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Guide to Building a HTPC, Workstation and Server - Page 575

post #17221 of 18935
6/9/11 at 4:57am
Which information provided by you Such is a great and very interesting..I got so excited to read it,Because I have gained so much information....Thanks again to provide this good type of information....
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post #17222 of 18935
6/9/11 at 5:28am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by elpasa View Post
Hi Renethx, I had a setup of yours that worked really well:

- M3A78
- Phenom X3 8750
- Scythe NINJA MINI
- Antec Fusion Remote Black
- PSU Corsair VX450W

A thunderstorm blew away PSU and MB (and possibly - I don't know yet - CPU and RAM) so I bought your excellent guide (name Augusto), but I have two questions:

- would you suggest a MB to replace the M3A78 (not available any more)?
- is there a chance that any of the cpu in the guide will work fanless (as I used to do with the phenom-scythe)?

Thanks
Assuming CPU and RAM are also damaged, if you want to go cheap with integrated GPU, Pentium G620 + H61 chipset mb is recommended (budget Intel systems). CPU/IGP is powerful enough for every SD/HD videos. You can use NINJA MINI for passively cooling for any Intel Sandy Bridge 65W processor with this 1366/1156/1155 mounting clips.

If you are sure CPU and RAM are ok, then ASUS M4A785-M is equivalent to GeForce 8200/8300 IGP.
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post #17223 of 18935
6/9/11 at 7:00am
anyone using Rosewill RSV-R4000 for a server case?
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post #17224 of 18935
6/9/11 at 11:54am
Hi Rene,
I am building a computer based of your pick for a htpc. I have a couple of questions though.....

1 trying to decide what CPU to purchase. How big of a difference is the i5 compared to the i3? Main thing I will be doing is bd's and some light gaming possible later. I have purchased the gts 450 for this.

2. The other question I have is how much better do you like the antec case compared to possibly a silverstone gdb05? Will the silverstone have plenty of room for the gts 450? Or, is the antec
fusion a must have in your opinion?

Thanks.
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post #17225 of 18935
6/9/11 at 12:17pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by JDz View Post

Hi Rene,
I am building a computer based of your pick for a htpc. I have a couple of questions though.....

1 trying to decide what CPU to purchase. How big of a difference is the i5 compared to the i3? Main thing I will be doing is bd's and some light gaming possible later. I have purchased the gts 450 for this.

2. The other question I have is how much better do you like the antec case compared to possibly a silverstone gdb05? Will the silverstone have plenty of room for the gts 450? Or, is the antec
fusion a must have in your opinion?

Thanks.

1. For video playback, there is no difference (CPU usage of Core i3 is < 20%). As for gaming, this review may be helpful.

2. GD04/GD05/GD06 supports longer expansion cards, up to 11 in, while CPU cooler height is limited to 70mm (the stock cooler is OK, the best third-party cooler is Scythe Big Shuriken). On the other hand, Antec case supports expansion cards up to 9 in (well, 10 in, but the PCI Express power connector has be taken into account), while you can use CPU cooler of height up to ~120mm, so you can use a better third-party cooler. Moreover Antec case comes with an internal IR receiver (though not everybody likes it). The length of GTS 450 is 8.25 in, so it fits either case fine.

Another important difference is the case depth. GD03/04/06 325mm - 340mm, Antec 420mm.
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post #17226 of 18935
6/9/11 at 4:25pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by renethx View Post
Yes, you can do this. Just add a PSU and a bunch of HDDs in the HD135 case and connect HDDs to the main chassis.

PSU mod: Read the article Power Up an ATX PSU without a Motherboard), or use 20-pin Power Supply Jump Start Connector (in this case you turn on/off the enclosure by the PSU switch).

Controller for HDDs in the second chassis: Use 5-Port (or 5x1) Port Multiplier (to be placed in the second chassis) and connect it to one of the eSATA port of the mb by an eSATA cable. Or you can use AOC-SASLP-MV8 8-port SAS/SATA controller card. But in this case you will need two SFF-8088 or SFF-8470 (Infiniband) cables to connect the two chassis. Cables and brackets will be more expensive than the controller itself.
Thanks Rene for the thorough response. Your help is greatly appreciated!
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post #17227 of 18935
6/9/11 at 4:28pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by renethx View Post
1. For video playback, there is no difference (CPU usage of Core i3 is < 20%). As for gaming, this review may be helpful.

2. GD04/GD05/GD06 supports longer expansion cards, up to 11 in, while CPU cooler height is limited to 70mm (the stock cooler is OK, the best third-party cooler is Scythe Big Shuriken). On the other hand, Antec case supports expansion cards up to 9 in (well, 10 in, but the PCI Express power connector has be taken into account), while you can use CPU cooler of height up to ~120mm, so you can use a better third-party cooler. Moreover Antec case comes with an internal IR receiver (though not everybody likes it). The length of GTS 450 is 8.25 in, so it fits either case fine.

