[locky]

Just finished my second HTPC build and thought I'd detail how it went.

CPU - Pentium G3420 with standard fan cooler
MB - GA B85M-HD3
Mem - 4GB DDR3 1333
Case - Silverstone ML03B
Drives - 3.5" 320GB with windows 8.1, 3.5" 1TB WD Green and 2TB WD Green
PSU - PicoPSU 80 with 60W brick

Installation of windows 8.1 is much quicker than 7 and minimal updates.

Couldnt get audio over HDMI as forgot to update Intel VGA drivers.

Copied over userdata folder and now have original Frodo with Aeon MQ5 working.

Installed Classic shell and disabled password logons, so boots to XBMC after start.

Will try to see how much power is being used during start up and play as thought the little PicoPSU would not cope.

Only problem is that it keeps switching on after sleep.

[Skram0]

Pentium G3420; Could have saved money with a G3220.
1TB WD Green; Hope you're ready to replace it within 1 to 2 years.
60W PSU; Just seems way too low.
Sleep; Try Power Options->change plan settings->advanced->sleep->Allow Wake Tmers
Windows 8.1; I'm sorry.

[locky]

I agree the Picopsu seems way too low and I was prepared to upgrade it but wanted to test it.

However it works fine at the moment.

I quickly tried to measure power by using plug in meter and it pulled about 65W at start up and 30-40W during playback.

I tried to compare power usage by powering up using my desktop PSU and it pulled about 75W at startup.

Thinking about whether I should get a more powerfull adapter like 84W.

Finally remembered how to prevent it being woken in sleep by turning off wake setting for the Ethernet controller.

I turned off DXVA2 and switched render to software, using WASAPI.

Happy with Windows 8.1 using classic shell.

WD Greens are already 2 years old, so will wait and see.

Probably could saved some money by using lower power CPU, but find that it is hard to know what budget CPU will work reliably, so made a decision. It's much faster compared to original E350M1 build

[Dougie Fresh]

For future reference, the picoPSU-90 usually ends up cheaper than the picoPSU-80 because the 90 already has the CPU P4 power connector whereas the 80 you need to buy the molex-to-P4 adapter.

For desktop Celeron/Pentium/i3 (SandyBridge/IvyBridge/Haswell), I recommend a 80W-90W AC adapter based on my experience/testing.

[locky]

Must the AC adapters for Picopsu be a specific standard such as level 5? Or will those that are used for TV and/or LEDs be suitable?

[mattchapman]

I just built something rather similar but with the G3220.

why did you turn off DXVA2 and go software/WASAPI?

[locky]

I just built something rather similar but with the G3220.

why did you turn off DXVA2 and go software/WASAPI?

Read in post that DXVA2 may cause problem with Intel chips so initially set disabled, dont know if it will actually cause issues with this chip, but will try it enabled.

Thought that WASAPI gave best audio, but again dont know whether my ears could tell the difference.

http://wiki.xbmc.org/index.php?title=Aud...gure_audio

Using an amp with 7.1, HTPC>AMP>TV

If it works then tend to leave settings alone, unless problem arise.

[bluray]

why did you turn off DXVA2 and go software/WASAPI?

With Intel iGPU, a lot of users got green lines on some video files when DXVA2 is used. Since newer Intel is quite powerful, you really don't need DXVA2. As for WASAPI, you need to use it to bitstream DTS-HD and TrueHD audio to AVR for decoding/processing. Yes, you can have audio decoded by HTPC but most users with expensive AVR preferred to have it decoded by their more expensive AVR (it's built for this task)......

[mattchapman]

why did you turn off DXVA2 and go software/WASAPI?

With Intel iGPU, a lot of users got green lines on some video files when DXVA2 is used. Since newer Intel is quite powerful, you really don't need DXVA2. As for WASAPI, you need to use it to bitstream DTS-HD and TrueHD audio to AVR for decoding/processing. Yes, you can have audio decoded by HTPC but most users with expensive AVR preferred to have it decoded by their more expensive AVR (it's built for this task)......

I'm surprised that DXVA2 is still broken with XBMC and Intel chips.