Didn't know exactly where to put this, so it ended up here in General.

Okay, I had this notion to save up for a killer 1080p HD Media Center and so far have come up with the following parts:

OrigenAE S14V HTPC Case with VFD, IR Blaster, and Remote
INTEL Core 2 Duo E8400 3.00 GHz Processor (And o/c it to 3.8GHz)
CORSAIR XMS2 4GB PC2-6400 DDR2-800 Memory Kit
Coolmax CXI-600B 600W Silent Fan Power Supply
LG Super Multi Blu-ray Disc Burner
2x GeForce 8800 GT 512MB Graphics Cards in SLI
2x AVerMedia AVerTV Combo PCIe ATSC/NTSC/QAM TV Tuners

Now for the hard drives:
Mtron MOBI 16 Gigabyte 2.5 inch SATA Flash Disk for Vista Home Premium MCE
Western Digital Caviar 7200RPM 500GB SATA Drive for Music/Pictures/Games
Western Digital Caviar 7200RPM 1TB SATA Drive for HDTV/Movies

The big problem is that I can't find a good motherboard for all that. I want a board that supports 1333FSB, 8GB memory, and has 2 PCIe 16x slots and 2 PCIe 1x slots because it has to be mATX to fit in the case. The video cards are slim enough that it could alternate Graphics, Tuner, Graphics, Tuner (or vice versa.) The other problem is that the mtron SSD drive is a really expensive hard drive and I don't know if it's worth getting one of those are swapping it with a Raptor. I want a super fast start up of the OS and Media Center. I am even gonna use vLite and strip out most of Vista to get it to run faster if this dream becomes reality (aka I save enough cash.)

So what do you think? Any suggestions, comments? Motherboard ideas? Experience with SSDs?

a few issues I see with this:

1. SSD drive: 16 gig isn't enough for Vista. Also, those drives has a higher failure ratio that the standard drive. Risky, to say the least
   
2. Fan? I am assuming you left that out, but with a rig like that, you'd need some serious cooling
3. 8 gbg motherboard: Unless you're using a 64bit version of Vista (or XP, for that matter), the OS can't handle more than 4 gigs of ram, regardless of how much the board will allow.
4. Overclocked processor: You're lowering the shelf life of that processor quite a bit by doing that. A quad core (or even an AMD triple core) would do more with less
5. vLite for Vista: I've used nLite for a long time to strip down my XP installations. However, vLite is still in the early stages of development.
6. Power supply: 600 watts may not be enough to run that, but I can't say for certain.
7. mATX: I don't think there is a board made that has 2 PCIe slots that can also hold all that juice.

I don't wanna be a buzzkill, but I don't think all that hardware could work together. However, there are quite a few ATX cases that look real nice that would give you more leeway.

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Gateway FMC-901 XP Pro MCE 2005
nVidia PureVideo Platinum Decoder Pack
2 gig RAM
120 GB main HD
500 GB secondary drive w/ ripped DVDs
Samsung 46" LCD TV

Overkill!!  Do you intend to use the Media Center PC for something other than Media Center's DVR/LiveTV/HiDef DVD playback?  I would suggest that you consider getting a Windows Home Server, for easily expandable storage plus all the other great things it provides.  At the end/begin of each day its possible to move those recordings to the vast storage on WHS.  Media Center will still see those files if you setup your watch folders appropriately.  With storage split from the Media Center PC..you can now focus on making it as energy efficient as possible.  Also, to speed up your Media Center PC, you might want to consider a 10,000 RPM drive with just enough storage for a typical days worth of recording (250GB is probably more than sufficient).

One other thing.  Since your setup looks somewhat costly...have you considered if you will want/need cablecard in the future?

