Assassin's Simple/Beginner HTPC Buying Guide - Page 20

Kinda the same thing here. We ripped all our CD's (400+) to MP3 about 10 years ago and on the rare occasion we actually still buy a CD it gets immediately ripped and boxed up. Now it would be a real pain to have to rerip all that so I have the MP3's backed up to DVDs.

I don't back up any movies I have ripped, at least not yet. Someday I do plan to build a separate "file server" for the whole house which I will put our movies on. On that server I plan to do regular data backups so they will get backed up then. But for now I'm just not worried about it.

Backing up is definitely one of those topics that has countless opinions and countless ideas about it. Personally i back up important things (pictures and documents, music for me as well since i dont have that much) between my HTPC and my main pc (which then has it duplicated onto a "backup internal drive" and the original source drive. Pictures we also backup to an external hard drive every so often and those are stored in a safety deposit box.

Theres risk in every method of "backup" so basically its just how important is the data? For me losing all the movies i have on my HTPC just isnt that huge of a deal. Time consuming and lost, yes. But im not going to be angry over it for more than an hour Music is basically the same way. just means id actually be forced to get rid of crap i dont listen too . Pictures though....lots of family memories and would be pretty devastating emotionally wise. hence why those we take as much precaution as we can with.


But like anything this is a topic that could go on forever since everyone has different opinions.

I have the GD04 case (very similar to yours) and it did include that 3 to 1 fan adaptor, but it's pretty darn cheap. One of the pins pushed out when I tried to connect it to the PSU power cable. I was able to get it back in and get the power connected OK - so far so good.

Silverstone should send you one if it wasn't in the box!

Ahhh the on-going saga that is my HTPC setup.

Please refer me to the proper thread if this post is not appropriate.

I am setting up my media library in 7MC and on some screens of media center / media browser and in fact playing some movies I get a very thin crack of light (not sure of the official term if there is one)that "bleeds" from the right side of the picture. If i hit zoom on the TV it is eliminated. Not every screen only some.

I am assuming it is a video issue with my HTPC as I do not ever get the same effect with other video components. In the intel control panel res is set to 1920 x 1080.

Any tips?

Do all of the new double space video cards require power from the PSU? I have just about used up all of my power cables/connections.

Thanks for this guide! My stuff is ordered and on the way and should be here tomorrow for a weekend build.

My list follows your list with a couple of exceptions:

• I went with the Asus board since I've had a lot of good luck with asus over the years.
  
• I got the i3 550 since with a $5 instant rebate, it was only $2 more than the 540.
  
• HDHomerun dual + antenna. I got that earlier this week to test out OTA. and it's working great so far on my desktop pc with MC7.
  
• NETGEAR XAVB1004-100NAS Up to 200Mbps Powerline AV Adapter Kit - I don't feel like crawling under the house to run cat5/6 cable to my living room, so I'm trying this out.
  
• I got the LG Blu Ray drive since the liteon was either out of stock or way more than $50 at the time of purchase.
  
• OCZ Vertex 2 OCZSSD2-2VTXE120G 2.5" 120GB SATA II MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) - Oh wait, that's for my desktop I'm driving to Fry's after work tonight to pick up a 64GB ssd for the htpc since the tax refund was extra good this year so I can afford it.

I'll try to break out the camera and take some pics.

Again, thanks for this guide, very helpful for an HTPC newbie like myself. I can't wait to ditch cable tv. With OTA, netflix, streaming and other methods of acquisition, who needs it(although the next football season may be painful)?

I have a Panasonic VT25 Plasma. Not sure what pixel mapping is but I will check the manual. Can you tell me how one applies overscan?

My HTPC utilizes the i3 Clarkdale onboard GPU.

Cheers

Hmm...I did read that link first and I think option one is out because I am not connected directly from TV to the PC but through an AVR (Pio VSX-32). I also don's see any option for overscan in the intel control panel.

Will dust off the TV and AVR manuals to see if I can find something in there.

If the scaling is already at 100% how would one adjust the horizontal higher?

The two scaling sliders are both maxed to the right (100). Am I missing something?

Found an aspect setting on the tv that will work. Not perfect but functional.

Thx for you help Assassin

Possible you just have this Win 7 bug that's fixed in a hotfix found here: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/974324

Doesn't hurt to apply the hotfix in any case and see if that fixes it. It did for me.

Bonscott if you were here I would buy you a beer (or 10)! The hotfix worked like a charm!

Many thanks!

This site is great man. I have learned so much so fast.....

Thanks again for all the help....

I was thinking of trying this out. Can you let us know how it works for you?

Finished my build last night.. I ended up adding a 60GB SSD, 2TB data drive, 8GB ram and USB 3.0 card. Booting Win7 in 9 secs!!

Couldn't be happier! Thx man!

No problem! I'll have a couple beers in your name during the big game.

Here's my build thread. The system includes a few of the parts you recommend, although I chose them independently. Great minds think alike.
I encountered a few issues during assembly, and how they were resolved.

I ordered an i3 540 from tigerdirect (with a $10 discount for $106) but now there are saying that they are backordered. Newegg is also out of stock and they are getting pricier on amazon. I emailed Tigerdirect asking them when they are expecting more but I haven't got a response yet. Should I just wait it out on tigerdirect or does anyone else know of a cheap place to get one?

Let me know how that Netgear works out. I just moved into a house and the upstairs isn't wired for internet and I've been looking for a good solution other than running 50 feet of Cat5.

What about the 530 if I can get it for cheap?