New Build HTPC

[Heckler 147]

I had a slight accident on Saturday, I was cleaning my bedroom and moved one media centre onto the bed out of the way... It's a memory foam bed with another mem foam topper. When I sat down on the edge of the bed... the media centre toppled onto the floor.  

 

The clip on the bracket holding the heatsink in place sheered of and the heatsink went clattering into the memory... the whole thing came to a rest upside down.

 

The end result is that the mother board is damaged and cannot be repaired. A dimm slot is damaged and so is one dimm... after about 4-5hrs, I did manage to diagnose the issue after replacing the bracket that broke... At one point it wouldn't even post... I managed to get it running and into windows, but trying to run both the server and MC and MBC all on the same machine with 2GB of ram is next to impossible if you want to to respond in less than 5 seconds to any input... and don't even think about trying to scroll through a folder in MBC, and pressing play on anything HD takes between 10-30 seconds to start playing

 

So I bit the bullet and order some new gear for a rebuild. All of the drives are ok, so I just ordered CPU, Memory and Motherboard, and then found a bargain for an SSD.

 

Total spend £228

 

Motherboard: ASUS M5A78l-M/USB3

CPU: AMD FX 6300 (6 core, 3.5ghz 4.1ghz turbo)

RAM: 8GB G-Skill DDR3 1866 

SSD: OCZ AGT3 120GB SATAIII  (525 read, 500 write)

 

I will be installing Win 7 Pro 64bit from scratch, and upgrading from W7 Home Premium 64bit at the same time

 

I know it's a bit of an overkill for a simple home server and media centre... In fact this system will now be faster than my games machine... although that does still have Xfire graphics installed and the media centre just a 5670.

 

Might post some pics of the build when everything arrives.

Edited March 18, 2014 by Heckler

[Swynol 375]

nice spec, nothing is ever over kill. get some pictures up. Would be nice to see other peoples server setups and HTPCs.

 

i run 4 systems in my house

 

server

i3 3.1ghz

Asus MVP/PRO4 Mobo (8 sata slots)

Ati 6570

16GB RAM

3TB HDD

3x 2TB HDD

2x 1TB HDD

1x 64GB SSD

 

Main PC

I5 4670K 4.1ghz on water

8GB DDR3 Ram

512GB SSD

1TB Storage

ATI 6870

 

Spare PC

I3 3420 3.2ghz

8GB DDR3

250GB HDD

ATI 7000 series (cant remember which but low powered one)

 

Laptop

Dell XPS 15

I7 3ghz

8GB DDR3

Nvidia 630m

256GB SSD

[Cheesegeezer 3087]

I feel for you, but obviously it was meant to be and a forced upgrade but hey ho...... es la vida!!!

 

I'm quite interested to see how you find the AMD 6 core processor for use with MB.

 

My HTPC is loooooong overdue an upgrade i'm still running an AMD 5050e processor and 4Gb of DDR2 RAM lol - hilarious I know!!!!

 

My 3d and after effects rig is lightning quick but thats a work station and based on intel. I think the AMD are more energy efficient which is why i'm looking at them for an "always on" HTPC.

 

Please do post pics, always love seeing new rig builds.

[Heckler 147]

The old HTPC is an older AM3 ASUS M4 board... or was it an AM2+?  Anyway, Athlon II X2 250 (3ghz) and 4GB of DDR2 800. Until just last month it was running a Radeon HD4350 512MB passive card. Then a friend gave me a HD 5670 1GB, which has a fan... which I want to replace with something passive, but the cost of doing that means I might as well buy the HD 6450 2GB passive instead.

 

I really can't afford this upgrade either... I checked with my insurance as I have accidental cover, and I was going to make a claim (for higher end stuff) to a value of £320... then they told me my excess was £200... I thought it was £50.  

 

So it's easier to spend the £228 myself and not take a hit on higher premiums when it's up for renewal this summer.

 

But I shall be looking around for a better policy because £200 excess on accidental damage is just ridiculous.

 

With the addition of an SSD to the build in the same case... I can squeeze in an extra hard drive, which means the 2TB drive from my other system (totally full with old TV shows) can be transferred over... and there will be no more split storage across 2 systems.

 

I can finally shut down my gaming PC every night and save money on my electricity bill, because it adds up over the years.

