My Media Centre House - In progress

[Nathsea]

hi all,
Just come over from AVF and what you are doing here looks great.

I am in the process of renovating our house , so thought I might set up a thread on here as well. We are having a central rack with everything streamed throughout the house, so hopefully no boxes anywhere :)



here is a quick glimpse of the way things are progressing.

I shall set-up a progress thread in due course.

Cheers
Nathan

[northan]

Hi Nathan
welcome. Hope you keep things updated, looks like your gona have an intresting setup with all that gear in your rack.

[elootos]

(03-18-2010 11:37 AM)Nathsea Wrote:  hi all,
Just come over from AVF and what you are doing here looks great.

I am in the process of renovating our house , so thought I might set up a thread on here as well. We are having a central rack with everything streamed throughout the house, so hopefully no boxes anywhere :)

I shall set-up a progress thread in due course.

Cheers
Nathan

Nice! Thought it was about time us home-install-geeks were represented on t'net!

Your rack's looking pretty packed, to save me guessing for the gear you have (apart from the obvious!), any chance of a little ol' list?

[Nathsea]

a list... here we go, from memory as i'm too lazy to wander upstairs and get model numbers!

2 x v+ boxes
2 x sonos boxes ( 1 with amp , 1 without)
house htpc (this will be streaming movies / tv shows to all tv`s except games room)
games room htpc
octava 4 x 4 hdmi matrix
wii and xbox 360
ps3
Onkyo tx sr-607(?) amp

and printer in front at the moment.

from the games room all controlled by a harmony 1100 with rf adaptor

from all other rooms (when finished) controlled by harmony remotes with powermid RF extenders

Rooms are going to consist of
Games room - Optoma PJ 720p, kef iq5se`s , monitor audio in ceiling rears, kef centre.
back room - at the moment samsung tv, to be replaced with a slightly larger one
kitchen diner - to purchase a 22-26" tv depending on final placement
Master bed, Samsung tv from downstairs

Still to add at least one maybe two more sonos zones as well.

All media is stored in a WHS box, which is currently disconnected but either going in the loft or in the garage, do not what is best hot in the loft during the summer, or chilly in the garage in the winter? Any thoughts?

Cheers
Nathan

PS I suppose i should start a proper thread, but got carried away typing!!

[ali_g]

(03-24-2010 12:26 PM)Nathsea Wrote:  a list... here we go, from memory as i'm too lazy to wander upstairs

You see what Media Center is doing to people Elootos

It does all the hard work so you don't have to. oh no that was 'Mr Muscle'

[elootos]

(03-24-2010 12:26 PM)Nathsea Wrote:  Rooms are going to consist of
Games room - Optoma PJ 720p, kef iq5se`s , monitor audio in ceiling rears, kef centre.
back room - at the moment samsung tv, to be replaced with a slightly larger one
kitchen diner - to purchase a 22-26" tv depending on final placement
Master bed, Samsung tv from downstairs

Still to add at least one maybe two more sonos zones as well.

All media is stored in a WHS box, which is currently disconnected but either going in the loft or in the garage, do not what is best hot in the loft during the summer, or chilly in the garage in the winter? Any thoughts?

Cheers
Nathan

PS I suppose i should start a proper thread, but got carried away typing!!

Great, that's some equipment list and house plan!

As for the server in the garage or attic, my PCs have survived quite well over the years in the loft; get's quite damp in the winter (paper/books starts to curl and you can see you breath in the air) but leaving it on over the bad few weeks we have gets it through ok - internal temps read about 12deg. Then in the summer, well the server hasn't been up there long enough, but the lounge PC with its 60deg(!) nVidia graphics card gets to about 40deg internally, but that's with venting from the soffits that reduces it by about 10deg or so. As all the drives have since moved into the server, the ducting will also move from the lounge PC to the server to help with cooling. In the past I've avoided pushing the lounge PC hard during the peak of summer (playing games etc) as it raises the temp too high for my liking

I'll move this thread to the Gallery section if you like. Stops you starting another all over again.

[dunks517]

Looking good there,

A couple of questions though:

Do you have rear access to your rack? I don't have rear access and the cable management issue has been a pain.

Have you added in any ventilation for the equipment?

