My HTPC build experiences

[mobilenvidia]

I've been toying with the HTPC for home idea for a couple of years now.
Last night I started the process and bought Dual Satellite DVB-S2 tuner
I'll base my build around this card (as long as its any good of course)

A little back ground, I live in the middle of no where in New Zealand which is not big into cable TV.
Because of my remoteness the only option at the moment is Satellite TV.
I currently have a Topfield TF7710 HDPVR Dual tuner satellite receiver/PVR with 2TB Hard drive and connected to my network.
The TF7710 is a linux machine and running a highly modified Enigma2 firmware, I helped develop the JFS filesystem for the box.
The tuner is no longer getting updated, also I can easily log in via FTP, it's not so easy to get to the Hard drive in any other way.

So my plan is to build a machine that will allow me to replace the Satellite receiver and give easier access to the Hard drive.
I've copied my wife's DVDs to the Hard drive and need a player that will play them all with ease.
Also need be able to record TV channels even while watching other channels/movie of different Transponders.

The box must have/be:

1) Dual Satellite receiver
2) Look good so it can sit in the entertainment center
3) 1080p HDMI out to connect to the TV
4) Data server with redundancy
5) 1GbE LAN
6) Low power as its going to be on 24/7
7) Server grade components ie Xeon, ECC, motherboard
8) small foot print, can be wide but not high
9) capable of multiple VM's
10) ability to remotely log into it via Internet.
11) Price mustn't break the bank.

I have a DLink DIR-655 4port 1GbE WLAN router, thats currently connected to the Satellite receiver, office computer and DSL modem

I'll update the progress as it happens, still in planning stages.
Suggestions are very much welcomed.

 

[mobilenvidia]

My thoughts on bits to get, this will change no doubt

Motherboard - Ordered and coming, ASRock Fatal1ty Z77 Professional-M
A bit more than what I need, but it's got great PCIe slots and Display port

CPU - Intel Core i5-3470T, 35w, Dual Core with Hyper Threading, 2.9Ghz/3.6Ghz Turbo, ECC support

Memory - Ordered and coming, Kingston 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM ECC Unbuffered DDR3 1333 KVR1333D3E9S/4G
ECC RAM, now committed to a board with a Xeon or Pentium.

Cooling - Ordered and coming, Scythe SCBSK-2100 120mm Sleeve BIG Shuriken 2 Rev. B CPU Cooler
Slim cooler as it's going in a HTPC enclosure

Case -
Must look good, and be functional

PCIe 1x TV Tuner - TBS6981 PCI-E DVB-S2 Dual Tuner TV card
Ordered and on it's way, the most important part, my wife is happy when she can watch TV, I'm happy when she is

PCIe 8x SAS RAID - IBM M5015
Running the data on a RAID 5 or 6 array to keep it safe and speed to dish it around the place.

HDDs
Not sure here yet

SSD to boot off
Quick boot times would nice.

Again suggestions welcomed.

 

[mobilenvidia]

Reserved for future use.

 

[john4200]

What OS???

 

[Patrick]

Why not use a Core i5 or a Core i3 when they are out? Will save you a lot of power.

 

[mobilenvidia]

I'll probably attempt to run ESXi, then have Win7 to do the media side of things, then run something else to look after the data.

Everything else is up for change, only my 1st thoughts.

If I can't get the Gigabyte board, I'll probably have to go Desktop Mobo, and the Core i3/5 will be more likely, and no ECC

Looking at upcoming new Ivy bridge i3 and i5 CPU's

The i5 uses same power as the Xeon E3
Not too keen on the new i3 range 55w for 2 cores seems high.

I have a LGA1156 core i3 in my junk box, I could save money and get a uATX board use my current 16GB, and upgrade my office rig

 

[Patrick]

Was just thinking lower power overall than using a dedicated video card if you can use onboard video.

 

[john4200]

I agree, Ivy Bridge iGPU is good for an HTPC (I am using Ivy Bridge HD4000 in my HTPC currently). No need for a GPU card unless you want to run high-framerate games at high resolution. And if you want to do that, a GT620 is not enough.

