Guide to Building a HTPC, Workstation and Server - Page 465

I have the following build:
CPU: Core i3 530 2.93GHz LGA1156,
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master (Geminii S) RR-CCH-PBU1-GP,
Motherboard: ASRock H55M Pro LGA1156 Intel H55 chipset microATX,
Memory: G.SKILL F3-12800CL9D-4GBNQ DDR3-1600 2 x 2GB Kit,
Graphics Card (ATI): HIS H567Q512 Radeon HD 5670 GDDR5 512MB,
HDD: Western Digital WD6400AAKS 640GB SATA 3.0Gbps,
PSU: Corsair VX450W CMPSU-450VX 450W,
Case: Antec Fusion Remote Black microATX, with LCD/IR receiver/remote.

I installed windows 7 last night and upon the first login it took forever at the windows icon screen and then windows explorer crashed. I tried starting in safe mode and get the same crash after it takes 5 minutes to try to load windows. The error code says:InPageCoFire c000009c

Any ideas on this? After some google searches i think it may have to do with the video card not having a driver, but never seen windows fresh install crash afte rinstalling like this. Any help would be appreciated. I am using Ubuntu to reformat the drive and changing BIOS to use onboard video before trying to reinstall again to see if i can get windows up and running so i can register it and then download needed drivers. Is there a way to install needed drivers during windows instillation?

If you get the computer up with onboard video download the latest ATI drivers and see if that fixes your problem.

3 reviews really isn't a statistically useful sample and keep in mind that people tend to be more likely to post reviews if they're having problems. 2 of the reviews are negative because of the card not working on non-Windows operating systems (1 citing poor customer support from Areca). That said, I've been using one of these Areca cards for about 8 months now with absolutely no problems. I initially ran it on Vista and then subsequently upgraded the PC to Windows 7 with no problems on either OS. So count me as 1 very happy customer who didn't bother to post a review on Newegg.

@BDestroyer8418: np. Good luck.

Does it matter which SATA port on my mother board i plug my OS HDD into? I built a media server with expandibility to 15 drives. 10 drvies via PCI SATA cards and 5 drives via motherboard, but i dont think i looke dot see if i plugged in my smaller OS HDD into SATA port 1.

Not to be flip about it, but if everything works as it should (OS drive recognized and system boots), then you should be fine. Otherwise, ensuring that the OS drive is plugged into SATA 0 or SATA 1 would be the first thing I'd check.

@BDestroyer8418: It turns out I only have about 20" depth, even in my second location, so the Norco cases aren't going to work for me. I've decided to take a different course on this. I'm going to make my second HTPC identical to my first (work in progress here).

For media storage, I'll first max out the internal storage on the GD04 at 4TB plus the OS drive. When I run out, I'll purchase a HighPoint RocketRAID 1740 or a Koutech IO-PSA420, both of which are four-port PCI SATA cards that support port multipliers. I'll use something like this to get the ports to the rear of the case, since the case supports one more expansion slot than my motherboard will have. Then, I'll start adding TR5M-B enclosures at 10TB a pop. I can add two or three of those before I run out of space. If I ever decide to separate the HTPC and media server, I can build a tiny mini-ITX PC for the server and still use the TRM5-B enclosures for storage.

@all: Just in case someone is looking for modestly priced 3U - 4U 12x to 15x eSATA enclosures with port multipliers and 18.5" to 20" depth, I ran across the following while researching this:

* Habey DS-1220N
* iStarUSA dAGE415U20-PM
* iStarUSA dAGE415U40TL-PM

Pricing seems to range from $500 to $640.

@Jab: ok, so i've never been very clear what these do?

is it so you can have a pc with just hdd's and a psu, run the hdd's to this card, run a cable to a different pc's mobo to access them?

Normally, you'd still have at least an OS drive in the HTPC, and rather than using a PC case to house the drives, you'd use a dedicated SATA enclosure, like the ones I referenced above, to hold the drives.

In my case, I wasn't able to find a PCI card for the HTPC with four external connectors, so I'm using a card with four internal connectors and that bracket to convert the four internal connectors to a single multi-lane external connector. The hard disks will reside in an external enclosure designed for that purpose.

Ack. I keep going back and forth on this. At this point, I'd rather have the case overhang by 5.5 inches than give up the vertical real estate. For a combined HTPC and media server, does anyone see anything wrong technically with starting with the standard Norco 4220 build in this thread and then substituting the following parts?

* i3 350
* GIGABYTE GA-H55-USB3
* Kingston KVR1333D3N9K2/2G 2GB 1333MHz DDR3 Non-ECC CL9
* HIS Radeon HD 5450 Silence 512 MB DDR3
* LG CT21N 6x Blu-ray

TIA.

