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_RT_ · (This post was last modified: 2012-07-17, 00:51 by _RT_.)

As parts have begun to arrive for my first HTPC (first DIY computer build too), I thought I would chronicle things in this thread.
Two of the parts arrived today and the rest of the build should be arriving on Wednesday night.
I'll most likely start the build the next evening and finish it over the weekend.

Plans include Windows 7 as the OS and XBMC as the media center.

But first, let's start with the parts:

ASRock MB-A75M

Silverstone ML03B

Antec EarthWatts Green EA-380D Green 380W

Kingston HyperX 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM

Scythe Big Shuriken 2100

Kingston SSDNow 120gb

Continued in next post (6 image rule)-

I ordered one case fan just in case I need a little extra help. I can always order more, but I'd like to see how loud this brand is first.
ENERMAX UC-8EB 80mm Case Fan

I also ordered a plug as apparently those aren't included with my PSU!!

Here is where things have changes since my original plans.
I was originally going to order the venerable AMD A6-3500:
AMD A6-3500 APU

But just as I was about to place the order, I made the mistake of checking out the A8-3850:
AMD A8-3850
Then it gets better...
If you scroll down to "Shopping Insight"... you see some of the other options people have gone with. One of those options was the AMD A8-3870K.
A8-3870K

Long story short, I was sampling a six-pack of Long Trail and ordered that instead of the originally planned A6.
Why? Who knows. I'm going to be dealing with higher temps and more power use. I knew it before clicking "buy". But I've also had success in undervolting my last Dell XPS and I've seen a bit of talk lately about undervolting the A8. So I figured (perhaps wrongly) that I could see where that gets me. I'm sure it will use more power than my original build, but what the hell.
Additionally, I have a larger HTPC case than I was originally considering which gives me the ability to use the Big Shuriken 2100 that everyone raves about.
At the end of the day, I'll make it work. I have a feeling that if this goes well, it won't be my last build. Plus, the extra horsepower will give me more options down the road for use as a small gaming rig.
Right now however, the goal is to ditch cable and use Netflix and Hulu.

In the end, it's not something brand new. There are plenty of other people that have done similar builds.
I'm hoping that I can provide some thoughts as a first time builder. I'll include some videos. I'll probably ask plenty of questions. I'll probably make some mistakes.
But maybe it will help someone as they go down the same path that I have recently.

For those that (like me) wondered how big a power supply is needed, I used this great reference:
eXtreme power supply calculator lite
By using a few drop down boxes, a 300 watt PSU was recommended. I should be good to go with my 380 watt. And YES. I was conservative with the items I would add. I even ran it with a video card in case that is considered down the road.

Oh yeah... I also ordered a small tube of Arctic Silver 5. I had used this in the past with an older XPS laptop that liked to overheat. It worked quite well and I trust it a lot more than the manufacturer "stuff".

Stay tuned!

Reserved for pics during build.

Mick1152 · 2012-07-17, 01:13

You'll love this setup! Pretty much exactly what I have and it's perfect for everything!

**Beer40oz** · 2012-07-17, 01:25

Congrats enjoy... just did an A8-3850 build... it's cool.

**SSDD** · (This post was last modified: 2012-07-17, 02:54 by SSDD.)

Your setup looks great from a hardware perspective. I think you're going to love building your own hardware.

I would like to make one comment though. I updated my main computer earlier this year and after seeing my old Arctic Silver 5 tube had an expiration date and that it was waaay past expired I did a little research. The consensus is that it is no longer a TIM worth buying relative to the competition, even from Arctic Cooling itself.

"Then there’s Arctic Silver 5, the most popular and most acclaimed paste on the market. And it’s basically rubbish. In no metric is it better than MX-2, on average it’s over 2C worse than MX-2 and costs twice as much. MX-2, while it is great overall, isn’t even a great performing paste (it’s the baseline for good performance) and AS5 is far behind it. And on top of that, AS5 is capacitive, meaning it shouldn’t be used anywhere near exposed traces or SMD components (basically, should only be used on CPUs and GPUs with an IHS). Among the Arctic Silver pastes, Ceramique 2 is a better paste than AS5 in every way I can imagine and I can’t think of a situation where I would recommend Ceramique 2 to anybody. AS5 may be really popular, but in this day and age there’s no reason an informed consumer should buy it."

http://skinneelabs.com/arctic-silver-ceramique-review/

Edit:
I forgot to add, I would recommend something like Prolimatech PK-1 for ease of use or Noctua NT-H1. If you want to go all out there is Indigo Extreme AKA MainGear T1000 in the US.

