[bluray]

Hello everbody , I'm very new here and very new to HTPC. Anyhow , i am a #6-#7 user from eskros " which group do you belong " thread. Read through the thread which lead me to this thread. So my question and concerns are i see the parts list on page 1 , but if i dont know how to put it all together do anybody have a step-by-step guide on putting it all together ? When i buy the parts how do i put together ?

Here are your guides......

1. Newegg TV: How To Build a Computer - Part 1 - Choosing Your Components

2. Newegg TV: How To Build a Computer - Part 2 - The Build

3. Newegg TV: How To Build a Computer - Part 3 - Installing Windows & Finishing Touches

[emann30]

Hello everbody , I'm very new here and very new to HTPC. Anyhow , i am a #6-#7 user from eskros " which group do you belong " thread. Read through the thread which lead me to this thread. So my question and concerns are i see the parts list on page 1 , but if i dont know how to put it all together do anybody have a step-by-step guide on putting it all together ? When i buy the parts how do i put together ?

Here are your guides......

1. Newegg TV: How To Build a Computer - Part 1 - Choosing Your Components

2. Newegg TV: How To Build a Computer - Part 2 - The Build

3. Newegg TV: How To Build a Computer - Part 3 - Installing Windows & Finishing Touches

Thanks

[Palmer]

Does the case in this build have enough room for dvd drive, hdd, and ssd along with the rest of your build components? I have an 1tb external HDD laying around that I was going to rip the drive out of to use in the pc. Oh and potentially change to A8-3850 as I can get it for almost same price as A6.

[CASE+PSU] Apex MI-008 250W mITX ($50 + $0)

[bluray]

Does the case in this build have enough room for dvd drive, hdd, and ssd along with the rest of your build components? I have an 1tb external HDD laying around that I was going to rip the drive out of to use in the pc. Oh and potentially change to A8-3850 as I can get it for almost same price as A6.

[CASE+PSU] Apex MI-008 250W mITX ($50 + $0)

Yes....here is the info on it- APEX MI-008.....

With HDD, DVD-ROM and SSD in it, A8-3850 might be too hot in that case.....the low power A6-3500 should be okay.....

[Palmer]

Thanks a lot for the reply bluray. Appreciate all the assistance. This will be my main living room htpc for browsing internet, downloading videos, streaming videos etc This case should just fit on the stand with everything else. Ill stick with the A6-3500 and guess ill look into a better cpu fan for quiet coolingv also that will fit.

[Palmer]

Does anyone have a preferred remote for that works well with this system?

[Wintersdark]

Thanks a lot for the reply bluray. Appreciate all the assistance. This will be my main living room htpc for browsing internet, downloading videos, streaming videos etc This case should just fit on the stand with everything else. Ill stick with the A6-3500 and guess ill look into a better cpu fan for quiet coolingv also that will fit.

With a bit more detail:

I'm running a system with that case, and an A6-3500 overclocked to 2.5ghz (and a substantial GPU overclock as well, though I can't remember the specific speed offhand). I've got a DVD player, an 80gb laptop hard drive as a system drive, and 2 2tb hard drives. I've got a 120mm fan in the side drive bay as recommended in the OP, and the hard drives stacked inside with double sided foam tape.

Heat is an issue, but it's manageable. The problem is the built in PSU air intake covers half the CPU fan air intake, resulting in a massive air pressure drop at the CPU heat sink, and thus very poor cooling. Putting in a better, larger (but of course low profile) cooler such as noted in the OP would likely correct this. I never got around to buying one (not sure why, to be honest).

I found the single biggest change I made to the recommended build was ripping out the included power supply entirely. I'm replacing it with a picoPSU (read: Laptop power brick) but I need to get a new one shipped. I ordered one from Shortcircuit, but it never arrived. In the mean time, I've just been running the included power supply outside the case, and doing so took me from occasionally overheating at stock clocks to running perfectly smoothly with my CPU fan never speeding up above 40% with a pretty substantial overclock.

I can't begin to recommend a picoPSU enough, though. The included power supply isn't noisy, but it's not silent either. PicoPSU's are far more energy efficient (= cheaper to run!) and are absolutely silent. Also, that opened room in your case vastly improves airflow, which just makes everything work so much better.