 

My only concern is the PSU now... It's a quality Be Quiet 350w model and cost me something like £50. I did a check using the online calculator  and with everything, it's telling me I'll be using 313w... 

 

I was however thinking of underclocking the CPU from 3.5 to 3ghz and lowering the voltages a little... 6 cores is overkill anyway, and lower clock means lower temps, lower noise and lower power... I entered those figures in and it says I'll be using a max of 278w.

 

Besides... when I build a new gaming machine, the old Phenom II 955 can go in the HTPC and the FX6300 in the new games rig.  

[Cheesegeezer 3087]

I really can't afford this upgrade either... I checked with my insurance as I have accidental cover, and I was going to make a claim (for higher end stuff) to a value of £320... then they told me my excess was £200... I thought it was £50.  

 

So it's easier to spend the £228 myself and not take a hit on higher premiums when it's up for renewal this summer.

 

But I shall be looking around for a better policy because £200 excess on accidental damage is just ridiculous.

 

Dude that is ridiculous!!!! I can't believe that.

 

I shopped around for ages a few years ago for home and contents insurance and I ended up going with my bank - Natwest, which give really good rates for building and contents and cover you for home accidental damage and also away from home accidental damage and any one single item under £2000 you don't have to register with them as it's covered by the contents insurance.  

 

I used them once for a £700 claim, I chose to give £100 excess for that item and I never even saw an increase in my premiums.

 

Most Banks now give preferential treatment if you bank with them for stuff like that. I get free car recovery, mobile phone insurance, world wide travel insurance and some other stuff too thru my bank account.  

 

It might be worth looking into it.

[Heckler 147]

@@Cheesegeezer  It's my fault, I was under the impression it was a £50 voluntary excess... Turns out that it's a £150 compulsory excess and I added the £50 voluntary... Probably thinking that was all I'd have to pay... Or they've changed the policy when it renewed last summer and I didn't read it through properly.

 

Either way, I shall be getting a much better policy come August.

[Heckler 147]

 

All the parts are here, and as an added bonus... Amazon have shipped the memory twice.  

 

So I shall be installing the 16GB into the games rig and putting that 8GB into the media centre.

 

The OEM heatsink for the FX6300 is pretty pathetic, it's exactly te same as the one I fitted to a PC built for my folks 18 months ago (FX4300) and in a small case that gets really, really noisy under load.

 

So I am going to re-use my Phenom II Black Edition cooler as that's copper, has heat pipes a much quieter fan that I fitted and is rated 125w TDP... the FX6300 is only rated 95w. You can barely hear it running in the media centre even at load.

 

Just waiting for a couple of extra cables to arrive before starting the build.. probably over the weekend.  

Edited March 20, 2014 by Heckler

[Heckler 147]

@@Cheesegeezer  I checked with my building society regarding insurance, and come August will be switching to them. I can get a far better deal with higher contents cover, £50 excess and better cover for items away from home... and it won't cost me any more than I'm paying now.

[Cheesegeezer 3087]

@@Cheesegeezer  I checked with my building society regarding insurance, and come August will be switching to them. I can get a far better deal with higher contents cover, £50 excess and better cover for items away from home... and it won't cost me any more than I'm paying now.

 

Dude, just seen your new toys have arrive and a big thanks to amazon lol.  

 

Yep, they seem to do pretty good deals do the people you put your money into every month  

 

Cant wait to here your views on the FX processor.  Happy rigging mate

[Cheesegeezer 3087]

Great stuff Heckler!!! Glad its all built. You must be stoked with the new toys lol!!!

 

Will you do much transcoding at all thru other clients?

[Heckler 147]

It's been built today, and it's running and installing Win7 Pro (64bit) at the moment.

 

I had a brain fart earlier and grabbed the wrong install disc... and ended up installing Vista Home premium instead of Win 7.  :/

 

The SSD is nice and quick, might need some optimization, at the moment I've underclocked the FX6300 from 3.5 to 3.0ghz and turned off the turbo feature. I just won't be needing it for what the computer is used for...

 

I've also upgraded my gaming rig to 16GB  

 

So far, even with the cover off the system, and sitting 4ft away from it... It's virtually silent. That's using the onboard graphics and 1GB of shared memory at the moment. I've got a HD5670 1GB to fit at a later date, but I want a comparison between the two due to the extra fan noise.

