Anand's Home Theater PC - Part I: The First Builds
by Anand Lal Shimpi on May 1, 2008 12:00 AM EST- Posted in
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Choosing a Case
The second HTPC build was far more serious than my initial attempt. I ordered an Omaura TF11 case from Dell back in March, unfortunately there have been tremendous issues with shipping and I've yet to receive the case. The worst part of it all is that Dell continues to list the shipping time as 5 - 7 days on all of the Omaura products, which to my knowledge is still not correct.
The Omaura TF11, which I still don't have
It looks pretty cool at least from the pictures
Omaura is a smaller case manufacturer, but the products are very HT-oriented and thus look great.
My goal was to have the main HTPC housed in a TF11 and then put the drives in TF-HDD cases; each TF-HDD can hold 5 drives, so I'd need two. The beauty of keeping the hard drives out of the main HTPC case is that I can manage thermals a lot better.
Now that's a pretty sweet drive enclosure
With my Omaura order severely delayed I turned to Silverstone, more specifically the Crown CW03. The CW03 features an integrated touchscreen LCD with an 800 x 480 native resolution, but it will allow resolutions of up to 1920 x 1200 to be scaled down to fit on it.
The case itself looks pretty cool but the build quality is horrible, and for a $700 price tag it isn't something I would honestly recommend. There are tons of sharp edges, the screws that ship with the case don't actually properly fit the standoffs that ship with it, the optical drive cover wasn't seated properly from the factory, the drive cage doesn't pull out smoothly and despite what the specs say, only ATX motherboards are supported - there were no holes to screw in the left side of a microATX board.
There are no standoffs under this edge of the microATX 780G board in the CW03 case. Wonderful.
The latter is a problem for me since I'm actually going to be using a microATX board, the only reason I want a large case is so I can go with a full sized heatsink/fan for the CPU to keep it silent. I've got a 35U rack going into the theater so I have more than enough vertical space for it.
This is harder than it looks thanks to a not-very-well built case.
Since I had the CW03 around I figured I'd try building the HTPC in it and see how well it would work.
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Anand Lal Shimpi - Thursday, May 1, 2008 - link
I've got a first generation Blu-ray drive in the machine right now, but my goal is to rip the movies on a separate machine (something much faster) and copy them over the network.If someone brings a Blu-ray movie over it should work right in the machine, but I think I'll need to get either PowerDVD or WinDVD installed for that purpose.
Jaguar36 - Thursday, May 1, 2008 - link
How come the big push for a silent/energy efficient PC? If you've got a whole rack for it, why not just put the rack in a cabinet on the outside of the theater room, with some good sound proofing and heat control.I've been using Tversity through the 360 for a while now to stream all my content to my TV. It uses the Xbox's UI which is pretty good, and works pretty much flawlessly. It also doesn't require a dedicated HTPC.
Ohh and those speakers look way to small for how big a theater you're building.
ultimatex - Thursday, May 1, 2008 - link
Remember that lazer projectors and Tvs are coming at low prices.irev210 - Thursday, May 1, 2008 - link
Hi Anand,After spending much time playing with HTPC mATX mobo's I have found that the G33 chipset works very well at decoding full VC-1 1080P with any intel core based processor.
However, the 7150 for example is TERRIBLE. I haven't tested the 8200 yet, but it sounds like it is a huge improvement.
You should check out the media-center G33 from gigabyte
http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/Products/Motherboard/Pr...">http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/Products/Mot.../Product...
For a nice HTPC case that does the job without breaking the bank, check out the Antec Fusion. Much cleaner case with a nearly flawless layout.
I would run your 64GB SSD in your HTPC and have all of your HDD's in a server closet in your home. Honestly, you should consider talking to Infrant (now netgear) and go with their six bay readynas. Simple and elegant solution to all of your redundant storage needs, especially how nice the X-RAID feature is... makes it easy to upgrade HDD's with little hassle.
For a HTPC I am not sure why you purchased such a massive case. With the SSD, you have a really nice opportunity to have a 100% silent PC... you could probably get away running all passive cooling.
Anyway, enjoy! The HTPC is the best part of your project!
mikeclaffey - Thursday, May 1, 2008 - link
I've undertaken a project similar to yours and noticed the xbox360's media extender ability makes it a perfect unit for a 2nd room to access your main HPC. Perhaps you could look at this feature in a future article, it might provide an interesting read for some people.SteelSix - Thursday, May 1, 2008 - link
Holy Crap! I thought the title pic was the home theater of a Hollywood buff, but that's actually your setup! I'm in awe. The design, down to the color selection and the ceiling, just incredible.Suggestion: A Contest!
Five lucky AnandTech members come hang out in your crib and watch a few movies or a game in style. Coach class is fine, we'll bring the beer, and would be just fine leaving our food and drink outside this masterpiece of a room! Seriously, do it.. :)
Anand Lal Shimpi - Thursday, May 1, 2008 - link
That's not a bad idea :) The picture is just a render, the full thing isn't done yet unfortunately (the ceiling is though :)..).Hopefully by the end of June the theater will be watchable.
Take care,
Anand
Locutus465 - Thursday, May 1, 2008 - link
Hey, I even live in Morrsiville that can't be far from anand ;)crimson117 - Thursday, May 1, 2008 - link
That would be great! Especially since every movie I've seen in the screenshots of the interfaces etc is a movie I like :)Kromis - Thursday, May 1, 2008 - link
Anand is BALLIN!