My two bits anyways.

[Palmer]

Thanks a lot for the reply bluray. Appreciate all the assistance. This will be my main living room htpc for browsing internet, downloading videos, streaming videos etc This case should just fit on the stand with everything else. Ill stick with the A6-3500 and guess ill look into a better cpu fan for quiet coolingv also that will fit.

With a bit more detail:

I'm running a system with that case, and an A6-3500 overclocked to 2.5ghz (and a substantial GPU overclock as well, though I can't remember the specific speed offhand). I've got a DVD player, an 80gb laptop hard drive as a system drive, and 2 2tb hard drives. I've got a 120mm fan in the side drive bay as recommended in the OP, and the hard drives stacked inside with double sided foam tape.

Heat is an issue, but it's manageable. The problem is the built in PSU air intake covers half the CPU fan air intake, resulting in a massive air pressure drop at the CPU heat sink, and thus very poor cooling. Putting in a better, larger (but of course low profile) cooler such as noted in the OP would likely correct this. I never got around to buying one (not sure why, to be honest).

I found the single biggest change I made to the recommended build was ripping out the included power supply entirely. I'm replacing it with a picoPSU (read: Laptop power brick) but I need to get a new one shipped. I ordered one from Shortcircuit, but it never arrived. In the mean time, I've just been running the included power supply outside the case, and doing so took me from occasionally overheating at stock clocks to running perfectly smoothly with my CPU fan never speeding up above 40% with a pretty substantial overclock.

I can't begin to recommend a picoPSU enough, though. The included power supply isn't noisy, but it's not silent either. PicoPSU's are far more energy efficient (= cheaper to run!) and are absolutely silent. Also, that opened room in your case vastly improves airflow, which just makes everything work so much better.

My two bits anyways.

Do you have a link to the appropriate pico psu model I should consider replacing in this system? I liked how the case came with psu for saving money, but once u add in the pico it seems I might as well consider other case options since this wouldn't be saving me money anymore.

[Wintersdark]

Do you have a link to the appropriate pico psu model I should consider replacing in this system? I liked how the case came with psu for saving money, but once u add in the pico it seems I might as well consider other case options since this wouldn't be saving me money anymore.

http://www.short-circuit.com/combo/picop...-acdc.html

I picked this case to save a couple bucks that way too; but in retrospect I'm pretty happy with it anyways. Without the PSU in the box, I can actually cram another two HDD's in there for future expansion, or use a bigger (and more importantly quieter) CPU cooler. What I found is that even if you just toss the included PSU, the resulting cost for the case+picoPSU is still pretty good. It's, IMHO, one of the best options at that price point, PSU or no. There certainly are much nicer cases, but they are generally substantially more expensive ($100+) and don't include PSU's either, so you'd still be picking up a picoPSU for them.

All that said, if you find a good deal on a better case(be careful, there are a lot of terrible cases out there in this form factor) without an integral PSU, I'd go for it. In my opinion, while I really do like this case a lot, the PSU placement in it is pretty much terrible if you're running a desktop-class processor. It's probably fine for an Atom build, but.. ugh.

---

I should also note: Many users seem to have had no heat issues at all with the built in PSU and the suggested low profile CPU cooler. As I never did go that route (deciding that a more efficient, quiet, and space-freeing picoPSU was a better option all around) I can't personally comment on how well that works though.

[DavidT99]

Do you have a link to the appropriate pico psu model I should consider replacing in this system? I liked how the case came with psu for saving money, but once u add in the pico it seems I might as well consider other case options since this wouldn't be saving me money anymore.

http://www.short-circuit.com/combo/picop...-acdc.html

I picked this case to save a couple bucks that way too; but in retrospect I'm pretty happy with it anyways. Without the PSU in the box, I can actually cram another two HDD's in there for future expansion, or use a bigger (and more importantly quieter) CPU cooler. What I found is that even if you just toss the included PSU, the resulting cost for the case+picoPSU is still pretty good. It's, IMHO, one of the best options at that price point, PSU or no. There certainly are much nicer cases, but they are generally substantially more expensive ($100+) and don't include PSU's either, so you'd still be picking up a picoPSU for them.

