Post your rigs here!

**aud19** · 09 March 2004, 20:52 Tuesday

Well I have the ability to periodically update my own PC at work so I'll list it though "techinically" it isn't mine :P But it's the PC I use most so... I will however start with my home machine.

Home

Celeron 800 OC'd to 1066Mhz with Thermalright copper HS and fan
1Gb PC133 RAM
Maxtor 20Gb "OS" HDD and Maxtor 30Gb "Data" HDD
Lite-On 16X DVD-ROM
Lite-On 52X CD-RW
Asus 128Mb Video Card (Can't remember model

ops: )
Sony 19" Flatscreen (Real Nice :P :P about a $1000 new 3'ish years ago..and I got it for $40 from my work!!!

)
Creative PCI128 sound with Altec Lansing speakers/sub
Lexmark copier/scanner/colour inkjet
WinXP Pro

Work

AMD 2600+
1Gb PC333 RAM
Maxtor 40Gb HDD
Lite-On 16X DVD-ROM
Asus 256Mb DDR GeForce FX5600
NEC 19" Flat Screen with USB hub
Onboard audio with Altec Lansing speakers/sub
A whole office of copiers, printers and a 36" plotter

WinXP Pro

Jason

Need a new display? Questions about new display technologies? Visit RPTVs, plasmas, and other monitors @ HTguide

**Andrew Pratt** · 09 March 2004, 21:41 Tuesday

My Notebook

Dell Inspiron 5100
Intel P2.4GHz CPU
768 megs ram
40 gig harddrive
32 meg ATI 7500 video card
DVD-Rom drive
15" display
Netgear wireless NIC
external 17" monitor for extended desktop duty:T
Logitech Click! mouse
XP Pro OS

Wife's PC

AMD 1.4 GHz
512 megs ram
20 gig harddrive
52X CDROM
NVidea Geforce 2 MX video card
17" Monitor
hard wired to NetGear router
XP Pro OS

HTPC

AMD Barton 2.8 O/C'd to 3200+
Zalman 7000 cooler
512 Dual Channel ram
80 gig Seagate SATA harddrive. (will add more in a month or so)
DVD-Rom drive
Antec Overture case
128 meg ATI 9600 video card
hard wired into NetGear router
soon to add wireless keyboard/mouse

Other gear
Netgear wireless router
MTS DSL highspeed internet
USB2.0 hub
External DVD+-RW drive (USB 2)
Canon A60 digital camera
256 meg USB 2 compact flash drive
Epson CX3200 Printer/Copier/Scanner

**Daryl Furkalo** · 09 March 2004, 23:38 Tuesday

Web/DV Capture PC

Dell 4550
Intel 2.4 GHz 533FSB
768 MB ram
40 gig harddrive
16X DVD-ROM
CD-Writer
Ati 9000 PRO video card
17" Monitor
dial-up 56k modem
XP Home OS
Brother HL-1435 Laser Printer
JVC GR-DV500U Mini-DV Cam

HTPC

Intel 2.8GHz 800FSB
Abit IC7
Zalman 7000 CPU cooler
512 Dual Channel ram
80 gig WD SE harddrive (may be upgraded to 36GB Raptor)
RKR Callisto Case
ATI 9800SE video card w/Zalman passive cooling
M-Audio 2496 Audiophile
XP PRO OS
DVD-R currently in transit

Work PC

AMD 2700+
Shuttle 41GN2
1024 Dual Channel ram
120 gig WD SE harddrive
ATI Fire GL Z1
XP PRO OS
8x DVD-R

Other:

Xbox with 120GB HDD

Upcoming

High Speed Internet in Manitou in 2004!
P2-400 Clark Connect Linux Firewall

**Kevin P** · 12 March 2004, 12:15 Friday

If ya have 'em, post pics too! Here are my main rigs:

Micron Millennia 3100 my main desktop box

My monitor - not much to brag about

It's a DeLL, dude! My Inspiron 4100 notebook. I love this machine!

Can you believe this thing still runs? My Linux box. Home built in 1996, it's my pride and joy. It's my firewall, email server, and Kevin's Killer Virus Eater (tm). (thanks to EFarstad for coming up with that name!)

In case you're wondering why it has 2 CD drives, one is a 2X SCSI drive I put in when I built the machine. The 2nd one is a 8X IDE, I had to put that one in to get the Linux install disc to boot. I never bothered to take out the other drive, and it works from within Linux anyway, so I can mount 2 CDs if I want.

