psu is important:p you guys can consider seasonic x400/460 fanless about rm400 totally silent and gold rated :i think its ideal for htpc.

i've researched quite a bit for an upgrade. finally bought a used 560W silverstone st56 for RM150 (used by prev owner for about 9 month and still have more than 2 years warranty). comes with 6 SATA power and 6 IDE power. and 30A max rail for 5V (when others have a rating of only 24A for 5V).
fits my bill for lots of hdd support which required lots of power connector and beefy 12V and 5V rail.

though i would advice others to consider a modular PSU like the seasonic for RM300-ish. fanless PSU is more often than not too pricey for the spec that they deliver. and i doubt anyone would ever hear the PSU fan with all the bombs and guns exploding during the movie.

but hey it's just my opinion.
from someone running more than 10hdd in his htpc together with a dedicated GC, soundcard, 3 fans and stuck inside a wooden cabinet.

Mine is also inside a TV cabinet , initially very hot... only cool air is from the front, so I cut a hole at the back of the cabinet, put a 120mm silent fan and run a molex power cable to power up the fan...

I change the chassis exhaust fan and use a better cpu cooler to lower the fan noise and lower the temp... I documented it in my blog...

Take some pics and post the photos of yr HTPC here... we used to do it quite often ...

I have the following ideas, some I have tried but some not, just to share the opinion:

1. Having HTPC to play music, the aim will be to minimise the no. of cpu accessories. So the lesser the fan, the better. I kind of like the idea of having fanless PSU, its my first time hearing this. I think it should be considered.

2. Do consider fanless cpu design overall. Less fan, less electronic interference, so better sound hopefully. I know there are HTPC design with total fanless design, just google it.

3. Liquid cooling of the chip can be considered. Its much more quieter than high speed fan cooling it seems.

4. If you still want to have lesser cpu accessories to reduce electronic interference but still want to have fan in it, get a used cap ayam psu, short the blue and black cable from the power line, plug it with the power socket, and the psu is turned 'on'. You can use this independent psu to power up any no. of fan as u want and place the fan anywhere in your cabinet as you pleased. I have tried this and it works. I actually use this sort of shortcut to power up my fans (total of 4 fans) in my diy project.

This post has been edited by peter32: Oct 22 2010, 10:42 PM

IMHO it wouldn't make much sense. the entire computer in itself are running on a switching power regulator. which most audiophile consider as the worst possible power source available (considering that some are running from SLA battery for a clean power).

some would want to separate the DC fan from their entire system and put it as far away as possible. some could hear the difference. i, on the other hand, could not. but that might be caused from my entry level speaker system hehe

i could not justify the complexity of doing such stunt. as the cost of going fanless is too high considering that media player with really good DAC are selling for well under RM500. they have no fan, running on a regulated power (audiophiler classify as better than switching PSU) and have no component emitting noisy RF inteference (like inside a computer case).

Neither can I hear the difference actually.

But having fanless system cost less than we thought. Eg get a slower chip instead of the highest spec, slapped it with decent Mobo, if possible, underclock the chip too. All that maybe able to cool down the whole system. That of course does not include the fanless PSU I just heard about earlier.

By the way, the separate PSU option can also be used to power fans installed in enclosed cabinet too. Making it is very easy. I got one PSU free from one of the computer shop while chatting with the shop attendants. Those generic PSU is just a throw away items for them.

I made a mistake, to power the PSU on, just cut out the 'green' cable and any one of the 'black' cable, connect them and tape it with insulator tape.


The photo above is one guy who short the connection with a pin, its dangerous so don't do it that way.

This post has been edited by peter32: Oct 23 2010, 12:04 AM

@paskal, stan001

thanks for the advice

1. I will consider the truepower psu just like u advice. A 2ndhand/used one should be ok rite?

2. I forgot to mention that i re-use my old proc,mobo,RAM and GC to set up the HTPC. Oh, regarding the GC, i've already bought
a GTX460 last week.i thought the recent nvidia cards can handle the HD bitstream just like ati could do but i was wrong..

So i'll stick to my old ATI4850 before proceeding to another upgrade.

This post has been edited by ne0c0n: Oct 23 2010, 12:48 AM

1. yes

2. i reckon ati 4 series GC could do multichannel LPCM passthrough. in essence, LPCM is just decoded HD audio streams. so if you don't really need the gaming capabilities of the newer cards, 4850 is enough to enjoy HD audio on your current system. and unlike HD audio -> analog -> multichannel analog input on the AVR -> speakers topology, LPCM is bit perfect representation of the HD audio (without intermediate conversion to analog signals).
get yourself something like TotalMedia Theater 3 Platinum, and set the TMT3 output Mix to Uncompressed LPCM. or configure MPC-HC to convert to LPCM (which is a whole lot harder to do than going TMT3)

bleh, lowyat.net is full of poison. reading the 6870/6850 thread and it seems 6850 is quite good . rm600 too..

anyone took the plunge ?

u guys already try this player ? dunno la my eyes got prob or playing tricks on me but when playing movies,somehow the quality from my hd ready TV looks like LED TV from stores.

http://forum.lowyat.net/index.php?showtopi...&#entry37263001

in which i would really like to avoid haha
my eyes got problem watching those fake color from the LED tv operating in dynamic mode displayed on the shelves.

but alas, won't hurt to try. maybe i'll install it once i reach home tonight (if i'm not lazy hehe)

Has anyone tried this Mobo for HTPC so far?

P5N7A-VM

Sounds like the most versatile Mobo thus far. Couldn't find the price also frm the local web store. anyone has any idea the price here? Thanks.

you looking to get this mobo?

Maybe. I either will need a media player or a simple HTPC (2nd one). Still contemplating.

Wah.. need to built another HTPC... you must have too many TV at home..

How is yr house renovation going on ?? I wanna introduce you to home automation made easy... from Security to Universal Remote Controller... using Arduino.

I plan to built a Universal Remote control to control stuff like Tv, Astro, AVR, DVD, HTPC, aircon using this open source hardware called Arduino... simple to built, have an Arduino board to learn the IR signals and play them back either from physical buttons or via a webpage...

All the h/w (easy available in Malaysia) and software libraries from the open source community...

I saw this ASRock Ion 330Ht http://www.asrock.com/nettop/overview.asp?Model=ION%20330HT

The specs and bundle is so cool.. low noise, wifi N, Dual Atom, lots of stuff ...plus free MCE Remote controller..

Cute chicks explain in chinese with english subtitles...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qm8X0F5RsIs

I think she is just reading from a scripts...

This post has been edited by stan001: Oct 26 2010, 12:01 PM

Stan, whoa.. your idea of automation is definitely a major turn-on for me. Will look into it. And don't forget to share if you have started your project.

The reason for 2nd HTPC is long term software compatibility. Its easier to upgrade computer software than firmware for media player.

Have you ever thought of diy solar power panel ?

Color a bit fake. But make LCD look like LED TV.
Anyway, be careful. Enable 60fps would consume a lot of CPU power.

Do you all use HTPC solely for media purposes and another PC for internet and gaming?

I'm currently finding a solution where 1 single PC can do both at the same time. I wonder if a single PC can play a movie on a TV and do internet browsing or gaming on a LCD monitor.

Multi monitor setup, not too sure if there's a mode for separate controls.

Anyone already try setup your HTPC to boot directly to XBMC using EventGhost Method?
It will make HTPC functions like an 'appliance'.

thx for confirming...i tot my eyes upgraded by itself ..