The Mac Pro is ‘Out for Delivery’ according to the TNT tracking page so that means, with luck, it should be in my sweaty anticipatory palms by this evening. In between refreshing the tracking status every five minutes I will start off this article which will cover many things. continue reading »
Almost Free?
Having placed my order for a new 2009 Mac Pro, I have set myself (and my wife) a goal of making it pay for itself in 12 months.
For someone who has 40 hours a week to work on such a thing, that doesn’t seem like much of a challenge. But I have a full time job and a 10 month old son, so the most I will be able to give to such a project is at best a couple of hours a day! But I have a few angles to attack this on.
Well I got the beta of Yahoo messenger last night after seeing some ghee-whiz video a few months back of it in action and applying for the beta.
Its definitely a pretty looking client with its integration with the Vista theme and use of WPF almost impeccable. In fact it’s amusing that yahoo messenger now looks so much more integrated than Microsoft’s… it must be embarrassing to them Redmond goons.
Over the last 3 or 4 years I have almost unknowingly built a Media Centre PC (aka HTPC). Its been like a slow amalgamation of old parts into a Frankenstein machine that now boasts 5 hard drives (3 sata & 2 IDE), an occasional DVD/RW that sometimes lives in another machine, a server case, various noisy PSU’s, and of course a TV card (Hauppage 1100 HVR) that is the only component bought for the purpose.
Its been something that I have increasingly found use for over the years until now its at the point where we could hardly live without it! So that being said the noisy, ugly monstrosity which is prone to occasionaly random PSU failures, running out of storage (with its conglomerate of old but small hard drives) and the need to release some of the hardware ready for the Windows Home Server release… the current incarnation has to go!
So I of course check the internet for any recent guides/reccomendations for hardware and found almost nothing less than 2-3 years old. Thus I have decided to go it alone and record it as a guide here for anyone else embarking on a similar project.
Planning The first thing is to of course consider what will be required by the box. Well the main thing for us is video. Both downloaded DivX video and also recorded/timeshifted TV (analog and digital). Yes we also use it for central storage of music and photos, but the WHS machine will take over these responsibilities in our house. Yet the need remains to dispay/play these things through the big TV which is no problem as we can stream these relatively low bitrate things with ease.
Finally I am sick of the HTPC being a big, noisy and ugly box by the TV. So the new one will be sleek looking and QUIET! The aim being to not even notice it being switched on and to also suspend/resume quickly as demand requires.
So I obviously need lots of storage, a great chassis (in looks and sound insulation), a decent CPU/Chipset/RAM combination, fast network (i.e. 1 gigabit NIC), and finally (and luckily as I already have one) a good hybrid TV tuner card. Finally the PSU and the gfx card need to be quiet. As the gfx card will never be under a super-strain… I can safely choose a card with only a heatsink and no fan to minimise noise.
The Components
Chassis Antec Fusion V2
The chassis is of course the 1st consideration. Not only will it determine the looks and a lot of the quietness, it will determine the form factor of the motherboard, the PSU used (to some extent) and the form factor of things like the graphics card (as some HTPC cases require low-profile components).
I spent a couple of days looking around and was largely dissapointed by the chassis available that claim to be HTPC cases. There are lots of barebone Shuttle cube like things, desktop cases rebranded as being HTPC, but still looking like a computer, and lots of chassis which limited the components in use so severely that I need to find slower older processors and have room for only a single hard drive.
But then… just as I thought I was going to have to pay through the nose for something I wasnt happy with, I found it! The Antec Fusion V2 is a stunner of a chassis. It looks great (looks like some nice AV box as opposed to looking like a computer) is built with noise minimisation in mind, can only take a micro ATX motherboard, but has enough expansion room for other cards and even two hard drives. On top of that it has a display for media information and even weather reports, plus (in the v2 Version) a built in IR receiver compatible with the Media Center remote!!