Official Computer Geek and Techno-Wiz Guru of HTGuide - Visit Tower of Power
My HT Site

**Trevor Schell** · 14 March 2004, 11:27 Sunday

Blue Zone TTP
AMD 2500+ Barton O/c'd to 2800+

Old Box
AMD 1700+

Kids Room
DeLL 266mhz Pentium II

Notebook
DeLL Inspiron P4 2.2 GHZ 15.4" Widescreen

Seti units = avg 14 per day generated from the two AMD machines.

Trevor
My HomeTheater S.E.
Sonically Enhanced
C5

**Sonnie Parker** · 20 May 2004, 21:20 Thursday

I just got me a new one for the office...

I decided to let the office buy me a new puter system and finally decided to go against my norm of buying a Dell. I've pretty much always been a big Dell fan but this time I tried another company since I really wanted to try out the AMD 64.

The company:

The system:

Aopen A600A Aluminum Case (Black) w/ 350Watt Power Supply

Gigabyte GA-K8NPRO nForce3 Motherboard for AMD 64-bit Processor

ATA133 Round IDE Cable (Transparent Blue)

AMD Athlon 64 3000+ 512k L2 Cache 64-bit Processor

Thermaltake Silent Boost K8 Copper Heatsink and Fan for AMD Athlon 64

2 X Corsair XMS Series 512MB PC3200 DDR400 184-Pin

Maxtor 80GB 7200RPM 8MB Cache Serial ATA (ATA150)

GeForce FX 5200 128MB DDR Video Card

Sony 16X DVD-Rom

Lite-On 52x32x52 CD-RW

Sony 1.44MB Floppy

Woet Tsern Internal 8-in-1 Card Reader with USB 2.0 Port

Gigabit 10/1000 Ethernet (LAN) Controller

Viewsonic 17" VG700 LCD Flat Panel Display VGA (Two-Tone)

**Shane Martin** · 21 May 2004, 11:01 Friday

5 pc's at home(though not all are working). 1 at work

Work PC:
Compaq PII 333
256 Ram
8 gig HDD
4 mb video card

:rofl:

Home PC's:
1. ) PII 266
200mb ram
4mb video card
2 x 12 mb voodoo 2 in SLI mode video cards(old gaming pc)
Wireless network card - linksys
30gig HDD
8x CDRW drive

Used mainly for storage.

2. ) PII 350
256 Ram
16mb TNT video card
8 Gig HDD
10/100 network card
No CD rom drive - yet
No OS - yet

MIght make this into a firewall I don't know yet.

3. ) Laptop - P4 2ghz Gateway
30gig HDD
512 DDR Ram
Dvd/CDRW drive
Linksys Wireless card

4. ) Main PC - AMD 1.47 ie AMD 1700+
MSI Mainboard
768 MB DDR Ram
64mb AGP 4x Geforce 3 by some company that went out of business...
30gig HDD
10/100 network card
Sound Blaster Live soundcard
Samsung 17" Monitor - old reliable

Other goodies:
Some crappy HP 630c Printer
Netgear wireless router-had to throw out the linksys that failed

**JonMarsh** · 21 May 2004, 12:55 Friday

Nice PC, Sonnie- I've had my eye on that Gigabyte MB for a while- IBM uses Gigabyte almost exclusively for their desktop stuff (built to their specs), so those folks have experience building good hardware.

Your system is on the sweet spot of the cost/performance curve for AMD64 gear; the only think I'd consider upgrading (and only if you play games, do CAD, or watch DVD) is the video card, to an FX5700 Ultra of some variety, or a 5900XT. You get a lot of performance these days at the $200 price point. But if you don't do gaming or DVD, your 5200 is just fine.

Best regards,

Jon

**aud19** · 21 May 2004, 13:25 Friday

I've always preferred ASUS MB's over Gigabyte's personally. They just seem to be a little better built. I'm sure that's a pretty good quality board though :T

Jason

**Sonnie Parker** · 21 May 2004, 18:30 Friday

Thanks Jon... I don't know much about puters other than I know how to turn one on and off (most of the time anyway). I can swap out a harddrive and memory and minor things like that but I don't get into overclocking and the technical gory details.

What I did do was price out all of the components through various online vendors (whoever was the cheapest on each item) to see what it would cost me to build (and probably screw up) versus having abspc build it for me and the difference was surprising less than $100. I probably wasted a 100 bucks worth of time doing this. lol I figure the warranty and them putting it together and testing it would be well worth the difference.

