Official Sandy Bridge / LGA1155 for HTPCs Thread - Page 24

Got this case yesterday.

http://www.fractal-design.com/?view=...gory=2&prod=48

I was looking at Lian Lis but I couldn't find anything as exciting as their old v1000 silent case. Silverstones with bottom mounted fans were another consideration but I like clean features and doors. I considered smaller cases but those with several HDDs are big enough not to fit in the theater rack and a waste of space beside it.

CPU coolers will be Scythe's Big Shuriken and Samurai zz. Didn't think I needed to obstruct the air flow with a monster cooler. I don't know how quiet these two will be under high loads. Should have gone with Gelid Tranquilo perhaps.

I'd like to see those fanless new Radeon HD 6770/6570/6540s.
PSU Seasonic X series 560. I need another. I am considering the fanless one but it'll need babysitting and the whole concept is a bit too experimental.

I was hoping to stay under $100 for the case; I've seen a few from nMediaPC and the Lanbox Lite from Thermaltake, also a couple of Aerocool ... basically the "CUBE" style cases that shouldn't have a problem fitting full size cards. All under $100.

Most people in this thread seem to recommend Silverstone cases. I'm sure they are a great build, but I don't find them the most attractive in terms of external design. Haven't ruled them out though.

There are 2 cards that I'm wanting to have room for. One of them is this and it will be installed with the original build:

Hauppauge Colossus HD Video Recorder ... it's a PCI-E 1x card, not very long but full height.

The 2nd card is not going to go in immediately; I just want to keep room for an AMD 6xxxx or nVidia 4xx to handle the 24p issue "if" it becomes a critical issue. I may never install one; but I want to make sure I can if I need to.

Other then that it's an i3 CPU, ASUS or Gigabyte H67 motherboard, 4GB DDR3. That's about it.

Thanks.

I am working on putting together a nice HTPC system and I'm trying to see what I do and don't need as far as hardware. I've been buying pieces here and there when I see them on sale but I am still not sure about some stuff.

I am curious about the 24 frames issue.

I will be connecting it to this 120Hz 46" LCD TV LN46C650
From this reciever HT-R680

I have the i7-2600K and not sure if the TV or receiver will fix the issue without having to use a seperate video card to enjoy BD.

Don't have my motherboard yet but I figure by the time I am putting this stuff together the Zs will be out. lol

Since this is my first post I can't post links

receiver: crutchfield.com/S-E1jFLHee5nS/p_580HT6300B/Onkyo-HT-S6300.html?tab=detailed_info#Receiver Features

tv: samsung.com/us/video/tvs/LN46C650L1FXZA

Haha A couple of minutes ago I was thinking the same thing. I like your taste in HTPC CPUs.

The 24p issue is not much of an issue, unless you insist only on flawless 24p playback. The TV can't fix the signal it's being fed.

I'd first see how I liked the integrated graphics. I'd pair the CPU with one of the AMD HD6000 graphic cards. The fanless versions should be coming to the market soon. If more power is required, look up the MSI AMD 6850 cyclone.

Whoa! Are the tides turning?

Someone has been attending my sermon!

Heh, I'll give you a better compliment than that. It's common sense. I'm not sure it's really a tide, or a handful of very vocal nerds er, enthusiasts. You can reach video nirvana on five year old gear let alone an i7. I like the zacate build. I was tempted when I saw the new Asus boards, but I need computing muscle. A fanless i3 would be a nice project.

Absolutely.

I like the zacate too as a basic HTPC but it in no way replaces the i3.

They really serve two different purposes and users, imo. The i3 is a MUCH better overall *PC*. No doubt about it.

I unpacked the Fractal Design. It's...nice. Nice attention to detail. It's not a Lian Li, though.

Thanks for your reply Chilli.

I just got in this week a xfx 6870 for $160 after rebate that I might use on it. I'm not much of an AV person myself so I might not end up using the video card for the HTPC then. If I put in the videocard my HTPC will destroy my gaming PC lol.

Finally got the last pieces for my i3 sandy bridge htpc. I'm gonna put it all together in the morning. Final parts list:

i3 2100 CPU
ASUS P8H67-M PRO CSM motherboard
Antec Earthwatts 380W PSU
F3-12800CL9D-4GBXL Ripjaws X RAM
Samsung 2TB HDD
LITE-ON iHES208-08 Bluray drive
NMedia 1000B HTPC Case

Hope everything goes well. This is my first time building any sort of computer.

