[df1021]

-GIGABYTE GA-E7AUM-DS2H LGA 775 NVIDIA GeForce 9400 HDMI Micro ATX

-Antec Black Aluminum / Steel Fusion Remote Black Micro ATX Media Center

-Intel Core2 Duo E7500 Wolfdale 2.93GHz 3MB L2 Cache

-Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 1.5TB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s

-CORSAIR CMPSU-450VX 450W

-A-DATA 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400)

-SAPPHIRE 100255HDMI Radeon HD 4670 512MB 128-bit GDDR3

-AVerMedia AVerTV Combo PCIe

-Sony Dvd-rw (already have, will purchase bluray soon)

-logitech cordless keyboard/mouse (already have)

-panny plasma 50inch g10 (just bought)


Thanks to renethx and other contributers on this forum. I just want to make sure I have everything I need for my first build. A link to a step by step procedure to build this would be very beneficial too. I have Vista Ultimate, but I'm not sure whether to run 32 or 64. Eventually, I would also like to upgrade to Windows 7. Thanks.

 

[renethx]

If you are going to use a discrete graphics card, you can choose a cheaper mb. SAPPHIRE card may be noisy for some people.

 

[ArtosDracon]

The system you have set up is not going to be quiet, just an FYI. Are you going to be gaming or encoding on this system at all?

 

[df1021]

I want it to play all my x264/mkv encoded movies via hdmi to the tv and the optical going to my receiver. What would you recommend to make it a quiet media center?

 

[renethx]

Just change the graphics card to a quieter one such as HIS.

 

[mr007]

stick to 32bit for htpcs

 

[df1021]

My objective is to build a quiet, but solid htpc that will last a few years. Today, I have decided to pick the intel/nvidia low end microatx set up (from page 85), but with a few modifications. I want to upgrade to a core 2 duo 2.93, up the ram to 4gig, up the hd to 1.5tb, add a tuner, and remote. My new set of questions are:


Will this be quiet?

Will my stock fan suffice?

Will a 350w be enough power?


Thanks!

 

[renethx]



Quote:
Originally Posted by df1021 /forum/post/16897944


My objective is to build a quiet, but solid htpc that will last a few years. Today, I have decided to pick the intel/nvidia low end microatx set up (from page 85), but with a few modifications. I want to upgrade to a core 2 duo 2.93, up the ram to 4gig, up the hd to 1.5tb, add a tuner, and remote. My new set of questions are:


Will this be quiet?

Will my stock fan suffice?

Will a 350w be enough power?


Thanks!

Yes.

Which stock fan, case or CPU?

Yes.

 

[df1021]

Thanks for all your help. I was talking about a cpu fan, but as long as my set up is good with you, I'm game. Once again, thanks. I will make a small donation. If I could also get some help building, that would be great!

 

[renethx]



Quote:
Originally Posted by df1021 /forum/post/16898844


Thanks for all your help. I was talking about a cpu fan, but as long as my set up is good with you, I'm game. Once again, thanks. I will make a small donation. If I could also get some help building, that would be great!

The stock CPU cooler is enough. You just need to control fan speeds with either EasyTune (a GIGABYTE mb utility) or SpeedFan (a brief explanation here ).

 

[mike_311]

be careful with the seagat drive.


I'd get a decent size drive for the OS and use a 1.5 WD green drive for media storage.


i never liked having everything on one drive. too many bad things can happen...especially during reinstalls.


if you are only running 4gb ram ( and that is plenty for an htpc) them save the headaches and go 32 bit... btw win7 mc kills vmc for watching and recording tv...

 

[df1021]

Ok. So should I have two hard drives from WD? A small one for everything and a large one (1.5 tb) for media? I also wanted to change to a Antec Microfusion. Any comments on this htpc case? Also, should I stay with Vista Ultimate as my OS?

 

[df1021]

32bit, as recommended by many...

 

[Ric_Margiotta]



Quote:
Originally Posted by df1021 /forum/post/16899675


Also, should I stay with Vista Ultimate as my OS?

I'd definitely recommend moving to Windows 7.

 

[mike_311]



Quote:
Originally Posted by ric_margiotta /forum/post/16900364


i'd definitely recommend moving to windows 7.

+1

 

[mike 01hawk]

I'd just ditch the vid card and use onboard video. Save ya money, heat, and power.

 

[renethx]



Quote:
Originally Posted by df1021 /forum/post/16899675


Ok. So should I have two hard drives from WD? A small one for everything and a large one (1.5 tb) for media? I also wanted to change to a Antec Microfusion. Any comments on this htpc case? Also, should I stay with Vista Ultimate as my OS?

Separating OS drive and data drive is more convenient. Antec Microfusion is a good case, it supports only low-profile expansion cards, though (so selection of a graphics card in future upgrade is limited). Try Windows 7 32-bit RTM (you should be able to test it for 120 days by "rearm"; after that you have to buy a license key).

 

[mike_311]



Quote:
Originally Posted by mike 01hawk /forum/post/16901022


I'd just ditch the vid card and use onboard video. Save ya money, heat, and power.

agree, wait till you get bluray, integrated graphics should do you fine for now...

who knows, there may be better discreet cards available then.

 

[ArtosDracon]

Size restraints of a HTPC aside, for a quiet system you need as few fans as possible, with as large of passive heatsinks as possible to get it as quiet as possible. There are a few passive power supplies out there that can go a long way towards helping.


If this is going to be in your media center I would suggest your primary drive be a SSD, A high performance 32GB drive is down to about $120 now and it will be literally silent. Western Digital Green drives have thus far proven to be very good for HTPC's but they don't have a lot of longevity on them yet, so they're not fully proven in the wild yet. Ideally, you mass storage would NOT be in your HTPC, but with the ability to power down hard drives when not in use, it won't hurt to have one or two decent sized drives in your system for storage, for now.


IMHO, in order to build as future proof a system as possible, you should go with a fully height case, so that you can use a larger tower style heatsink like the scythe mini ninja so it can be run passively. That combined with a SSD for your primary drive, a passively cooled power supply and as large and low RPM fans as possible and you can build a truly silent system.