media pc, part 4: installation and tweaking

All of the components fit nicely into the case, with room for expansion. For the initial software installations, I connected a wired keyboard and mouse, and a 15" CRT monitor. All of the cards, peripherals, and software were installed quickly and effortlessly. With the video card drivers installed, images on the 15" CRT were extremely clear and sharp, and I was excited to see what TV shows would look like.

Then I installed SageTV, and though it worked immediately, the picture quality sucked. My excitement transitioned into intense concentration as I worked to get the best possible picture from the video card, monitor (TV), capture card, video decoder, and SageTV. Each has its own settings which affect various aspects of the picture. Of course, some device settings conflicted with others, which didn't help to simplify the process. I found it best to first configure the devices which modify the picture in a broader scope, then work my way down to the fine-tuning devices. When two or more devices
modified the same settings, such as sharpness, I first configured the device which provided the highest level (as opposed to low-level fine-tuning), then worked my way down to the details.

Adjusting the settings alone was a lengthy learning process, and I spent about eight hours tweaking everything to be just right, which includes watching various sections of TV shows and DVDs to compare settings. It was worth the effort, though. The resulting picture quality for cable TV is better with the HTPC than without it. For DVDs, the HTPC looks much better than our Panasonic RV-32 stand-alone unit.

media pc, part 3: component selection

Note: All cooling components and strategies will be reviewed within the next few posts, as will the respective performances of the components mentioned in this post.

Tuner Card
The majority of HTPC nuts swear by Hauppage's tuner cards. Hauppage cards have an excellent reputation, and supposedly provide the most flexibility in terms of configuration. Despite their overwhelming popularity, I had a hard time finding anyone who claimed that Hauppage cards offered the best picture quality. In card-to-card comparisons, with all other things equal, ATI's then-new Theatre 550 chipset seemed to offer a superior picture. Disregarding convention, I bought an ATI TV Wonder Elite; a single-tuner card which employs that chipset.

Note: I avoided ATI's All-In-Wonder line, which has been said to overheat and provide lesser picture quality.

Monitor
Media PC (HTPC) devotees prefer LCD or HDTV to SDTV, for their excellent picture clarity. If you intend to use your media PC to read substantial amounts of text, or to browse the web, an LCD monitor is preferable. However, those units are prohibitively expensive for some of us. We replaced our 20" Sony Trinitron SDTV (standard-definition TV) with a 32" Sony Wega SDTV. It cost less than $450, while comparably-sized LCD units cost over $2,000.

Video Card
This required a lot of research. There are many different opinions on how various GPUs perform in a media PC. My research revealed that the NVidia 5800 chipset seemed to provide the best picture on SDTVs, without exceeding the capabilities of SDTVs. This was important, because higher quality means more money, and invisible quality means money wasted. Further research revealed that a minimum of 256MB of video memory is ideal. A DVI or component video connection are best, and S-Video is second-best. I found a fanless (shhh) eVGA PCI card with 256MB and an S-Video output, for about $50.

CPU
AMD CPUs are more popular in the media PC community because they tend to stay cooler. I have nothing against AMD, but I'm not at all familiar with their CPUs or their performance. I've used only Intel CPUs in the past, and I didn't want to risk choosing the wrong CPU for this project. I went with an Intel P4 2.66GHz Prescott, which would do the job initially, and leave a lot of room to upgrade.

Hard Drive
For the initial project, I bought a 160GB single-platter Seagate Barracuda 7200.7, which was said to be very quiet. 160GB wasn't a lot of space, but I couldn't be certain of how much space we would need. I decided that the TV storage partition would be 90GB in size. The OS would get 20GB, and the remaining 20GB would be set aside to store miscellaneous files.

Input Devices
For times of dire need, I bought a Logitech wireless RF mouse and keyboard combination. For a remote, I bought a Streamzap product which was compatible with SageTV. I was nervous about committing to an expensive PC-capable remote, such as those made by Logitech, and $25 seemed reasonable for the Streamzap's capabilities.

Power Supply
I recall finding only glowing reviews of Seasonic PSUs. Indeed, Seasonic products are popular in the quiet computing community. I went with the Seasonic S12-430 (430w). I reasoned that it should provide enough stable power for at least a few years' worth of upgrades.

