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Post by Dr. Feel Good on Nov 19, 2012 11:49:16 GMT -5
Nice ...make sure you put up all the pictures
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bootman
Emo VIPs
Typing useless posts on internet forums....
Posts: 9,358
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Post by bootman on Nov 19, 2012 13:07:54 GMT -5
I want to keep my htpc <500 need advice on this one: www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=2826919&csid=_61Prices is atttractive for 8 core, questions: -it has center, side and rear speakers audio jack, how do I connect these to speakers? cable size same as normal headphone cable? -How do I know if I can add an optical/coax sound card for digital music? -it does not have 3.0 USB, is it a big deal? How much if I add one? With windows 8 around $100 + may be a wireless N adapter I may be able to make the 500 budget. still waiting for answers to my questions....... All of these from that product page: -it has center, side and rear speakers audio jack, how do I connect these to speakers? cable size same as normal headphone cable? yes, standard 3.5 jacks -How do I know if I can add an optical/coax sound card for digital music? Pic of MB shows an available PCI and PCIe slot -it does not have 3.0 USB, is it a big deal? How much if I add one? Search from that site for usb3 pcie gave me: www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=5601679&CatId=511
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Post by knucklehead on Nov 19, 2012 14:29:18 GMT -5
I want to keep my htpc <500 need advice on this one: www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=2826919&csid=_61Prices is atttractive for 8 core, questions: -it has center, side and rear speakers audio jack, how do I connect these to speakers? cable size same as normal headphone cable? -How do I know if I can add an optical/coax sound card for digital music? -it does not have 3.0 USB, is it a big deal? How much if I add one? With windows 8 around $100 + may be a wireless N adapter I may be able to make the 500 budget. still waiting for answers to my questions....... Why would you need an 8 core processor for an HTPC? Get a mobo that already has the features you require - USB3 and optical/coax out. They exist - do your homework! WiFi may be the most difficult to find but can be added via USB. You can put together a decent HTPC for under $500. Make sure you start with the right mobo and processor - and make sure the case you buy fits. I'll get the legwork started for you - here's a highly rated case: www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811133044
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Post by copperband on Nov 19, 2012 14:44:46 GMT -5
still waiting for answers to my questions....... All of these from that product page: -it has center, side and rear speakers audio jack, how do I connect these to speakers? cable size same as normal headphone cable? yes, standard 3.5 jacks -How do I know if I can add an optical/coax sound card for digital music? Pic of MB shows an available PCI and PCIe slot -it does not have 3.0 USB, is it a big deal? How much if I add one? Search from that site for usb3 pcie gave me: www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=5601679&CatId=511Thanks. Regarding this: "-it has center, side and rear speakers audio jack, how do I connect these to speakers? cable size same as normal headphone cable? yes, standard 3.5 jacks" OK 3.5 jacks, but I still don't understand how to connect these few inputs via 3.5 jacks to the speakers, which are connected to UMC 1 & XPA 5? Sorry for the silly questions I want this 8 core as I would do most internet with this pc and like I said price is attractive ;D
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Post by Chuck Elliot on Nov 19, 2012 15:09:41 GMT -5
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Post by knucklehead on Nov 19, 2012 15:26:48 GMT -5
Thats the approach I'm talking about! Get what you need all wrapped up in one board! And FWIW Gigabyte boards are just about the best. I have one in my HTPC - the Gigabyte GA-890FXA-UD5 AM3 which is no longer made but is as stable as any board I've owned - and I've owned many in the past 20 years. Gigabyte and ASUS IMO are the best of the bunch. You don't need 8 cores to cruise the internet but of course it is your choice. Last time I checked no browser uses more than one or two cores for browsing. If you are a gamer you'd be picking the fastest 2 or 4 core processor you could find and putting the money into the graphics card - for movies its still the graphics card that makes or breaks an HTPC. I've got a 6 core AMD in my HTPC but thats what I had on hand when I decided to build it or I would have picked a 4 core - and maybe gone with an Intel for the lesser heat. Thanks. Regarding this: "-it has center, side and rear speakers audio jack, how do I connect these to speakers? cable size same as normal headphone cable? yes, standard 3.5 jacks" OK 3.5 jacks, but I still don't understand how to connect these few inputs via 3.5 jacks to the speakers, which are connected to UMC 1 & XPA 5? Sorry for the silly questions I want this 8 core as I would do most internet with this pc and like I said price is attractive ;D The At a loss for words today?
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Post by Chuck Elliot on Nov 19, 2012 15:33:10 GMT -5
Question:
What's the best PC DVD/Blu-Ray player software?
I see a lot of references to PowerDVD.
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Post by AudioHTIT on Nov 19, 2012 15:47:41 GMT -5
Copperband - bootman & knucklehead did a lot of research for you. The 3.5" line outs are designed for headphones or powered speakers, you could take those outputs using the proper 3.5 to stereo RCA adapters and hook them to the UMC-1's discrete 7.1 analog inputs. But the best way would be to use a TOSLink or coax cable from the digital output of the motherboard to one of the UMC's digital inputs. If the motherboard doesn't have these then either use the first suggestion, or better yet don't buy it.
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bootman
Emo VIPs
Typing useless posts on internet forums....
