After reading a lot about silent pcs at this forum I hope I'm finally ready for building my first own media jukebox that replaces my cd and dvd player in the living room.
I have collected a list of needed hardware components. This list is a result of what I have learned from the impressive knowledge on this forum. Further below you will find the requirements I put together during my "planning phase".
I thought I post everything here, maybe other people with similar requirements can benefit from it. After the PC is finished I will also post my results regarding noise, heat, performance and conformance to my requirements.
Please feel free to review and comment!
Hardware Component List
- Silverstone LC06 case (http://www.silverstonetek.com/products-lc06.htm).
Via EPIA MII 12000 Motherboard (http://www.viaembedded.com/product/epia ... oardId=202). 1.2 GHz.
512MB RAM.
Fujitsu MHT2080AT (http://www.fcpa.fujitsu.com/products/ha ... tions.html). 80Gb 2.5'' drive.
AOpen DVD-1648/AAP DVD Drive (http://usa.aopen.com/Products/dvd/DVD-1648AAP.htm).
D-Link DWL-G650+ Wireless Cardbus Network Card
Keyboard with integrated track ball / touchpad. Not sure which one yet.
Serial Infrared Receiver. I already have one lying around here.
S-Video to Cinch Adapter.
Cables of course
- The case has an external power supply (60W DC to DC adapter). I am not yet sure if this is enough power. It should because both the motherboard and the hard drive don't draw a lot of power.
The motherboard has a CPU fan. If this fan is too loud I should be able to replace it with a more quiet one. Maybe it is even possible to passively cool it.
The harddrive should be very quiet. If it is too loud it should be possible to put it in a detached Silentdrive to quiet it.
On the motherboard is one PCI slot left. If the tv-out of the epia is not good enough this slot could be used for a graphics card with a better tv-out (Matrox G400).
The infrared receiver must be placed in the line of sight of the remote control. I need only one USB port and no audio ports at the front of the case. Maybe the infrared receiver can be placed there after some modding.
The s-video to cinch adapter is used for tv-out. The standard cinch tv-out of the epia is used as an SPDIF port in my configuration, so only the s-video port is left. But my tv needs a cinch connection. Hopefully the adapter will not degrade the video quality.
The only requirement below that could create problems performance wise is DivX with AC3 audio. If it does not work properly this is not a "show stopper", because it is not that important to me.
This pc will be located in the living room. It must be very quiet, almost silent. It should blend well into the living room environment so a HTPC-Case will be used.
For video it will be connected to the tv, so the graphic card needs a tv out with good quality. For audio a digital home cinema receiver is used. To connect the pc to the receiver a digital SPDIF or optical out is needed.
It will be controlled by a infrared remote control and a small wireless keyboard with a integrated track ball or touchpad. This means a infrared receiver, connected to a serial/parallel port and ps2 mouse/keyboard ports or a usb port for the keyboard.
It will use a wireless lan for networking, so a wireless ethernet card is needed.
From time to time a hard driver mp3 player and a digital camera will be connected to the pc both using USB. These USB ports should be accessible at the front of the htpc case.
The tasks this pc will be used for from most important to less important:
- Play and stream mp3 files (multi room audio finally!). All encodings and bitrates. For audio streaming a 54Mbit wireless lan with WPA encryption will be used.
Manage a library of around 3200 mp3 files. Encode and tag new CDs, search for songs by ID3 tags and create playlists.
Play DVDs. The audio will be passed through unchanged to a home cinema receiver. There will be no need to downmix the audio to two channels.
Play audio CDs.
Show pictures. These are jpeg files shot with a digital camera at fairly high resolutions, e.g. 1024x768 pixels.
Play DivX, XVid, etc. The pc should be fast enough for showing movies with ac3 audio that will be passed through to a home cinema receiver.
Web browsing, email, rss news feeds.
- Gaming
Video streaming
TV Broadcast Receiver, Timeshifting etc.
DivX Encoding
DVD/CD Burning