[Heckler 147]

The plan was to have this as a full media server, not just a HTPC. I've got 9TB of storage in there now, plus the 120GB SSD for the OS.

 

I've installed the HD 5670 card because the onboard wasn't up to much really.

 

I'll be running a client and server on this machine, I have another machine with a client on, plus the tablet with the app. I am planning on getting a chromecast here in the UK at some point,

 

So there's potential for 4 clients.. I don't use roku, xbmc or anything else.

 

I've pushed it back to stock speeds now, checking the temps out as it's a small case and airflow isn't fantastic. Only one 92mm intake at the front and the CPU fan... No exhaust because there isn't room for a decent size one. The case splits in half you see, which is great for building, but crap for getting good airflow. However, even with the 5670 installed, the case open and me sitting 4ft away... I can still barely hear anything.

 

It's blisteringly fast though... From pressing the power button to the windows logon screen takes roughly 12 seconds inc POST.  I suspect that will slow down a little as I get everything else installed. Once you logon it takes a little while to start everything up, but it's so much faster than before. Could take a minute to load the few startup programs I used, now it's about 10s... But I still have the server software to install as well as the client... Last time I did the server build, the first scan on the old system took over 5hrs... Tomorrow I'll find out how long it takes on the new one.

 

 

I did make one screw up... I grabbed the wrong disc and left it installing windows... came back an hour later to find I'd installed windows Vista Home Premium (64) instead of Win 7 Pro (64)... So had to do it again.  

 

So far so good... But it's now quicker than my gaming rig in some regards, so I went back to the overclocking profile. 3.5ghz and 2200 HT on stock voltages... It's only the 16gb of ram and the Xfire 5770 cards that keep it in check with the media server now.

[Heckler 147]

I only took a couple of pics during the rebuild, and they're on my phone at the moment. But here's a few from the original build 4yrs ago.

 

The case was really nice back then, but now it's showing it's age and poor design... What can I say, it was pretty and cheap.  Now I'm looking at cases like the ones silverstone make, big enough for ATX boards and loads of hard drive space.

 

I've maxed out the SATA connectors on the board already, but at some point I will replace the 2x 1.5TB with a 3TB, which will then leave me room for another 3TB later on to take it to 12TB.

 

At the moment things are still not quite sorted... MKV HD files are crashing after about a minute, so there are tweaks to be done with the codecs... But first there's about 150 updates to install.

It's going to take me all weekend to sort it out fully, get the server/client installed and run the scans, then configure the client how I like it.

 

But once it's done, it will hopefully see me through the next 5yrs before any further upgrades are needed, after all the other one was 4yrs old and the components were budget end stuff already.

 

The only thing that disappoints me at the moment is that the motherboard is an older model that's been around for about 2yrs now. I built a mini system for my folks back in the summer on 2012 using the exact same board. But none of the places I checked had say the Asus M5A88 line of boards... and I like Asus boards, they're so easy to work with.

 

[Cheesegeezer 3087]

@@Heckler

 

It's very comforting to hear about the new setup both being very quiet and also cool.  Putting the wrong installation disc is something I would do too!! In a whirlwind of excitement hhahahaha.

 

If you are looking at Silverstone Cases, I will full recommend the LC-17.  It's a beast, great cooling and looks amazing and I don't think it will ever go out of date.  Simple design.

 

Here are a few shots of my build nearly 5 yrs ago.

 

 

 

 

 

I then upgraded to a Noctua U9 cooler and HD5850 GFX cards

 

 

 

 

 

As you can see by removing one of the HDD caddies you can fit a huge graphics card in there.

 

 

 

 

Here's it all set up

 

 

 

 

You have me inspired now and i've created a list on ebuyer for my HTPC upgrade using the FX-8350 and a 990FX Asus board.  I like ASUS too, they are great boards.

Edited March 22, 2014 by Cheesegeezer

[Heckler 147]

If I'd had a case that would take an ATX board, I've have gone for the 990X chipset too... But you make do with what you have, and the gaming rig is a nice big coolermaster case. Similar sized cooler to yours, Titan Fenir which is awesome and quite quiet... the rest of the fans not so much. So when I upgrade that, I will go with the latest chipset available.

