[glennt]

I finally bit the bullet and put something together. Based on my current needs, I'm sure I've gone overboard, but I couldn't see spending much less on the CPU and mobo.

I really pushed this through tonight because of the case. Newegg has the Lian Li PC-C39 list at $149 with free shipping, with a $30 promo code. I really think the C37B is a better looking case, but $119 trumps $169 (shipped). And that's only $30 more than the Silverstone ML03B I was looking at (with reservations due to the open 5.25" bay.)

- Seagate Barracuda Green ST2000DL003 2TB 5900 RPM SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive
- ASUS ENGT430/DI/1GD3(LP) GeForce GT 430 (Fermi) 1GB 128-bit DDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready Low Profile Ready Video ...
- Antec EarthWatts Green EA-380D Green 380W Continuous power ATX12V v2.3 / EPS12V 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Active PFC Power ...
- G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL9D-4GBNQ
- ASRock H61M-GE LGA 1155 Intel H61 HDMI Micro ATX Intel Motherboard
- Intel Pentium G620 Sandy Bridge 2.6GHz LGA 1155 65W Dual-Core Desktop Processor BX80623G620
- Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-bit - OEM
- LITE-ON Black 4X Blu-ray Reader SATA Model iHOS104-06 - OEM
- Kingston SSDNow V Series SNV125-S2/30GB 2.5" 30GB SATA II Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)
- LIAN LI Black Aluminum PC-C39 Micro ATX Media Center / HTPC Case
TOTAL: $780.11
- Promo Discounts: $55
Final Total: $725.11

I was hoping for more like $500, but I didn't originally intend to buy a 2TB drive at this point either. Same with the Blu-ray drive. But I rarely get overtime at work, and due to luck (mostly bad) I have $680+ coming.

I think I only have reservations about the Asrock and Seagate. Don't know much about Asrock (been a long time since I was a system builder). I've always had good luck with Seagate, I'm not a big fan of Samsung in general at this point ('though I haven't dealt with many of their drives, which scares me just as much) and it came down to weighing the issues between WD and Seagate. I guess I'm banking that Seagate has resolved their firmware issue. I couldn't ignore the 3 star rating on the WD20EARS with numerous reports of DOA and early failures. Granted, the number of ratings is many times that of the Seagate.

Thanks to those who advised me in my first post. Now the shipment tracking game begins! (Now that I'm done hammering Neweggs site, I can hammer UPS's)

[eskro]

I recall PoofyHairGuy not recommending the Seagate 5900 RPM drives
because their firmware's buggy --> http://ow.ly/1uEV6o :/

Also, im not saying LiteON drives dont work but,
i usually recommend LG or SAMSUNG for bluray drives..
[BD-ROM] Samsung SH-B123L ($58 + $0)
[BD-ROM] LG UH12LS28K ($69 + $0)
Actually, the SAMSUNG drive is pretty much the same price
as the LiteON drive since it ships for free!!
LiteON drives always have been described as "mediocre"...
Customer Reviews on newegg aren't making them KING either :/

ASUS GT430 = Perfect

ANTEC EARTHWATTS 380W = Perfect

G.SKILL RAM = Perfect

PENTIUM G620 = Perfect

Kingston 30GB SSD= Perfect
for only $20 more,
you could have bought one of these 2 models here
and benefit crazier read and write speeds!!
[SSD: 40GB] Corsair Force 2.5" SATAII Trim Read:280MB/s Write:270MB/s ($100 + $0)
[SSD: 60GB] Corsair Nova 2.5" SATAII Trim Read:270MB/s Write:240MB/s ($100 + $0)

Lian Li PC-C39 = Perfect
it even includes a PC Remote!!!

ASRock H61M-GE = Perfect
At the same $70 price point,
another good choice would have been this Military Class MSI H61M-E33 motherboard!!
Pretty much the same specs as the ASRock H61M-GE
except it doesnt have Optical Audio OUT (no need if u use HDMI audio)
but has 2 PCIe x1 slots!!
always good for addon cards like WiFi & TV-Tuner!

OVerall, Congratz on your purchase!!
Im sure you'll be very happy with it
and Show us some pics if u can!!

[glennt]

I saw that about the Seagates, but that was posted in February. I figure you're taking a chance no matter what, so I went with the brand I prefer. I would have been fine opting for WD, but not with the reviews I was reading.

As far as the Lite-On drive, I didn't see any with free shipping on Newegg except for a Samsung. I don't have much of a brand preference (aside from hating Sony), but I know I've had good luck with Lite-On optical drives in the past. They're rated just as high on Newegg (4 Stars) w/ 1.5 times as many ratings and reviews. Looking at it now, I would have moved up a bit, but I was concentrating on getting the core elements straight and getting the order it before the promo on the case ended. I'm not sure why I cared, when I could have just ordered the case; I don't think ordering all at once saved me any money. It's too late to change it now.

And I do need optical audio out for now. I have a Yamaha RX-V1300, which is still an excellent receiver, but it does not have HDMI. I've been using the analog inputs to get HD sound, but it's a bit of a hassle as it seems more designed for a pre-amp/processor setup (i.e. you can't toggle to other inputs without taking it out of 6.1 analog input mode.) Asrock wasn't around when I was a system builder, either professionally or as a hobbiest, but I've seen good things about them. I'd normally prefer Asus (which I suppose this technically is), then Gigabyte, then perhaps MSI. My general rule is to spend $110 on mobos - always seemed to be the sweet spot as far as quality, features and stability - and I broke that rule. Things seem different these days though. At $70, you were looking at PC Chips back in the day!

[eskro]

if it suits your needs, then its perfect!

[ph77]

I saw that about the Seagates, but that was posted in February. I figure you're taking a chance no matter what, so I went with the brand I prefer. I would have been fine opting for WD, but not with the reviews I was reading.