/jab

SAPPHIRE 5670 (regular) vs 5670 (eyefinity)

Hey folks, I'm about to pick up a Sapphire 5670. My questions is that there are currently two version of 512mb 5670:

http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product...82E16814102871
Model: 100287VGAL

http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product...82E16814102870
Model: 100287L
(eyefinity)

Newegg is showing that the eyefinity version has poorer reviews and some of the owners were saying that audio doesn't work. I was just wondering if those remarks are already outdated with the latest driver & CCC or am I better off getting the regular version? eyefinity is important to me.

Thanks!

@JAB

I don't see why you can't that's what I was going to go with to start but I just didn't feel like spending that much money on a case + the 120mm Fan Plate (I think Speedoflight is who you need to talk to if you want one) right now since I didn't really need Hot Swap and all those bays for atleast 12 -18 months.

Where are you going to put this at. 5.5" should be fine but the case is going to be front heavy when you start to fill in with HDDs.

It would be cleaner than what you where looking at doing before with the 5/8 HDD enclosure addons

Since your going to be getting a video card is the 1 PCI-E slot going to be enough. What video files are you going to be playing. Right now the i3-530 with the Intel HD graphics seems to be working pretty good for me so far.

The money on the case doesn't bother me too much. I haven't done the math, but I'm avoiding a second case, CPU, mb, os drive, ram, power supply, os, etc. What is this 120mm fan plate? Is the stock Norco under-ventilated?


Wire frame shelf, 9" off the floor, in a dedicated A/V closet--it should be fine. It just extends very slightly into the area of the door frame.



This MB is the full ATX version of the one you have. It has one x16, three x1, and three PCI. After video, HBA, and even a Ceton, I should have two x1 and one PCI free.

I'm going with the i3 to keep my options open, but I'm installing the 5450 for better 24p support and hopefully better deinterlacing.

I did a quick google search theres info on here about the fan board but here's another one LINKY

The Stock Fans are fine from what I'm reading there just very loud. Many people bought the Fan board so they can put quieter 120mm fans in. That's up to you if that closet is in another room or in the basement this might not be a problem for you.

I didn't even pay attention to the 1x PCI-E slots on that board.

A/V closet is next to the theater and the projector sits on an inverted sliding drawer between the two. So, sound could leak through the round hole cut in the face of the drawer, where the projector lens is. I guess I'll need to wait and see! Thanks for the link to the fan board. I'll definitely keep it in mind should the noise bleed through.

They aren't just very loud - they're VERY LOUD. My Norco case is in a rack in the basement and I could fairly easily hear the stock fans on a decent chunk of the first floor of the house. The extra money spent on the fan board that allows you to use 120mm fans is money very well spent.

Don't hold off too long on ordering one of the fan boards as he usually runs out of stock pretty quickly when he has a batch made and it will probably be at least a few months before he gets another batch done.

Your really only looking at another $100 total which would be the cost of the fan board and 3 120mm fans depending on which fans you get but just like gsr said it's worth it. But might as well get the case if that's what you want and you could test out 1st.

I remember reading a thread someone said they sounded like jet engines to him...LOL

I'm pretty sure his username on here is Speedoflight some else could confirm this just in case you need to contact him.
Yup thats him LINKY

PM sent. Thanks!

My build:
CPU: Core i3 530 2.93GHz LGA1156,
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master (Geminii S) RR-CCH-PBU1-GP,
Motherboard: ASRock H55M Pro LGA1156 Intel H55 chipset microATX,
Memory: G.SKILL F3-12800CL9D-4GBNQ DDR3-1600 2 x 2GB Kit,
Graphics Card (ATI): HIS H567Q512 Radeon HD 5670 GDDR5 512MB,
HDD: Western Digital WD6400AAKS 640GB SATA 3.0Gbps,
PSU: Corsair VX450W CMPSU-450VX 450W,
Case: Antec Fusion Remote Black microATX, with LCD/IR receiver/remote

As i stated earlier, i am having some issues with this recommended build. I built this right off of Renethx march specs. I am having wha tit hink is a hardware problem. I have tried instaslling windows 7 on 2 seperate drives and both did not work. then i tried booting Ubuntu off a thumb drive and still nothing. I removed the video card and used onboard video to do all that over again and still windows 7 failed on both drives and Ubuntu will not boot. Any ideas? What kind of diagnostic tools can i run to see if it is the motherboard? should i update the BIOS to newest version and try again? I have no clue how to procede as this is my first build.

OK. Take a deep breath, go to bed tonight and just let it go for now.