Prolimatech PK-1
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...6835242019

Noctua NT-H1
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...6835608008

Indigo Extreme AKA MainGear T1000
http://www.maingear.com/epic/epict1000.php
http://www.amazon.com/MAINGEAR-T1000-Eng...401&sr=1-1

_RT_ · 2012-07-17, 03:37

(2012-07-17, 02:28)SSDD Wrote: Your setup looks great from a hardware perspective. I think you're going to love building your own hardware.

I would like to make one comment though. I updated my main computer earlier this year and after seeing my old Arctic Silver 5 tube had an expiration date and that it was waaay past expired I did a little research. The consensus is that it is no longer a TIM worth buying relative to the competition, even from Arctic Cooling itself.

"Then there’s Arctic Silver 5, the most popular and most acclaimed paste on the market. And it’s basically rubbish. In no metric is it better than MX-2, on average it’s over 2C worse than MX-2 and costs twice as much. MX-2, while it is great overall, isn’t even a great performing paste (it’s the baseline for good performance) and AS5 is far behind it. And on top of that, AS5 is capacitive, meaning it shouldn’t be used anywhere near exposed traces or SMD components (basically, should only be used on CPUs and GPUs with an IHS). Among the Arctic Silver pastes, Ceramique 2 is a better paste than AS5 in every way I can imagine and I can’t think of a situation where I would recommend Ceramique 2 to anybody. AS5 may be really popular, but in this day and age there’s no reason an informed consumer should buy it."

http://skinneelabs.com/arctic-silver-ceramique-review/

Interesting. I don't see an expiration on mine. How old was it?

I may still give this a shot and compare temps after a couple months between this and one of the options from your response.

**Beer40oz** · 2012-07-17, 03:54

I always use MX-4 paste from Artic Cooling when I can....

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...6835186038

**SSDD** · (This post was last modified: 2012-07-17, 04:30 by SSDD.)

(2012-07-17, 03:37)_RT_ Wrote:
(2012-07-17, 02:28)SSDD Wrote: Your setup looks great from a hardware perspective. I think you're going to love building your own hardware.

I would like to make one comment though. I updated my main computer earlier this year and after seeing my old Arctic Silver 5 tube had an expiration date and that it was waaay past expired I did a little research. The consensus is that it is no longer a TIM worth buying relative to the competition, even from Arctic Cooling itself.

"Then there’s Arctic Silver 5, the most popular and most acclaimed paste on the market. And it’s basically rubbish. In no metric is it better than MX-2, on average it’s over 2C worse than MX-2 and costs twice as much. MX-2, while it is great overall, isn’t even a great performing paste (it’s the baseline for good performance) and AS5 is far behind it. And on top of that, AS5 is capacitive, meaning it shouldn’t be used anywhere near exposed traces or SMD components (basically, should only be used on CPUs and GPUs with an IHS). Among the Arctic Silver pastes, Ceramique 2 is a better paste than AS5 in every way I can imagine and I can’t think of a situation where I would recommend Ceramique 2 to anybody. AS5 may be really popular, but in this day and age there’s no reason an informed consumer should buy it."

http://skinneelabs.com/arctic-silver-ceramique-review/

Interesting. I don't see an expiration on mine. How old was it?

I may still give this a shot and compare temps after a couple months between this and one of the options from your response.

Somewhere around 2002 - 2003 from my first computer build. It looks like I threw it out though and for whatever reason I can't find any info on shelf life for AS5.

_RT_ · 2012-07-18, 15:32

Well last night was interesting.
Santa came early and rather than wait till the weekend, I couldn't resist and started opening everything early.
Of course, that led to actually trying to install everything into the case.

Lessons learned:
1. Connecting the wiring to the mobo is crazy! Had to keep referring to the manual to make sure I was plugging everything into the right location.
2. After a bunch of google searches, I was able to confirm that I should connect BOTH the 24 pin and the 8 pin power connections. That one scared me.
3. The internal bracket on my Silverstone case it too thick for the supplied SSD mounting screws. I'll either tape it down, or pull out the dremel.
4. Clean wiring is an ART.
5. The Shuriken in beautiful looking. I set it next to the stock cooler and it was comical the difference.
6. Pressing the power button and waiting for the fans to start up seems like FOREVER (even if it was 1.2 seconds). But it was a success! I built my first computer.

A few questions so I know what I need to pick up to finish installing everything.

