My new media centre .. parts and experience.

[davidgol]

I find it somewhat fitting that I write this all out just as I pass my 300-post milestone. This is an awesome community and I couldn't have gotten this far without all the assistance and humour!



So I finally decided to upgrade my venerable old clunker and get the latest and greatest media centre up and running. I can honestly say that if you're willing to pay the right money and get the right parts the whole experience is considerably less painful than cobbling together old bits and pieces as I have always done.

I USED to have a AMD 3200+ (Barton) CPU on a A7N8X motherboard, 2G RAM, 300G Samsung Spinpoint with a DVico (single) card. Ethernet is connected directly to my router (yay no wireless!). Also a harmony 880 and I used the iMon IR receiver in my Silverstone case. The entire system ran OK with MCE05, though it was quite hot (with lots of noisy fans) and a little sluggish when trying to do anything other than playing SD tv. I ran Vista on it for a while - it was even more sluggish, even hotter and noisier, and standby didn't work. It was just painful and WAF and MILAF (Oh you think WAF is tough, Mother-In-Law-AF is much tougher!) Time to upgrade.


The new parts:

Motherboard: I went for a Gigabyte P35-DS4 mobo. It's the newest chipset from intel, has plenty of sockets for peripherals, no fans and big heatpipes on the northbridge and other heat sensitive chips. It has HD audio, built in firewire, gigabit ethernet, 12 USB ports, heaps of SATA ports (6 or 8 all up I think), external SATA, etc etc. Probably slight overkill for a dedicated VMC box, but i figured I wasn't going to mess about .. I'm doing it properly.

CPU: C2D e6600. Probably overkill. I could have gone for the e6420 or something, but oh well.. you only live once. I decided to treat myself. I'm using the stock cooler and fan, if they're too noisy I'll look at replacing them. so far they're quiet as can be.

RAM: 2Gig. Could have done with 1gig (it's a dedicated VMC .. 1 gig in vista is enough).

Gfx: Asus 8600GT Silent (256Mb). Sure it takes up two slots width (I lose 1 out of 3 Pcie slots) but it has no fans. The latest nvidia drivers off their website appear to work ok <insert normal nvidia vista complaint here>.

HDD: as well as the existing 300G Samsung IDE, I added a 500G SATA2 (Seagate). You can never have enough storage.

Tuner: I went for the Compro E700. It's dual. It's PciE. Those were my prereqs.

Fans: I opted for two Antec TriCool 80mm fans to replace the ones in the silverstone case. They're fairly cheap, and they're quiet.


I'll also say that the guys at Digiworld in Latrobe St totally rock. They are patient and went out of their way to help me out (I have no commercial connection with them, but I'll be visiting them more often - that's for sure)!!


The setup:

everything ran quite smoothly. Here's a list of my findings for anyone else considering a similar setup:

* The heatpipes on the mobo don't get in the way of any of the slots or cards, although the back of the card in the first PcIE slot sits perilously close the mobo heatpipes .. less than 1/2mm gap - I might need to put something between there to ensure that they don't touch. I'm not using that pcie slot yet so it's not an issue.

* The P35-DS4 has two pcie16 slots (for graphics cards). If you put the graphics card into PCIE16_2 then all the other PCIE1 slots are disabled. I didn't know that and thought that my E700 tuner was a dud because it wasn't recognised. Moved the graphics card to PCIE16_1 and the E700 is working now. No mobo jumpers. no bios settings. it just started working when I moved the gfx card. if only the fine print in the mobo manual was larger than 4 point font. If only I actually read the manual :-)

* The first Seagate 500G I got didn't format. I took it back, they swapped it, and now I am half a terabyte happier. It's amazing what half a terabyte of space does to ones general demeanor. I feel like Tim 'the toolman' Taylor arrr arrr.

* I didn't realise that the back fans on the Silverstone (LC10M) are actually 60mm fans so the 80mm Tricool fans I bought don't quite fit. With the big heatpipes and heat sinks at the back of the mobo you can't fit two 80mm fans in. That's ok - I'm using one of the 80mm fans at the back (it kinda sorta fits ok) and the other one as an intake fan at the front (it fits well). Both are set to their lowest speed, are practically inaudible and the temps are all below noticeable levels. Nothing seems to get hot inside there even running after running it for a few hours. Granted my CPU(s) barely ever jump to 10%.

* I also invested in a proper Microsoft IR receiver. I was sick of trying to configure iMon and the dvico IR software. The MS receiver seems to work really well at any angle from big distances, and setup with the Harmony was an absolute breeze. The keypress delay problems that I used to have and the repeat signal sending issues (press one button, sends two commands) are ALL gone. woohoo. WAF on the up. Anyone need to buy a remote: I have a spare divico (and receiver), spare imon pad (no rcvr), spare MS remote (no receiver). And there's a remote that comes with the Compro E700. I have lots of spare batteries now!

* I am currently experiencing problems getting all the channels on the E700 to display properly, but I think it's a driver issue and I have beta drivers waiting in my mailbox that are reported to solve the problem. I'll try them on the weekend. I'm currently using my PCI Dvico Plus and it's working perfectly. I find the channel changes on the dvico to be very very quick .. surprisingly. I might move the dvico to my desktop once the E700 is fixed.