Another important difference is the case depth. GD03/04/06 325mm - 340mm, Antec 420mm.
Also not everyone needs an optical drive in their htpc. I took mine out of my GDO5 and it gave me much more room.
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post #17228 of 18935
6/9/11 at 4:54pm
Sorry for disturbing.

I am a subscriber of your guides.

I am mounting an HTPC but i don´t know if the power suply of an ANTEC 310-150

is enough for a SAPHIRE HD 6570 DDR3 2GB

i also got a i3 2100, 4 GB ddr 3, and the board is a gigabyte H67.

Please help will this power suply supports this graphic card?

thanks a lot
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post #17229 of 18935
6/9/11 at 9:47pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by renethx View Post

1. For video playback, there is no difference (CPU usage of Core i3 is < 20%). As for gaming, this review may be helpful.

2. GD04/GD05/GD06 supports longer expansion cards, up to 11 in, while CPU cooler height is limited to 70mm (the stock cooler is OK, the best third-party cooler is Scythe Big Shuriken). On the other hand, Antec case supports expansion cards up to 9 in (well, 10 in, but the PCI Express power connector has be taken into account), while you can use CPU cooler of height up to ~120mm, so you can use a better third-party cooler. Moreover Antec case comes with an internal IR receiver (though not everybody likes it). The length of GTS 450 is 8.25 in, so it fits either case fine.

Another important difference is the case depth. GD03/04/06 325mm - 340mm, Antec 420mm.



Thanks for the info!
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post #17230 of 18935
6/9/11 at 11:18pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by mat1983 View Post

Sorry for disturbing.

I am a subscriber of your guides.

I am mounting an HTPC but i don´t know if the power suply of an ANTEC 310-150

is enough for a SAPHIRE HD 6570 DDR3 2GB

i also got a i3 2100, 4 GB ddr 3, and the board is a gigabyte H67.

Please help will this power suply supports this graphic card?

thanks a lot

The 150W PSU is enough for Core i3-2100 + HD 6570. The max DC draw of your system is ~100W, well below the rated 150W.
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post #17231 of 18935
6/10/11 at 4:12am
Quote:
Originally Posted by renethx View Post

The 150W PSU is enough for Core i3-2100 + HD 6570. The max DC draw of your system is ~100W, well below the rated 150W.

Mine 6570 is the 2GB version. That wouldn´t make any difference compare to tha 1GB?

many thanks
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post #17232 of 18935
6/10/11 at 4:28am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by mat1983 View Post

Mine 6570 is the 2GB version. That wouldn´t make any difference compare to tha 1GB?

many thanks

Maybe 1-2 W difference?
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post #17233 of 18935
6/10/11 at 7:26am
Since I stream all blu-rays with LPCM, how can I tell that this is being sent to my receiver? Is there a program I check on the HTPC to show what audio quality is being played?
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post #17234 of 18935
6/10/11 at 7:33am
Quote:
Originally Posted by d3coy3d View Post

Since I stream all blu-rays with LPCM, how can I tell that this is being sent to my receiver? Is there a program I check on the HTPC to show what audio quality is being played?

Almost Every AVR [Receiver] has a DISPLAY button that will tell you what it is receiving
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post #17235 of 18935
6/10/11 at 7:41am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by d3coy3d View Post

Since I stream all blu-rays with LPCM, how can I tell that this is being sent to my receiver? Is there a program I check on the HTPC to show what audio quality is being played?

One way to make sure your audio stream is sent to the audio device driver/hardware as it should be is use WASAPI exclusive mode. ReClock audio renderer supports the selection between WASAPI shared mode (normal mode) and WASAPI exclusive mode.

Search my posts in the forum with keyword "ReClock" if you are interested.
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post #17236 of 18935
6/10/11 at 7:43am
Quote:
Originally Posted by drhankz View Post

Almost Every AVR [Receiver] has a DISPLAY button that will tell you what it is receiving

Thanks I'll give this a try, also reading through the guide above, you might want to update the audio/video card section stating the nvidia geforce 200 and 9 sereis can do LPCM 8 channel 192hz via HDMI.
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post #17237 of 18935
6/10/11 at 8:04am
Thread Starter 
Isn't this chart enough? All multichannel LPCM solutions there support up to 8 channel 192kHz 24bit.

