Started new HTPC with Antec Fusion V2 case!! *with pics*

Well after much research and reading this forum I finally broke down and bought the first peices of my HTPC. I went with the Antec Fusion case and I am really happy with the quality and the way it looks.

Ain't she a beauty?


For those that are familiar with the issue of the original Fusion case's front panel not being grounded well Antec has added a ground wire with the V2 case.



I also got the new Abit AN-M2HD mobo



Now I did not have enough money to get everything at once so I will have to get the rest over the next few weeks. Now this is my first PC build from scratch so I am hoping some of you more experienced AVSers can help me complete this system. Here is what I have so far:

Antec Fusion V2 case
Abit AN-M2HD mobo
Seagate 300GB SATA HD
Sony DVD burner (not sure the model but works great)

Here is what I need:
AMD AM2 socket processor
2GB DDR2 800 RAM
OS
wireless keyboard/mouse

The HD and burner are from my last computer. Now I need to choose a processor and RAM. I already have decided I am going to go with Windows XP MCE for hopefully less headaches. I also think I will just get a X-Gene keyboard/mouse. Now I have chosen two processors one for power and one for super efficient.

Super Efficient:
AMD Athlon X2 BE-2350 Brisbane 2.1GHz 2 x 512KB L2 Cache Socket AM2 Processor

Power:
AMD Athlon 64 X2 4800+ Brisbane 2.5GHz 2 x 512KB L2 Cache Socket AM2 Processor

So which will I wish I had the most? Power or efficiency?

As far as RAM I will probably go Cosair or maybe OCZ as a poster in the Abit mobo thread mentioned he used. Also what about the remote? I have a Harmony 890, does it already have all the commands or do I need to buy another remote first? Anything else I am missing? Suggestions? Any help would be appreciated!

Pretty much exclusively Movies/Music, streaming video and eventually HD formats. I am sure through this process I will find more things I want to do with it as I realize the potential but gaming won't be one. I do have DirecTV HD DVR so probably won't be using it as a DVR.

What about the OS? Part of me feels like I should be forging ahead into the newest territory but I have XP MCE on this PC not and it is just a great OS. Should I just hold off or go for it?

Rob,
I was looking at the Thermaltake Mozart and I saw one at Fry's and instantly scratched it off my list because it seemed cheap quality along with the Silverstone I saw there. The volume knob on the Fusion probably won't get used on mine either but neither does the one on my Rotel receiver because I always use my Harmony remote. I think the volume knob is part of the strong visual statement the Fusion makes. The build quality on this thing is truly impressive and exceeded my expectations. I had been considering the OrigenAE X10 but the gold feet bugged me (I know I could have replaced them) and I was a little concerned about airflow. Also the fact that the Fusion V2 added MCE compatible IR receiver and came with a pretty decent PS kinda pushed me over the edge.


Well here is the update on mine. Of course I could not wait the few weeks like planned and I pulled the trigger and ordered the rest of my Components from Newegg. I went with:

AMD Athlon 64 X2 4800+ Brisbane
G.SKILL 2GB (2x1GB) DDR2800
SpecResearch Wireless keyboard
Windows XP MCE

Everything should be here by Thursday so I can start working on it over the weekend. I did not order any CPU cooling and was just going to go with the stock stuff. Does anyone know if I will need to buy some thermal paste or will the thermal pad included be enough?

I am probably going to use VGA for now because my TV is 1366x768 and if I use the HDMI I can only input 720p/1080i. At some point I will upgrade to a 1080p display.

I'm pretty sure no HD DVD or Blu Ray players will pass the HD audio formats as bitstream to be decoded in the Onkyo either.

Hey mike, do you think two HDs would produce a lot of heat? I was thinking of adding a 500 gigger in there after a little bit for some extra storage. Eventually I will probably get a video card if needed when I begin to integrate next gen formats.

Not to get too far off topic but from my understanding HDMI 1.3 gives the ability to transmit HD audio formats as bitstream yet none of the players currently available that have HDMI 1.3 have enabled this feature though I would assume firmware updates in the near future should add this.

You are right we are on the bleeding edge and I believe the computer hardware manufacturers will start integrating these goodies as well.

Mike, one more question if you don't mind. Do I need to buy that Microsoft remote to work with the IR receiver in the Fusion before I program my Harmony remote? I would think logitech would already have all the commands in their database. They had all the commands for my HP "media center PC" remote.

Well received all my components from Newegg today (yeah)! I have begun to connect everything. I installed the mobo and CPU. I have connected all the PS cables and FP cables but there are two cables coming from the FP that I can not for the life of me figure out where they connect. They are two single pin cables; one says GND (black) and the other says M/B PWR (red). I don't see any mention of them in the Antec instructions and I'm not sure where on the mobo to connect them. Can anyone give me a clue as to where these go?

On a side note the Antec instructions mention a 3-pin connector from the PS that has blue and black wires that supposedly hooks to the mobo and monitors the PS fan speed. I do not see this cable either but they say it's optional so I am not too worried about that.

Yea I called Antec about it yesterday. It is so you can turn off your computer with your remote. You have to take the black and white wires from the power switch and route them to your VFD display and there are two pins there to plug it in. Then the red and black wires you are wondering about plug into your mobo where the power switch plugs in. You have you take off the front panel and the plastic cover on the back of the VFD to tuck the black and white wires from the power switch neatly behind it so it does not interfere with the CD tray.

I have made more progress on my project but am having a couple problems. One is with the VFD display. When I first loaded the drivers it came on and was working great. Was scrolling system info and news and all that. I moved it into the living room and hooked it up and started playing some music in Media Center and was showing track, time and all that. At some point it started acting up and scrolling throught stuff really fast and almost acting like it was shorting out. I have gone through all the VFD options and restarted multiple times and it has not changed. Now I just have it set to not turn on. Kind of sucks cause it was cool while it was working. Anyone else gotten their display working properly?

The other is I could never get the third disc of MCE to load. I did the 1>2>1 online updates but it gave me and error when I tried to load three. I went into the info on Media Center and it says I have Media Center Edition 2005. Could it be I already have it with all those updates I did?

ok cool, yes I did.

What about the VFD? Have you had any success with it?

Another note, my RAM is showing 1984 MB instead of 2048 MB. Does this mean my mobo does not like this RAM?

ahh yes of course! sorry for the noob questions. I think I am in pretty good shape then except for the VFD. Went pretty smooth for my first PC build.

BTW I was able to get my Harmony working with the IR receiver without having an MCE remote if anyone else was wondering about that question I asked earlier in this thread.

Now for all the fine tuning!

chrimbow, post #21 I explained what Antec told me about the two single pin wires on Friday but I forgot to ask about he missing 3 pin connector from the PS. Read below for my update related to the two single pin connectors

Here is my updated progress. It seems the VFD problems I was having was being caused by plugging the wires coming from the power button into the back of the VFD. Somehow this was causing the VFD to short out. Unplugging the red and black wires from the mobo and plugging the white and black wires from the power button back into the mobo fixed that problem with the VFD shorting out but now I was unable to power up and power down with the remote. So I tried unplugging the black and white power button wires and just leaving them unplugged and plugging the red and black wires from the VFD back into the mobo and viola! Now the VFD and remote power up and down are working perfectly. Only draw back on this configuration is the power button is non functional (no biggie to me) but still lights up.

Don't know why the power button was causing the VFD to short out but I guess I can call Antec on Monday and report the problem.