Its fairly pricey but oozes quality throughout and comes with a 430W silent PSU and adjustable cooling to suit warm environments (like a TV cabinet!) whilst remaining nice and quiet. BINGO! Take a look a nice review the V1 case here, I haven’t found any reviews of V2, but I can tell you the main differences are the addition of the IR receiver and a ground cable on the inside. The case is available in black and silver (I went for black to match the rest of my equipment). Here is a clip of the (completely) configurable VFD display below.
Motherboard ASUS P5L-VM
As mentioned above, the Antec Fusion case takes mATX motherboards (though there are a few full ATX boards that fit apparently). I am not building a gaming PC here so the best of the best is not required. Ideally it would have decent built in components to reduce the clutter in the case and GB ethernet for any video streaming I choose to do to the Xbox 360, but most important to me is a stable chipset which takes a Intel Core 2 Duo CPU. I went for the ASUS P5L-VM motherboard which has ticks in all the boxes. It is mATX, has a GB NIC, 5.1 sound, and even an Intel 950 integrated graphics chip.
Graphics Card MSI Geforce 7300GS (256MB)
I have never used the Intel graphics chip before so I am not sure what kind of performer it is. Thus I have also ordered a graphics card which is inexpensive and should be silent as it has only a heatsink (no fan). I will test with the Intel onboard VGA and see how it fairs, but I have use the Nvidia 7300 before and know it will be a good performer.
CPU Intel E4400 Core 2 Duo (2.0Ghz)
Core 2 Duo Processors of any flavour are great performers for this kind of test, so again the best is not needed. In fact I went for the lowest model I could find, the E4400 with 2MB of Cache and 2×2.0Ghz cores will be plenty for video playback whilst costing only about £70. I will use the stock cooler to begin with and then will purchase a quieter cooler if the stock one proves to be too noisy.
RAM 2 x 1GB Corsair Twin2X DDR2 5400
RAM is cheap, RAM is good. 2GB is plenty for any application and certainly enough for a Vista based media centre. If I was using XP I would get away with 1GB but hey, for only £30 per GB there is no point in cutting corners here.
TV-Card Hauppauge HVR1100
I have had the Hauppauge HVR1100 for some time now (18 months+ is a very long time for a single component to stay in use for me!) and has rarely let me down. It is in a bit unpredictable in Linux setups for me, but under any form of Windows Media Centre it has run like a dream. It is a hybrid card meaning it has both an analogue and a digital tuner, and a radio tuner and performs any function thrown at it such as Timeshift, Recording, picking up obscure channels etc etc. So I have no wish to replace it, though I may add a second one in the future so I can record at the same time as watching a different channel.
Storage
2 x 400gb Samsung Spinpoint SATA II hard disks. (Already owned one and bought another to add to the system) If I had the cash I would have preferred a single 1TB disk or something, leaving a free bay for further storage. If you can afford such a beast it would be a good investment.
Other Neccessities. 1 x Samsung DVD/RW 1 x Media Centre Remote (already owned) 1 x Media Centre Keyboard/Mouse combo (Already owned but not sure it will work with the Antec’s IR receiver) Note: I did consider an internal memory card reader for easily adding photos, but most on the market are combined with a floppy drive, which whilst not terrible in itself, but does require the use of the internal Floppy disk header on the motherboard. However the Antec Fusion case cleverly uses this header for the display, thus it wont be possible to add anything using the flopy disk header. I could still add the combo device as the reader would just use an internal USB port, but its just not that necessary for me.
Operating System Windows Vista Ultimate
There are many alternatives for a Media Centre OS these days, the venerable XP Media Centre, now we have the snazzier but heavier Vista version, plus a slew of Linux based alternatives such as MythTV. However as I have mentioned above, I have had many many problems with the HVR1100 in linux, and XP is long in the tooth. Vista’s Media Centre not only looks the best, but has worked flawlessly first time every build I have done. It has a DVD decoder as standard, and with a few additions such as ffmpeg for Xvid/DivX playback and some audio codecs, it will be a fully functional system that also supports my Media Centre remote and Keyboard/Mouse combo.