 

[mobilenvidia]

Never been all that keen on Intels GMA hence my website

But in the end the box isn't going to run any games, just output HD TV from the Satellite tuner and play movies
As long as it can play 1080p with ease.
I may have to concede on the graphics card, having a hell of time finding a Mobo with the PCIe slots to run it all and stick to uATX
Having one less PCIe slot to worry about means an ocean of boards become available.

Looks like ASrock is best way to head at this point, something like the Z77 pro4-m, H77 pro4-m, or the Q77m-vPRO
Still have the Xeon E3-1200 v2 CPU with HD4000

 

[mobilenvidia]

Bought a few bits to get me started.

Bit of a bugger the Antec Earthwatt Platinum series PSUs are not available in NZ.

 

[sotech]

Bought a few bits to get me started.

Bit of a bugger the Antec Earthwatt Platinum series PSUs are not available in NZ.

It might make them too expensive after shipping but I'm always happy to buy something here and post it over if you need.

 

[mobilenvidia]

Good on yah mate, the shipping from the US is more than the PSU is worth.

I'll keep it in mind

Still not sure on the case yet to put the PSU in, edging towards a Antec Fusion Black, as it looks darn nice and has Remote, and good venting.

Or the Silverstone ML03, its cheap, but by the time I add a remote and iR connection to the front, it's going to add up and not look as good as the Fusion.


But case is not an issue to start with, I have an old Compac SFF case I can use to test the system
As I also need to sort the HDDs to store everything on and how I'm going to squeeze it all in there.

 

[Mike]

I wouldn't bother with the low power editions of the Intel cpu's. I do not have the numers to back me up right now but I believe that in idle state they are just as efficient as the others while having lower max consumption (with a far lower clock freq, doh ). A single threaded 1225 should be plenty for just about everything you throw at it.

If you want some more choice in cases you could opt to go with a pico-psu and a 12v brick. The more powerful ones might just do fine with about 3 disks.

 

[sotech]

Well... We're in Australia so I thought there was a better chance that it would work out

 

[mobilenvidia]

Yes CPU's I had a closer look at the E3-1200's, the 1220 v2 and 1225 v2 don't have HT
The 1265L doesn't support ECC
Why do Intel do this, it's so confusing and easy to get the wrong CPU.
So I really need to look at a 1245 v2

PSU, FSP which I think is a Antec OEM brand makes the Aurum range of Gold rated PSU's
They are also modular, meaning I can loose quite a few cables.
But not urgent yet, I have a case (ugly) that I can test in, more urgent is CPU now.

 

[Patrick]

There was a reason the E3-1220 V2 was the lowest rated Xeon E3 CPU I have looked at thus far. I would really look at a standard Core i7-3770 non-K as an alternative if you do not need ECC.

 

[mobilenvidia]

Yes I caught up on your article to discover what I had missed earlier (HT)

I have ECC sticks coming, choose ASRock mobo as it supports Xeons.
Just caught a little unawares with the 1225vs1245 price difference, adding to total cost.
I'll have to get a CPU and delay the Hard drives till next month

 

[mobilenvidia]

The Dual Satellite receiver arrived last night as did the 2x 4GB ECC RAM.

Receiver looks like it should do the job nicely.
Works well, does show up the SD TV broadcast quality short comings.
But Timeshifting to RAM looks like a really nice feature if I can spin down the drives, may need to get more RAM, but cheap as chips as they say.

 

[mobilenvidia]

Just installed ECC RAM in my current system.

Bit dissapointed, how do you tell its even working ?
Nothing seems to know you have the ECC RAM installed.
The BIOS said nothing
CPUz said nothing

I can only assume it is as it booted up and has 9 RAM chips.

BTW, for those wanting to know and I can confirm, installing ECC RAM and non ECC RAM on the same board doesn't work.

ECC RAM is a bit taller than my non ECC equivalent Kingston RAM, making it a wee bit harder to install with the CPU cooler on, but doable

 

[cactus]

I believe memtest86(+) will tell you if there is ECC or not.