 

I also looked at the FM2+ APU and motherboard combo... The thought of the hybrid xfire which would allow decent gaming as well was appealing... But the APU graphics weren't going to be compatible with the 5670 I already had and I wasn't about to buy a new graphics card.

 

I really like that case, i've been looking at similar ones, I love the space in them and the room for hard drives. Expansion is what I'd want... I could always add a SATA PCI card for some extra drives as I've maxed out all 6 SATA sockets on the MB already... But I really would need to get a larger PSU to cope with the drain.

 

I'm not a fan of ebuyer... had problems with them in the past and their customer service has been dreadful... I use Scan, Aria, Overclockers and Ebuyer to compare prices and then check on Amazon... I saved £25 getting stuff from Amazon instead of any of the other 4... and none of them were willing to price match their competitors... and then there was the free 8GB of ram that was worth £60 too.  

Edited March 22, 2014 by Heckler

[Heckler 147]

@@Cheesegeezer I ran into one small problem. The calculations I did for the PSU were not 100% accurate, as I forgot to factor in any aging of the PSU over the last 4yrs. It's a quality BeQuiet 350SFX one. However, with the motherboard, CPU and 6 SATA devices to power (4 eco HDD, 1 SSD & 1 bluray)... it was struggling.

 

For now I have underclocked the CPU to 3ghz and lowered the voltage a tiny amount, this has the effect of significantly reducing the power required, as well as temps. I shall be on the lookout for a replacement... I rather have an SFX PSU due to space, an ATX sized one will fit, but it would have to modular so that cables aren't flapping around and getting in the way. It's already crowded in there enough.

 

But finding a reasonable priced 450w SFX PSU is proving to be fruitless, The BeQuiet 400W one which might be enough is really expensive and I don't know if I trust some of the cheaper brands.

[Cheesegeezer 3087]

@@Cheesegeezer I ran into one small problem. The calculations I did for the PSU were not 100% accurate, as I forgot to factor in any aging of the PSU over the last 4yrs. It's a quality BeQuiet 350SFX one. However, with the motherboard, CPU and 6 SATA devices to power (4 eco HDD, 1 SSD & 1 bluray)... it was struggling.

 

For now I have underclocked the CPU to 3ghz and lowered the voltage a tiny amount, this has the effect of significantly reducing the power required, as well as temps. I shall be on the lookout for a replacement... I rather have an SFX PSU due to space, an ATX sized one will fit, but it would have to modular so that cables aren't flapping around and getting in the way. It's already crowded in there enough.

 

But finding a reasonable priced 450w SFX PSU is proving to be fruitless, The BeQuiet 400W one which might be enough is really expensive and I don't know if I trust some of the cheaper brands.

I would never use a cheaper brand PSU, when i was big into the building scene and helping others out on AVForums, i heard some horror stories about power surges from cheaper PSU's and cooking mobos, corsair are the ones I swear by, energy efficient and have modular options, plus you they mostly come with 6 pin graphics card connections.

 

Personally I wouldn't scrimp on a PSU, buying a good one gives longivity and most good manufacturers will present efficiency graphs on their website. Also you dont want to run a PSU at full load, there is an efficiency band much like a car and economy, that you should calculate from your components and find a PSU that is most efficient in this power demand band. Also think about any future upgrades.

 

You probably already know this, but it may help others.

[Heckler 147]

I have no need for a graphics card connector as the HD5670 doesn't require one... What I do need are at least 6 SATA power connectors and a couple of molex for fans

[Cheesegeezer 3087]

This is probably a good compromise on power vs cost and features. 5 SATA connections, 4 molex, use 1 molex with adapter for last HDD, that leaves 3 molex left for fans. Its modular too and less than 50 squids, plus you will have power if you decide to add even more HDD's or run a more powerful GFX card.

 

http://www.ebuyer.com/429986-corsair-cx-series-cx500m-atx-power-supply-cp-9020059-uk

[Heckler 147]

I was just looking at that same one over on scan.co.uk... it's a few quid more there.

 

Then I spotted this one, which is even cheaper  http://www.scan.co.uk/products/530w-thermaltake-smart-series-sps-530mpcbeu-hybrid-modular-87-eff-80-plus-bronze-eps-12v-fan-atx-v23

 

Off to compare prices with Amazon, saved £25 last time and got a £60 freebie... who knows what might happen this time  

 

 

 

 

 

EDIT

 

The 500w Corsair you posted is £45.98 on Amazon with free delivery... Ebuyer charge over the top prices in my book.