@Norcross:
1. I didn't know if SSD would offer any advantage over a 10000rpm drive as far as boot times (Vista is the pokiest booting OS I have ever used.)
2. I left out fans. I thought about liquid cooling or buying some really good highly rated fans off NewEgg or similar.
3. I was going to start out on 32bit Vista until I heard the 64bit version is solid.
4. I may not O/C the processor after all. I played with a stock clock verison fo that processor and it was snappy enough. Good bang for buck.
5. I have had some time to play with vLite and it seems to be fairly solid. I make an ultra-stripped Vista to get it to run on 64MB of memory and it did. Slow (go figure) but it did. Proof of cencept stuff mostly though.
6. I am going tone it down to a single video card and single tuner so 600 watts should be beefy enough.
7. Yeah, I finally gave up the fight for a mATX board with all that so I am choosing a normal mATX. I still have to look for a good one.

@USArcher
I know it's overkill but I wanted overkill. I don't want any lag or odd delay in shifting through all my media. I also wanted to use this to play games in HD resolution with the settings cranked up. I think I have shifted my 8800GT to a GTX 280 though in hopes ot play Crysis and BioShock at 1080p on  Max/Near Max quality. I was going to try to throw an Xbox 360 controller on the PC for that purpose. I have heard good hings about Windows Home Server but didn't know if playing HD files over a network would cause too much delay or lag.

USArcher:

One other thing.  Since your setup looks somewhat costly...have you considered if you will want/need cablecard in the future?

I was thinking the same thing...Are you thinking about cable card for HD content ? If so this will end the quest to find the perfect motherboard.

Are you going to be happy just getting HD locals off OTA or QAM ?

---

-Dave

MCP, MCSA, MCSE 2003
Windows Vista Connected Exp:Home Theater for Technologists
Windows Vista Connected Exp:Home Theater for Sales professionals

Home theater specialist (10+ years)

Norcross:

1. Overclocked processor: You're lowering the shelf life of that processor quite a bit by doing that. A quad core (or even an AMD triple core) would do more with less

Just as a note, you are only lowering the shelf life of the processor if you run it too hot. Many of the first gen C2D were great at overclocking with minimal if no increase in temperature. Because of this the shelf life was not hindered one bit. I don't know how the new ones are, so perhaps this would be the case, but my E6600 runs just around 90F (81F ambient) at 3.2Ghz on fan cooling (2.4Ghz stock).

That being said, and this is an honest question, would anything more than a dual core really improve performance? At least with the quad core you are increasing the power draw (double?) and as far as I know most apps won't really use it. Especially not a standalone media center where there would really only be one thing going at a time. Most codecs barely support dual core (this may have changed recently) and even at that, his 3.0 would handle 1080p without a prob. Perhaps if he plans on transcoding the quad or triple core would be a benefit, but I don't know if the transcoders use multiple cores yet either (as it seems so very little does now adays).

Nickhamm:

I have heard good hings about Windows Home Server but didn't know if playing HD files over a network would cause too much delay or lag.

I don't use WHS anymore but I have all my media on my W2K8 file server, including Blu-ray ISOs.  I've had no problems mounting them over the network and playing them on my HTPC.  I would highly recommend setting up Jumbo Frames if you do go that route.  After tweaking my network settings and Jumbo Frames I'm copying files between the two at 78 MB/sec.

For your SSD, as others have mentioned, 16GB is too small.  I have a 32GB in mine and as long as it is a pure HTPC (no large applications being installed) then 32GB is perfect.  I have a 8GB pagefile on the drive and still have 8GB free.  It does boot much faster than when I only the 1TB drive in there.

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.:: Vista Ultimate x64 :: Antec Fusion :: Corsair HX520w :: ASUS P5E-VM :: Core2 Duo E8400 3.0Ghz :: 4GB RAM :: 128GB SSD System\Apps :: 1TB\5TB Data :: LG GGC-H20L BD/HD DVD :: HDHomeRun x2 ::.

