Guide to Building a HTPC, Workstation and Server - Page 171

I'm planning to build a Home Media Server, and I stumbled onto this forum a few months ago (great community here). Here's the dilemma, My main priority is disk space to backup my SD-DVDs, HD-DVDs, pictures, pc's, etc. as well as expandability. So, I've decided to go with the NORCO 4020 case and Windows Home Server for the OS. However, I'm just not sure which motherboard graphics card etc. to go with. My server will be mounted on the opposite side of the wall from my home theater, so I would like to just run an HDMI cable from the server to my home theater, and use it as a HTPC as well. I would hope that the wall will provide enough noise dampening to insulate my theater from the noise from the server. So with that in mind, I'm not sure if I should go with the hardware recommended on page 85 for the server build, or go with the hardware for the mid-range ATX platform instead. Also, is that information still up-to-date or is there an alternative I should consider? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

I know this was answered, but I wanted to point out that ANY Renethx post has a link to the latest recommends in the signature portion at the bottom - one click access.

Just another way that renethx makes life easier. Thanks renethx!

Cool thanks this is a really useful guide and forum for helping me get motivated again to build my own HTPC

Thanks again! I let you guys know how it turns out.

renethx

Last question promisie. So I set up my build in hybrid sli mode and I would like to push audio from the HDMI port from the mother board. but the only drivers I can get working are the Nvidia drivers not the Realtec drivers. The only reason I am complaining is bc I cant get the Nvidia drivers to play the audio from any of my High def movies.

When I go to sound devices I can actually see the test bar moving up and down but no audio gets to speakers.

Thanks for any suggestions you can bring my way.

Phil

ok


With the Nvidia driver I can only get stereo quality sound. With the realteck I was getting way better. When I highlight the option to test DTS with the Nvidia driver I get an error message stating that this Has been disabled.

Thanks for all your help

edit....The highest sample rate I can choose from is 16bit and this is with the .33 drivers

One more question for someone about the Remote Fusion Max case. I noticed the VFD display is on all the time even though I switch the case power off (all the other fans turn off as expected). I have not loaded the o/s or drivers yet. Is this the expected behavior? At the moment the only way to switch the display off is to switch the power off to the power supply.

In case anyone else needs to know - I had a reply from Antec. They say that the display will not be on always once the driver software is installed.

Hi all,

So I've built my HTPC with more or less the recommend specs for the mid range micro-atx. But after a week of running it it no longer boots up!

When I turn it on the fans run for a couple seconds, then stop, then start again. But never is there any output to the display. No beeps either.

Any suggestions?

I've removed everything and reassembled and still nothing... Down the the bare CPU/Mobo/RAM and still no output so I assume one of these is fried/defective...

The mobo is P5Q-EM and the CPU is E8500.

How do I do that?

And can you explain how that could help? Just trying to understand what's going on...

Thanks.

Edit: Clearing the CMOS, is that erasing RTC Ram from the manual?

Many thanks, would the graphics card do the upscaling instead of the zonar then? Any other recommendations on the graphics card?

Regards

Nick

- SD DVDs - TheaterTek (TT)
- Blu-ray Discs - Total Media Theater (TMT)
- HD-DVD discs - Total Media Theater (TMT)
- Ripped/downloaded content - TheaterTek (TT)

Renethx, one other question I'm not getting....

The card I chose and bought, is a Radeon HD4670, one of the reason s is for the post processing capabilities for upscaling SD DVDs.

From what I've been reading, the card should do hardware post processing, while options such as ffdshow, all the players, etc. do the post processing through software. So, first of all I assume hardware post processing is better, but how do I choose this instead of software?? Do I have to enable/disable something in particular? Is there really no sense in even using ffdshow in my case? (with a hardware post processing capable card).

As you can see I'm pretty confused as to what I have to use for each case and with my hardware (don't put specific programs if it's too much but maybe generics? i.e.: filters, codecs, nothing, change something in catalyst or whatever, etc.)