Thanks to all here for all the advice. If it weren't for your advice I wouldn't have even known where to start.

Looks great and don't worry its very easy. Everything only plugs in one way. Pretty hard to screw up.

Watch out for static electricity and you'll be fine. What's the model no. on the Samsung drive?

Hope all goes well!

Should add that the RAM slots are quite close to the CPU on the Asus P8H67-M Pro, I had to remove the heatsinks off one of my G.Skills to get it into slot #2 as the Scythe BIG Shuriken was obstructing it. Shouldn't be a problem with stock CPU cooler but wasn't sure if you were going to use it.

I'm using the F4 Samsung drive from assassin's guide.

Looks like a great build.

Take your time and ask questions when needed.

Then you'll likely know that these excellent drives need a firmware update if they were manufactured before January 2011.

I am sorely tempted to go with a P67 board (8-10 sata ports). Most H67 boards are mATX, have fewer ports and one Gigabyte H67 ATX board has fewer sata ports than the mATX versions. Bad idea.

It's all put together, my only question is about the RAM. I put one stick in each channel. Is that correct?

Have company right now so waiting to power it up and install the OS.

I don't think you can fit one stick in two slots If you have four slots, check the manual and see which ones need to be used first. Or don't. It just won't boot.

If you have two sticks, then one stick in each channel is correct and dual-channel will work. In the case of P8H67-M EVO, insert the two sticks in the two blue memory slots (the innter black and blue slots are Channel A, the outer black and blue slots are Channel B).

If there are any problems try with one stick only. Memory is pretty easy and straightforward until you run into a bad stick.

I've had my SNB system up and running about 2 weeks now and I'm a little worried about high temps under load. Here's the system specs:

2600k, stock cooler
Biostar TH67+ motherboard
Rosewill Blackbone case w/2 120mm case fans
8G Kingston pc10600
Hitachi 2T Deskstar HD partitioned to 250G/1.5T
Coolermaster Elite 460 power supply
LG BD
GT 430

This pc does double duty as HTPC/ Encoder and graphics workstation (3dMax, Vegas etc)

I have hyper threading enabled but no overclocking of course.
Haven't tried any Max rendering yet but on Vegas and Ripbot encodes I'm hitting temps of 72C. Vcore between 1.18 and 1.21. I didn't use any 3rd party paste, just pushed the stock cooler onto the chip.

My main concern is the room this machine is in hasn't started to warm up yet. It's going to rise another 3-5C as we move into summer. Should I be concerned with these temps? Looking into some different cooling options?

Is 72C the case temperature (i.e. the temperature of the center of the heat spreader, reported by IT8728) or one of the core temperatures? Anyway 72C is a bit high. You might want to consider a third-party cooler.

Thats the temp reported by the utility that comes with the MB. I tried installing Speedfan but those temps were all 20-30 degrees low. I have some Artic Silver, would it worth trying to reset the cooler with that? What would be a good recommened cooler for my situation?

Reseating the cooler is worth trying. Arctic Silver too (first remove the paste on the CPU heat spreader with high-purity isopropyl alcohol or a similar solvent). Xigmatek Gaia/Aegir, Scythe Ninja/Mugen 2, etc.

Arctic silver takes some time to set in so initial temperatures may not be impressive.

Ok, just installed Real Temp and ran Prime 95 for 10 minutes. Temps were averaging 75 and hitting 79 on some cores. Just wondering what kind of temps I should be looking for with this processor. Also, I don't mind investing in a better cooler but don't know much about them.

SpeedFan 4.43 supports IT8728F super I/O chip (the chip used in the BIOSTAR mb). Run Prime95 and the temperature that quickly rises is the CPU temperature. 70C at load with the stock cooler may be normal depending on your case/fan and room temperature.

Your component lineup is so very similar to mine - almost identical. Let me know what you think about that case. I'm looking at that & other nMediaPC cases ... Like the 6000 & 5000.

Thanks!!

I haven't seen anything I don't like about the case. It's very roomy, plenty of room for everything.

Got the OS installed, started customizing and ran into a snag with my tv settings, ended up having to do a system restore and lost all my programs. Started all over. I was having problems getting the 3D to work, but I finally ran across an update from intel. Hope it works!

I'll have pictures tomorrow night. 2D picture looks great!