HTPC from used parts

[redwudz]

Basic information: This HTPC was built almost entirely from used parts. Only the case is new. I recycled the Gigabyte GA-MA78GM-S2H MB from my other HTPC and added in a early version Phenom 9500 Quad core. The RAM is Corsair, but uses two sticks of 1GB DDR2 6400 and two sticks of 512MB DDR2 6400. 3GB total. Enough for a HTPC. The OS is W7. Since it's only purpose is a HTPC, not much software installed, mainly video players. The case is a Hec Micro-ATX case with a 300W PS. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811121100&Tpk=N82E16811121100 This is one of a very few cases that I didn't need a band-aid after assembly. For an inexpensive case, the construction was fairly good.

The hard drive is a 320GB WD SATA drive and the DVD drive is a Sony 7170S.

I needed to test this setup first to make sure it could handle HD HDMI, so I brought it into the front room and plugged it into my video projector. No problem. MKV and .m2ts work fine. This also illustrates how few parts are really in a PC, basically four main parts. I jumpered the MB 'on' terminal to activate the PC. It already had W7 loaded into the HDD.




The front of the case after I unpacked it. It does have a 80mm front fan, a 1394A socket and USB sockets, along with audio sockets on the front of the case.




Closeup of the front panel controls.




The top cover off with the wiring and included parts.




All the wiring and parts out of the way. Looks roomy in this shot.




The front panel removed. It has a 5.25" and two 3.5" bays, though the bottom one is meant for a floppy. You can see the stock 80mm fan here also. It will be replaced.




Doesn't look so roomy with a Micro-ATX MB sitting on it.




The accessories. Just screws, a line cord and a couple of small wire ties and the vertical stand. The metal piece there is the case brace.




All the wires that will have to be put somewhere.




The front panel MB wires are easily ran under the MB. The 1394A and USB MB cables will fit through some small holes under the fan. I replaced the stock fan with a super quiet Enermax fan.




The front panel cable for the MB audio wasn't so easy to place. The backing plate for the CPU is there and it won't fit. But I found a better place for it.




I ran the audio cable along side the MB. I also ran the MB power cables in this photo. The main 24 pin power cable would only go one place, in front of the intake fan. But there is a slot in the metal there, so not so bad. I separated the CPU power cable and ran it over to the socket. It looks like it's in front of the PS, but it's at the top of the case. The MB power connector is under the optical drive, with the cable bent over for clearance. The optical drive is about 3/8" above the RAM. Tall RAM won't work with this case. And the optical drive isn't in it's final position. It needs to go back a inch or two.




I eliminated the small fan on the Northbridge HS. It was noisy and not really needed and not original. You can see the power cable a bit better here and the USB, 1394A and the front fan are hooked up. Still have to hook up the MB front panel controls, along with installing the HDD and the power and data cables for it and the optical drive.




Finally done.I coiled up the excess data cables and tied up the extra PS wiring and put it under the HDD. That's about the best I can do to help out the air flow. If you look to the top of the photo, the optical drive has about 1/6" clearance to the CPU heatsink. And that's a stock heatsink. Don't even think about a longer optical drive or a bigger heatsink. I put a 90 degree data cable on the optical drive, but I didn't have a 90 degree power cable. The PS only has one SATA power plug and that's on the HDD, hence the Molex to SATA power adapter there. The HDD doesn't have much space for cables either. I moved it forward as far as I could. None of the HDD screw holes match, but it's a tight fit and I'll use a dab of glue to ever keep it from moving.




The rear of the PC, up and running.




The front with the DVD drive mounted.




A screen shot from HW Monitor. The temps look very good. 31C at idle. The NB chip is 38C and the case temp 37C. Ignore the 85C as that's just a reading error as there are no other sensors on the MB. And the best news is it's really quiet. From a few feet away you can't hear anything. The CPU temps should drop a few C in a couple of days. I used Arctic Silver and it does have a curing time.




After I looked at these photos, I realized I forgot to put the case brace back in place, but that will only take a minute or two. I also need to bow down the middle of the case lid about a 1/16 of an inch so it will fit a bit better. This HTPC is for a relative.

All together, I'm happy with this PC. It should do exactly what it's designed for.

[Soopafresh]

Great deal for an HTPC case.

[HotDamn!]

Good work with the walk through of your build felt like I was right there building it myself.

[yoda313]

Very nice.

I have yet to build my own computer.

Someday I will.

Though in a sense my hp dual core that I use with Vista premium is a rebuild in a sense. I swapped the chip out for a dual core over the preinstalled single core (store bought oem). I also replaced the stock psu with a more powerful 650 watt supply. I doubled the ram to 2gb from 1. So I have done a lot to it.

I don't know when I will build my own but I know I'll do it eventually.

[budz]

Hey! Good work in a tight fitted case! As always your cable management is so much better than mine! Excited that you purchased the AMD 630 Propus cpu....I may try overclocking mine a bit more..... Check out the new AMD 6 core cpu's.....looks tempting to buy huh!

[redwudz]

I still need to see if my Rosewill MC remote will work with the HTPC. Otherwise, I'll have to set it up with a RF keyboard. I debating whether to add a half-hieght G LAN adapter to it also for versatitity. But if it hooks to the net, then it needs anti-malware, a firewall and all the rest. Maybe not worth it. Presently it will just hook directly to some video servers with no internet connection.

The six core idea is interesting. I'll have to check some of the OC sites to see what they've done with it.

[budz]

The six core idea is interesting. I'll have to check some of the OC sites to see what they've done with it.

Here's some benchmarks from Tom's. Looks like the 6 cores is good for video encoding.
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/amd-phenom-ii-x6-1090t-890fx,2613-7.html

[HotDamn!]

Hey! Good work in a tight fitted case! As always your cable management is so much better than mine! Excited that you purchased the AMD 630 Propus cpu....I may try overclocking mine a bit more..... Check out the new AMD 6 core cpu's.....looks tempting to buy huh!

What's your present speed?

I decided to OC mine recently and got running very very smooth at 3.2 and I don't think I'll go any higher. I haven't messed with the voltage or anything either. I may test the 630's limits if I get one of those 6 cores very tempting as you said.

[budz]

Hey! Good work in a tight fitted case! As always your cable management is so much better than mine! Excited that you purchased the AMD 630 Propus cpu....I may try overclocking mine a bit more..... Check out the new AMD 6 core cpu's.....looks tempting to buy huh!

What's your present speed?

I decided to OC mine recently and got running very very smooth at 3.2 and I don't think I'll go any higher. I haven't messed with the voltage or anything either. I may test the 630's limits if I get one of those 6 cores very tempting as you said.

Currently I have it overclocked to 3.5ghz...I did make some voltage changes as well as the ram settings since I'm using DDR3-1600 ram...I also have LLC (loadline calibration)enabled in the mobo bios....although in my Gigabyte UD3P mobo I have LLC disabled. This AMD 630 Propus is a good low budget quad cpu which btw blows Intel's Q8200 & by a small margin the Q8400 cpu when it comes to video encoding. I may see if it can go higher but for now I'm satisfied with it at 3.5ghz which is a 25% overclock.

[HotDamn!]

I've read a few threads at overclock.net about people going to about 3.6 but I haven't read anything higher. I haven't looked into how high it can go, just what I've seen.

Would be interesting to see how high you can get it.

I don't want to steal this thread so I'm going to make my own if I could get you to help me with a few things.

And by the way, this build was nicely documented redwudz and you should post any other build you do in the future to teach us noobs a few things especially with that wire management, very nice