Posts: 9,358
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Post by bootman on Nov 19, 2012 15:58:45 GMT -5
Question: What's the best PC DVD/Blu-Ray player software? I see a lot of references to PowerDVD. If you don't mind a little work (and I know you don't) you can get VLC to play blurays with a little massaging. forum.videolan.org/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=105955
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Post by Chuck Elliot on Nov 20, 2012 9:24:28 GMT -5
Question: What's the best PC DVD/Blu-Ray player software? I see a lot of references to PowerDVD. If you don't mind a little work (and I know you don't) you can get VLC to play blurays with a little massaging. forum.videolan.org/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=105955Thanks for the info. I'll take a look.
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Post by Chuck Elliot on Dec 3, 2012 22:38:23 GMT -5
Still waiting for the Fractal 304 case to come back into stock. I'm sorta all dressed up with no place to go. Installed J River Media Center 18 and had a bit of a problem getting 24 bit music to play over SPDIF. Turned out to be the default Windows 8 driver. Once I installed the Gigabyte driver all was fine. DNLA via MC18 to my Sony TV works fine. CPU runs a little hot 61C, so I'm gonna add a bigger cooler. Handbrake ripping a Blu-Ray is my stress test as it pegs the cores at 100% for close to an hour.
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Post by Chuck Elliot on Dec 6, 2012 12:08:08 GMT -5
Would a mod who might be looking at this move this thread to DIY? I think this is a better category which I should have selected in the first place.
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Post by Chuck Elliot on Dec 8, 2012 13:28:53 GMT -5
I decided to move to the Fractal 605 case which I have ordered. This case is a little larger than the 304 with only the power switch showing on the front panel with the access panel closed. I'm hoping that the power switch is blue like the other Fractal cases so it will match Emo colors. It's about the size and shape of a power amp. Traider79 is also doing a build with this case and it will be interesting to compare both. fractal-design.com/?view=product&prod=95Parts cost so far: $129 Corsair Professional Series HX 750 $149 Seagate Barracuda 7200 3 TB 7200RPM SATA 6 Gb/s $109 Plextor 128GB M5S Series Solid State Drive $133 Gigabyte LGA 1155 DDR3 1600 Intel Z77 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 Mini ITX Motherboard GA-Z77N-WIFI $40 Kingston HyperX DDR3 8gb(2x4GB) 1600MHz RAM $209 Intel Core i5-3550 Ivy Bridge 3.3GHz CPU $40 2- 80mm fans $139 Fractal Design Node 605 Case ----------------------------------------------------- $948
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Deleted
Deleted Member
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Post by Deleted on Dec 8, 2012 14:30:50 GMT -5
Nice case, The simpleness of it makes it great. No horrid bright lights or silver buttons lol
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Post by knucklehead on Dec 8, 2012 14:44:41 GMT -5
I like the looks of that case - but where is the optical drive slot? The specs say one slim ODD but I don't see where that is. It looks more like an amp than a computer case.
I see you are experiencing cooling problems with the stock cooler. 61C is way too hot if thats when the system is idling but not so bad if you're running Orthos. It'll run warmer when you stuff it all in the case. My 8 core AMD runs right at 80-90F (25-30C) while running a video or processing a video through DVD Shrink and right at 120-125F running Orthos on all cores. I've got an Zalman 9600 (IIRC) afermarket cooler on the CPU that holds the temps down much better than the stock AMD cooler and its much quieter. The motherboard regulates the speed of the fan - I rarely hear it or the case fans (2x120mm) running.
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Post by Chuck Elliot on Dec 8, 2012 19:28:44 GMT -5
...one slim ODD but I don't see where that is...... The unit has an access door on the bottom where the drive slot is. Because of the limitations on slim drives, I'll be using and external eSata Blu-Ray rec/drive.
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Post by Chuck Elliot on Dec 15, 2012 14:48:48 GMT -5
Finally done! Although they say this case will hold a full ATX motherboard, the wiring would be a real mess trying to cram it all in. As it is, it's pretty tight. The Corsair HX-750 just fit. I did have to remove the fan that blows onto the disks to get it in and then replace it. The Corsair is a modular power supply so I didn't have all the unused wires inside the case. I only needed the sATA power connectors and some 4 pins for the fans. The case comes with 2 120mm fans. One blows on the disk bay and the other is on the other side of the case. These both blow into the case. The case height prevented me from adding a larger CPU cooler so I added 2 80mm exhaust fans to the rear. Core temps hit 62C after 30 min at 100%. I'll live with that. The power supply fan draw is from the outside and exits to the rear. Although it doesn't show too well in this picture, the power LED matches Emotiva blue perfectly. I am using J River Media Center to play music via TosLink to my XDA-1 and PowerDVD Ultra to stream DLNA to my TV.
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Post by Chuck Elliot on Dec 16, 2012 12:04:02 GMT -5
Remote control via JRemote to J River Media Center on iPad.
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traider79
Sensei
Getting used to new look
Posts: 434
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Post by traider79 on Dec 16, 2012 13:24:33 GMT -5
Looks good I did work on mine but had some issues... ill explain in my thread once I post. Today installing windows and cable management
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Post by Chuck Elliot on Dec 16, 2012 13:49:34 GMT -5
Looks good I did work on mine but had some issues... ill explain in my thread once I post. Today installing windows and cable management You have a thread going on your build? Where? I'm not without some minor problems myself. No show stoppers, but the front USB running with USB 3.0 is a bit flakey. I can't get the media card reader to work at all. This may be Windows 8 as Gigabyte's drivers for Windows 8 are behind Windows 7. Not sure, but I'm too busy listening to music to care right now!
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