Sound Card
The budget-priced ($25) Chaintech AV-710 was getting positive reviews on HTPC sites, and on NewEgg, so I bought it. For the left and right front channels, it uses Wolfson DACs, which are supposed to sound great, and it produces output for up to 7.1 channels.

Case
This is the look-and-feel part of the computer; the part that everybody sees. It had to look good, but it also had to be efficient, and allow for unforeseen future upgrades. Oh, and it had to be inexpensive. I ruled out any case with a proprietary power supply; inflexibility by design absolutely sucks. My wife was, of course, heavily involved in deciding upon a case. She likes clean and minimal designs, and isn't particularly crazy about components which look like component receivers (I am, though). Without finding a case that was absolutely flawless in any price range, we settled upon the Silverstone Lascala LC-13 (in silver). This case strongly resembles some professional audio amplifiers, and we liked its minimalist design. Functionally, it's large enough to fit ATX motherboards, ATX power supplies, up to three hard drives, and two optical drives. $100 isn't bad for a heavy steel case with an aluminum front fascia.

Motherboard
I used an ECS ATX board that had high ratings and a reasonable price on NewEgg at the time. It had the features that I needed, and no frills. No further research went into this decision. As soon as I opened the box, I knew that it had been returned or refurbished, then resold as new. Indeed, the first board was bad, and when I got a new one (of the same model), it was in brand new packaging, and worked perfectly.

Optical Drive
An NEC Combo Drive, in silver. It had fallen hard during packaging or shipping, and the bezel was dented. Fearing possible internal damage, we got an RMA for exchange from NewEgg. UPS was supposed to pick up the original unit, but they never did. The damaged drive is now in use, and has produced a couple of coasters, but that's probably due to the media.

Memory
The initial memory purchase was 512MB of Corsair ValueSelect. My wife commented on the cheap sound of"ValueSelect", and I agree with her; but as the name says, it's a good value.


Whew! That was long. Let me know if I missed anything.

media pc, part 2: software

OS
I feel comfortable with Windows, and I didn't want to take any risks, so I used Windows XP Home w/ SP2. I had read comments from many users who were experiencing various compatibility issues with Windows MCE, so I avoided it.

Media Interface
Specialized software streamlines the user experience, making media PCs very much like using a digital cable interface. MythTV was for Linux, so it was out of the question. BeyondTV looked nice, and was easy to use. Too easy, though; it didn't allow the user to fine-tune various important settings. I reviewed several other products, but I've since forgotten what they were called. In any case, I didn't feel that they hadn't matured enough to be low-maintenance in a long-term installation. In the end, we chose SageTV, which provides good video quality, and allows you to customize the product to a satisfying extent. SageTV also has a great support base of users, some of whom have developed some very useful add-ons.

Video Decoder
NVidia's decoder is the favourite among HTPC enthusiasts, because of its picture quality. For $20, the basic version provides video decoding, but the decoder will only translate audio into stereo (2 channels). For anything more than 2.0, you'll need to buy NVidia's 'Gold' decoder. I didn't want to spend the extra money until I was certain that it would be worthwhile.

media pc, part 1: requirements

I wouldn't suggest building a media PC if I wouldn't do it myself. Over the next week or so, I'll post a summary of our media PC project, in segments. Here's part one:

Requirements
- Recording and playback of live TV
- DVD authoring and burning- Music file server
- Miscellaneous file server
- As quiet as possible

That sounds pretty simple, but it was a bit scary because I had no experience in handling video through a PC. Even more scary (and obvious) was that, in order to even try the various media interfaces that exist, I had to have all of the hardware in place. This meant that I would have to build a video-oriented PC, based on my experience with basic hardware, and based upon other users' experiences. That is a truly freaky proposition.

Months of online research went into this project, but even after reading innumerable forums and reviews, I wanted to take a cautious approach, from a financial perspective. I set out to build an entry-level media PC, which would allow us to sample its various capabilities without breaking the bank. This conservative approach would also allow us to conserve (yes, that was intentional) more money for upgrades, which would be spent with greater effect by the more experienced users that we would soon become.

Besides, as is the case with any such experiment, WAF (wife-acceptance factor) hangs in the balance. WAF is greatly intensified when your wife manages the family's finances.

media pc or bust!!

Are you paying for TV that you don't have time to watch? Now, you can watch many TV shows in 1/5 of the time, with a MEDIA PC! Skip the ads, and even skip the content that you don't care about. Get to the point of a show, at the speed of life!

