Building a S197-H80 mini-ITX HTPC!
#16
trossi .... in Dougie Fresh I trust.... he has dealt with the parts and he knows it works. Why make life hard.

Enjoy your system! Smile
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#17
Thanks guys. My bad for pulling the trigger on purchasing too quickly and not waiting a while to hash out the details on the forum. Everyone is a willing contributor, so appreciation to all.

I'm looking forward to posting my photos next week!

Btw .. i started the hunt for seemless playing of dvd/bluray with menu's from within XBMC. So far I read through the following posting, but it appears more difficult that it needs to be. I'll be using Win7 64bit in this HTPC and am going past my budget in a hurry. My wife and kids will be using this, so I would like the software affordable, yet seamless. I'm thinking about something like VLC (free) vs TMT5.
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#18
I use DVDFab to rip the main title of blurays to an MKV. They then show up in the movie library. I find this to be very family friendly since they just need to pick the movie from among all the movies either from DVD or Bluray via their movie poster. I keep the files on a separate server. This is just one of many ways to do it.

There is a lot of good information for setting up software, different options, etc. here: http://assassinhtpcblog.com/. It's worth the money for the paid guides. I believe it's only a $20 donation. It'll save you days of searching and trying.
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#19
(2012-07-06, 21:04)trossi Wrote: Thanks guys. My bad for pulling the trigger on purchasing too quickly and not waiting a while to hash out the details on the forum. Everyone is a willing contributor, so appreciation to all.
I hope that everything will work out well for you........

(2012-07-06, 21:04)trossi Wrote: I'm looking forward to posting my photos next week!

Btw .. i started the hunt for seemless playing of dvd/bluray with menu's from within XBMC. So far I read through the following posting, but it appears more difficult that it needs to be. I'll be using Win7 64bit in this HTPC and am going past my budget in a hurry. My wife and kids will be using this, so I would like the software affordable, yet seamless. I'm thinking about something like VLC (free) vs TMT5.
When you are ready, I can help you setup XBMC external player to support your blu-ray disc playback. If you have HD TV tuner for Live OTA HD, I can help you with that too......it look difficult, but it is not as difficult as it look......


(2012-07-06, 21:20)Dougie Fresh Wrote: There is a lot of good information for setting up software, different options, etc. here: http://assassinhtpcblog.com/. It's worth the money for the paid guides. I believe it's only a $20 donation. It'll save you days of searching and trying.
I like Assassin guide very much, and it is great tool for beginner who want to build computer but it is not necessary to pay for guide to configure XBMC. Everyone in here (include XBMC team) is happy to help fellow XBMC user for free......Big Grin
>Alienware X51- do it all HTPC
>Simplify XBMC configurations
>HOW-TO Bitstreaming using XBMC
I refused to watch movie without bitstreaming HD audio!
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#20
The S197-H80 comes with a built-in MCE receiver and remote. Any advice, guides, etc. for setting this up with XBMC? It's been a long time since I've done it so I am hoping it's much less painful that it used to be.
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#21
(2012-07-12, 05:28)Dougie Fresh Wrote: The S197-H80 comes with a built-in MCE receiver and remote. Any advice, guides, etc. for setting this up with XBMC? It's been a long time since I've done it so I am hoping it's much less painful that it used to be.

I am waiting for the case to show up, then I can see just how well the built-in works for me. I need the system to power on via a Harmony remote, to get the WAF up there (hitting a power button is just too hard sometimes..)

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#22
In the HT-80, the power switch is routed through the IR receiver so that should be no issue. In the S197-H80 it's not but trossi confirms that plugged into the ASRock CIR header the power on works!
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#23
Oh, sorry.

I'm still looking forward to the ht80 case.
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#24
Just posted photos on the first post. Very happy with the build and and amazed by the support from this forum to help out a HTPC noob.

In the end, the unit fits nicely next to the tv and is very quiet. How did I accomplish this you ask. Well, one was dumb luck and the other from helpful forum posts on the subject.

(1) I had a defective 50mm case fan that Dougie Fresh was nice enough to replace for me. In the interim I was using a SilenX iXtrema Pro 40mm Case Fan that I picked up at Fry's. I was hoping to swap it out with the 50mm after receiving and return the 40mm fan to Fry's. Well, after installing the 50mm, it was way too loud. I realized then that the very quiet case fan from Fry's and and since temp was ~53c, I reinstalled the 40mm and couldn't be happier.

(2) Using Fusion Tweaker I undervolted the p7 configuration from 800mhz to 400mhz. There doesn't appear to be any impact at all other than allowing me to turn down the CPU fan to level 2.

With the quiet case fan and undervaluing the CPU, I've been able to run XBMC and an occasional bluray at ~53c. This is perfect.

The other impressive aspect of the case is that the built-in IR (small window on front) and remote that came with the case allows me to shutdown and start the unit. Trying next to figure out how to use a silver AT&T Uverse remote instead of the one that came with. For now I'm happy.

For those that are interested, I'm using Win7 64bit and the latest nightly XBMC nightly. Also, for bluray playing, I use the native XBMC and AnyDVD HD ... works amazingly well. Just need to figure out how to display titles and I'm golden.

I still have some polish to apply on the software side, but happy right now.

Thank you all!
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#25
Congrats on your build. The case looks great and nice work on the pictures.
HTPC: i5 3570K || Noctua NH-L12 || ASRock Z77E-ITX || 8GB Samsung Eco || Intel 330 120GB || Lian Li PC-Q09 ||
Main Desktop: i7 2600k @ 4.8Ghz || Epic 180 on Epic T1000 TIM || Asus Z68 Deluxe || 16GB Ripjaws @ 2133 ||
|| Maingear Shift || EVGA 8800GTS 640MB || OWC Mecury Electra 3G || 320GB, 2x500GB, 1.5Tb, 2x2TB ||
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#26
Good stuff.... thanx for the pics.... wonder why your temps are high and you had to under volt. In my M350 I thought my temps where high. But now I get a good steady 42-48C playing 1080P vids..... but I really don't use it for HTPC just to test. But it does get high on other things....

Like if I go to omgpop.com and play missile command my temps can get to 65c - 70c on my M350...

can you give it a try and play that game and see what temps you get? thanx
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#27
Awesome. Thanks for updating this and showing what the S197-H80 can do.
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#28
Congrats on your build and thanks for the pictures.

I'm struggling with a M350 build using the same motherboard and heatsink, so I would like to ask you more about your efforts. Did you have any problem installing the gelid heatsink, i.e. did you do something more than just screwing the heatsink to the backplate?

For me its like the heatsink doesn't connect with the CPU (after I've put as much force on the screws as seems possible). Removing the heatsink, I see only thin lines of thermal paste on the CPU, marking the outer border of the thermal paste that was pre-applied to the heatsink by gelid. I've never used this heatsink before but I assume the thermal paste should smear all over the CPU, and If I try to boot, the CPU reaches 70 degrees in 60 seconds or so.

So any information you can share on this would be helpful.

Gum G
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#29
Will this setup work with openelec?
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#30
AFAIK, OpenELEC runs well on the Fusion APUs.
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Building a S197-H80 mini-ITX HTPC!0