The One about the HTPC

So I built the HTPC a few months back and have been monkeying with it since then, trying to figure out just where it fits in my entertainment scheme. Overall, I really love it. It's fast, super quiet, and handles all the video I can throw at it. Sadly, a big ol' wrench has been thrown in the works in the form of some problem between my video capture card and my motherboard. I've been wrestling with tech support at both Hauppauge and ECS for over two months now, and I still have found no resolution. I know the video card works because I installed it on my desktop PC and it showed up just fine. When I plug it in to the HTPC, however, it shows up as an unrecognized PCI card, and the drivers won't install because they NEED to see a Hauppauge product before anything can happen.

I don't have another half-height PCI card to try in the HTPC motherboard, but what I've gleaned from my troubleshooting thus far is this:

1. It's not the card's fault since it works in my desktop.
2. It's probably not a bad PCI slot in the mobo because the slot recognizes the card, just not correctly.
3. I updated the BIOS to the latest version, so it's not a known issue that I'm seeing just because I have an earlier version of the board.
4. The most likely solution at this stage, barring meddlesome circuit gnomes, is that there's a hardware compatibility issue between the PCIe-1x card and the PCIe-16x slot. I've never heard of any issues like this, but I don't really know what else it could be.

My plan now, as pitiful as it is, is to continue to plead with ECS and Hauppauge and hope that the tech gods (or a beneficent CSR, I'm not picky) have mercy on me and I find someone who can solve my problem. It's the one thing standing between me and the HTPC I planned to have 3 months ago, not to mention the fact that it's also the one thing that really pushes the PC from mere living room computer into true HTPC-dom.

Oh, and I had planned to write a long post detailing the assembly of this machine along with informative pictures and effervescent wit, but I lost my camera a while back and have recently given it up as gone forever. Alas, it was not meant to be. I blame the gnomes.

Components, Part I Rev. A: The HTPC

So I now realize that I started this blog prematurely. At this point, I'm no longer planning on making my technovations to our current house. It's looking like we'll probably be moving in 2-3 years, so it's not really worth it 

There are plenty of ready-to-buy options out there from Asus (EeeBox), Dell (Zino), Acer (Revo), CompuLab (fit-PC) and the like, but I think I can build a better machine with more bang for my buck. Not to mention that none of these options have TV tuners, which is a must for me. Here's the breakdown.

• Hardware


• Motherboard/Processor: ECS H55H-I
  

   Mini-ITX board with an Intel Core i3-530. The processor is 2.93GHz with a 4MB L3 Cache. I've decided to switch from the Atom to the Core i3 processor for a few reasons. First, the i3 will give me MORE POWAHHHHHH! Also, the onboard graphics can handle HD video. The Atom mobo had the Nvidia Ion chip, but had mixed reviews on its HD capabilities. The motherboard has dual-channel DDR3 RAM slots, where my previous choice used DDR2. Also, the ZOTAC board did not have a PCIe slot, making it quite difficult to add a TV tuner. Finally, switching to the Core i3 didn't really change the price that much, and what cost it did add, I think is worth it [MoBo] [Chip].

• Memory: The motherboard will support up to 8GB of RAM, but I really don't think I need that much. I found a good deal on 4GB of G.SKILL DDR3 1333 RAM, so that's what I'm going to use. The timings are 9-9-9-24, which I may or may not try to tweak. It'll get the job done [link].
• Storage: I still considered getting an SSD in the early planning stage, especially since prices have come down since January. I still can't bring myself to shell out for it. I've recently come into a 640GB 2.5" WD Scorpio Blue hard drive, so I'm going to use that. Also, free, which is cool. [link] As far as media storage, I have a WD MyBook World Edition II 2TB mirrored network drive. Good stuff.
• Case: Yes, I was in love with that case. It was amazing and fanless and tiny. But alas, it no longer meets my needs. I'm sticking with the mini-ITX board, but because I want that tricky TV tuner in there, I would have had to do some serious modification to the M350. So, I've chosen the hec Micro-ATX Media Center case, which comes with a 300W power supply. That is more than I will likely EVER need in an HTPC, but better safe, right? The case has an 80mm fan in the front, but I imagine this will be loud and awful like most included case fans of its size. I'll upgrade this, and maybe even try to stuff another fan into the case somewhere. [link]
• TV Tuner: This is one are where I decided not to go cheap. I'm going with the current top-of-the-line Hauppauge WinTV-HVR-2250, which has dual ATSC/NTSC/Clear QAM tuners, an FM tuner, and hardware encoding, which will take some strain off of the processor. It will allow me to pull two channels into the PC at once, letting me watch and record one channel while I record another. [link]
• No Optical Drive: I'm omitting an optical drive from this build for mostly the same reasons as before. The only difference is that this time, the case DOES have room for an optical drive, in case I want to add a Blu-ray player in the future. Thinking ahead.