With a media PC, you can:
- Pause, rewind, and record live television
- Everything else that you can do with a computer

You can build the $2000+ retail media PCs for less than half of the price, and you'll have a custom-built PC with components and configurations of your choosing. Nothing is better than making the most of what today's computers can offer, at less than half the price.

Even so, building a computer can be scary. Here are the TV-friendly alternatives, in order of cost:

The non-committal way: Rentals
Some cable companies are renting DVRs to their subscribers for low monthly fees. I'm not certain of the capabilities of these DVRs, but they're probably decent. This might be a good way to try living with a DVR without committing to its price tag.

The old-school way: VCRs
VCR+ etc. was pretty good, but it's dead now, since VCRs are no longer being manufactured. VHS tapes provide reliably poor image quality, and they wear out quickly.

The trendy way: TiVo
TiVo is awesome. Hard drives are more reliable than VHS tapes. TiVo offers good image quality, with the convenience and ease-of-use of a conventional consumer A/V component. I've read many stories of TiVo units dying shortly after their warranties had ended. $299 USD buys you the unit and a lifetime subscription, but it may seem like too much to pay for a what is essentially a limited computer.

The old gadget-hound's way: DVR
Same as TiVo, but at higher price points ($300-$600 USD at the time of writing), with no subscription fees. Many will let you burn shows directly to DVDs, but they're all still limited computers. The price point is in the territory of full computers.

The new gadget-hound's way: Media PC (HTPC)
These are full computers that do everything DVRs do, and more. The prices of these things are ridiculous, though. These units are targeted towards gadget-hound consumers, and I don't think that any self-respecting techie would buy one.

Of the above options, only a media PC can accomodate a form of media other than TV or DVDs. No music, photos, games, internet, communications, file storage. Companies recognize this limitation, so there have been various devices released, each addressing different types of media in different ways. Companies continue to try to set new standards for handling media, and the result is a market of me-too consumer products, which address current trends, but which offer no promise of compatibility with the future. If you want ultimate flexibility with your media, you could end up with an entertainment center full of these inflexible gadgets.

Instead, you can build a media PC.

poster from '67 by lorraine schneider

laptop replacement: the kitchen computer

Starting Point

Our apartment was too small. 786 square feet can't properly house two adults, two young children, and two babies. One of our space-saving ideas was to replace our large desktop PC (which had a CRT monitor) with a laptop. In addition, a laptop's portability would allow us to use a computer at almost any time, almost anywhere.

We purchased a new Toshiba Satellite A60-1601ST, with a 2.8GHz Celeron, 768MB of memory, and a 40GB hard drive. While not exceedingly quick, it provided the performance and flexibility that we needed at the time.


The Problems

Over a year later, we moved into our current home; a much larger 2-storey house. The laptop was still in great condition, but its battery lasted less than 30 minutes, and the newly-mobile babies were drawn to any accessible power cord. While the laptop's speed had been acceptable, it lagged noticeably when working with large audio files (over 50MB), and when playing music sequencer arrangements. It also took AGES to start up and shut down. There was very little ambient noise in the house, which made the laptop's noise even more intrusive. We wanted something faster and quieter.


Requirements

The laptop was our main computer, and we had many uses for it, including:

- Web surfing
- Electronic communications
- Content management
- Financial management
- Photo manipulation
- USB device docking station
- Controlling other networked PCs
- Secondary multimedia player/viewer
- Shopping online (90% of our purchases are made online)
- Designing (interior, graphics, landscaping)
- Composing music

As you can see, we rely heavily on our computers. We have been using our computers as described above since approximately 1994. We have long been proponents of the idea of PCs being the 'central hub' of a household. Thus, we wanted the new PC to do more, including:

- DVD authoring and burning
- Backup storage (of replicated data)
- Gaming PC for our children (light games for young children only)


Exploring the Options

Since we were no longer renting, we had our choice of several computer and network configurations.

The first option we considered was to buy another laptop. Yeah, right. Compared to a regular PC, a laptop is too costly to upgrade, and it can't be upgraded to the same extent.

One option was to put the PC on the entertainment center in the living room, in an HTPC case. It could help to create continuity by looking identical to the existing HTPC. However, I have been working to minimize the A/V equipment in the living room (hence the HTPC), and I did not want to cut a 3" hole through the wall for cables.