I thought about spending a few extra dollars and getting a step up on the video card but I actually don't do gaming (none at all-don't own a game) and I haven't ever done DVD. I did however grab a DVD-rom just for the heck of it since it was fairly cheap. Oh... and what's CAD? hee hee I guess I don't do that either. Isn't that something architects use? Builders? Seems like I've heard that mentioned before for houseplans or something like that.

I don't know if I could have gotten any other MB other than Gigabyte from abspc. They didn't show an ASUS on this config. I did do a little research on GB though. There is a pretty good forum that has a section devoted to GB and it seems to be a very popular MB. There was a massive poll done on one of their previous boards concerning likes and dislikes and they responded with this newer board earlier this year I believe. They now have the K8NS Pro (nForce 250 vs 150 with a couple extra USB ports and 8 channel vs. 6 channel on-board audio). I think it's about $25-30 more.

I think the biggest leap for me here is the AMD64 over a P4. It seems like everywhere I looked the only P4's offered were with the new hyper-threading technology and I'd would have been paying more for something that I wouldn't really benefit from since I only run Win2KPro at work. Plus from what I read and researched the new AMD64's are awesome.

I thought the Aspire X-Dreamer II case was cool with all the neon lights and stuff you could get with it and add to it but I didn't need all that stuff at work. Plus I think it would grow old on me after a while.

One thing I'm really excited about is the display. This will be my first LCD display.

In case anyone is wondering... I configured this computer from the Awesome 4300 configurator at abspc.com

**JonMarsh** · 22 May 2004, 00:00 Saturday

Rebuilding my rig...

I'm rebuilding/repairing my desktop rig. It's had a problem for several months in that when it's cold, it will lock up after initial boot, usually when you first run IE, or a CAD program. Tracked it down to write failures to the video card.

Updated AGP GART drivers, graphics drivers, tweaked BIOS to turn-off fast writes, slow AGP bus, and tried another video card, still have the same problem fairly often, though never after it's warmed up a few minutes.

This kind of thing annoys the heck out of me, so I decided to get serious, and replace the MoBo, which was an early ASUS A7V8X. Haven't had any problems with my nVidia based HTPCs, so decided to go with an nVidia chip set for the main desktop, instead of VIA. Yeah, I know, some of you are probably thinking, ABOUT TIME!

Because I rebuilt my main HTPC using a STB style box, I also have a mid tower ATC aluminum case which will look much nicer with my new glass and metal desk, so I figure, what the heck, while I'm at it, may as well swap out the innards to the new chasis.

Here's the MoBo on the chasis motherboard tray, ready to install first thing tomorrow AM. Going to do that "re-seal" thing to redeploy my current HD and software on the new motherboard in XP.

This new Gigabyte board has plenty of goodies, including 3 firewire ports, six USB 2 ports, Gigabit LAN, a six channel audio codec with SPDIF output, main IDE ATA133, RAID controller switchable between SATA and ATA133, and a nice sticker to put up on the inside of the case cover that details the MB layout, connectors, and jumpers. Oh, and of course, some cool Gigabyte stickers to put on the front of the case.

Cross my fingers; should be fun...

~Jon

I'll post a pic when I'm done; (assuming everything still works!). For a several year old chasis, it's pretty nice, still; cooler looking than my ancient beige Addtronics case! That way the old MB will still be in the old case in case something goes wrong and I have to "back up". Hopefully that won't happen....

**Sonnie Parker** · 22 May 2004, 01:06 Saturday

Cool Jon... is that not the same MB as I just ordered? Looks and describes like the same one.

What CPU are you using?

**JonMarsh** · 22 May 2004, 09:35 Saturday

Yup; that's why I thought it fun to post the picture! Great minds think alike... :T Like you, I'm just going to run a "plain ole" 3000+; it's the sweet spot on the price-performance curve.

I'm just backin up some critical work data, and getting ready to re-seal the drive this AM.

I'll let you know how this goes- this will be my first attempt at "re-sealing", which is basically how you turn a drive setup into an installable image for deployment. I just want to deploy it to a different MB, which was a cake walk under WIN98, but which XP doesn't like to do unless you play these fancy tricks.

Regards,

Jon

**Bing Fung** · 22 May 2004, 13:57 Saturday

NIce new rigs there Sonnie and Jon! :T

**Sonnie Parker** · 22 May 2004, 18:48 Saturday

Thanks Bing...