SirMeili:

Norcross:

1. Overclocked processor: You're lowering the shelf life of that processor quite a bit by doing that. A quad core (or even an AMD triple core) would do more with less

Just as a note, you are only lowering the shelf life of the processor if you run it too hot. Many of the first gen C2D were great at overclocking with minimal if no increase in temperature. Because of this the shelf life was not hindered one bit. I don't know how the new ones are, so perhaps this would be the case, but my E6600 runs just around 90F (81F ambient) at 3.2Ghz on fan cooling (2.4Ghz stock).

That being said, and this is an honest question, would anything more than a dual core really improve performance? At least with the quad core you are increasing the power draw (double?) and as far as I know most apps won't really use it. Especially not a standalone media center where there would really only be one thing going at a time. Most codecs barely support dual core (this may have changed recently) and even at that, his 3.0 would handle 1080p without a prob. Perhaps if he plans on transcoding the quad or triple core would be a benefit, but I don't know if the transcoders use multiple cores yet either (as it seems so very little does now adays).

The CPU he listed, E8400, is a 45nm chipset.  It runs much cooler than the previous C2Ds and with a larger cache so at the same rated speeds runs faster.  I have passive cooling on mine and is cool to the touch.

Btw, I would not suggest going with NewEgg for your fans.  They do not offer the higher rated HTPC fans.

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.:: Vista Ultimate x64 :: Antec Fusion :: Corsair HX520w :: ASUS P5E-VM :: Core2 Duo E8400 3.0Ghz :: 4GB RAM :: 128GB SSD System\Apps :: 1TB\5TB Data :: LG GGC-H20L BD/HD DVD :: HDHomeRun x2 ::.

mikinho:

The CPU he listed, E8400, is a 45nm chipset.  It runs much cooler than the previous C2Ds and with a larger cache so at the same rated speeds runs faster.  I have passive cooling on mine and is cool to the touch.

Btw, I would not suggest going with NewEgg for your fans.  They do not offer the higher rated HTPC fans.

Yeah, I knew they ran cooler, but I don't know how they are at overclocking. I was merely trying to let him know that overclocking may NOT shorten the life of the processor if it doesn't increase the temps too much if at all (such as my E6600).

Put of curiousity, where would you go for fans? I've always like frozencpu, but found them really expensive.

Nickhamm:

GTX 280 though in hopes ot play Crysis and BioShock at 1080p on  Max/Near Max quality. I was going to try to throw an Xbox 360 controller on the PC for that purpose.

The GTX 280 will work well but depending on your time frame NVidia is expected to release some new cards late September in the GTX 200 family that support the new Auzentech sound card (see http://www.auzentech.com/site/company/press.php).

Also, if you don't already have the 360 controller, get the Xbox 360 Wireless Controller for Windows instead of the normal controller along w/ the Xbox 360 Wireless Gaming Receiver for Windows.

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.:: Vista Ultimate x64 :: Antec Fusion :: Corsair HX520w :: ASUS P5E-VM :: Core2 Duo E8400 3.0Ghz :: 4GB RAM :: 128GB SSD System\Apps :: 1TB\5TB Data :: LG GGC-H20L BD/HD DVD :: HDHomeRun x2 ::.

SirMeili:

Put of curiousity, where would you go for fans? I've always like frozencpu, but found them really expensive.

I've always go with Jab-Tech (http://www.jab-tech.com/) for my thermal products.  They offer the top 3 HTPC rated fans:

• Nexus 120mm Real Silent
• Noctua NF-P12-1300 120mm
• YATE LOON (mixed opinions whether they are identical to the Nexus)

Aside from fans\heatsinks\thermal products I almost always use NewEgg.

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.:: Vista Ultimate x64 :: Antec Fusion :: Corsair HX520w :: ASUS P5E-VM :: Core2 Duo E8400 3.0Ghz :: 4GB RAM :: 128GB SSD System\Apps :: 1TB\5TB Data :: LG GGC-H20L BD/HD DVD :: HDHomeRun x2 ::.

NEXUS fans are WONDERFUL!!!!