All that said, if you find a good deal on a better case(be careful, there are a lot of terrible cases out there in this form factor) without an integral PSU, I'd go for it. In my opinion, while I really do like this case a lot, the PSU placement in it is pretty much terrible if you're running a desktop-class processor. It's probably fine for an Atom build, but.. ugh.

---

I should also note: Many users seem to have had no heat issues at all with the built in PSU and the suggested low profile CPU cooler. As I never did go that route (deciding that a more efficient, quiet, and space-freeing picoPSU was a better option all around) I can't personally comment on how well that works though.

Have you thought that your heat issues could be because you are overlooking your CPU and gpu. Will a PicoPSU even work in an overlooked pc with multiple hdds.

David

[Palmer]

I'm not going to overclock this system build so I'm hoping I won't need the PicoPSU. Frig maybe ill just go with the Silverstone ML03 case build instead and just make life easier without overheating concerns

[Wintersdark]

Have you thought that your heat issues could be because you are overlooking your CPU and gpu. Will a PicoPSU even work in an overlooked pc with multiple hdds.

David

No. My heat issues existed before I overclocked - at stock clocks it would overheat after around 10 minutes of video playback despite the fan screaming like a jet engine. I was able to overclock once I removed the built in PSU. This is how it looks assembled with the built in PSU, which rather clearly shows the problem:



As you can see, the power supply covers half the CPU fan, and the cables cover the other half. Butted up against the DVD drive, there's no way to avoid that. Because the PSU fan intake is directly above the CPU fan, the created low pressure region above half the fan makes it even worse.

The picoPSU I linked provides 120w. The CPU stock is 65w; the whole system with multiple HD's draws ~90w. You can get a bigger one, too, the picoPSU's I linked come in up to 160w. Further, I've actually undervolted my CPU fairly dramatically. It's overclocked, but draws less voltage than stock. Since removing the PSU, I can't get anywhere near overheating the system, even with overclocking, and my fan is never above 60%, even during the hottest part of the summer here where it was 32c inside.

[Palmer]

Also I know I don't need 16gb ram but I will be using this HTPC for a lot of things. The price is so good it's hard to pass up being $69.99, any thoughts?

http://ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=6...omoid=1382

[Wintersdark]

Also I know I don't need 16gb ram but I will be using this HTPC for a lot of things. The price is so good it's hard to pass up being $69.99, any thoughts?

http://ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=6...omoid=1382

Honestly, it doesn't matter. My ram needed to be RMA'd, so i set my htpc up with my desktop's high end 16GB Mushkin ram, and when I finally got my cheapo Pareema 4gb I swapped them over and couldn't tell the difference at all. I run XBMC, couch potato, sickbeard, and sabnzbd on windows 8. My HTPC also doubles as a media server to my satellite systems (running Raspberry Pi's foam-taped to small TV's)

Adding more ram doesn't benefit any of that - there's just no need. It would just sit idle. $69.99 is pretty decent for 16gb, but you can get 4 for $20 and it'll work just as well. It won't look as great on the spec sheet, of course, but functionally the systems will be identical.

[Palmer]

Also I know I don't need 16gb ram but I will be using this HTPC for a lot of things. The price is so good it's hard to pass up being $69.99, any thoughts?

http://ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=6...omoid=1382

Honestly, it doesn't matter. My ram needed to be RMA'd, so i set my htpc up with my desktop's high end 16GB Mushkin ram, and when I finally got my cheapo Pareema 4gb I swapped them over and couldn't tell the difference at all. I run XBMC, couch potato, sickbeard, and sabnzbd on windows 8. My HTPC also doubles as a media server to my satellite systems (running Raspberry Pi's foam-taped to small TV's)

Adding more ram doesn't benefit any of that - there's just no need. It would just sit idle. $69.99 is pretty decent for 16gb, but you can get 4 for $20 and it'll work just as well. It won't look as great on the spec sheet, of course, but functionally the systems will be identical.

Thanks that makes sense, just hard to pass up when I see deals thinking more is always better.