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1 2 Next Jan 27, 2005 by Jordan Menu("Cob")with Mike Chin
Over the last year or so my
mother
has been dabbling in some amateur photography. She also scanned about a
thousand
old family pictures for my grandmother. After every photo shoot she
insists
on showing everyone in the family her exploits. Late last year with the holidays
fast
approaching and family on the way, she told me that showing all her
pictures
on her "tiny" 17" LCD wouldn't be very good. I suggested
utilizing
the huge 52" television we have in the family room as a monitor.
Here
was
born the idea for a Home Theater PC in my house. After much discussion it
was
decided that an HTPC computer could also serve as a backup server for my
mother's
photos as well as my uncle's home business. After a major upgrade to my
main
computer we already had many of the components for this system.
Home Theater system in bottom shelf of AV cabinet blends in nicely.
The goals I set for this PC were:
- quiet
so as to
not disturb the viewers.
- run cool at the bottom of a Home Theater component cabinet.
- be powerful enough to show and edit photos, as well as stream
movies
off the network (so I could watch my movies on the big screen).
CHOICE OF
COMPONENTS
1. Silverstone
SST-LC01 Case - This case was chosen for its combination of
aesthetics
and features. In stock form, this case has decent
airflow
characteristics as well as the ability to accept a full-ATX motherboard
and
a full size power supply.
2. Abit NF7-S V2.0
Motherboard
- This motherboard has a wide selection of CPU
Vcore and clock speed adjustments.
It was left over from an upgrade I had done a few weeks
ago. This motherboard has also been modded
with
a Zalman northbridge heatsink to remove the noisy stock NB fan. It
is listed in SPCR's recommended list of Undervoltable
Motherboards.
3. AMD XP 1700+ JUIHB
DUT3C
CPU - This CPU went along with the motherboard. I had originally bought
the
two together, used, from a friend who had done some major overclocking.
Both
components has already been put through their paces, with the CPU reaching
overclocked
speeds of 2.6GHz+ on air cooling. For this project I wanted a stable CPU
that
ran cool, and in this one I was guaranteed both. I also had the past
experience
of knowing that this CPU was able to run at a huge variety of different
speeds.
I have tested speeds ranging from 1200 MHz at 1.2v to 2600(ish) MHz at
2.0v.
This CPU is a great performer.
4. 512MB PC2700 Infineon
Chips
- Chosen because it was lying around at the time of building.
5. nVidia Geforce 4
MX440
64MB - Again, chosen because it was available. In the future
I'd like to replace this card with a one that outputs better quality for my HDTV.
6. Fortron 400W PSU (FSP400-60PFN-R), modified
with Panaflo 80L1A fan swap. In stock form, it's a good
performer.
Modified with a Panaflo fan, this unit becomes a good performer with
very low
noise characteristics.
7. 80GB
Seagate Baracuda 7200.7 - Chosen because it was available. While
not
the "quietest" drive available, the acoustics are decent.
Capacity
is a big plus.
8. Sunbeam HDD Silencer. (It appears to be discontinued). This NoVibesIII HDD suspension mounting knockoff works well to eliminate any noise caused by vibrations transmitted from the hard drive to the case. (But in the end, the hard drive was left hard mounted to
the
chassis because benefits of suspension
were not significant
with the computer located in the cabinet across the room from viewers.)
9. 16x DVD-ROM - Chosen
because
it was available.
10. Thermalright
SLK900U on CPU - This is the heatsink that was used when the 1700+
was
being heavily overclocked. Works well in low airflow conditions. Great
design,
great performance.
11. A 92mm
and
an 80mm Panaflo L1A with wires
soldered
together connected so I could control
them
both with the only Zalman Fanmate1 I had at the time. The 92 for the HS, the 80 for case exhaust. Both fans start and run very
quietly
with the fanmate turned to the minimum setting.
Close-up shot of the fans connected to the Zalman Fanmate 1. (Why did I have
to
run out of heatshrink?!)
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