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My VMC setup:
(2) Xbox360s
System 1 -
Dell XPS410 (2.6Ghz C2D, 2GB Ram,Nvidia 8600GT, Blu-ray internal, HD-DVD external (X360 drive), (2) Vboxx DTA150s (OTA HD), 1 HVR-1150 (OTA HD) and Dish Network

I like Noctua fans. 

They were highly regarded in silentpcreview.com's roundup of 120mm fans.  I use 2 of them in my Media Center.  With the TV and the receiver off, at 2am in the morning, I can't hear the fans running.

Oh yeah, your power supply may be too much.  I'm only using 330W power supply.  I've attached my media center to a power meter and at full tilt, I'm only drawing around 275W.  Most power supply are most efficient when they are loaded around 80% of capacity.

Here's my specs...
Media Center "Server"                   
Vista Home Premium 32-bit
Intel DG33TL
Intel Core 2 Duo E6550
Zalman CNPS9500AT
2 x Noctua NF-S12-800 120mm Fans
2GB Corsair XMS2 DDR2 SDRAM
Nvidia GeForce 8500GT 256MB
5x Seagate ST3750640AS 750GB SATA HDD
1x Seagate ST3750640A  750GB PATA HDD
LG GGC-H20L HD-DVD/Blu-Ray DVD Drive
Seasonic S12-330 ATX PS
Coolermaster CM Media-282
Soundgraph Imon LCD
Silicondust HD HomeRun

I use a combination of Nexus for case fans and Noctua for cpu fans.  I have passive cpu cooling on my HTPC but on my primary system I've done some testing between the two.  What I noticed is that with all Noctua fans the cpu temp is lower but the ambient temp is higher than all Nexus fans.  With a combination of the two the both temperatures were lower.

I'm hoping that either company release 200mm versions to replace Antec's 200mm in their 180 Mini.

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.:: Vista Ultimate x64 :: Antec Fusion :: Corsair HX520w :: ASUS P5E-VM :: Core2 Duo E8400 3.0Ghz :: 4GB RAM :: 128GB SSD System\Apps :: 1TB\5TB Data :: LG GGC-H20L BD/HD DVD :: HDHomeRun x2 ::.

If you're going to run straight out VMC and not much else, I'd recommend this:

P5N-D Asus motherboard nForce 750i
Intel Quad-Core Q6600 Kentsfield 2.4GHz  LGA775
2x Patriot 2GB RAM
XFX GeForce 9800 GT 512MB 256-bit PCI Ex 2.0 x16 (PVT98GYDDF)
Vista Premium or Ultimate 32-bit (your choice)
Hauppauge HVR-2250 TV Tuner (2x)
Internally, 2 WD hard drives, one for the system, other for media.  A 1TB and a 500 GB like you have is fine.

This'll run 863.93 before shipping for the parts I listed here.  I use them in a computer I game on, but for a VMC computer only, this will be more than adequate.  I've had no problems with my system, except that using Vista 64-bit when there's no divx 64-bit.  If it's sitting in the living room or something, get a HTPC/Media Center case, plenty of fans, and a DVD+/-R DL drive in case you want to read/write those as well.  I'd recommend here the LG GH22LP20.  It's a good drive, and a BenQ is also very nice as well.  For power, get the Antec TPQ-850, it's 850W and runs beautifully.

For a sound card, get an X-Fi from Soundblaster.  They do 7.1 sound and they are the best sound cards I've used yet.

As for media assist, put in the video browser by JackLuminous, as it's the one with the least complicated setup and overhead, and gives nice results with nicely sized TV and movie collections.

A straight out VMC setup not used as a main-line PC doesn't need to be as hardcore as I usually recommend for a computer with gaming, word-processing, video-editing, and media encoding duties.

Now, running this above-listed setup, your computer will definitely be fast enough to run without stripping anything from Vista.  SP1 did a good job speeding things up.  The Hauppauge card gives you a remote and remote receiver, so you're good there.  Now all you have to do is put it together, tag your music and movies, and enjoy.

Best of luck!

James