 

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00ALK1GFC/ref=noref?ie=UTF8&psc=1&s=computers

 

Looking at a few others... trying to decide if I really need a 500w one or not, and noise is going to be a huge decider for me... it has to be ultra quiet.

 

The 430w version of the same series is only 37 inc free delivery... 430w should be more than enough according to the power calculator, which says with 20% aging and all my stuff needs 340w at 100% load

Edited March 24, 2014 by Heckler

[Cheesegeezer 3087]

I was just looking at that same one over on scan.co.uk... it's a few quid more there.

 

Then I spotted this one, which is even cheaper  http://www.scan.co.uk/products/530w-thermaltake-smart-series-sps-530mpcbeu-hybrid-modular-87-eff-80-plus-bronze-eps-12v-fan-atx-v23

 

Off to compare prices with Amazon, saved £25 last time and got a £60 freebie... who knows what might happen this time  

 

 

 

 

 

 

EDIT

 

The 500w Corsair you posted is £45.98 on Amazon with free delivery... Ebuyer charge over the top prices in my book.

 

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00ALK1GFC/ref=noref?ie=UTF8&psc=1&s=computers

 

Looking at a few others... trying to decide if I really need a 500w one or not, and noise is going to be a huge decider for me... it has to be ultra quiet.

My Corsair 650W is dead silent and i mean that, if you get a 500w - load will be less, less cooling required = quiet PSU. Most CPU fans will be louder than a PSU fan at full load.

 

I've used ebuyer for over 10 yrs and never had an issue with them, i spent thousands with them and have never worried about saving 3 or 5 quid when i can get all my components from the same shop in the same delivery. Thats just me. Its a system that isnt broken and has never broken, so i dont intend to fix it lol

[Heckler 147]

I've had a lot of delivery problems with ebuyer, I spent a fair amount with them over the years too... But what pissed me of was when they screwed up a delivery, which ruined a birthday and when I complained their customer service was utter shite, rude staff who couldn't care less that a kids birthday was ruined... So I escalated the complaint and they responded by disabling my account and when I asked why... they just shitty with me about 'my attitude'... I was never anything but firm and polite and demanded they take responsibility for their screw ups... they refused and retaliated like a child... So fuck em.  

 

Amazon on the other hand, are quick, cheaper usually free delivery and when ever I've had a problem it's been sorted out swiftly.

 

When I rate a company... it's not how well they do shipping stuff to you... that's not exactly rocket science... It's more important to me how they act when things go wrong, how they deal with the unexpected like damaged and missing goods... Amazon score 10 on that one, ebuyer scored 1 for me.

Edited March 24, 2014 by Heckler

[Heckler 147]

@@Cheesegeezer I'm almost a week into the new mediaserver.  Although only about 4-5 days into MB3 server and Classic.

 

Aside from teething troubles that are software related within MB3 and some plugins... All I can say is wow!

 

 

Now bear in mind that I am underclocking the CPU from 3.5ghz to 3ghz and have disabled the turbo function because of the PSU issue... I will be getting a more powerful one, and will also be getting a larger case... Perhaps next month if finances allow it. So the system is running below it's potential.  There is also the option to turn of cores within the bios too... so that could reduce power use even more.

 

At max load, this CPU is rated to use 95w, according the HW monitor I use, it's never risen above 47w with the general use it's been getting so far. Avg temps for the CPU are great, it's currently idle at 19ºC as when it idles it runs at 50% power... and it can easily transcode and play media through media centre and not come out of the low power mode very often. TMPIN0 register from between 30ºC and 55ºC whilst TMPIN1 registers between 30-37ºC. These are Min and Max figures reported so far.  CPU fan idles at around 1200rpm and has never gone above 1900rpm whilst the 120mm chassis fan sits at between 900-1000rpm at all times... Even though both are PWM the HWmonitor software isn't showing a reading for them... but I know they're working as you can see fan RPM change under load. It may just be a problem with the software picking up the data properly. The OCZ Agility 3 SSD sits at 30ºC all day long, and never fluctuates... the other hard drives change depending on use as they're all mechanical green drives, there's a 1.5TB, 2TB, and 2x 3TB along with the 120GB SSD... So that's 9.62TB if my math is correct... There's approx 2TB of free space left.