I've been using two of these drives since April and I did not have any problems. In fact I'm getting two more quite soon. If the firmware is CC32 you are ok. Here's the firmware update link:
http://seagate.custkb.com/seagate/crm/se...NewLang=en

They are faster than the WD Green ones and indeed they stay "green". I measured around 3watts idle power consumption. On the negative side they are noisier than the WD ones.
You could take advantage of their SataIII interface (6Gb/s) and get a motherboard that supports it.

[poofyhairguy]

I recall PoofyHairGuy not recommending the Seagate 5900 RPM drives
because their firmware's buggy --> http://ow.ly/1uEV6o :/

Update on that.

With the newest firmware the Seagate 5900RPM drives are ok. They are not as cool as WD Green so they shouldn't be stacked 5 deep in a HTPC, but they are plenty fast with no big issues.

As of now the only hard drives that I think should be 100% avoided are Samsungs. Their data loss issue (with bonus of firmware that doesn't tell you if its updated) means that they are untouchable.

[glennt]

That's good news; I appreciate it!

The ETA is the 20th for 90% of the order. The case of course is the only thing that isn't prepared for shipping yet. My guess is, they likely only stock those in California. Hopefully it ships today. It's UPS 3 Day shipping, but I believe that doesn't mean a thing until UPS has possession.

[avpap]

Excellent choice there. Especially the Asrock H61M-GE mobo rocks. All video inputs available (HDMI, DVI, VGA) and the must to me optical (spdif) input for those who want to connect their board to an external DAC for music. An in good price.

Pentium G620 is great for a dedicated XBMC Platform with enough power.

GT 430 is the best in it's price (and Linux Friendly).

Lian Li PC-C 39 is expensive but hey quality has it's price!

[eskro]

With the newest firmware the Seagate 5900RPM drives are ok. They are not as cool as WD Green so they shouldn't be stacked 5 deep in a HTPC, but they are plenty fast with no big issues.

thats great news!!!

[glennt]

Everything arrived at work at the same time yesterday morning and I managed to get it assembled during my lunch break. Near the end of the day, I threw Windows on there, which took just 20 minutes, start to finish.

In the evening, I managed to get it all connected, XBMC installed and did some testing. At first, I was only getting 2 channel audio via the optical output, but then remembered to change the settings in Windows and realized there were probably settings in XBMC. At least a couple of my movies aren't right. Star Wars Ep:4 has issues with video and only 2 channel audio for some reason. I don't recall there being a problem with the video on my other two test systems. Black levels aren't very good, but I'm hoping that will be alleviated with a setting somewhere.

Overall, performance is incredible. I haven't timed startup, but that is a little slower than I expected, even coming out of standby. Otherwise, everything is snappy and I have not tweaked anything yet. Even playback off discs is incredibly fast when compared to standalone players. I had XBMC and WMC running at the same time with no problems.

I did forget to order a 2.5" to 3.5" HDD bracket, so the SSD drive is just sitting on top of the optical drive for now. The bay it would go in is occupied by the extra PSU cables anyway, so I've been looking at options of using velco or zip ties to fasten it elsewhere.

The system didn't even seem to get warm. Just touching the case in various locations, it still felt like it was approx room temp. Fans are still running 100% right now. Just before bed, I threw Speedfan on just to see what temps were after running bits of movies and Netflix with the front door closed (rear panel on the cabinet removed) and everything around around 35 deg. C. IIRC, the GPU was sitting at 38 (It was idle at the time.)

FWIW, the remote that came with the Lian-Li C39 is definitely garbage, as most other owners have reported. Mine works from across the room (case cover on, front cabinet door w/ glass insert closed), but only from certain angles. I have no real plans to use it anyway, but thought I'd give it a try. For now, I'm just using a friends Gyration MCE remote until I decide on what to do.

I do have a couple pics that I snapped *real* quick last night, but they're at home. I'll share at least one tonight, if I get a chance. I really didn't have much time to play around with it last night.

[eskro]

nice to hear from you glennt!

I think your happy with your build for the most part

But just like any of us, there's always a little fiddling here and there
needed to get things the way we want!

Keep it up!!

[glennt]

Finally uploaded a picture:


That's all I have for now. I was too anxious to get it hooked up that night, and I've been too busy playing around with it to take a pic with it in the cabinet.

Things are still going well. It's definitely plenty powerful. It doesn't care if XBMC and Windows MCE are running at the same time. I've had it copying a DVD, with XBMC running, while watching Netflix in WinMCE.

The GPU gets the hottest. I've seen it climb over 50 degrees C, but it seems to sit at 52 at the most. The Seagate is running at up to 42 degrees while copying 180GB of data (mostly FLAC files) over from another system. So far, so good.

The case is the perfect size for our entertainment center. Just wide enough, leaving a couple inches on either side and reaching almost all the way back to properly exhaust heat. There isn't a lot of room between the removable "Optical/HDD" cage and the motherboard. I didn't want to tie cables to the removable cage and you can't easily go over the corner of the motherboard, where the SATA connections are. I used the large clip included with the case and zip ties to guide cables through the narrow path and tucked them up against the motherboard. I'm not real happy with how the HDD cage is crushing the PSU to Mobo connection. It was fine at first, but then I felt compelled to try the included remote. This meant installing the PSU extender that provides a power source for the RF receiver. The added excess wiring doesn't want to lay down as nicely. I still would have preferred the C37, but this was cheaper and suits me just fine.

[eskro]

very nice glennt!

the G620 sure is a powerful CPU!!

your GT430 runs ok to me...
my GT210 Passive Cooling runs more hotter then that :/
But hey, its FanLess, what could i expect!

My WD Green is pretty always at 35 degrees...
Stays really cooL...
i Love it!