Blue Prints: HTPC part 3

So yeah I've been pretty busy over the holidays and I have not been able to update my blog but it seems that I am free to do that right now. Call of Duty: world at war and left 4 dead seem to be taking up most of my time right now.

So it seems that the next important part that I need to look into is the ram for my HTPC. From what I've read online it doesn't seem that I need a lot of ram for this build but since I will be running windows Vista on it, it's probably a good idea to have at least 2 Gb. Luckily DDR2 ram right now is very cheap since retailers are getting ready to sell new DDR3 for the new Intel i7 systems out that. That made it easy to get 2 GB of ram for under $50. I decided to use G. Skill game from newegg.ca because it is fairly cheap and yet it has a very good rating (http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231144). The CAS speeds are looking pretty good too at 5 around the table. It is also the best kind of ram that the motherboard supports as DDR2 1066 which is the fastest DDR2 memory that is made. Besides that I don't know what else I can get into about this ram, I've never use the brand G. Skill before, mostly get to patriot but I sounds like they are pretty good at what they do.

The Hard drive seems like the next part that needs some special details. As previously stated there are seems special requirements that are need to be met for this build, mostly lot power and quite. For this I have looked into Western Digital line of Green HDD. The one I have consider is their 640 GB model (http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136298). It has the Sata 3.0GB/s speed which is important but also includes a bunch of power saving features. The reviews from this drive seem to be very impressive and the prices is only about $85 which is not much more expensive then a non-green hard drive with the same capacity. It also has a much of features to reduce vibrations to keep it nice and quite.

The only thing left to consider is the case. It is one of the most important parts to consider which is kind of unique when making a HTPC. You have to consider looks and airflow when picking a good case. The case that I'm interested in is the Antec Silver veris Fusion 430 (http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811129029). It is a micro atx case so my mother board will have no difficulty fitting into to it. its has the nice little display that you can program what it says which is a nice little feature. Has a 430 watt power supply which is enough power but I may have to replace if it gets to loud. It also come with two huge 120mm fans which is more then enough to keep my HTPC running cool. I think that it will nicely fit into my home theatre.

For now I'm not going to look into getting a Blue-ray drive but I will defiantly do it in the future when prices are much lower so it looks like a DVD burner will have to do. Besides that I think I'm done. If you have an questions or you have found that I have missed something please leave a comment and I will get back to you asap. Anyways this build is done so keep on building.

Merry Christmas

Just had my last day at my co-op a few hours ago an it's Christmas all ready and I've finally finished my Christmas wrapping on Christmas eve. That's my own Christmas tradition I guess. Will add a post for part 3 of HTPC within the next two days hopefully. I will be off work so I'll have more time for posts so look forward to that. The only thing I have to say then I guess is merry Christmas to all!

Blue Prints: HTPC part 2

So I've been pretty busy lately and I haven't had the time to update my blog, sorry for the wait but finally is part two of my blue print of a HTPC. The first important thing is to decide exactly what you want your HTPC to do. I'm interested in having an HDTV tuner and possible to watch blue-ray discs some time in the future when they are cheaper, other maybe interested in play PC games. For this I've decided not to use a graphics card since it will only increase the noise and the heat generated by the system. I've decided after some research to go for integrated graphics based on the AMD 780G chip set. With this chip set I'll get a nice little Radeon HD 3200 graphics chip. I could go for a higher level chip set but all it would add is cross-fire support for 2 or even 3 graphics chips. That maybe a good idea for a gaming PC but to much for my little HTPC. Based on reviews I've heard from this integrated graphics chip, it is the best on the market right now and is more then capable to handle blue-ray decoding. So based on that I can look into a motherboard I'm interested in.

I've done my research for my motherboard on newegg.ca at work, don't tell my boss, since they have a wide selection and have a large amount of reviews collected from purchasers. I suggest this method of research for anyone interested in make a computer. The price may or may not be the cheapest but you can all ways look to your favourite vendor after you know what product you want. From there I have found a nice little Gem, the ASUS M3A78-EM(http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131324). This motherboard has a lot of features I'm interested, the correct chip set, AM+ in case I was interested in going for a AM+ CPU (probably not, to much power), and it's a micro ATX which means I can fit it into on of those nice little HTPC cases. Reviews for it too are all most all 100% which is pretty much amazing. Good features, good prices at currently $91 CDN it is a dream come true, now to go onto the CPU.

Kinna set into getting a AMD CPU now because of the chip set, but pretty excited for that because I wanted to make an AMD based build for my gaming PC but Intel kicks their gaming CPU's out of the door. AMD on the other hand has some nice low energy low heat solutions which make it perfect for my needs. For this I've picked the AMD Athlon 64 X2 5050e (http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103298), it's a nice little 2.6Ghz dual core that has a thermal power of 45W. That is an insanely small value for such a fast CPU. It's the fasted of the new Brisbane core series with a 65 nm die size. For 75.99 I would be insane not to pick this CPU. There really hasn't any competition in my mind for which CPU I will be using.

Anyways that's all my time for tonight, look forward to part 3 of this build much sooner then before. I also would like to start posting some Tech news that's happened just recently that I think people would be interested in hearing about. Till then, keep on building.

Blue Prints: HTPC part 1

Sorry for the lack of updates, but I've been busy with work and other Christmas events that have come up. In this section I would to just go into a brief explanation of a HTPC and explanation on why they are so cool. I will try to stick a specific format so my previous post may change appearance over the next little while while I experiment with different formats. The content will most likely remain the same. Anyways here's everything that you would like to know about HTPC's.

Well what exactly is a HTPC one would ask? Well like my previous post on building a NAS, an HTPC is a computer design with a specific role in mind. With the introduction of HDTV's over the past few years the line between the experience between TV and computers have start to blur. Any one can look only line for that latest TV episodes that they have missed. It's equally easy for anyone to play a video game on a PS3 or Xbox 360 against their friends on there PC's. The HTPC is just extension of the idea of combining the two experiences together.

In their simplest forms, an HTPC is a computer that connects to your Television to display content. With the relevantly new introduction of HD TV tuner available on the PC market, they can do so much more. A HTPC is very much like a personal video recording in that matter such as a TIVO. The difference is that HTPC's don't lack the features that many PVR's do and they come out at a lower price. A HTPC can store all your digital stored movies, such as downloaded movies or achieved DVD's, play anything from you movie collection, DVD's Blue Ray DVD's and even HDDVD's, as well as play your stored music collection.

There are a bunch of commercially available HTPC but I won't being going into much detail about these because I'd rather take the DIY-er approach. There are many different aspects of a HTPC that make it unique from a killer gaming rig, you have to remember that this PC will most likely remain in your family so you can use the latest graphics cards with insanely huge fans and heat sinks that sound like a jet-figther in your house. So there are some hardware issues that have to be looked into but also software issues. Should you use the two version's of windows vista that come with the latest version of windows media centre (Vista ultimate and Home Premium), Windows MCE ( a build based on windows XP), or do you go the adventurist way and try a Linux based build. Through out the next week post I will go into these different issues and hopefully you will understand why I have been so interested in making this build. But that's for another day.