[JoshTheGoat]

I've purchased all the components for my HTPC and I'm going to put it together over the weekend. Any words of advice or articles I should read before putting together a computer?

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a picture of all the components[/URL]

Case: Antec Black Fusion Remote Micro ATX Media Center
Motherboard: GIGABYTE GA-MA785GMT-UD2H Micro ATX
CPU: AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition Deneb 3.2GHz
GPU: XFX Radeon HD 5770
RAM: G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM
PSU: CORSAIR CMPSU-550VX 550W
HD: Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB 7200 RPM
DVD: Sony Optiarc Black 24X DVD+R 48X CD-R DVD/CD Rewritable Drive
Cooler: Cooler Master Intel Core i5 compatible GeminII S

 

[coppertubing]

Measure twice, cut once.

 

[fschris]

maybe dump the amd stuff ...

no really... when you get this up and running let me know the temps and fan level. i had a AMD HTPC that i loathed because it ran very hot and the fans were excessive.

 

[ogormask]

I just built one similar to this and you will be just fine with heat.


More than fine. I dont even have a special cooler and I have no heat issues at all. The air blowing out is cool to the touch.


If you have not built a lot of systems the best thing is probably to lay out the components around the case so you can visualize where they go. I usually get the processor and memory in the motherboard and try getting that cooler mounted before putting in the case. then mount the motherboard but make sure you get those spacer pegs correct because its a pain to redo those. Then I would probably get the HDD and optical drives mounted. Then the PSU. Then do the smallest wiring first like the case wires to the mobo. Then wire the PSU to everything. Then I think the GPU. I just put together a desktop last night like this and it went well. Easy to get the wires routed well and thats a good order to put things in.


edit* Actually you might have to put the drives in then mobo depending on your case and either way that might be a better order.

 

[mike 01hawk]

My advice, CPU, PSU, and Aftermarket Fan are complete overkill... unless you want to game. I woulda spent the $$$ on more green hard drives.


If you can change your car oil, you can put a PC together, the biggest pain will probably be hooking up all those tiny little power/reset/HDD cables to the pins on the Mobo.


What software you going to run?

I'm using Win7 WMC + Media Browser + Shark007 Codec package with great success.

 

[JoshTheGoat]

I wanted a HTPC/Gaming rig, which is why I splurged on some of the components. I'm just praying it's not too loud to still enjoy the HTPC aspects.


I'll be running Windows 7 with Boxee. I haven't tried Boxee before but I like everything I've seen for it. If that doesn't work, then I'll probably just fall back to Windows Media Center.

 

[justinm0424]

I have a similar am3 setup and my setup was pretty loud until i went into the bios and realized that it's factory set to have every fan funning at 100%. I enabled the cool n quiet and set my average temp to 40C and min fan speed to 20% and it's dead silent. I have the machine with 6TB of drives and it runs 24x7 in my bedroom and now i sleep great. I always believe in having large heatsinks and fans just incase i believe the extra few dollars is worth keeping a cool machine.


If I were you I'd set everything all up, makesure it's running fine then mess with the fan speeds.