 

 

Hit the green button on the remote and media centre loads.within a few seconds, hit MBC and that logs in and loads almost immediately... 1-2 seconds at most... EHS comes up and is fully populated within a couple of seconds... It used to take a couple of minutes the first time on the old setup because media was stored across the network and now it's all local.

 

Hit play on anything, and it plays instantly... even the largest 1080p movie files.

 

 

Once the little issues are sorted regarding images and plugins... It will be perfect, and I'm a very happy chap indeed right now... The last one did me proud for 4yrs and was expanded way beyond what it was originally designed for... A new case and PSU will see this one have room for further expansion over the next several years... With extra room in a new case and a larger PSU... I could add another 1.5TB hard drive I have spare... although I would need a SATA PCI card as all 6 motherboard sockets are in use already. But with the PSU I'm looking at having enough for 8 sata drives and 4 molex (which i can convert to sata power)... and the case having room for 8 3.5 drives... Loads of space for expansion in the future.

 

 

So.. when are you doing yours?

 

Next on my tech budget wishlist... a new motherboard an SSD for my desktop rig.

Edited March 28, 2014 by Heckler

[Cheesegeezer 3087]

@@Heckler,  Apologies for not replying sooner..... darn work crap again.

 

Nice write up, much appreciated.  Temps and loads are good to see... you must have a pretty good fan/temp controller to get all this info.  It's good to know that this little CPU is quite well suited to MB.  

 

I have some other commitments first - Wifey wants a full stereo upgrade in the Bimmer, which I started yesterday by fitting the new head unit (Pioneer AVH-8500BT). And the Mini has just gone in for a timing chain replacement to BMW (ouch£££) I would imagine that within the next couple of months once I've recovered from the Mini's bill I will get all my bits for the HTPC.

 

Thanks again

 

Cheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeese!

[Heckler 147]

I've using the stock AMD cooler than came with the Phenom II X4 955 CPU that I have in my other PC... it's rated to 125w and the FX6300 is rated to 95w... and at the moment is underclocked and not hitting more than 47w in use so far. It's got a few heatpipes on it, and I fitted a quieter fan so I imagine it's rated around 100-110w really.  The FX is running warmer than the old Athlon II X2 250 (3ghz 2 core)... but that was rated 65w so the cooler was twice what it needed.

 

I use HW Monitor which grabs the  info from the sensors, and gives you current as well as the Max and Min it's read since running.

 

I must admit that I've been running it with the cover off this week... I wanted to be sure before I closed it up... It's a small case and the only fans are the 120mm pulling in at the front (and the CPU fan on the cooler)... the case only has room for a single 80mm exhaust fan at the top rear but I think it's too far above the cooler (as the case splits in half and there's a floor between the CPU and upper area where I've fitted the SSD.

 

A new case is certainly on the cards at some point in the future... One sized big enough for a full ATX board, as airflow will be better... A couple of 120mm fans will take care of that and be very quiet and I can get a larger, cooler and quieter heatsink then.

 

At the moment, you can hear the fan on the video card which is an ATI HD5670 (1GB)... The old card was the HD4350 (512MB) and passive... But not a great card when you have all the visuals of media browser to cope with. I'd love to get a passive heatsink for it... But I might replace it at a later date with one of the passive 7 series cards, or even on of the new X250-X270 range. I saw a 2GB passive card for about £30 recently... Should be great for a media server.

 

I know the pain of cra repairs... I switched from a sports car a couple of years ago because mi need a family sized car, with plenty of room to get my dad in and out of, he's go Parkinsons and some dementia, and needed room in the boot for a wheelchair... So bye bye V6 coupe, hello boring Mondeo Diesel Ghia X... In the two years I've had it, it's had a new water pump, boot latch, rear brake calliper, power steering pump, tensioner, handbrake cables, 2 wheel bearings and exhaust from the cat back... and the front exhaust section will need doing shortly.

 

In the 5yrs I owned the coupe (and the identical one I owned for 3yrs before that).... I never spent that much on them in that time... But then i did modify them for better handling and performance (not tacky mods, proper ones) so I probably replaced stuff that didn't need it before it could fail.