Jon... I'll be looking forward to hearing how she works out for ya.

**AndrewM** · 23 May 2004, 01:35 Sunday

I've been running my new rig for a week now;
AMD 64 3200+
MSI "K8T Neo-FIS2R" K8T800 (lots of good reviews, plus tons of options)
512MB Mushkin RAM
WD 120GB SE HD
Maxtor 60GB HD
Nvidia GF4 Ti4200 128MB
DVD
Plextor 24/10/40 CDRW
Antec Sonata case (got tired of the 747 at takeoff like noise)

You guys are going to love the AMD 64 processor's, smoking fast. My video card is holding me back right now at some levels, but I can still push graphic levels well beyond my old P4 rig. Oh and this thing doesn't run nearly as "hot" as I would have thought. During a heavy gaming session my CPU temps never go over 110F and case temps hover around 100F, right now sitting here just doing some web surfing I'm at 105/98F. Which is about where I was at with my super-breeze case (total of 10 fans - 5 now which are more geared towards silence than blowing out the CFM's).

Andrew

**JonMarsh** · 23 May 2004, 10:21 Sunday

It's all put together, as reported in the XP Re-seal thread, and my full XP setup was transferred successfully to the new MB and chasis.

Hasn't missed a beat, or hiccupped on boot up in the new configuration; no graphic write faults, so I think the problem must have been with the old MB, as everything else is the same, video card included.

My old Coolermaster ATC-200 case has a new name now from ATC but it looks the same:

It has four 5" bays, currently holding DVD and CDRW drives, two external 3" bays, currently holding floppy and high capacity Magneto optical drive (re-writeable optical media in a case that looks like a thick floppy), and four internal 3.5" HD bays, with cooling fans right in front (that's the screen inlet in the lower center front of the chasis.) It's deeper and shorter than most chasis; it's a perfect fit to my new workstation. Colorwise, too; I'll have to take a photo soon and post.

I've got more driver controllers than I know what to do with; the only "glitch" bringing this up was that I had to use the Maxtor ATA133 PCI controller (for compatibility reasons with Maxtor 160GB drive); the software configuration was re-sealed with the Maxtor controller, so it didn't want to come up on one of the built in controllers ("standard" IDE to ATA133, Gigabit ATA133 RAID, and also a SATA controller built in) I just turned off the ones I"m not using, in the bios, and I enabled the Mobo audio, to try it out instead of my soundblaster, since I don't plan on doing gaming on this PC, and don't care about positional audio.

Some reviewers complained about the fans in the ATC case being "slow speed", but they move a surprising amount of air, and they do so relatively quietly. Coupled with a fanless graphics card, the Antec True Power supply with fan speed modulation, the system is both quiet and fast. CPU temps are quite low.

Performance on CAD software has picked up somewhat; however, the old system was no slouch, being a mobile Athlon (yeah, one of those unlocked XP2500 mobile chips).

Overall, I'm quite pleased, as this was a pretty low buck upgrade (considering I had the case around already).

Regards,

Jon

**AndrewM** · 23 May 2004, 19:18 Sunday

Performance on CAD software has picked up somewhat; however, the old system was no slouch, being a mobile Athlon (yeah, one of those unlocked XP2500 mobile chips).

I'm curious about the choice of an AMD processor for doing CAD work, I would think the raw clock speed of the Intel's would favor this type of work. It's the one bad mark against the AMD's when doing any kind of "work" related benchmark, the P4's usually take a pretty nice lead.

Andrew

**JonMarsh** · 23 May 2004, 20:15 Sunday

On the standard encoding benchmarks (mpeg, MP3), I've seen P4's take the lead over comparable rating Athlons, but for CAD programs like AutoCAD, Allegro PCB, Altium DXP, and the various solid modeling programs, that doesn't appear to be the case, especially if the programs involve make standard floating point calls, and don't use SSE2. The Athlon's have a better floating point unit, with more parallel units with full functionality, and on standard X87 stuff this pays off.

Now, the AMD64 seems to address the occasional shortfalls of the Athlon XP on CAD, and it does include SSE2 (parallel floating point). So it's been doing very well in CAD benchmarks.

