changed the PSU for a modular model and went for a Plextor Blu Ray player. I made the decision to go with the Shuriken due to the recommendations of others that have done builds in this case. The Shuriken can fit into the case well with no clearance problem of the optical drive. I should have the parts next week.

I'm going to load Windows 7 for the OS and use Media Portal for the pvr functions. I've loaded Media Portal onto my current build and it's not working as well as SageTV, but I still need to go through the configurations more thoroughly this weekend. And to change that awful default skin too.

IKIKUINTHENUTZ · Post by **IKIKUINTHENUTZ** » Fri May 22, 2009 7:36 pm

I saw this case at CES Vegas 2008

Loved the case looks. I can't say much about the cooling.

The Monuel spokesman didn't know much English but he did his best lol.

oh and props for not using an Antec case

Jackal5 · Post by **Jackal5** » Sat May 23, 2009 1:48 am

Thanks. The cooling is normally done with 3 40mm fans in the back of the case above the I/O shield. Other than that, you have to get a little creative.

I'm considering using a couple of those Scythe slim fans attached to the hard drives. The fans come with a bracket to do so. That way it can pull some air over the drives. But I'll have to rig the fan with for the 2.5 HDDs because the bracket was meant for 3.5 drives. I'll take pictures as I go along and post them later. But the parts won't be here until almost the end of next week. So I should be getting started on the build next weekend.

I need to get some materials for vibration dampening. The PSU will sit directly on the bottom on the case so I would like to place a thin layer of material underneath it first. I need some silicone washers to place between the HDDs and the cage since this case has no vibration dampening at all. And I may pick up a couple of 40mm fans just to test them out.

I'll keep you posted

Jackal5 · Post by **Jackal5** » Tue Jun 23, 2009 9:59 am

I haven't forgotten. I'm just waiting for the 2 Avermedia Duet cards that will arrive tomorrow. I posted this in another forum.

Hey all,
With the arrival of my 2 Avermedia Duet cards this Wednesday, my hardware will be complete and I will be setting up software at that point. Here's the specs:

Case: Moneual MONCOSA 312B

Motherboard: Gigabyte E7AUM-DS2H mATX HDMI
CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 3GHz
Memory: CORSAIR 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR2 800 (PC2 6400)
CPU Cooler: Scythe "SHURIKEN"

Video Card: Nvidia GeForce 9400 - Onboard
Sound: Realtek ALC889A - Onboard

Drives:
Main: 1 x SAMSUNG Spinpoint 500GB 2.5
Storage: 1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 1TB
Optical: Plextor PX-B310SA SW Blu Ray

HDTV Tuner: 2 x AVerMedia AVerTVHD Duet - PCTV Tuner (A188)
WiFI: Netgear WG111 v.2
Keyboard/Mouse: Logitech diNovo Edge Bluetooth
PSU: Seasonic M12II 430-GM 430w
Antenna: Terrestrial Digital DB2 Multi-Directional HDTV

And on the software side:

OS: Win7 Ultimate RC1 Build 7100

PVR:
SageTV will handle the recording of my OTA HD programs. But may share some of the other duties with WMC. SageTV will also require me to try a few more codecs for recording TV shows in the H.264 format. I'll also be checking out more of the plugins and extenders for each that make for some decent alternate layout and functions.

Blu Ray:
Since playing a DVD is no problem, I still have to come up with a good choice for my Blu Ray player. My Plextor drive came with the limited function PowerDVD 8. But I wanted to read more about the other software packages before making a decision. BR movies will mostly be from disc and I don't plan to rip many BR movies. But I do want to give it a try so I will be looking into some of the methods and softwares that make it as painless as possible. If that's possible.

Music:
My music file management is done with Media Monkey. I've been using it for a long time now and it does what I need it to do. For ripping I'll stick with EAC but I'll try FLAC instead of Lame now. Of course I'll have a lot of choices for music players: WMC, WMP, SageTV, Media Monkey.

Pictures:
One word: Photoshop.

Streaming Content:
Netflix and Hulu. There is a SageTV plugin to run Netflix that I may try since 7MC doesn't currently have the Netflix plugin. Hulu may also have a plugin for SageTV but it also has it's own browser now. Or I could just use either service in the Firefox browser.

My needs are simple but I see a lot of other things that people are using for organizing to ripping to plugins. I'll be checking them out too.

AnyDVD HD
Media Browser
Media Scout (TV Scout)
Media Splitter
MPC-HC
MyMovies
Salami Movie Organizer

And I'm probably forgetting some. So any helpful comments and suggestions are welcome.

croddie · Post by **croddie** » Tue Jun 23, 2009 2:58 pm

Strange choices. Why would you want more than 1 hard drive in an HTPC? 0 is ideal, but if it has to be used for media storage too then 1 hard drive is the right number.

Jackal5 · Post by **Jackal5** » Tue Jun 23, 2009 4:30 pm

The 500gb drive is for the OS, programs, pictures, music and some ripped movies I store of my more favorite movies that I watch more than others. The 1tb drive is for seasonal HDTV recordings at a high quality. Temporary rips and some video files that I get from the PlayStation 3 store.

The large drive gets a lot of deleted files and defragging, too.

Jackal5 · Post by **Jackal5** » Mon Jul 06, 2009 8:45 am

Well, I guess this project is done, hardware wise anyway. I have installed the 2 dual HDTV cards and I now have them working. I've ripped a few disc to try some setups in Windows 7 Media Center and Sage TV.

Here, both dual tuner cards are installed. All hardware is in the case now.

Due to the way that his case is made, I had to get a little creative with cooling. The case is made for 3 40mm fans to be mounted in the rear but I opted to mount some slim fan underneath the hard drives themselves. The case still gets a bit warm and actually hot when the outside temps are high and we have a lot of humdity like we did here in Chicago a few weeks ago. But all is running fine.

Ripped DVDs and a couple of Blu Ray movies and pre-recorded HDTV shows in Windows 7 MC

For Sage TV, I have all tuners setup. I had to scan for each tuner separatedly in order to get them to record.

Recording 4 shows at the same time. This initially failed because I had only scanned channels for 1 tuners.

And then of course in imported movies and TV shows in Sage TV.

Music management via Media Monkey. And wifi via a Netgear adaptor placed behind the TV. It's the small grey thing in the bottom right corner.

Since 7MC doesn't have the Netflix plugin like VMC, so I have to use the web browser to stream the movies. Hulu work just fine too. So that's it for the hradware. I would try some additional plugins and software but I might just wait until the full Windows 7 is released.

Critics, comments and suggestions are always welcome. Thanks for your patience everyone.

Riffer · Post by **Riffer** » Wed Jul 15, 2009 3:57 pm

Yummy.

Ash · Post by **Ash** » Wed Jul 15, 2009 10:40 pm

i like that! i think my next build will be something like that. nice job mate, very classy.

Jackal5 · Post by **Jackal5** » Wed Jul 22, 2009 7:21 am

Thanks guys. I've upgraded two of the slim fans to the 2000 rpm models to move a bit more air around and also upgraded to PowerDVD9 Ultra. I've also tested and successfully recorded 4 TV shows at once in 7MC.

PDVD9 seems to have integrated into 7MC for BR playing. But I still have the problems playing .MVK files in 7MC. While in SageTV I think I was able to play MVK files but it won't play BR disc.

Now once they get Netflix in there all will be fine.