The final icing on the cake is the fact it can then stream content to my Xbox 360 which I can attach as an extender to any TV in the house. Windows Vista Home Premium has the media centre included and as such represents the best deal, I already have a copy of Ultimate for that machine so that is what I will be using. The only thing I can imagine that may be a factor later, is when MS finally starts producing lots of extras for Vista Ultimate … there may be some nice things for Media Centre, though I am pretty sure anything they do produce will have good alternatives made by the community.
Thats The End Of Part One Continued in Part 2
Whilst waiting for the Ultimate Extras to install, I checked the gadgets site to see if anything was released and was shocked to see a brand new and nice looking new site for the Sidebar gadgets!
Yes that’s right the Vista launch is underway. Having just checked Windows Update 2 of the 3 promised ultimate extras are available (notably no DreamScene yet) plus a ton of other updates and language packs. Just run Windows Update and enjoy the new toys!
A decent theme for Firefox that integrates nicely to Windows Vista GUI.
With the full retail release of Microsoft Windows Vista just around the corner, one of the major things a new user of Windows Vista will immediately notice is the sidebar.
It’s a feature that appeared, dissapeared and the re-appeared thankfully in the later and final version of Windows Vista. I say thankfully as it’s possibly my favourite feature! If you have a widescreen monitor like mine, then you don’t feel like you have lost any screen real-estate and have a whole host of accessibility and information options available to you. One bit of advice would be to use the ‘Always on top’ option for the sidebar to keep it visible whilst other applications are open (doesn’t apply to games of course!).
Anyway here is my top 10 gadgets with links, quick description and images. Please feel free to let us know of better ones in the comments section below!
Great and handy gadget to combine with a minimised itunes. Load up your favourite playlist and navigate without the alt-tabbing! Displays Song, artist, track length, and artwork!
9. My Public IP
Displays your public IP address. Very useful if you are on DSL and have a provider that gives you a dynamic IP instead of a static one.
8. App Launcher
A godsend for those that used to like the MS Office toolbar for a little patch of shortcuts to common apps. I fill one iteration with my games shortcuts, then a second iteration with those little apps like calc, mspaint and Filezilla that I need constant access to all the time.
7. XBox Live Gamercard by Nazul
Absolutely useless but I like having it up there to remind of how great (or not) I am and that I should be playing games right now rather than working!
6. Net Monitor
Monitor the up and down load speed of any interface. I have lost the link to this one but will put it up as soon as I find it again!
5. Presto’s Hard Drive Monitor
Monitor the disk space of up to 4 hard disks (or mapped network shares)
4. Multi Meter
Monitors CPU usage (and versions available for dual/quad cores to monitor each core) and total RAM usage
Listen to any of a multitude of BBC radio stations straight from the sidebar! A godsend for this ex-pat stuck up in the north of Sweden when I want some home news and ENGLISH language 
Stations include Radio 1,2,3, and 4, World Service and 5 Live
2. Outlook Info
All in one gadget that monitors Outlook even when the program itself is closed. Shows Read/unread message counts, Calendar events (number configurable) and Tasks (again configurable). Having those little reminders at the side of the screen is great for those with a short attention span (like me).
1. Weather Gadget
Yes the one that is included as standard on Vista. Its perfect in that it has a huge selection of towns (taken from MSN Weather) and even a tiny town as obscure as the one we live has a station within 5 km. It not only shows current weather on the sidebar, but if you detach it and make it floating it expands to show a 3 day forecast. Crucial if you live in a place like this when you want to know how many feet of snow to expect and whether it will only be -5 tomorrw…. or -30!
Finally a screenshot of my desktop with many of these gadgets in action!
Trigger Finger is powered by WordPress