One of the funny benchmarks Intel published when they first introduced the P4 was comparing it to the P3 on a particular scientific benchmark, and noting how the P4 was developing/using twice the memory bandwidth running the benchmark as the P4. This was to show what a great memory system the P4 had in comparison, and how much more bandwidth it had compared to the older processor. Now, the point they didn't highlight, was that while using nearly twice the memory bandwidth, it was only completing the benchmark 10-15% faster.

That's kind of like bragging, "Hey, my car can burn twice as much fuel per hour as your's can", while not pointing out it only goes 15% faster...

Processor optimization strategies are very complex design issues. The P4 architecture was supposed to carry forward for ten years, with decreasing feature size, and increasing clock frequency; when introduced, Intel expected to be able to take it up to 8-10 GHz before phasing it out.

Two weeks ago, the next version of the P4, Tejas, the follow up to Prescot, which was supposed to hit production in Q3 this year, was cancelled, due to lack of technological and manufacturing viability. I think Intel finally decided that 140-150 A on the desktop CPU wasn't practical. 8O

Instead, the Grantsdale and Alderwood chipset platforms will move forward with scaled versions of the Prescott processor, until the moved up introduction of dual core processors which appear to be in development based on the Pentium M.

The Pentium M internally looks a whole lot more like an Athlon than a P4; speed wise and architecturally. :rofl:

BTW, the current AMD64 processors have all the glue logic and communication links in place internally to be dual core; the only thing missing is the second core... :T

Technological leadership is a funny thing; it doesn't always come from the places you might think it does... Marketing departments do everything in their power to convince one of the correctness and validity of a company's roadmap, until they have to tear it up and toss it out, and implement something that looks an awful lot like the upstart competition, lest they be handed their lunch on a plate by going too far down the wrong path. Even Prescott maybe too far.

:

Hey, but I'm geting off topic... besides, this is an AV forum, isn't it? :W

**aud19** · 24 May 2004, 11:38 Monday

Jon, your post reminded me of a picture that the AMD rep showed at the dealer meet I went to. It was a picture of an AMD 64 chip with all the AMD info crossed out with new writing something along the lines of: "Top Secret. Intel 64 Prototype." :rofl: :rofl:

Jason

**amix** · 24 May 2004, 17:20 Monday

Hi!

I am preparing an article about HTPC philosophy and techical implementation. Of course I will recommend the system I have (or one close to it) since it is the result of one whole year of research, not counting the four years before, when I was still vague about implementation (wanted to use a PPC system before). However, it is not yet ready, so I will give you the "hard cold facts" about my rig. I hop e you don't mind for a long post :B

A short overview about the network I utilize at home can be found floowing the according link in my signature. I got CAT5e cabling in the wall, so networking a computer here is as easy as pluggin a telephone, antenna or pwerchord into the connector/outlet. I got three computers in my living room, two of them are in cases, that I designed myself and got manufactured by a company here where I live. Full aluminium. The reason for this was to be able to get an ideal airflow (so the systems are inaudible) and have them match my interior. I love electronics but only when they are elegant. Most elegant electronics are the ones I don't see. So I have the luck, that my girl-friend loves also my equipment, ahem.

Since I am 12 years old (1982) I wanted a fully computerized and networked home. Now I am a step closer. Back then I was dreaming of invisible speakers in the walls, but this will not happen any time soon, as it seems

At least I have a real multiroom system now. It's not based on audio cables but on Ethernet, the only sane solution IMO, and little clients (not yet purchased, I need a good AV and speakers first), which I will place in the bedroom and the kitchen. The bedroom client might be this one in the STB version:

http://www.allwell.tv/Products/Set_Top_Box/K35/k35.html

They will be diskless and conect either to a TV or to some good PC speakers.

As for the HTPC: Information today is digital. Be it text, interactive programs (games, internet, etc.), video or audio. All is a row of zeroes and ones.

A cd-player, a DVD-player, a DVB-receiver, a modern tuner... all are computers. Input -> Processing -> Output. So, why stack a bunch of computers, that each is limited to doing one thing, if I can do all that with just a freely programmable computer ? Of course, this is for those, who are not too much of an audiophile...

Actually I want all data everyhere. And I do not want to care for the nature of this data. It shoild be anything. The term MultiMedia describes a system that is capable of processing multiple, of not all media.

So, for me, others may have reasons against it, I wanted ONE device to rule them all.

What is it good if I still need to boot up my workstation in order to backup a CD to harddisk ? Then I broke the promise of "MultiMedia" because again, I need two devices for one media. That is not what I want.