Tomorrow, Make sure the main power plug (3 pin into the PSU) is disconnected, get a magnifying glass and check ALL of your connections, Especially that you hooked up the front panel connections, 24 pin main, CPU power, and the CPU fan into the correct slots and orientated right. (yep, been there.) Short the system BIOS pins (check your manual to find it) as you need to start from scratch. After that, plug the main power line in and look for the system light on the MOBO. Is the fan running on the PSU? What about the CPU fan? Can you get into Bios? If THESE are failing than slowly go back through your steps, including verifying you installed the CPU and the cooler correctly.

I have to assume that you've been able to get into BIOS based on your post above, but... And so let's take you back to a clean board following the steps above. It could be something just as simple as crossed wires or something you missed in BIOS setup. It helps to have the latest drivers from the manufacturer on hand and ready to go (especially look for BIOS update, Video, audio and LAN drivers)

Oh, and it's these...mis steps...that teach you how to build your next one.

yes, i was able to get into BIOS. I connected the CPU and cooler correctly, but i may have messed up on the small pins from the front of the case. the motherboard manual said polarity did not matter for the small pins from the front panel. i may have to disconnec tthem all and start from scratch, but would those pins cause a problem with windows 7 loading correctly? All my fans are on and running when i power up. only thing i have notivced not working yet is the front lcd panel, but i figured that was because i have loaded the drivers that came with the case yet because i dont have an operating system loaded. i am leaving it alone tonight and will start on it tomorrow after work with a friend in IT department from work. hopefully we can figure it out over the weekend, but any more ideas today are welcomed as i really want to get it figured out this weekend and send back and thing that is defective.

@islander84
I'm not sure what the problem is but you could try running MemTest did the Bios find 4GB of RAM.

Also when I get problems I usually start from scratch take everything out and only install the parts needed to boot the OS. So try with out the 5670 and use onboard instead for now and check all connections.

Did you try different SATA ports change cable to.

Also just connect the power and reset switch for now and try 1 stick of RAM.

You can try some programs that are on Hiren's BootCD 10.4 you can get it here LINKY just click on the newest ver 10.4 and then on Direct HTTP Mirror You can run it in DOS and Windows it has just about anything and everything you need on it.

ok, thanks for the info. I am going to work on it this weekend. hopefully i get it up and running.

Anybody interested in splitting an unRAID pro key combo deal? Looking to get a pro key myself and save some $$. Shoot me a pm if interested.

Getting ready to pull the trigger on the following modification of a recommended system. I need to know will all this fit in the case, is PSU big enough, and what is the shortest length of SATA cables I can use?

Using primarily as a DVR (eventually with Ceton InfiniTV 4), Blu-ray ripper (No playback), mkv&m2ts playback and encoding (speed not an issue), and outputting video (up to 1080p) and standard 5.1 surround through HDMI to an A/V receiver. No Gaming.

- Apex MI-100 (I'm told this is the same as MI-008 with a different front)
- ZOTAC GeForce 9300-ITX WiFi GF9300-G-E
- Pentium Dual-Core E5300
- SilverStone NT07-775 CPU Cooler
- Samsung Blu-ray + DVDRW Combo Drive SATA
- Ceton InfiniTV 4 (Eventually, USB tuner in the meantime)
- 2TB 3.5" HDD
- 32GB SSD for OS and Programs (Planning to use double-sided tape on any free surface, location suggestions welcome)
- Scythe GentleTyphoon D1225C12B2AP-12 120mm Case Fan (Side Mount)
- 2GB RAM

I was going to buy a Radeion 5670 card but read this on Wikipedia

"AMD has announced that an updated version of the HD 5670 will launch in the fall of 2010. Instead of being based on the lower-end Redwood GPU architecture, it is expected to be a trimmed-down version of the HD 5700 series cards and to be based on the Juniper architecture."

What will be the differences and is it worth the wait?

Hi,

please pardon the ignorance in advance.

Since I will most probably be getting a graphics card for my HTPC, I'm wondering about HDMI connectivity.

Some mother boards also come with a HDMI out, but I assume if you have a dedicated graphics card, you would use the card's HDMI out to go to your AV receiver or display instead of the MOBO's.

Is this correct? And will the HDMI signal going out of the graphics hard also carry the audio signal?

THanks.

Yes, but usually they do not include the cable necessary to plug into your sound card or MB. Make sure to contact the OEM before buying a specific video card.

Yes, the HDMI cable from your dedicated graphics card will carry both audio and video to your receiver. I have two HTPCs with a 5670 GPU and this works without issue. The mobo HDMI port doesnt get used anymore (expect for my core i5 HTPC where I don't have a dedicated GPU)