* the HD audio (I have it plugged into my amp using coaxial SPDIF) required me to do nothing at all to get it working. As soon as I installed the motherboard chipset drivers it just worked. I haven't tweaked it. Literally all I did was plug it in. I didn't touch a single control panel applet.

* standby works perfectly in vista, and it's waking up nicely for recording and then going back to sleep.

* it's quiet. very very quiet. In fact the only way I know it's on is by looking for the lights on the case. i'm not used to not having a Boeing 747 in my loungeroom while I watch TV. it's a little strange. I'll get used to it. If not, I'll fire up the Boeing just to reminisce :-)

* Vista Ultimate edition btw. Remote Desktop from my laptop for maintenance is kinda handy when you only have a 68cm CRT.

* I'm using the OzTivo feed for the guide via the Free*EPG stream, and KeepKey to stop it breaking. It works flawlessly. So easy. Just so so easy.

* I put a Pioneer 212D (SATA) in - again easy. Just plugged it in, it works.

* I have it plugged into a 68cm CRT (the final part that needs to be replaced. Considerably more WAF required to replace that!). The overscan is quite large, but i guess nvidia will eventually sort that out. It's not an issue as everything displays very clearly, and VMC will pull the controls away from the edges if you tell it you're using a CRT. nice.

* The only software I have installed is Niall's Big Screen suite (that was a given!) and WebGuide so that I can access it remotely. Now that it's quiet, I don't mind leaving the box on all the time, so webguide is a neat addition. I tried joost with the VMC plugin but it's not as seamless as I'd like.

* I also invested in a gigabit ethernet switch (just to spoil myself a bit more) and I intend to use the network and spare HDD space around the place to backup some important stuff (I'm paranoid about backups). I'd like to build a WHS server with the old bits (maybe I'll run gigabit to the garage .. cool!).


ALL UP, I'd HIGHLY recommend this setup. I've been so surprised by how painless the entire experience has been. If anyone has any questions .. feel free!


I can't help thinking back to the time when my post count was in single figures. MCE05, BladeRunner, Dvico IR receiver.. those were the days! Now it's so easy it's almost boring. There's actually time now to watch TV instead of messing with the box. Have a good weekend folks. I hope it rains all weekend so I can stay indoors and watch TV :-)

Thanks for all your help along the way peoples!

[vbap]

Nice writeup! I hope to be upgrading soon too, so all this info helps.
COngrats on your post count too - please don't change your avatar, your username and the orang-utan have become synonymously linked in my mind!

[bella]

Well done David!

please don't change your avatar, the orang-utan, have become synonymously linked in my mind

Mate, that's not his avatar, that's David's photo.

[davidgol]

It's a portrait shot I had done not too long ago It catches me from my better side.

[DDH]

David,

Great to hear the positive side of things in a nice write up. I certainly agree, a good setup makes for a stable environment and excellent WAF. Fortunately I don't have to worry about the MILAF!

[grablo]

Whats the connection to your TV? ie Svidio, RGB. I'm in the process of sorting out a media box bits'n pieces. Has anyone used the onboard video of a motherboard, rather than fitting a graphics card? We have a Lowe 81 CM 100 hz CRT. Top picture, even with the built in analog tuner. It has scart connectors with RGB, but I've never had anything to try it out with. We don't have a set top box even, so I reckon its about time we went fully digital. I bought a Winfast DV -1000T for my PC sometime ago as a 'getting-to-know-you-tool' because they are cheap (as it turns, these cards works really well). When Coupled with Websheduler, it never misses a recording. I then edit with Videoredo, then burn a dvd. The Svidio from the dvd player is very good, so I'm hoping the the Svideo o/p from the video card (not decided as yet) will be as good. I plan to use an Antec VERIS fusion case; the rest of the parts are still up in the air, although it will have a dual tuner, most likely the Videomate E700. I was going to go down the commercial PVR path (Beyonwiz), but they seem to be full of bugs, and lack proper networking. Any comments?
regards
GB

[GlenR]

Sounds like a great system. Well done. It is amazing to look back on your single digit post days. Vista is much easier, but sometimes I wonder how much of the easiness is just Vista, and how much is a result of what I've learnt on this forum...

Originally Posted by davidgol

* I'm using the OzTivo feed for the guide via the Free*EPG stream, and KeepKey to stop it breaking. It works flawlessly. So easy. Just so so easy.

Are you using the two MS guide hotfixes? You shouldn't need keepkey if they are installed.

[vlad]

Originally Posted by GlenR

.but sometimes I wonder how much of the easiness is just Vista, and how much is a result of what I've learnt on this forum...

It is easier GlenR

[GlenR]

Yes, Vista IS easier, but my knowledge has also increased from the MCE2005 early days, so that has to contribute to the overall ease of setup.

[vlad]

Originally Posted by GlenR

Yes, Vista IS easier, but my knowledge has also increased from the MCE2005 early days, so that has to contribute to the overall ease of setup.

It is interesting, as I know a lot of people who think otherwise, they are afraid of Vista and find it unfamiliar and difficult. Same goes to Office 2007. I personally find it easier.

On the topic:
Nice setup, I don't think that E6600 is overkill.
Is MS remote actually better than iMon ?