Okay, but now let's start! I will name each component and give the reason why I chose this and not anything else. And yes, I really bought everything as new and did not recycle any old PC.

First allow me to name the philosophy that I see a HT

CPU Intel P4 "Northwood" 1.8GHz, FSB400
This was an important choice! I wanted a CPU fast enough to halfway decently transcode DVDs onto DVD-R. Also it should allow me for an absolute noiseless cooling. On SilentPCReview/CPUs ranked by heat/noise I found the P4 <2GHz to be ranged at the top (andf back then no Pentium M was available for desktop use, which would not satisfy my needs anyway, since it is a very bad performer in media-encoding, due to its P3 origins and stripped down SSE instruction set.
CPU CoolerArctic Cooling Super Silent 4TC
This is a very cheap (6 Euro) silent-cooler. It is overdoze for the CPU and temp-controlled. Last hot summer I had constant RPMs between 850-1250. I would only hear it if I'd had the case open and put my ear directly onto it. So the CPU hint worked out
Mainboard ASUS P4PE (full fature) with S/PDIF, Gb-LAN, SATA & PATA RAID
Perfect match for the CPU and my purpose! It is full-size ATX and comes in several flavors, me purchasing the full featured one. Since I intend to use my HTPC not only locally in the living room but as only source for any multimedia in my home, it needs to have a fast Network Interface (NIC) and a fast harddisk-subsystem (more on that later). The board has a 1000Mb/s NIC, comes with 6 channel audio and S/PDIF, and, here, most importantly, does not have the SATA RAID via the Intel ICH chipset, but a dedicated Promise controller. Since I intend to make use of the SATA HotSwap feature (exchanging harddisks without powering down the PC) and since I use Linux (which suffers from the Intel chipsets bad implementation of HotSwap, i.e. it is not a real HotSwap) this is a heaven's send. Of course the board has USB2 and Firewire, but the latter one I won't need.
RAM2x 256MB Kingston ValueRAM PC2100
Not much to say here. 256MB would already be sufficient, but since I indend to make use of STR (Susoend To Ram), as soon the 2.6 kernel supports it halfway stable, an additional 256MB is a must.
VGA Matrox G550DH
32MB, passive cooling and excellent, crisp picture. Dual Head, sadly not ideal under Linux. If I'd get Linux drivers for it, I'd get a S3 DeltaChrome, which, at the moment, should be the best VGA accelerator for any HTPC (WMV9 in hardware, HDTV and MPEG4 in hardware plus halfway decent 3D performance (along the lines of an Radeon 9500Pro)
Audio onboard
Since I use the S/PDIF I am satisfied with the onboard solution for now
TV (digital) Hauppauge WinTV DVB-s
Not much to say here also. It's a digital sattelite card. Maybe the best supported (prfectly) under Linux and maybe one of the best cards on the market. Not cheap, though.
TV/FM (analog) not yet implemented, planning a KNC1 RDS or Typhoon RDS
Where I live, most local TV stastions are being broadcasted in microwave or to classic terrestrial antennas. This, and to have an FM tuner with RDS under computerized control, but also to be able to encode some of my VHS vids I want such a beast.
PSU Enermax 365W (not sure which one now, they got too long model numbers to remember, it's got a dual fan (one 80mm and one 92mm temp-controlled and manually))
delivers enough energy for my setup and, very important for me, it has one of the lowest "standby" power-consumptions of any ATX PSU in this class. Since I am planning to never switch of my HTPC, instead put it in sleep-mode, so it opens up at the press on the remote-keyboard.
Storage (system) Kingston 512MB CompactFlash Card on the IDE port
Well, this one is just, cause I am a gadget-loving freak It is mounted as read-only and bears the operating system along with the applications. When I listen to a CD, watch a DVD I do not need the two HDD to spin.
Storage (media) 2x Maxtor DiamondMax9 Plus 250GB SATA[indent]500GB in total, these disks have a very good streaming-performance. Remember, I plan to supply at least three streams in parallel, while still hve the PVR record without any dropouts. I'll have to see... I might purchase one of those very new Hitachi 400GB SATA disks, that come with server-technology and are being optimized for nearline-storage and multimedia. If this happens (800GB in total, drool) I will put the Maxtors into a sliding-frame so I can use them as backup-media or to store seldomly watched videos. This is actually the reason for the SATA, so I can have good disks and hotswap them. I might have a reason to put them intoi a striping RAID one day, but this is far off yet.[/ident]
Storage (changable)This occupies the third external 5.25 bay. It is a SATA SwapFrame
Purpose: See above
Storage (DVD-ROM) Arctec 16x/48x
Nothing special. It's predecessor had been tested as silent and good with copy-protections. So I took it. Why I have a seperate DVD-ROM ? Well, I am not sure, how todays DVD burners are when being used as replayer. CDRW drives hat that problem in the past. The other reason is, that this way I have two drives coping with those errors, that one finds on CDs each time, when one wants to transform them to a lossless harddsik format
Storage (DVD+-RW) NEC ND-1500A
Networking 1000Mbit/s
Case custom aluminium alloy
I designed it myself (using lots of cardboard and "oldschool" pen and paper) and let the plan being executed by a nearby company. Since this is Hungary, it wasn't that expensive . However, I am already learning some CAD stuff, cause I'd like to build a new case with a touch-screen TFT for operation. And since I do not have an AV amp yet, I might try to match it's design. Wow ! What would be if Rotel's 1096 would have a VGA connector and display the signal on the screen doing its own stuff as OSD, or does it maye ? I also took great care to design a real airflow into it, something, that I hope to do now even better. I want the fans to spin up even less. The case is equipped with two 120mm fans, temperature-controlled and they spin up then and when but not very loud, since these are special silent fans and used at 9V. The CPU cooler, however, is being ducted from the outside and I made damn sure, its warm air would meet the outblowing 120mm fan.

