Hi All, I'm building me first proper modded PC this summer - and I need a little advice on the hardware side of things - never built a little pc like this so please help - o and bear with me on this long story. The case it's going into is a secret until I have built the bugger - however the purpose is simple - I have a Internet connection with NTL, this mean the cable box sitting under my telly in the front room has a network cable going out of it, and ten metres later it goes into my 'server' in the office, which makes the connection to NTL and shares it via a netgear router to the two proper PC's. This server doesn't do anything other than this, no storage, anything. Now what I want is a pc in the front room that is the following: - Silent, or neart as damnit so no fans - a slow HD I could deal with - Connects straight to the telly so I don't need a monitor - Takes the NTL connection straight in and then wirelessly sends the connection to the 'server' in the other room (10 metres ish no big walls) - Can play Divxs and MP3s straight off the network and into my telly/seperates - Takes some sort of wireless control mouse/keyboard so I can control from my sofa So - I was considering somesort of Mini-ITX board (it will fit the case) BUt I dunno which one - I dunno wot mouse to get, if I need a seperate USB soundcard to get goood sound - anything, help please!! EDIT: Oh and any advice on those weeny no fan power supplies as well would help!
almost anything but pcchips for mobo try for passive cooling so no fans like this http://forums.bit-tech.net/showthread.php?t=50833 sounds kinda like what im doing except i dont care about noise
hmmm... I just saw a mobo that has tv-out onboard. http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=10317&vpn=601-6777G-010 It is a Canadian store though. I have ordered from there many times, and never disapointed. I duno about the other stuff. As for a quiet hdd, try say a small 2.5" laptop hdd that spins at 4200rpm or sumthin. and for passive cooling, just make one BIG HUGE hunk of metal, and connect it to everything that generates heat. Then you have a big huge metal wall in your house as maybe a decoration. I duno, I think there are some actual passive heatsinks out there. But they be pretty big.
Wow that case certainly looks good! Thing is I thought the Mini-ITX boards like they sell here http://www.mini-itx.com/store/ didn't need all the bits n bobs that go along with a hot processor because they run so cool in the first place - I'm not going to game on this thing, the most ity's going to do is decode MP3/DIVX so wouldn't a board like this do? http://www.mini-itx.com/store/default.asp?c=2#p324
VIA EPIA-MII 6000 / or 1000 is the one you need for multimedia purposes. Cooling can be done with a silent fan. Coupled with a 2.5" HDD it would be virtual silent. It has a PCMCIA slot, so a wireless card can be used. It'd replace the current router for a wireless one instead of using the EPIA as a network router. I have similar plans for a HTPC, but mines will have a 12.1" TFT touchscreen, saves me a keyboard and mouse
Great thanks for these tips chaps ONe last thing I wa thinking about is the new Nano-ITX boards? Has anyone heard anything about how good they are performance wise compared to the (still bleeding tiny) Micro-ITX? Would open up even more possibilities for modding if I can get an entire motherboard on a 12x12 board!!
I would agree with this if you want to game (not nesserily from the media PC). A wireless network is not great for gaming as there will be some inherrent lag with Your lan before any of the packets reach the NTL connection. Hard wired is what you need for this, at least 100Mb. As for the telly issue, see if you can get a low profile ATI card (iirc the 7000 or 7200 has good TV out for the price. You will need a monitor to do the initial config but after that you can do without. (i usually set the TVout to clone the main monitor rather than setting it up as the main output then you can plug in a monitor if you need to do any maintenance with out having to cofig the GFX drivers again. TVtool is a good prog to tweek the TV out). Wireless input, go for a Logitiech media keyboard. Very nice KB, lots of useful extra keys and media control all separated. Also couple this with a cordless trackball. Great to use on the arm of a chair. I cant comment on a small board as i have never used one. I have an NF7_s as in my HTPC. Doesnt save your leggs though
Nano-ITX coming soon!. Looks very promising, appears to have all the goodies from Mini-ITX. SO-DIMM memory might be slightly more expensive though.
Enter my remote control I've considered one of those gyroscopic mice, looks like fun. Don't know if there's a cordless version. Another step towards couch potato heaven.
if you go with a fATX board, or a mATX with agp/pci video ... pick up an old rage fury or the like .. ive got a 32mb rage fury in mom's HTPC and it works perfectly. just had to hook up a monitor for the OS install ... and then set the tv out to default and disabled the VGA out ... not had a problem with it since .. and 800x600 looks ok on a 32" tv if you set the fonts to 14-16 pt and enable clear type (if using XP) ... http://mikegetz.com/mom.htm <--- specs & pics of that pc ... way out of date though ...still needs a paint job, but that has to wait for a month so it warms up outside , already cut out that awful fan grill and replaced it with a nice laser cut dragon one.
