Media PC build - feedback appreciated

[craigpardey]

Hi,

I'm thinking about building a media PC for my living room. I already have a PVR so I won't be using it as a TiVo box, but I may use it to watch DVDs and perhaps Blu-Ray in the future.

It's primary purpose will be playing my music collection through my Squeezebox & home theatre, as well as serving as a file server for the home network.

I want to make it as low-power and low-noise as possible, while still keeping costs low ... around $700 CAD.

Here's what I have so far:

• Case: Silverstone Temjin TJ08B
  Motherboard: ASUS M3N78-VM
  CPU: AMD Athlon 64 X2 5050E Dual Core (45W)
  CPU Cooler: Scythe Ninja
  Hard drive: Western Digital Scorpio Black 320GB (7200RPM, Notebook Drive)
  Memory: Kingston ValueRAM 2X2GB DDR2-800 240PIN DIMM Memory
  Case fans: Noctua NF-P12-1300 120MM
  Power Supply: PICO PSU-120
  CD/DVD Drive: LG GH22NS30 Black DVD+RW
  Card reader: USBFever

I'm not sure about the notebook drive. It's only going to be for the operating system, so I wonder if I can get away with a smaller 5400RPM drive (save a few bucks).

I'll also be installing a 500Gb Seagate drive that already has all my media on it. I'll swap it out for a WD Caviar Green or something if it proves to be too noisy.

[JoeWPgh]

You could probably get away with a Mini Ninja and still keep it passive.

I played around with the WD 320 Black, and found it to feel no faster in everyday use than the 5400rpm WD 500 Blue. The 500 Blue is slower on spec and $20 more. But, if you're going to run this as a server off of a 120w Pico, I'd go with the largest notebook drives I could get, to keep the future number of drives down. I'm sure the 320 Black would test out faster, but in normal use, it's negligible. Meanwhile, for the extra $20, the 500 Blue gives you ~50% more storage.

Hi,

I'm thinking about building a media PC for my living room. I already have a PVR so I won't be using it as a TiVo box, but I may use it to watch DVDs and perhaps Blu-Ray in the future.

It's primary purpose will be playing my music collection through my Squeezebox & home theatre, as well as serving as a file server for the home network.

I want to make it as low-power and low-noise as possible, while still keeping costs low ... around $700 CAD.

Here's what I have so far:

• Case: Silverstone Temjin TJ08B
  Motherboard: ASUS M3N78-VM
  CPU: AMD Athlon 64 X2 5050E Dual Core (45W)
  CPU Cooler: Scythe Ninja
  Hard drive: Western Digital Scorpio Black 320GB (7200RPM, Notebook Drive)
  Memory: Kingston ValueRAM 2X2GB DDR2-800 240PIN DIMM Memory
  Case fans: Noctua NF-P12-1300 120MM
  Power Supply: PICO PSU-120
  CD/DVD Drive: LG GH22NS30 Black DVD+RW
  Card reader: USBFever

I'm not sure about the notebook drive. It's only going to be for the operating system, so I wonder if I can get away with a smaller 5400RPM drive (save a few bucks).

I'll also be installing a 500Gb Seagate drive that already has all my media on it. I'll swap it out for a WD Caviar Green or something if it proves to be too noisy.

[hybrid2d4x4]

Just my $0.02, but I wouldn't spend money on a laptop drive just for the OS. If a separate drive exclusively for the OS is a must, I'd consider getting a new (anything that isn't affected by the jmicron controller issue) SSD. You can get 30GB ones for about the same amount as the laptop drive you suggested, which should be more than enough for the OS and core apps, and should be a lot snappier.

Alternatively, if budgeting is an issue, I'd just get one larger, quiet drive for everything and carve out a separate small partition for the OS. As JoeWPgh commented above, keeping the number of mechanical drives down should be your focus for both power and acoustic reasons...

[craigpardey]

Thanks for the feedback - I'll definitely switch to a single larger drive and just partition off the OS.

[craigpardey]

Two more questions:
- Will the Pico PSU essentially leave a big hole in the back of the case where the power supply would be?
- Will I need additional connectors for the PSU?

[JoeWPgh]

Two more questions:
- Will the Pico PSU essentially leave a big hole in the back of the case where the power supply would be?

Yes, unless you keep the case's unused PSU in place. You'll also need to drill a hole for the socket that receives the power brick's input. The Pico's lead for this is fairly short and may need to be extended.

- Will I need additional connectors for the PSU?

You'll need a molex/PSU power adaptor, and quite likely a molex
Y' adaptor.
Beyond that, it really depends on what you install. You may need a 2nd molex 'Y' and a molex/SATA adaptor. If you can find an adaptor to bring the floppy power to something, that would be a plus.

[craigpardey]

Hmm ... sounds like the Pico PSU isn't exactly a pretty solution and would probably rate poorly on the WAF (wife approval factor).

Maybe I'll just go for a quiet, high-efficiency ATX supply like the Seasonic S12-330

[FartingBob]

Once you buy a power brick the PicoPSU costs about the same as a good SPCR type ATX PSU. Yes its more efficient than most at the low wattages (around 85-87%), but a good 300-400w unit will still have 80-82% efficiency in the sub 100w area, which only amounts to a few extra watts of wastage, not anything noticeable. And i find the pico is still somewhat limited on the cable front.

[JoeWPgh]

Another downside for the Pico, at least in my case, is that the brick's fan spins up around 80 watts, as measured by a kill-a-watt. This doesn't happen all that often, but when it does, it's louder than any of my other 4 PSU fans.