Another option was to put a regular PC in the basement, and place the monitor and input devices on the main floor for easy access. Again, I didn't want to cut a 3" hole for cables; especially not in the floor.

At this point, it became obvious to me that the PC would have to be in the same room as the monitor and input devices.

Our house's floorplan defines its spaces clearly, so it's challenging to make any space multifunctional in an elegant, uncluttered way. We determined that the new PC wouldn't have to be portable, but it would have to be easily accessible. The centrally-located rooms on the main floor are the kitchen, living room, and dining room, which are all within steps of one-another. We wanted to keep the living room and dining rooms clean and elegant,without a busy atmosphere. My wife does a lot of cooking, however, and the kitchen is always a busy place; perfect for a computer. Where in our small kitchen could we spare the counter space? We decided upon a small counter surface, which is connected to the kitchen by form and colour, but which happens to be on the hub between the living room, dining room, and kitchen.

There wasn't enough space behind the refrigerator for a PC case of any size. I felt that it would be too visually intrusive to mount even a tiny PC case on the countertop, wall, or underside of the upper cabinet. The truly minimalist option was to place the PC inside of the one of the cabinets. I opted to use the lower cabinet, which is significantly deeper than the upper cabinet. I wanted very much to mount a swing-down monitor on the underside of the upper cabinet, but the cabinet isn't very big, so a monitor larger than 12" would look clunky.

The lower cabinet contains one adjustable shelf, which I wanted to remain usable. Only a micro-ATX (or smaller) case would fit comfortably at the bottom of the cabinet. Then it occurred to me that the cabinet itself would protect the PC from its surroundings; so there was no need for a case at all.


Cooling

It was time to plot the path of airflow through the enclosure. I had planned to cut intake and exhaust holes, but I was unsure of where.

The front and right side of the cabinet were visible, so they were ineligible for modification. The left side was against the refrigerator, except for the rearmost 8". The heatsink on the back of the fridge stayed warm, so that area couldn't serve as an intake. It would be a convenient place to disperse the PC's warm air, though.

The front of the cabinet protruded about 3.5" inches beyond the base, a few inches above the floor. This meant that the PC could draw cool air through an opening in the bottom of that protrusion.

I cut both openings using a Dremel, and I think that they came out fairly well, considering that it was my first use of such a tool. Why didn't I get one of these sooner? Anyway, I made the intake opening as large as possible, to maximize airflow and eliminate the possibility of noise caused by air turbulence.

The exhaust hole is considerably smaller, exposing most of the back of the power supply, but it's not big enough for a 120mm fan. That's right; I intended to use the power supply's fan as the PC's sole exhaust fan. I reasoned that ambient cool air from the intake opening would help to cool the PC considerably, and that the exhausted air would be relatively cool by the time it passed through the power supply.


Components

Here's a list of the components I used initially:

- MSI Micro-ATX Motherboard w/ 1 x AGP, 2 x PCI, onboard video, audio, LAN
- Intel P4 2.66GHz Prescott
- Thermalright XP-90 CPU heatsink
- Nexus 120mm fan (for CPU)
- Seasonic SIS-380 380w power supply
- Corsair ValueRAM 1 x 512MB
- Seagate Barracuda 7200.9 80GB
- LightScribe combo optical drive
- Acer 17" LCD flat-panel monitor, 8ms
- AOpen laptop-style slim USB keyboard
- Logitech Marble USB trackball

The 80GB Seagate hard drive was quiet, and its heat should be manageable. For power, I selected Seasonic's SIS-380, which is efficient, quiet, and reliable. To save space and money, I chose a fanless MSI micro-ATX motherboard with onboard video, sound, and LAN. Intel's Prescott CPUs tend to be hot, but the Thermalright XP-90 is big and effective, especially when paired with a nearly-silent 120mm Nexus fan. I would have used Thermalright's larger XP-120, but I was concerned about its ability to clear the motherboard's components, and I didn't want the hassle of returning a product.


Installation

The vertical clearance inside of the enclosure was great for the PC, but it didn't leave me much room to reach towards the back of the space. The upper shelf was mounted using plastic retainers that must be broken in order to move the shelf. I couldn't be bothered to buy more of them at the time, so I left the shelf in place, and dealt with the smaller point of access.

Once I had decided on a layout for the components, I placed everything onto sections of foam to help minimize vibration. I didn't bother to spend any money on this at the time; the foam came from the retail and OEM packaging of various PC components.