Windows Audio Engine resamples every audio stream to whatever sample rate/bit depth you selected in audio control panel. That's one reason to use WASAPI exclusive mode.
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post #17238 of 18935
6/10/11 at 9:24am
My current HTPC is Win7x64/i3-530/intel BOXDH55TC mobo/Sapphire ATI HD5570 gpu (CCC 11.5b). With 5570 HDMI out > Denon Video Processor 602 HDMI > Denon AVR4310 HDMI > Samsung PN63B590 Plasma TV the HTPC hibernates and wakes without issue. I am attempting to remove the Video Processor from the system, but when I do the HTPC wakes from hibernation without sound - the AMD HDMI out playback device shows as unplugged and the only way that I have found to get sound back is to reboot the HTPC. Is this just a bug with ATI/AMD catalyst drivers (I don't have this issue with other HTPC using Nvidia 9600) or is there a setting in the BIOS perhaps that I am missing?
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post #17239 of 18935
6/10/11 at 10:13am
I have abandoned for now my decision to replace my AMD video card for a NVidia card, which seemed to me the best way to use MadVR. I was going to use LAV splitter, LAV Audio, and LAV CUVID along woith MadVR to get the best video and bitstreamed lossless audio. But I have numerous 88.2 kHz and 176.4 kHz audio files, mostly in FLAC form, and many with multiple channels requiring HDMI output. I understand that NVidia cards do not support 88.2 kHz and 176.4 kHz audio, though there are some specs showing that some do. So I'm back to using my ADM/ATI cards, and would like to know the best video decoder (commercial or otherwise) to work with MadVR. It would be preferable to use hardware acceleration, though I understand that might not work. I could buy either TMT5 or PowerDVD11 to get the best decoder, though I don't want to use the whole package. For now I've settled on J. River Media Center 16 for music and movies.
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post #17240 of 18935
6/10/11 at 10:26am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by HTPCat View Post

My current HTPC is Win7x64/i3-530/intel BOXDH55TC mobo/Sapphire ATI HD5570 gpu (CCC 11.5b). With 5570 HDMI out > Denon Video Processor 602 HDMI > Denon AVR4310 HDMI > Samsung PN63B590 Plasma TV the HTPC hibernates and wakes without issue. I am attempting to remove the Video Processor from the system, but when I do the HTPC wakes from hibernation without sound - the AMD HDMI out playback device shows as unplugged and the only way that I have found to get sound back is to reboot the HTPC. Is this just a bug with ATI/AMD catalyst drivers (I don't have this issue with other HTPC using Nvidia 9600) or is there a setting in the BIOS perhaps that I am missing?

A workaround is mentioned in the thread ATI HDMI Output sound driver = "Not Plugged In" after Reboot.
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post #17241 of 18935
6/10/11 at 10:32am
Quote:
Originally Posted by renethx View Post

Isn't this chart enough? All multichannel LPCM solutions there support up to 8 channel 192kHz 24bit.

Windows Audio Engine resamples every audio stream to whatever sample rate/bit depth you selected in audio control panel. That's one reason to use WASAPI exclusive mode.

It is, didn't even see that. I was down in the more detailed explanation of the GPU's with the diagram showing the output connections.

Great guide btw!
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post #17242 of 18935
6/10/11 at 10:36am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Steve Goff View Post

I have abandoned for now my decision to replace my AMD video card for a NVidia card, which seemed to me the best way to use MadVR. I was going to use LAV splitter, LAV Audio, and LAV CUVID along woith MadVR to get the best video and bitstreamed lossless audio. But I have numerous 88.2 kHz and 176.4 kHz audio files, mostly in FLAC form, and many with multiple channels requiring HDMI output. I understand that NVidia cards do not support 88.2 kHz and 176.4 kHz audio, though there are some specs showing that some do. So I'm back to using my ADM/ATI cards, and would like to know the best video decoder (commercial or otherwise) to work with MadVR. It would be preferable to use hardware acceleration, though I understand that might not work. I could buy either TMT5 or PowerDVD11 to get the best decoder, though I don't want to use the whole package. For now I've settled on J. River Media Center 16 for music and movies.

None of NVIDIA cards supports 88.2/76.4kHz.

I suggested CyberLink Video Decoder with HAM enabled. But if you have a decent dual core processor, this is somewhat pointless. How to use it outside PDVD11. Another decoder is ffdshow Video Decoder.
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post #17243 of 18935
6/10/11 at 12:40pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by renethx View Post

None of NVIDIA cards supports 88.2/76.4kHz.

I suggested CyberLink Video Decoder with HAM enabled. But if you have a decent dual core processor, this is somewhat pointless. How to use it outside PDVD11. Another decoder is ffdshow Video Decoder.

I have an i3-530 with an HD 5450. Is it possible that the HD 5450 is the problem? I can replace it with an HD 5570 (which I already own) or some other quiet graphics board. MadVR playback is not nearly as smooth as EVR in J. River MC16 or MPC HC.

