Primary Goals
- View Local OTA digital & HD channels
- DVR functionality with ability to view & schedule recordings
- Blue-Ray, HD-DVD & DVD playback
- View digital photo and video collection
- Listen to music collection
- Play DIVX movies
- Watch Hulu & netflix online
- High WAF(Wife acceptance factor)
Components Used
- Zotac 9300 mini ITX motherboard
- Pentium E5200 dual core processor (2.5GHz)
- Apex M100 mini-ITX case with 250W Power Supply
- 4GB OCZ DDR2 memory
- Western Digital 1TB Green Hard drive
- LG GGC H20L HD-DVD/ Blueray drive
- BTC 9039 URF III Wireless Keyboard with trackball
- SiliconDust HDHomerun dual TV tuner
- Belkin N+ gigabit router
- Clearstream CS4 TV Antenna
- Antec veris multimedia station basic IR controller
- Logitech harmony 890 remote
- Windows 7 64bit RC, Arcsoft Total Media theatre for Blueray & HD DVD playback
Build Notes
- Performance better than expected - I was pleasantly surprised to see no performance issues during playback of OTA HD video and HDDVDs.
- Heat issues - The tiny Apex M100 miniITX case posed some heat issues, primarily due to restricted airflow. The following tweaks resolved the heat problems-
- Fans on either side of the case (1 - 120mm & 1 - 80mm)
- Hard drive mounted using general purpose velcro on the floor of the case
- Power Supply mounted upside down. The included 250W power supply has a fan on top, but the case doesn't have a vent on the top. Mounting the power supply upside down improved the airflow. The cpu cores are now at a constant 53 degrees C and the GPU at 57 degrees C, even under load.
- Wake on USB solution - The zotac 9300 motherboard doesn't have a wake on USB feature. This means the pc cant be woken up with a USB device like an InfraRed receiver (zotac you bastards!!). After some research on http://www.avsforum.com/ , I stumbled upon this device - The Antec Veris Multimedia Station Basic, IR Receiver. This IR receiver connects to the motherboard's power connector so it can be woken up using a remote.
- HDMI audio issue - I've run into issues with the nvidia HD audio driver crashing and looping ocassionally in windows 7 64bit. I'm temporarily using an optical cable instead, with the realtek audio chip, until better drivers are released. This means no LPCM audio for now.
- Keyboard with trackball is required if you want to control the mouse cursor from a couch.
- The logitech harmony 890 remote works like a charm. It has been programmed to work like a MS media center remote.
Nice, I also used this case and a Zotac board. Mine is the Zotac Geforce 8200-ITX WIFI with an AMD e235, 2.5 250GB Hard Drive(non SSD). Mine is serving as a Desktop between my desk and my monitor. I have to admit, it did not occur to me to use a 80mm fan on the left. I am using a 120mm fan on the right side. My Apex power supply just died and I replaced it with Diablotek 380W, it's about 10% more efficient than the original Apex. The system was built on November 2010. I also get the case of "upgradeditis" ;).
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