One option that I am looking at is a 19" rack on castors from Proaudio stash:

http://proaudiostash.co.uk/product/19-in...4823.shtml

How do you find the Sonos setup? have just invested in a Sonos Zoneplayer after upgrading my HTPC's Graphics card to enable HD Audio bitstreaming, the reliance on the ATI driver rather than the Realtek ones prevented the use of the analogue outputs. The sonos will now serve up all the multiroom media via the 2:8 speaker switch.

Duncs

[Nathsea]

(03-25-2010 10:28 AM)elootos Wrote:  

(03-24-2010 12:26 PM)Nathsea Wrote:  Rooms are going to consist of
Games room - Optoma PJ 720p, kef iq5se`s , monitor audio in ceiling rears, kef centre.
back room - at the moment samsung tv, to be replaced with a slightly larger one
kitchen diner - to purchase a 22-26" tv depending on final placement
Master bed, Samsung tv from downstairs

Still to add at least one maybe two more sonos zones as well.

All media is stored in a WHS box, which is currently disconnected but either going in the loft or in the garage, do not what is best hot in the loft during the summer, or chilly in the garage in the winter? Any thoughts?

Cheers
Nathan

PS I suppose i should start a proper thread, but got carried away typing!!

Great, that's some equipment list and house plan!

As for the server in the garage or attic, my PCs have survived quite well over the years in the loft; get's quite damp in the winter (paper/books starts to curl and you can see you breath in the air) but leaving it on over the bad few weeks we have gets it through ok - internal temps read about 12deg. Then in the summer, well the server hasn't been up there long enough, but the lounge PC with its 60deg(!) nVidia graphics card gets to about 40deg internally, but that's with venting from the soffits that reduces it by about 10deg or so. As all the drives have since moved into the server, the ducting will also move from the lounge PC to the server to help with cooling. In the past I've avoided pushing the lounge PC hard during the peak of summer (playing games etc) as it raises the temp too high for my liking

I'll move this thread to the Gallery section if you like. Stops you starting another all over again.

Hi thanks for the info, on the loft situation, I am more concerned about the heat in the summer cooking what is in their, I assume, maybe incorrectly, that the garage will have a more constant temperature, but still gets blooming cold in the winter...... A quandry , that's for sure!

Thanks for moving the thread, I have renamed it and am now good to go!!

(03-25-2010 01:55 PM)dunks517 Wrote:  Looking good there,

A couple of questions though:

Do you have rear access to your rack? I don't have rear access and the cable management issue has been a pain.

Have you added in any ventilation for the equipment?

One option that I am looking at is a 19" rack on castors from Proaudio stash:

http://proaudiostash.co.uk/product/19-in...4823.shtml

How do you find the Sonos setup? have just invested in a Sonos Zoneplayer after upgrading my HTPC's Graphics card to enable HD Audio bitstreaming, the reliance on the ATI driver rather than the Realtek ones prevented the use of the analogue outputs. The sonos will now serve up all the multiroom media via the 2:8 speaker switch.

Duncs

Hi duncs,
Well spotted, there is no access to the rear of the rack, I was contemplating putting a door in the side, but decided I enjoy swearing and grazing my knuckles too much!!

I have been thinking about some kind of ventelation, and am considering something vented to the loft, but need to work out what and how to control it, I remember seeing something on AVF so may have to dig that out.

The Sonos system is great, although I have had a few hitches when two zones are running concurrently , i get some freezing, i believe this is to do with my switch or router, so needs some more investigation. Can you supply me with some info about the speaker switch, may save me buying another zone?!

Today we have had all the cavity wall and loft insulation done, so that the house should be a bit warmer now, and cheaper to run!!

More updates soon

Nathan

[dunks517]

[/quote]

The Sonos system is great, although I have had a few hitches when two zones are running concurrently , i get some freezing, i believe this is to do with my switch or router, so needs some more investigation. Can you supply me with some info about the speaker switch, may save me buying another zone?!

Nathan
[/quote]

Here is a 2:8 speaker switch from Keene, mine was sourced from the States however since then they are now available in the UK.

http://www.keene.co.uk/electronic/unbran...28LMS.html

Regards

Duncs