Just in case, this is the relevant hardware:

CPU: E5200
Ram: 2GB
GPU: Sapphire HD4670, 512MB
Drive: LG combo drive (BR & HD-DVD)
Connected through HDMI adapter to a 42" LG TV, 720p
Desktop resolution currently set at 1360 x 768

Thanks!!!

This thread is amazing! The hardware guide was very helpful, but I feel like I'm overlooking something in my own planning for what I want to build.

Long story short, I thought I'd build a NAS-type computer out of older hardware in another room, and have it send the media to my Xbox 360. After much fiddling with Mythbuntu, I was 70% successful in getting this done but it falls flat on some music files, and can't deal with x264 HD content over the network unless I spend days converting it to mp4 and drop the audio to 2 channels. Note with Mythbuntu I wasn't using any DVR abilities - just UPNP to the xbox from a central media store.

I find losing any kind of audio unpalatable, and in finding all the tedious and cumbersome workarounds to make x264 over 4GB in size playable on the 360 - this has kickstarted my urge to build a proper at-the-tv HTPC. I simply don't want to deal with patching together something, when I can be spending that time enjoying the media instead!

I don't know which HTPC build would meet the specs I've got floating in my head. In all my searching and reading, most of what I want falls into a NAS category, but what I want to do seems to skim enough into other things that I don't know what hard rules I should follow in piecing together this HTPC.

Environment:
Direct connect to LCD HDTV, hdmi inputs
Wireless network to two laptops - Macbook, and PC Laptop
Repurposed desktop computer (athlon xp 1800+) running as NAS*
*would like to get rid of this computer

Requirements:
* easy to use. That means one remote if possible (harmony), no video converting, etc. I used to build computers for a few years so I'm fairly knowledgeable with basic hardware, but my wife doesn't have the patience.
* serve as a NAS for documents, ISOs, and computer (laptop) backups - Mac and PC
* serve up HD content to the TV, or over the network either from hd or disc
* music server (primarily itunes)
* media server (digital photos)
* estimating 1TB in size
* 5.1 DTS capable

Optional: DVR capability, send/receive torrents (optional for security reasons - will continue use of old desktop computer for this if necessary).

The plan was to use an external HD like the WD or Seagate USB drives to back up the whole thing on a weekly basis. I don't want to put all my eggs in one basket so to speak without having a backup regimen in the planning.

1. From my list of requirements, am I missing anything? Is there an obvious solution that I'm simply not getting, or is this the norm for HTPC things?

2. If I'm not missing anything, am I correct to assume that any of the low-end HTPC builds in this guide would suffice? Where are the minimum standards (eg, discreet GPU over integrated because of x) I should hold to for something like what I'm building?

3. I've played around with mythbuntu and found it ok, though I'm a fish out of water with Linux. I'm a PC kind of guy. With the requirements, is there a better OS alternative?

Any help on the subject would be greatly appreciated!

I am looking at building something along the lines of one of the low-end AMD systems. I plan to start out using the box for audio/video playback and web surfing and later add a capture card.

Like everyone else, I have a few questions for renethx or some of you other knowledgeable folks.

1. In the low-end AMD/AMD system, is the 4450 graphics card necessary? I was under the impression that the onboard 3200 would work fine.

2. Is the 5050e cpu still a good one to go with? The 5050e, 5200+, 5400BE, and 5600+ are all about the same price. I do like the lower power consumption of the 45w cpu. Is there a big performance hit in not going with one of the other chips?

3. Is there any Linux support yet for the hardware decoding (hope that was the right term) capabilities of the current on-board HD GPUs? I would prefer to run something like Mythbuntu instead of Vista.

4. If I am not going to be gaming, is spending a little more to get an Intel E5200 and a board with either Intel 4500 or Nvidia 8300/9300 graphic worth it? Will I see a performance increase?