1. I realized I don't have a keyboard at home. I'll be borrowing a keyboard and mouse from a friend this evening so that I can boot into the BIOS.
2. I have an external DVD drive. Does my mobo have the ability to boot from an external cd/dvd drive? I would think no as there would be drivers needed?
3. If not, I assume there are no other tricks for installing windows 7 and I'll have to go buy a 4 gig thumb drive? (I only have 2 gigs kicking around)
4. Any suggestions for items I change in my BIOS now rather then testing things out on my own?

Thanks all-

GortWillSaveUs · (This post was last modified: 2012-07-18, 16:00 by GortWillSaveUs.)

(2012-07-18, 15:32)_RT_ Wrote: Well last night was interesting.
Santa came early and rather than wait till the weekend, I couldn't resist and started opening everything early.
Of course, that led to actually trying to install everything into the case.

Lessons learned:
1. Connecting the wiring to the mobo is crazy! Had to keep referring to the manual to make sure I was plugging everything into the right location.
2. After a bunch of google searches, I was able to confirm that I should connect BOTH the 24 pin and the 8 pin power connections. That one scared me.
3. The internal bracket on my Silverstone case it too thick for the supplied SSD mounting screws. I'll either tape it down, or pull out the dremel.
4. Clean wiring is an ART.
5. The Shuriken in beautiful looking. I set it next to the stock cooler and it was comical the difference.
6. Pressing the power button and waiting for the fans to start up seems like FOREVER (even if it was 1.2 seconds). But it was a success! I built my first computer.

A few questions so I know what I need to pick up to finish installing everything.

1. I realized I don't have a keyboard at home. I'll be borrowing a keyboard and mouse from a friend this evening so that I can boot into the BIOS.
2. I have an external DVD drive. Does my mobo have the ability to boot from an external cd/dvd drive? I would think no as there would be drivers needed?
3. If not, I assume there are no other tricks for installing windows 7 and I'll have to go buy a 4 gig thumb drive? (I only have 2 gigs kicking around)
4. Any suggestions for items I change in my BIOS now rather then testing things out on my own?

Thanks all-

Awesome! Congrats on moving forward and successfully too.
As far as a keyboard,..I'd recommend this one: IOGEAR Multimedia Keyboard with Laser Trackball and Scroll Wheel, 2.4GHz Wireless GKM561R (Black)

You should be able to boot from an external drive, I done it myself.

You probably won't need the 4G thumb drive,..as you should be able to boot the install from the external drive.

**SSDD** · 2012-07-18, 16:05

Congrats on getting your build together. The feeling of satisfaction on the initial power on is always great. I definitely chuckled at your wiring comment. It's a tedious task, but IMHO worth it for aesthetics and airflow.

2. You should be able to enable a 'boot from usb' option in the bios and have no problem loading windows via your external optical drive.
4. I would make sure your SSD is set to AHCI mode before you start your installation.

bluray · 2012-07-18, 17:58

(2012-07-18, 15:32)_RT_ Wrote: 3. The internal bracket on my Silverstone case it too thick for the supplied SSD mounting screws. I'll either tape it down, or pull out the dremel.

Do this "Ultra Budget HTPC Build - feedback wanted!" with double sided tape. It's very quick, clean and painless......

(2012-07-18, 15:32)_RT_ Wrote: 1. I realized I don't have a keyboard at home. I'll be borrowing a keyboard and mouse from a friend this evening so that I can boot into the BIOS.
2. I have an external DVD drive. Does my mobo have the ability to boot from an external cd/dvd drive? I would think no as there would be drivers needed?
3. If not, I assume there are no other tricks for installing windows 7 and I'll have to go buy a 4 gig thumb drive? (I only have 2 gigs kicking around)
4. Any suggestions for items I change in my BIOS now rather then testing things out on my own?

Thanks all-

No need for external DVD driver. You can do this "ANTEC ISK 300-65 HTPC A8-3820" to create bootable USB........

_RT_ · 2012-07-18, 19:23

(2012-07-18, 16:05)SSDD Wrote: 4. I would make sure your SSD is set to AHCI mode before you start your installation.

Will do. Thanks-

_RT_ · 2012-07-20, 00:41

Curious what the thoughts are on fans for the ML03B case.
Obviously I have the Scythe which is incredible. But I installed the Enermax Marathon case fan.
I can have it blow in or out and I can chose a spot in the case.

Right now, I have it blowing in and directly next to the CPU - thinking that it blows in cool air across the CPU and my Scythe blows that same air up and out of the case.

Any general thoughts on that plan?

I'm grabbing some dinner and then will upload some pics.

_RT_ · 2012-07-20, 03:08

Pics as promised:

**SSDD** · 2012-07-20, 05:30

Looks like a relatively roomy chassis, but that Big Shuriken still just fits. Congrats on the build and thanks for putting the pics up.