The 17" flat-panel LCD monitor fit nicely on the selected countertop, but there wasn't enough room for a mouse and full-sized keyboard. We employed a spare Logitech trackball, and purchased a laptop-style keyboard, which fit perfectly.


The Initial Result

How did the initial venture turn out? Wonderfully! For the computer described above, all of our decisions were well-made, and our inferences were correct. We had an extremely useful and versatile PC, in the perfect location.

It's nearly silent; you can only hear it at about 2AM, when almost all ambient noise is gone, and whispers seem loud. Indeed, it is much quieter than a whisper under your breath. While I have not tested the PC with a decibel meter, would like to note that we live in a small city, and we have almost no ambient noise late at night.

Quiet usually means cool, so it should come as no surprise that the PC operates at very agreeable temperatures. I didn't use any stress-testing software, but the Prescott CPU idled at 32-34, and doesn't rise above 44 or so, even when running multiple heavy graphics and multimedia programs.

The only issue I encountered was that the PCI sound card was sometimes not recognized by Windows (XP Home SP2). I use the same card and OS in our HTPC without any issues, so I think that this might be caused by the fact that the card is held upright by the PCI slot alone. I haven't had time to address the issue, but I'll figure it out within the next few weeks.


The USB Hub

At first, I had installed a USB hub in the lower cabinet, in front of the PC. The hub would accomodate our iPod, digital camera, and whatever else, while ensuring that the motherboard was not moved at all. The concept was sound, but squatting to reach the hub became a bit of a pain, especially when we would upload just a few photos from the camera. The upload would take less than a minute, and we would end up squatting fully, twice in one minute. It wasn't a huge deal, since we're in very good shape, but it could be improved. Last week, I drilled a hole in the hidden side of the upper cabinet, and moved the USB hub into it. Around the hub, I left space to rest any connected devices. This relocation has proven to be much more convenient.


The Noise-and-Heat Machine

This past August, we were devoting too much attention to keeping hard drive space free on our HTPC. With only 180GB for TV, and four young children, we would fill the space within a few days, if we didn't constantly prune the hard drive. We decided to go all-out, and added two 250GB (232GB actual) Samsung Spinpoint internal drives. The Samsungs run about 8 degrees cooler than our 250GB Seagate 7200.9, and they sound more pleasant.

Our HTPC case, a Silverstone LC-13, only holds three hard drives, but we now have five in total. Not wanting to reinstall any software, I kept the 160GB Seagate in the HTPC, and installed the two new Samsung drives into it. That meant that the 250GB Seagate noise-and-heat machine had to move into the kitchen PC.

The kitchen PC didn't like its new team member. The CPU's idle temperature blasted up to 68, and both the 80GB and 250GB hard drives were roasting in the low-forties or high-fifties. The system was still running, but it actually overheated once, and had to be left to cool off for a few minutes before restarting.

I moved the 250GB drive to the front of the enclosure, right behind the intake. All temperatures dropped by ten degrees, and I could breathe again. It wasn't enough, though. I pulled out all of the components and removed any visible dust. I was shocked at the dust blocking the entire top of the CPU heat sink, but it's understandable, considering that the intake is at floor level. I need an intake air filter of some sort. Anyway, I removed the dust and repositioned both hard drives so that they stood upright just behind the intake. I also neated the cords, and placed everything onto higher-density foam, which had been used to package our new dining table. The new foam padding removed any trace of vibration, and the PC's temperatures are now back to normal, despite the presence of the hot 250GB drive. I can't quite say the same for the sound, but I still can't hear it now, at 22:00. If I open the cabinet, I can hear only the 250GB drive, but I can live with that.


What's Next on the Menu?

One day, we might want to watch recorded TV shows on the kitchen computer. However, I would prefer to build another HTPC in the basement, so that the kids could use that, and we could use the main TV and HTPC.

My wife and I have explored the idea of using a bar code scanner and PC database to keep track of how much food is consumed and needed. Now THAT'S tight, and I do mean strict! It sounds like a lot of fun, and it would only cost about $120 to implement such a system, but it would be challenging to make it accurate enough to be useful. What if you forgot to scan something, or scanned something twice? Whoops, another trip to the grocery store. The kids will get older, and I'm certain that they won't scan everything they eat. "Did you scan that water, young man?" Hahahaha! Maybe this won't happen, after all.

I'll post further developments as they develop.