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Yankton · 2010-11-02, 10:03

This seems like the place to get feedback before actually spending money on the parts. I'm wanting to build a quiet htpc which will also be used to play the occasional game (maybe a touch on the older side for games)

Case: Lian Li PC-C33B
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-H57M-USB3
CPU: I-5 660
CPU Cooler: Scythe Big Shuriken
Ram: Kingston Hyper-X DDR3 1600 (2 sticks of 2Gb)
Power: Seasonic X SS-400FL
SSD: OCZ Agility 2 (60GB)

Haven't settled on an optical drive yet.

The CPU is a bit overpowered for just an htpc, but should be good for whatever I throw at it
Roaming various forums I think the Shuriken will remove access to the first two ram slots, but as long as the ram works in the other two I have no problem with that.
Never used an SSD before so I'm wondering if it would be good to toss a quiet green drive in there for tmp,torrents,misc storage. Music and Movies will go on a server in the back.
The Seasonic is more powerful than anything I should be using it for so I don't know if my draw is still in its efficiency zone. However, if I add a video card (I want to see first hand what the clarkdale can do first) then this should be about right.

I intend to go for a linux XBMC install and I want it capable of playing anything I or my friends come across

Thoughts/suggestions?

poofyhairguy · (This post was last modified: 2010-11-02, 21:47 by poofyhairguy.)

Only thing I don't like about this build is your plan to use the Intel GPU. They are literally GARBAGE in Linux. ESPECIALLY for gaming. Or heck anything.

You can stick with the Intel GPU, but Xorg will fight you (especially for nice stuff like proper 24p support) and your poor i5 will have to do EVERYTHING because the Intel GPU couldn't decode its way out of a paper-bag in Linux. It is really sad: two years ago Intel was THE BEST for Linux support, and today I would rather a Matrox GPU over theirs. The failure of their GPU department really hurts HTPCland.

Get a decent Nvidia HTPC card from day one (preferably the GT240 or GT430) and that will probably be the best HTPC I have seen on the forums...

darkscout · 2010-11-02, 22:09

Quote:but should be good for whatever I throw at it

1.8 gHz Single Core Celeron. 1GB of RAM. GT220.

Code:
model nam: Intel(R) Celeron(R) CPU 430 @ 1.80GHz

Mem:   1025952k total, 797860k used,   228092k free, 77320k buffers

Swap:  1952760k total, 3052k used,  1949708k free, 489856k cached

I don't do Hulu or any FLV stuff. but the GT220 will the 23GB version of Transformers with no problem: over my gigabit network.

Code:
[mkv] Track ID 1: video (V_MPEG4/ISO/AVC) "19.2Mbps MPEG-4 AVC", -vid 0

[mkv] Track ID 2: audio (A_DTS) "Main Audio DTS 5.1 @ 1536Kbps", -aid 0, -alang eng

[mkv] Track ID 3: audio (A_VORBIS) "Commentary OGG 2.0 @ 80Kbps", -aid 1, -alang eng

What else were you planning on throwing at it?

Yankton · 2010-11-02, 23:32

I was checking out the ASUS GT430 the other day. I'll check out the 220 and 240. One of the things I saw reading around was the heatsink on a 430 sticks out enough to interfere with the big shuriken on some mATX boards. Anyone know if that's the case with this GA motherboard?

I do want to use it for hulu as well so it has to do flash. Flash in linux at the moment is all cpu, so would a 1.8G celeron do HD flash? Also, I've had suggested the i-5 as I will be using it to transcode my movies as well and I'd rather it not take all day, how does the celeron fare doing that?

I will be tossing in a capture card at some point as well. Use it to DVR anything good OTA. I think OTA is 1080i these days, not sure. May try to copy over the last of my vhs tapes this way, not sure if macrovision will prevent it or not. Then I can pack the VCR away.

poofyhairguy · 2010-11-03, 00:52

Yankton Wrote:I was checking out the ASUS GT430 the other day. I'll check out the 220 and 240. One of the things I saw reading around was the heatsink on a 430 sticks out enough to interfere with the big shuriken on some mATX boards. Anyone know if that's the case with this GA motherboard?

