Rebuilding an Athlon 64 'Crapbox' into a Llano machine
#1
I built my first XBMC machine last winter after retireing an Athlon 64 3200+ as my main desktop and replacing it with an i5 2500k. I set out to build the old Athlon 64 into an HTPC that I thought 'Would last five years'. But the hardware I used had it's caveats.

Original config:
CPU: Athlon 64 3200+
RAM: 2GB DDR333
Graphics: AGP Radeon HD 4650 1GB (Yes, AGP. Really.)
Mobo: Asus K8V-X
Audio: SoundBlaster Audigy
Drive Controller: Syba 3114 SATA1 Controller Card

Picture: http://i254.photobucket.com/albums/hh100...G_3423.jpg

The machine had it's issues. The ethernet thinks it's MAC address is all zeroes, the AGP card does HDMI but not HDMI Audio, the sound card is iffy under Windows 7, the onboard SATA1 controller doesn't support autonegotiate so it has trouble with SATA2 or SATA3 drives and had to be negated by the Syba 3114, and the system uses the PCI bus for both Ethernet and SATA so there's a serious I/O shortage. Basically, it's a pain in the butt. It also has no upgrade path, so for h.264 10bit or HEVC/h.265 it would never have enough CPU power. Also, the Diamond GRC100 MCE remote I got for the first build and didn't work with the eHome driver, so I got a replacement from MediaGate. The 2x2TB and 1x3TB drives in it though, we're pretty super. Smile

I caved and decided to gut the thing in favor of an Llano, which would hopefully have enough power even for h.265/HEVC when it comes out or at least offer the oppertunity to put in an even faster Llano or a PCI-E graphics card that'd offer next gen hardware acceleration. I also wanted additional PCI-E slots to add in a SATA Controller card or any other hardware expansions.

For me, this machine serves several purposes. It's an XBMC based HTPC, but it also runs CouchPotato and SickBeard to download stuff. It also uses DriveBender to mash my disks together like a JBOD but then offer the oppertunity to set certian folders to be stored redundantly across multiple physical drives. This is where I back up projects, since I'm a film student. I'm not quite so worried about losing those 400+ episodes of ER that I torrented. Smile In addition to this, since it has so much storage for media, it's also acting as network attached storage for a Zotac AD02 AMD E-350 based XBMC machine in the living room. And, hey, the Llano is pretty powerful for its class so why not get some emulation and gaming on the machine if possible too? Crazy Taxi anyone? Smile

New Config
CPU: AMD A6-3500 2.1ghz Tri-Core
RAM: 8GB (2x4GB) Patriot Sector 5 PGV38G1333ELK DDR3-1333 (I actually just had it in a drawer after pulling this 2x4GB from my desktop and replacing it with 2x8GB)
Graphics: Radeon HD 6530D (Built into the CPU, obviously)
Mobo: Gigabyte A75-D3H

I also replaced the cheap Orion PSU with a better and much more quiet Corsair Builders Series CX600.

Tada, Finished Product: http://i254.photobucket.com/albums/hh100...G_3444.jpg

I realize that people have built much more attractive machines but this one has a certian utility in it's purpose too. My aim is to just keep putting HDDs into it until it's full and allow my media collection to grow. So the full, ugly ATX case gives me pretty easily. The Zotac AD02 E-350 in the living room manages to be a lot cuter. Smile
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#2
sounds like it will do what you need it to do which is most important..so nice build!
WE ALL WE GOT
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#3
Good call. I don't know a single AGP card that really does the job well.

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#4
(2012-05-23, 22:57)poofyhairguy Wrote: Good call. I don't know a single AGP card that really does the job well.

Actually, the HD 4650 did great other than the audio issue. It was a DX10 card so it readily did DXVA without the CPU having to do much work. The issue was the lack of HDMI Audio, which I'm unsure if it's only an issue to the Sapphire model. Some other models of the same AGP card claimed to have HDMI Audio. The disappointment here is that I spent like $89 on that HD 4650 only 18 months ago, and I replaced it with the A6-3500 APU which cost only $69.

While I'm still getting Windows 7 setup, I'm so far pretty impressed with the A6-3500. It runs fairly quietly even with the stock cooler and it's temps are pretty low as well.
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#5
I understand your disappointment. Lord knows I have wasted tons on computer hardware.

For future reference if you ever want to make that old comp into a second client (bedroom or something) I recommend this:

http://www.amazon.com/ZOTAC-GeForce-DDR3...B00558MS1G

Amazingly in 2012 PCI cards are less of a kludge than AGP stuff for our purposes.

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#6
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...&Tpk=gt520
gt520 pci and it's low profile.
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#7
While it's interesting to see those PCI offerings, they also cost about as much as I paid for the A6-3500 ($69 Canadian). With that considdered, and factoring in the price of a A75 motherboard, I think just scrapping the Athlon 64 is best at this time. The board for it was full ATX anyway, so it'd only fit in another ATX case, and this does't negate it's issues with SATA2 and SATA3 drives (Basically, the drives MUST have a jumper to force them to SATA1 mode, if they don't have that jumper they can't negotiate with the onboard SATA) I have my 'big server' on the A6-3500 now and anything else I build after that, I'd prefer it to at least be mATX or smaller.
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#8
(2012-05-23, 21:17)DJ_Izumi Wrote: I realize that people have built much more attractive machines...[]...in the living room manages to be a lot cuter. Smile

All in all, a very cost-effective job! Congratulations! Gives me an idea of what to do with my own Athlon 64 Crapbox (almost the same processor) and recycle the case.

And speaking of attractiveness and cuteness, this forum is well known for the builds but not so much for the builders... nice photo... Cool
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#9
(2012-05-23, 23:07)poofyhairguy Wrote: For future reference if you ever want to make that old comp into a second client (bedroom or something) I recommend this:

http://www.amazon.com/ZOTAC-GeForce-DDR3...B00558MS1G

+1, fantastic PCI GPU card!!
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#10
Bizarre problem that is probably HDMI related. Using the onboard HDMI port I simply can not get Windows 7 to recognise my TV as an HDMI display, DVI only so no HDMI audio device. On a whim I connected up an ATi DVI->HDMI adaptor that had come with my HD 4650, and that allows for HDMI audio readily. That was two hours wasted trying to figure it out. (No, the adaptor didn't enable HDMI audio on the AGP card itself.)

(2012-05-24, 23:08)jackh Wrote: All in all, a very cost-effective job! Congratulations! Gives me an idea of what to do with my own Athlon 64 Crapbox (almost the same processor) and recycle the case.

Well, we'll see how cost effective it proves to be with 10bit h.264 in Frodo and later HEVC/h.265 in 2013. Though I'm hopeful that using CPU alone at least, it can decode HEVC when it's available. Though with XBMC's development, it could be a bit slow to include the decoder into it's package.

The last machine was over budget in retrospect, considdering that I blew 108.48 after shipping and taxes on the graphics card alone. This machine here cost $280 if you don't count the hard drives and case which I reused. I'm hoping this time I really have made an HTPC that can last 5 years without needing a major upgrade other than adding more hard drives as it fills up. And if it's not enough, I think I've left enough room to expand the system without having to gut it all over again.

(2012-05-24, 23:08)jackh Wrote: And speaking of attractiveness and cuteness, this forum is well known for the builds but not so much for the builders... nice photo... Cool

I try. Smile
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Rebuilding an Athlon 64 'Crapbox' into a Llano machine0