5. If I want to add a bluray drive down the road, will a 5050e with the on-board 3200 or a seperate 4550 be able to play it in 1080p at full resolution? If not, what should I be looking at as a minimum?

Thank you for the help.
-Kevin

I have a Gigabyte 790GX motherboard, but having problems with the graphic. I'm therefore considering buying a dedicated graphic card, and need some help.

I'm using the HTPC in a dualscreen mode, so it's need to work well in this aspect. Panasonic plasma connected with HDMI and a small LDC screen connected with either VGA or DVI (doesn't really matter which).

Then I need to be careful with watts. I have heard ATI 4350 and 4550 only max 25W. Is that correct? What about ATI 4670?

The HTPC is used only for movies, SD and HD. Any recommendations? Stability is important of course. It also needs to be passively cooled.

I have built my htpc according to this thread and am about to attempt the final hook ups in my new theater. My HTPC has the Xonar, HIS 4670 and a Yamaha RXV 3800 in my component rack. What would be the best hdmi cable order. The video card has the dual DVI outs. Should I go from the Xonar to the Yamaha, and the video card to the projector(with the DVI to HDMI dongle) ?? The projector is an Epson 1080 UB with 2 hdmi imputs and component in.

I didn't think much about this originally, but after letting it sink in overnight this is actually a big issue. I assumed I could use WMC or XBMC to play my stored DVDs and HD-DVDs. But after researching this today, it doesn't look like either will play nice with WHS. Any suggestions? I was pretty set on using WHS for its simplicity and the backup features, but at this point I'm open to any suggestions that will keep this in one box.

Clearing the RTC RAM did the trick! Thanks!

I used my newly built HTPC yesterday, E5200 CPU, Gigabyte Ga-g31m-s2c MB (built it yesterday, not my first, built many PCs before -not specific HTPC), and today it wouldn't boot up either... Tried inserting another processor (E4600) from another machine and it did not boot up either (works fine in that other machine: Intel DG31PR motherboard)... I left just the CPU, MB and RAM in and nothing. I'm not sure my case is the same but I will try this tomorrow. If it is, is there a reason why this happens?, and what does clearing the RTC RAM do? In my case, I tried also placing the CPU of the HTPC (E5200) in the MB of the PC I took the test CPU from (the DG31PR MB)and it did not boot up either.... so I'm not sure it's the same case, or if the CPU could have gotten damaged?

Help!

Renethx--

I want to thank you for this guide. I used to build custom PC's years ago and gave up on it because it's become quite overwhelming all of the options we have! I ended up building the "High End" system (Intel / Intel) purchasing everything through newegg. (with ASUS P5Q-EM board.)

The case was a bit more expensive than you had listed, no biggie. It's a pretty cool case. I didn't realize that I got 8gb of RAM, so I ended up wiping Vista x86 and loaded 64bit (strangly enough x86 reported 8GB ram installed, any clue on that??)

I'm still trying different front-end softwares, looking for the perfect one. Every one has their pros and cons. Crazily enough WMP11 seems to be the best bet with the Vista codec pack or CCCP, unfortunately windows MCE doesn't like MKV files unless I load the 64bit vista codec pack but then video and audio are all out of sync and it goes nuts.

One other gripe... the Ninja Mini CPU cooler... man what a monster! What sucks is that it didn't like to stay mounted in the holes, it would keep popping out of the board. The only place to mount the fan to it was towards the CDROM bay, although the fan had to rest on top of the chipset heatsink. I'm tempted to use the OEM intel fan that came with the CPU. Why did you specify this fan / heatsink? Is it better for overclocking? How do I overclock this thing? If I decide to not overclock, is the stock OEM Fan sufficient?

One more thing. I couldnt' for the life of me get 1080p to my Sharp 52" Aquos LCD. After days of messing around, I finally tried a new HDMI cable and it works fine. I can use 1920 at 60hz now.

Thanks again bud-