I could get something like a quiet or silent HD 6670, if that would be adequate.
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post #17244 of 18935
6/10/11 at 3:30pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tong Chia View Post

Try to adjust the brightness (black levels). Win7/Vista has the required tests built in.

Take a look at your TV's menu setting and see if there is a setting for Gamma. The correct value for NTSC (US,Japan) is 2.2 not sure abut PAL (Europe/Asia)

Using 4:4:4 or full RGB makes the problem worse if you have a limited RGB or YUV 4:2:2 input on your TV.


MadVR is not the best place to make these adjustments if you want other players that use another renderer (EVR,VMC etc) to work such as WMC.


i did some adjustmenets in catalyst ,gamma/brightness/contrast and it seems that we have done some improvements
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post #17245 of 18935
6/10/11 at 7:55pm
I almost sent my RAM kit back until I read, again, the manual of the Asrock MB listed in the mid level intel Micro guide.

BTW, what the heck is up with the audio driver? This is across several boards/Gpus/CPUs.
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post #17246 of 18935
6/10/11 at 8:10pm
I'm running an Intel I5-2500 with the Asrock Z68 Pro3-m board and 8 gig RAM kit (Egg had em on sale for 70 bucks!). Don't need a GPU with this combo - I'm not a gamer who needs bleeding edge. This puppy kicks BUTT! Later I can switch the CPU for the 3000 video engine but for now it's on a 42 incher in the office...looks good to me. Total system cost under $500. Audio and Video are on the CPU chip and MOBO.

The system runs at ambient +10 degrees at low tasks and maybe another 10 for CPU usage over 75% ,with the stock cooler. Might drop after the thermal paste has had more than 10-15 hours of use.

READ the manual, even if you feel you know what you're doing

Rene, Thanks again for your guide!
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post #17247 of 18935
6/11/11 at 12:23am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Steve Goff View Post

I have an i3-530 with an HD 5450. Is it possible that the HD 5450 is the problem? I can replace it with an HD 5570 (which I already own) or some other quiet graphics board. MadVR playback is not nearly as smooth as EVR in J. River MC16 or MPC HC.

I could get something like a quiet or silent HD 6670, if that would be adequate.

Try HD 5570. PQ is device-independent, the only requirement is sufficient stream processors.
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post #17248 of 18935
6/11/11 at 9:35am
Quote:
Originally Posted by renethx View Post


Originally Posted by HTPCat
My current HTPC is Win7x64/i3-530/intel BOXDH55TC mobo/Sapphire ATI HD5570 gpu (CCC 11.5b). With 5570 HDMI out > Denon Video Processor 602 HDMI > Denon AVR4310 HDMI > Samsung PN63B590 Plasma TV the HTPC hibernates and wakes without issue. I am attempting to remove the Video Processor from the system, but when I do the HTPC wakes from hibernation without sound - the AMD HDMI out playback device shows as unplugged and the only way that I have found to get sound back is to reboot the HTPC. Is this just a bug with ATI/AMD catalyst drivers (I don't have this issue with other HTPC using Nvidia 9600) or is there a setting in the BIOS perhaps that I am missing?


A workaround is mentioned in the thread ATI HDMI Output sound driver = "Not Plugged In" after Reboot.

Same issue I am having with the same vid card. Installing a new Sapphire 6670 card today in hopes of it resolving the issue
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post #17249 of 18935
6/11/11 at 12:10pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by CarpeD1em500 View Post

Thanks - is there any reason I should consider moving up to an i3 2100 for this type of build? All I'm looking to do is store media, access it from 1-4 PCs (never more than 2 at a time), and have access to the server from the Internet. Should all be possible and within reason for the Phenom II X4, right? I don't want to skimp on $80 and regret it later, but if I'll never regret it, hey, $80 is another drive and a half

Quote:
Originally Posted by renethx View Post

The main reason to choose Intel is lower power consumption; but it's completely up to you what 25W power saving means. (You won't need Core i3, Pentium G620T 35W should be enough.) Another reason would be Intel Pro Gb LAN (found only in Intel-brand motherboards), which is (slightly) faster than Realtek one.

Rene - Fry's is having an $80 sale on the i3 2100 tomorrow, so I'm thinking of going this direction. Is there a specific mobo you'd recommend to pair with that? What are the key things you look for in a server mobo?
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post #17250 of 18935
6/11/11 at 1:15pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by joeydrunk View Post

If you really wanted to, you could drop your satellite and get cable, there's 1 tuner available that allows you to get all encrypted and premium channels excluding on demand.

Which one? And is that for cable subscribers only or does it pull the channels off a canceled cable?
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