New kitchen HTPC

[elootos]

Q: What do you do when a PC you rely on takes ages to get going once booted and about 2minutes to get into the guide on Media Center due to all the thrashing of the hard disk?

A: You buy an SSD with whats left of your Christmas bonus and then think, 'sod it I'll build a new PC as well'!


My SSD in the lounge PC has been nothing short of amazing. so i thought it was time to upgrade the most used PC in the house. Parts arrive tomorrow, hopefully build it this weekend and watch it fly...

Parts ordered are:

• Athlon X2 240 ('cos AMD is half the price of Intel)
• 4Gb DDR3 Corsair RAM
• 30Gb OCZ Vertex Turbo SSD (250Mb/sec read!)
• Asus M4A785TD-M EVO 785G motherboard
  

All other parts are already taken care of (case, PSU etc). I also have my uninstalled copy of Windows7 still at home ready to be unleashed.

Why does this now feel like Christmas when it was 2 weeks ago

[northan]

:dodgy: not jealous at all.

I would love to buy a SSD for a lounge HTPC.
I think I want to build a completely silent HTPC with good omph.
An SSD would be essential for that setup along with a low consumption CPU and a passive heatsink for the GPU

I might turn my current pc I have now into a server and then concentrate on a sleek win 7 type client later on in the year.

Do you find 30Gig enough for a client HTPC with win 7 and all the other local programs added on it elootas?

Well don't forget the build pictures, im sure you wont

[elootos]

(01-07-2010 07:24 PM)northan Wrote:  :dodgy: not jealous at all.

I would love to buy a SSD for a lounge HTPC.
I think I want to build a completely silent HTPC with good omph.
An SSD would be essential for that setup along with a low consumption CPU and a passive heatsink for the GPU

I might turn my current pc I have now into a server and then concentrate on a sleek win 7 type client later on in the year.

Do you find 30Gig enough for a client HTPC with win 7 and all the other local programs added on it elootas?

Well don't forget the build pictures, im sure you wont

30Gig should be more than enough. Windows7 only takes about 10Gb to install and I'll keep the current 250Gb drive for RecordedTV storage etc. The Windows Home Server copies the TV shows off anyway so even a small HDD would be ok, just something to take the stress off the SSD.

[elootos]

The new kitchen PC is up and running and damn does the SSD fly!

Boot up time from pushing the power button to Windows desktop is 23sec. Even the install only took 15minutes!

This is a reviewers benchmark of my OCZ Vertex Turbo:

   

Without a doubt the best £130 you could ever spend on a PC. I'll post more about how the build went after the weekend.

[elootos]

Managed to get a couple of hours on Saturday afternoon to focus on building the new kitchen HTPC, and my breakfast bar was starting to look like a PC repair shop:




So, old PC out of cupboard (aBit NF-M2-nView), also still with ducting attached




And old motherboard, CPU, cooler and RAM out on table to use for something else one day




The old cooler is a lot better than the bundled one with the new retail CPU (Athlon 240), so unclip it and wiggle it gently to loosen the suction of the thermal grease and off she pops. Get a bit of degreaser and kitchen paper and that old grease will come off easy.




Case now free of old parts and ready for new motherboard etc.




New motherboard out of box and ready for placing in case (Asus M4A785TD-M EVO)




AMD Athlon X2 240 in place and a very small blob of new thermal grease spread thinly over it before putting old cooler back on.




New OCZ SSD out and next to old drive for comparison (SSD still in static bag). New drive weighs about 1/5th of old HDD as well.




One butchered Western Digital MyBook case with 500Gb drive removed to sacrifice itself for temporary storage on new PC. Circuit board may still come in handy as its a SATA to USB/Firewire adaptor. Nice!




Mount new SSD in case, and because I'm too tight to buy a fitting kit (2.5" drive in a 3.5" bay), I've just cable tied it instead.




Once all in, PC build finished!




Power lead in, monitor and keyboard attached and power it on to set the BIOS. Thankfully all seems ok :)




Pop the Windows 7 DVD in and 15 mintues later you get a Windows desktop. Setup Media Center for channel scans and install Acrobat Reader, Chrome, Flash, Media Browser, PowerDVD, AnyDVDHD, Open Office... All done.


This is the Windows Experience Index (not the greatest benchmarking tool, but hey, its easy). And a 7.4 for the SSD! Onboard graphics letting it down though, but still plenty enough for an HTPC.

   

[elootos]

Oh yes, should also add that Media Center glides along. As soon as the PC is booted you can start Media Center, jump straight into the guide and watch a program almost instantaneously. Perfect, just what the upgrade was for in the first place. :) :)

[zacburgess]

(01-11-2010 09:11 PM)elootos Wrote:  Oh yes, should also add that Media Center glides along. As soon as the PC is booted you can start Media Center, jump straight into the guide and watch a program almost instantaneously. Perfect, just what the upgrade was for in the first place. :) :)

looks really good Elootos

i have only just got my media center working today. after waiting since xmas for all my parts. (Going to think twice next time about ordering from the usa)
will post some pictures and abit of info about mine tomorrow.

[cliffwright]

(01-11-2010 09:09 PM)elootos Wrote:  Setup Media Center for channel scans and install Acrobat Reader, Chrome, Flash, Media Browser, PowerDVD, AnyDVDHD, Open Office... All done.

Looking very nice :)

Might be a bit after the event now like, but have you might be interested in this;

http://ninite.com/

It won't handle everything you've listed, but seems a neat idea . . . :)

[elootos]

(01-22-2010 07:40 PM)cliffwright Wrote:  Might be a bit after the event now like, but have you might be interested in this;

http://ninite.com/

It won't handle everything you've listed, but seems a neat idea . . . :)

Blimey, that's a good idea. Well done on the find!