Assassin's Simple/Beginner HTPC Buying Guide - Page 296

Cool, thanks Mr. Altair/Ezio/Desmond

Assassin, what's going to be updated?

Sounds good. Got a new tv today, the LG LW5600. Didn't think I would ever get a 3d tv but so far I like it. Is it pretty easy to use 3d with the i3 2100?

Yup. for server use.. or storage use your correct.

I have a few of those sammy's too. They are great.

Seems like samsung drives are hard to find these days. I remember reading about something with Seagate... and merger of technologies.

The only drive I ever had fail on me was WD's. All brand new. Mostly BLUE models.

Funny that my oldest working drives.. both of them are MFG recertified from new egg.

None of my sammy's has ever failed (yet)

My build has officially started!
Installed the PSU tonight.
I just ordered my hard drive today though, so I'm still waiting for that before continuing with the build.

Following this step-by-step guide: http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/27...guide-building

I actually wanted to, but I havent received my RAM yet, either.
I want to put together the entire motherboard before installing it in the case and hooking it all up.

Attachment 229905

Heres a teaser pic hopefully it works it was taken on my phone and im sending it from my phone. This is shown on my 93" projector screen.

I am very computer literate and I COULDNT HAVE DONE IT WITHOUT THE GUIDES! I am very happy with how it turned out. I had one stumbling block with a bad motherboard. I figured that out pretty quickly and got a new one sent to me and have had no problem with the new build since. All but two movies i have ripped work perfect now! Excellent quality and clarity. I think i am only through the second guide? I started to add the other theme and then got side tracked on my older build. I have to start messing with the remote next!

So my HTPC is also my NAS for now --- How can I pick stuff to download on my laptop but have it save onto the hard-drives on the HTPC.

Thanks.

Edit Fixed:

One stupid question --- If I am downloading and saving it to my HTPC and I am on my laptop -- my laptop is wireless and HTPC is wired... Would I be d/l on wireless

Got my build around halfway done, hardware-wise. Installed mobo into case, installed CPU and its cooler, RAM, and cabled things up. Just have to liberate the HDD from its enclosure + install, and get my optical drive (someone was going to send me a Blu-Ray/HD-DVD combo drive, but it's been slow in arriving)... almost ready to start the hard part of configuration/SW.
Regarding the HDD, it was recommended to test the drive prior to cracking the enclosure. I ran WD's "data lifeguard diagnostic" extended test (took about 20 hours) and it passed. Anything else to check? Any compelling reason to put more than 2 partitions on this 2TB drive (I'm thinking a ~64GB partition for Windows, and all the in a partition for storage)?

Well in trying to swap out my old HD for an SSD I think I may have ended up messing up my htpc build. I am now in the market for some new parts (mobo, cpu, ram).

Here are my current parts:
PSU: Antec Earthwatts 430W
SSD: Intel 320 80gb
Optical: Lite-on Blu-ray
GPU: Sapphire HD5670
Case: Silverstone SST-CW01B-R

I will probably re-use my AMD X2-240 that was in the build along with possibly the 2gb of RAM I had in there for a future server build of some sorts. I mainly will be using this htpc to view ripped blu-rays from my NAS along with recorded shows from my HDHR Prime. Would I be better off with the Intel Pentium/Celeron or i3 Sandy Bridge? The HTPC is currently hooked up to a Denon AVR790 then to a Samsung LNT-4661 (non-3d). I will not be viewing any kind of 3D content but if I do the HD5670 should be able to handle that.

For RAM I'd be looking at this set: G.Skill 2x2GB (4GB)

From this I'd probably go with a Z68 mATX board though I can fit an ATX board in my case. Going with an H67 doesn't make much sense unless I can find a good deal on one.

Morning all,
I've finally taken the plunge and I'm upgrading my HTPC. I had been planning on ordering most of it on NewEgg, but the CPU and Memory I was going to order went OUT OF STOCK status Anyway, luckily Amazon dropped the price of the CPU to match what NewEgg had been selling, and I ordered it from them this morning. I also ended up ordering a slightly more expensive memory bundle than I had planned, but hopefully it'll pay off.