The GT220 boards and the GT430 boards seem to be about the same heatsink-wise. Get one that is flatter like this:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...-_-Product

Quote:I do want to use it for hulu as well so it has to do flash. Flash in linux at the moment is all cpu, so would a 1.8G celeron do HD flash? Also, I've had suggested the i-5 as I will be using it to transcode my movies as well and I'd rather it not take all day, how does the celeron fare doing that?

darkscout's point was that not much CPU is needed for pure x264 playback in XBMC. If you want stuff outside XBMC (such as HD Flash) then you want more CPU than a single core celeron can provide. I wouldn't have less than a 2.5GHZ Core2Duo for Flash.

What exactly are you transcoding to? PS3? iPhone? I personally think much more power in a HTPC than a i3 provides is often a waste, but I will admit a quad core really helps if your HTPC is doing other stuff. Mine bedroom HTPc does all my downloading and I have a Core2Quad in it.

Yankton · 2010-11-03, 08:20

That is a nice looking card. Never used a zotac or installed one for someone else. Good quality cards from them?

Transcoding may be the wrong word, converting my media collection (DVDs, HD-DVDs, Blu-Ray, music, etc) to a suitable format to store on the server and then play back as desired. I've had suggested 3 GHz for flash, and I did consider a C2D as well (they run 65 watts max vs 73 for the I-5). I like the newer mother board though and I was hoping the on die gpu would be enough. I've also read in several places that the I-3 just doesn't have enough juice to do HD flash in linux which pointed me towards an E8400 or an I-5. It really comes down to is if I can find a media file (whatever format and resolution) this rig should be able to play it. Not necessarily future proof. I also can see situations where I will want to watch something while at the same time recording something else off the air to watch later.

I was also thinking was that the I-5 and the I-3 have the same max TDP, so if I have a beefier processor it's using less to perform and hopefully using less power as well. And if I break out Civ-4 or whatever in wine it should have no issues playing, or if I get really bored and toss a copy of windows 7 on it just to play games.

Honestly, I'm used to building gaming rigs and home computers for people. The HTPC concept is a little different and quite interesting.

Downloading shouldn't take much for CPU power, just bandwidth and a decent hard drive. But this will likely do torrents for me also (Can't wait for the next episode of Pioneer One to come out). I'm kind of rambling a bit so I'll stop now.

poofyhairguy · 2010-11-03, 20:56

Yankton Wrote:That is a nice looking card. Never used a zotac or installed one for someone else. Good quality cards from them?

I really like all their hardware. Well done.

Quote:Transcoding may be the wrong word, converting my media collection (DVDs, HD-DVDs, Blu-Ray, music, etc) to a suitable format to store on the server and then play back as desired. I've had suggested 3 GHz for flash, and I did consider a C2D as well (they run 65 watts max vs 73 for the I-5). I like the newer mother board though and I was hoping the on die gpu would be enough.

The CPU is enough for anything, but I wouldn't trust the GPU to decode a Youtube video (especially in Linux).

Quote: I've also read in several places that the I-3 just doesn't have enough juice to do HD flash in linux which pointed me towards an E8400 or an I-5.

And i3 has enough juice to power through any content.

Quote: It really comes down to is if I can find a media file (whatever format and resolution) this rig should be able to play it.

For that combo its: Strong CPU + Nvidia GPU

Quote:Honestly, I'm used to building gaming rigs and home computers for people. The HTPC concept is a little different and quite interesting.

I build mostly HTPC rigs myself, so if you need more help ask!

Yankton · 2010-11-04, 12:22

I do have a question for you actually. Concerning video capture/tv tuner. Is there a good usb3 solution for this or are there only cards that do this with good quality? Is there a solution that does both? I want capture from my vcr, so composite there, and the tuner is coax obviously. SD for the VCR and HD for the OTA.... If it's a card solution only I may have to pick a different cpu heat sink to allow me to use the other pcie slot. That GA board also has 2 pci slots. I have time to ponder this as that case is currently out of stock and the only other places I saw it, are $60 or more over in price. I can wait.