• Software: My OS plans have changed slightly since January. I'm still planning on using Mythbuntu, but essentially just to play around with. Since Netflix Watch Instantly does not currently work with any Linux OSes (thanks a lot, Silverlight dev team), I'll end up buying another copy of Windows 7 and using the Media Center as my base of operations. I'll likely end up waiting for a sale, since I feel like someone somewhere will eventually sell Win7 Home Premium for less than $100. [Mythbuntu] [Win7]

So...this computer is STILL small, though not quite as quiet, and it will be able to handle streaming HD media both from my home server and over the internet. It is easily upgradeable, so when my needs change I won't have to go out and buy an entirely new machine. And finally, it's still relatively cheap at right around $450, so if in time my family and I are able to wean ourselves off of for-pay television, the machine will still pay for itself in a matter of months, just a few more than it would have before.

Next up: Kitchen enhancements (hopefully?)

Components, Part I: The HTPC

***DEPRECATED - UPDATED HTPC POST HERE***

It will probably be a little while before I can start on this project in earnest, but in the meantime, I'll do a series of posts on the specific hardware I'm planning to use for each aspect. First up, the HTPC. While I could use my primary PC as my media server, it's an Intel Core i7 rig, so it's pretty power-hungry. I'd like a low-profile, low-power machine that will serve my media throughout the house, allowing me to save power by keeping my main PC off most of the time.

There are plenty of ready-to-buy options out there from Asus (EeeBox), Dell (Zino), Acer (Revo), CompuLab (fit-PC) and the like, but I think I can build a better machine for less money. Here's the breakdown.

• Hardware



• Motherboard: ZOTAC IONITX-A-U Mini-ITX board. It's one of the most full-featured mobos in this form factor that I've found. It has a dual-core Intel Atom N330, and NVIDIA Ion North Bridge, NVIDIA GeForce 9400M graphics, built-in 802.11n, HDMI out, an eSATA port, and 10 USB ports. Newegg has it for $185 [link].
• Memory: The mobo supports 4GB max, but I'm just going to go with 2GB to keep costs down. I don't have a specific brand in mind, since the prices are always changing, but if I were to buy right now, I'd get the Crucial DDR2 667 2GB dual-channel kit from Newegg for $48 [link].
• Storage: Early on I considered getting an SSD so the machine could be utterly silent, but for the sake of the almighty dollar, I've decided to pull the 80GB HDD out of my old laptop and reformat it. It's a modest 5400 rpm, so it won't be too loud or power hungry, and most importantly, it's free.
• Case: I'm in love with this case. It's the Mini-Box M350, and it's $40 from Mini-Box [link]. It's VESA, DIN-rail, and wall-mount compatible so I can stick it pretty much anywhere, and its footprint is barely larger than the mobo's, so keeping it out of the way will not be a problem. Also, it's fanless, which means silent, which is good.
• No Optical Drive: I'm omitting an optical drive from this build for several reasons. First, my current setup includes both a PS3 and an Xbox 360, so I'm pretty well covered as far as reading discs goes. Second, over the course of this project I'll be backing up all of my physical media onto networked storage. Eventually I will only be using the optical drives for gaming. Third, optical drives are loud, and I don't want to. And finally, the case doesn't have room for one.




• Software: I'm almost definitely going to use Mythbuntu [link], since I don't want to pay for another copy of Windows 7 and I like the idea of not paying for PVR capabilities, which I currently do with DirecTV. I'm also a big fan of Ubuntu. I would like to eventually get to the point where paying for TV is unnecessary, and we can get all of our entertainment over the air and the internet. Whether this will be possible is anyone's guess.

So this computer is small and quiet, and it will be able to handle streaming media both from my home server and over the internet. It is easily upgradeable, so when my needs change I won't have to go out and buy an entirely new machine. And finally, it's relatively cheap at right around $300, so if in time my family and I are able to wean ourselves off of for-pay television, the machine will pay for itself in a matter of months.

Next up: Kitchen enhancements