Specs

Mobo - GIGABYTE GA-Z68MA-D2H-B3 LGA 1155 Intel Z68 (the one Assassin recommended on the first page) - NewEgg, $114.99
Memory - G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 16GB (4 x 4GB) F3-12800CL9Q-16GBXM, NewEgg, $89.99
CPU - Intel Core i5-2500K Processor, Amazon, $219.99
OS SSD Drive - Crucial 64 GB m4 2.5-Inch Solid State Drive SATA 6Gb/s CT064M4SSD2, Amazon, $108.99

Everything except for the fans (more on that below) I was able to get free 2 day shipping on via my Amazon Prime membership, or the trial with NewEgg's Shoprunner membership (will cancel after I get my stuff)

I'm keeping my existing 500 GB SATA 2 drive and I'm going to convert it to a drive for the DVR aspect of my HTPC, at least until the price of HDDs comes back from the insane.

I also ordered two Noctua NF-P12 120 x 25mm PWM Fan's from FrozenCPU to add to my existing Zalman HD503 case. This should help cool my Ceton InfiniTV 4, which can get rather hot when multiple tuners are running. I want to replace the back two 80mm fans with the NF-R8 PWM fans, but no one is carrying them in the US yet, as they just came out last week. For now, the Zalman fans are fine, and they are pretty quiet.

All this should be a nice step up from my Core2 E7400 setup that is about 3 years old at this point. I think the board was having problems keeping up with the InfiniTV that I purchased in October, so this was the real impetus for the new build. I don't think I'll need to worry about upgrading for while now.

Hello again, can I fit an Asus P8H61-I in an Antec ISK 300-150 and also use a PCIe wifi add on card?
Thanks

As long as it comes with a low-profile bracket, then yes. Here's one.

You could also just go USB for the WiFi and save the PCIe for a tuner or something else.

I am thinking of getting the ISK-300 150 with a Centon InfiniTV PCI-e tuner but I'm reading that the card gets really really hot.

I like the size of the case because it's basically the same size as a set-top box. But how is the cooling and would it be an issue for a case that size?

The ISK 300 150 is a really tight fit, I honestly would not add a card into that (here are some picks of my build - http://www.mediasmartserver.net/2010...ni-itx-htpc-2/).

Instead of Ceton try getting an HDHomeRum Prime (I have). With this you don't have to install in a PC, just put it wherever you want as long as it is connected to your network.

Hi all,

Maybe its me, but there doesn't seem to be too many great SSD deals out there right now. Any thoughts? In any event...I've narrowed down my choice at the moment to these two:

Kingston V200: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820139949
OCZ Vertex 3: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820227737

They are both $84.99 after rebate. Let's assume the rebate will work. Let's also assume the 60 vs. 64 gb is a wash. Which one is the better choice?

TIA

So, I got my external HD in the mail today! Gonna crack it open to get my internal drive tonight. Its like a fortune cookie!

Unfortunately my RAM isnt expected to arrive at my office until Saturday, which means I wont get my hands on it until Monday. I chose the free "Egg Saver" shipping on Newegg, thinking that I'd get it within a couple of days because Newegg almost always delivers to me in a couple of days. I guess this time, they truly meant 4-7 business days.

Damn, I was really hoping to boot up my HTPC this weekend.

The wait is the worst part. My extra fan, the final part, is due in today. All I have to do is pop it in and fire it up for the first time. I always get a thrill when I finish a computer. As a added bonus, my mom needed a new computer, so I'm building her one as well for Christmas. I ended up revamping the whole idea for her cheap computer and pretty much ended up buying her a lower end celeron based HTPC. That wasn't my original intent, but it turned out that way. It's going to be a busy weekend for me.

I've been ripping all my Christmas DVDs and Blu-Rays to my main PC so I have a good base collection to fire up when it's ready, so I should be good to go.

By the way, if you haven't bought Assassin's pay guides, do so. Makes it so much easier to set everything up and gives him a nice little thank you for providing such a great free guide as well.

Oh, i bought them and I'm going to use the crap outta them :-)

By the way, what is the first thing you do once you boot up into your new computer's operating system for the first time? Install drivers? Install virus protection? Run a benchmarking program?