Building an HTPC

[thespeakerbox]

I'm gonna be using a 939 3200 inside of an dvine 4 case. For now , im not going to be adding a tv tuner. Im planning on just using it to play dvds, game and access the internet. Im hopefully going to be adding a 6800gs (or 7800 if i can afford it), but what i get stuck on is the hard drive. I've read alot about cooling, and i plan to use a zalman cpu cooler and arctic cooling for the video card. The case will use nexus fans, and im gonna put in a seasonic psu. But what about the Hardrive? Heres my problem:

I have a home server and my personal computer in another room. My server has about an extra 100 gb lying around and my personal pc has .5 tb leftover.

Should i buy a laptop drive and suspend it in the htpc? My question here concerns gaming. I want to game from the htpc and dont want a slow HDD to bring me down.

Or should i just get a 80 - 150 gb drive to do the OS and games. If so , what line of drives is quiet?

Or should i buy 500gb of space and do and screw the server and personal networked pc.

Anyone have experiences or suggestions?

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

I think what I would do is get a quiet 7200rpm desktop drive that's a good price/gig ratio.
Maybe something in the 160gig range. (I wouldn't go as low as 80/100/120 since it's just a small jump in price to get up to the higher capacity drives it seems)

As for the 500gig drive - what would you be saving that would take up so much space?
If it's just games and internet stuff, what would the extra storage be used for?

 

[thespeakerbox]

Ripping my existing dvd collection

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

And the alternative would be to store them on a different computer and then access them through the network?

 

[thespeakerbox]

Originally posted by: YOyoYOhowsDAjello
And the alternative would be to store them on a different computer and then access them through the network?

Yes, i dont want

More drives to = more noise

 

[imported_ST]

uncompressed each dvd is ~7-8gb each...believe me it adds up quickly. so if you are serious about dvd archiving, you'll need 500gb+ easily (i've already filled 900gb of my 1.5tb setup). if not, then you're fine with a smaller hdd size...and just get a simple one (don't need notebook) with 16mb cache, sata, etc.

 

[GamerExpress]

Set up a nice RAID5 with some WD 400's.

 

[imported_rod]

You could always compress your Video's into DivX. You can't see the difference between an GB DVD rip and a 2gb DivX copy of the same video.

I've heard Seagates new 7200rpm drivesa are good.

But the quietest option is to have the videos stored on a computer in a different room.

You will have to make a compromise if you want to game and have a HTPC. The heat caused by gaming components will always cause noise. If you want it just for a HTPC, you would get a SILENT video card (like a 9250 or 6600 without any fan), and a really quiet CPU cooler. You can also underclock/undervolt your CPU to reduce heat output ((technology like AMD cool-'n-quiet reduces the need to do this))- decoding video files doesn't require all the power of a 3200+.

RoD

 

[jcmuse]

get a samsung sata and suspend it (if possible). you may even buy a silent drive enclosure it. http://silentpcreview.com/ has some nice recommendations as well as forums.

 

[imported_ST]

Originally posted by: rod
You will have to make a compromise if you want to game and have a HTPC. The heat caused by gaming components will always cause noise. If you want it just for a HTPC, you would get a SILENT video card (like a 9250 or 6600 without any fan), and a really quiet CPU cooler. You can also underclock/undervolt your CPU to reduce heat output ((technology like AMD cool-'n-quiet reduces the need to do this))- decoding video files doesn't require all the power of a 3200+.

Modern cooling technology has gone a long way so that you do not have to "compromise" between performance and quietness. Get yourself a good case (most important aspect) with high ventalition and accepts larger fans and you're gold. In the video card arena, with vendors like Zalman, AC, and Thermalright now making great GPU coolers, large noisy fans are a thing of the past, so there is no need to restrict yourself to some archaic 9250 technology or settle for less than stellar performance when gaming. The same can be said for CPU cooling solutions as well with the plethora of vendors and options out there.

 

[imported_ST]

Originally posted by: rod
You could always compress your Video's into DivX. You can't see the difference between an GB DVD rip and a 2gb DivX copy of the same video.

btw - yes you can see the difference, especially when you are upscaling and utilizing post processing on the original image. You can save a ****load of space though by omitting different languages / extra content (dvd-shrink), but whats the use then, since it's not real archiving.

 

[imported_rod]

Originally posted by: ST
Modern cooling technology has gone a long way so that you do not have to "compromise" between performance and quietness. Get yourself a good case (most important aspect) with high ventalition and accepts larger fans and you're gold. In the video card arena, with vendors like Zalman, AC, and Thermalright now making great GPU coolers, large noisy fans are a thing of the past, so there is no need to restrict yourself to some archaic 9250 technology or settle for less than stellar performance when gaming. The same can be said for CPU cooling solutions as well with the plethora of vendors and options out there.

A 6600GT with only passive cooling will always be quieter than a better card that requires a fan for cooling.

Originally posted by: ST
btw - yes you can see the difference, especially when you are upscaling and utilizing post processing on the original image. You can save a ****load of space though by omitting different languages / extra content (dvd-shrink), but whats the use then, since it's not real archiving.

At a high bitrate, divX is virtually lossless. Unless you are using a large, high definition TV, you won't notice the difference.

RoD

 

[randomlinh]

Originally posted by: rod

Originally posted by: ST
btw - yes you can see the difference, especially when you are upscaling and utilizing post processing on the original image. You can save a ****load of space though by omitting different languages / extra content (dvd-shrink), but whats the use then, since it's not real archiving.

At a high bitrate, divX is virtually lossless. Unless you are using a large, high definition TV, you won't notice the difference.

RoD

I believe that's what he meant by upscaling... i'm doing a divx conversion... but my damn macgyver episodes are being a pain to encode

 

[wseyller]

encoding dvds to dixv can be a slow process though. It's faster for me just to download the movie than to encode it to divx myself as it only takes me half an hour to download a full movie.

 

[imported_rod]

Originally posted by: wseyller
encoding dvds to dixv can be a slow process though. It's faster for me just to download the movie than to encode it to divx myself as it only takes me half an hour to download a full movie.

It takes me 3-4 hours to rip and encode a DVD, or 4-5days to download one.

RoD

 

[mininuke]

re encode use h.264 is way bester if you wan to archive you movies.
by cheap pc at frys with geode nx 1750 and by couple of hardrive for files server if you got money

 

[imported_ST]

Originally posted by: rodIt takes me 3-4 hours to rip and encode a DVD, or 4-5days to download one.

Takes me 15 minutes to ARCHIVE a DVD, i don't illegally download movies, sorry. And yes, i use a high resolution large scale monitor (37" 1920x1080p LCD TV)...As for a passive 6600GT, good luck trying to play the latest and greatest games with it. As I said and I have DONE myself, a 7800GTX can be considerably quiet and cool, that it is almost imperceptible, even in a living room environment (most noise eminate from the case / cpu fan).