My system is inaudible, even, if the volume is completly down. Then and when, tha fans spin up, but they are close to noiseless and have done their work quick. They just "clean up", so to say. Oh, and yes, it is really inaudible, though it is pretty heavy in setup and not passive.

No HTPC is complete without software. For this I am writing my own one. Very early, I jsut started laying it out, but I hope, that when I am done, it will be the best out there, and plan to comercialize it. That is also the reason I can not talk much about it, since I got some cool ideas, that I hop to be exclusive with.

:grab:
EDIT
Since I have seen now, that this thread is about comps in general and I am out of ink, why not have a look at the "My Network" link below

It is not a beauty, but full of cool Javascript, heh.

**aud19** · 25 May 2004, 18:03 Tuesday

amix, how about posting some pics of these custome cases?

Jason

**amix** · 29 May 2004, 20:51 Saturday

I'll do as soon I have access to a digicam. Personally I have none and where I live, these things are not as usual as in more wealthy countries.

Since I already have decided to do a new case (will match it to my AV amp and add a TFT maybe) it might well be, that I will post the pics of that new lill' sucker.

**RickS** · 12 June 2004, 13:59 Saturday

Hi,
We have 4 desktop PC's and 2 laptops in our house. All on a wireless network. These are the two main one's used for Home entertainment.

The main HTPC in the rack is:
Antec Black Rack Mount Case IPC3480B + 380 watt PS,
Intel® Pentium® 4 Processor 3.0G 800FSB/HT, Gigabyte GA8KNXP, 2x512 MB PC3200, WD Raptor SATA 10K,
ATI 9800 Pro, M-Audio A/P2496, LG 4040B DVD Burner, Pioneer 16X Black 105S Slot load DVD, Teac Blk Floppy Drive,Twinhan 1020, Windows XP Pro SP1, Stab H-H120, 1M Dish .

This drives a Daytek 17" Widescreen ( 1280x 768 ) LCD TV wall mounted beside the rack.

Also, a Panasonic PT-L500U( 1280x720)FPTV.

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Bedroom:
Monitor: Dell 23" Widescreen ( 1280 x 768 ) LCD TV
-AMD Athlon 1.2 Thunderbird 266FSB CPU
-Asus A7V133 with VIA® KT133A 266/200MHz FSB
-Stepless Frequency Selection, Ultra-Fast DMA/100
-AGP Pro/4X/ RAID 0 support, 4 USB ports, and Promise®
-PCI-ATA100 controller for UltraDMA/100.
-60GB IBM 75GXP ATA 100 7200 RPM Deskstar HD
-LG 4040B DVD Burner
-(512MB Ram) 2 x PC133 SDRAM 256MB 168PIN
-All-in Wonder Radeon 32MB Video Card
-Sound Blaster Live 5.1
-Logitech Cordless MX Duo Keyboard and Mouse
-Linksys wireless PCI Card

Rick

Post your rigs here!

Post your rigs here!

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