[bmather9]

So I recently decided I didn't need my gaming rig style desktop PC any longer since I'm a grown up now and don't play games :|

I purchased a workstation class laptop to use with a docking station as my primary PC and I'm interested in converting the old gaming rig into an HTPC. Here's what I have:

CPU: Intel Core i7-920
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-X58A-UD7
RAM: 18GB
GPU: XFX Radeon 5850 HD Black Edition (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...6814150454)
HDD: 1TB
Case: Thermaltake Kandalf (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...6811133024)
PSU: Corsair 850Watts

For storage I also have a 250gb Samsung SSD, but I'll probably be installing that in the new laptop when it arrives; so I anticipate needing another small SSD to boot the HTPC with proper speed. I don't have a blu-ray drive, but I'm not sure I'd want one considering I already have a separate blu-ray player. I'd probably end up adding a TV tuner card, unless I can talk my wife into cutting the cable and ditching TV subscription.

My main goals are for it to look nice and run quiet, assuming performance is good as well. So I'd like to use the components I already have and I'm not really too concerned about power consumption, because I plan for the PC to sleep when not in use.

I really like the Silverstone cases so far, and it seems I'll need to opt for a larger one to fit my current hardware. The cases I seem to like best don't have an external space for Blu-Ray, so I'll have to make a decision there. Any other nice case setups out there?

Cooling is my toughest decision. It seems like most people would recommend air cooling for this purpose, but since I already have everything I need to run it on water, I'm trying to see if I can make it work. I'm already cooling CPU, GPU and NorthBridge on water with solid overclocks on all.

I'm willing to underclock/undervolt if necessary and have thought about trying to run a passive water cooling setup (no fans). My thermaltake case has a rather large radiator that I could make use of, but I doubt it would fit properly as part of the HTPC case? I'm pretty handy, so I could even try to mount it externally somehow, but don't want it to be sore thumb. Any ideas are appreciated.

I also have a brand new swiftech MCP-655 pump with adjustable speed, so I could turn it as low as heat allows to reduce noise. Maybe I'll need to purchase a smaller radiator with 1 low speed fan and get a different fanless PSU and solve all my problems?

So any tips of passive water cooling, or water vs air for keeping things quiet in my situation would be appreciated.

Thanks in advance for the ideas!

[joelbaby]

Complete overkill for xbmc.

Get a mini atx motherboard with HDMI out.

Use fanless heatsink on i7.
Sell existing graphics card. As i7 has on board graphics. Or get a fanless card with hdmi out.
Keep ssd.
Consider getting tv tuner card compatible with xbmc and OS you want to run.
Decide if you want usb ir receiver.

Xbmc runs on a $25 raspberry pi. No need for water cooling.

[bmather9]

Complete overkill for xbmc.

Get a mini atx motherboard with HDMI out.

Use fanless heatsink on i7.
Sell existing graphics card. As i7 has on board graphics. Or get a fanless card with hdmi out.
Keep ssd.
Consider getting tv tuner card compatible with xbmc and OS you want to run.
Decide if you want usb ir receiver.

Xbmc runs on a $25 raspberry pi. No need for water cooling.

i7-920 doesn't have integrated graphics; I don't think intel started that until Sandy Bridge.
TV tuner is something I'll look into
Won't need usb ir reciever; I have a logitech keyboard with trackpad from google TV that I'll use.

I know the water cooling is overkill, but I really think it's the easiest way to keep things quiet in my scenario. So things I'll need:
-Case that can fit my XFX Radeon 5850 and full ATX MB
-Smaller radiator that can fit inside the case (thinking 2x80mm will be the only fans in the whole setup)
-PSU to replace my 850w Corsair, hopefully fan-less
-A new SSD (since my current one will be utilized elsewhere)
-Blu-Ray drive? (maybe)
-TV-Tuner (maybe)

I'm thinking about a case like this one: http://www.silverstonetek.com/product.ph...82&area=en
2x80mm radiator and low speed fans on the back.

Do I need to worry much about cooling other components (Ram, HDD, Motherboard in general) if all I'm going to have moving air is 2x80mm fans pushing through a radiator at the back of the case?

I'll do some testing with my current setup to see how the temps might do with that small of a radiator. Definitely don't plan to overclock, and will probably underclock to keep temps low.

[joelbaby]

-A new SSD (since my current one will be utilized elsewhere)

The SSD is probably the only useful component in your existing build.

Blu-Ray drive? (maybe)

Why bother? Burn your Blu-rays to hard disk. Disks are rubbish, unless you really enjoy constantly cleaning off scratches, and having a movie collection that takes up tons of space. I had massive boxes full of DVDs at one point. My house has none now. It's all been transferred to a couple of USB hard disks.

Do I need to worry much about cooling other components (Ram, HDD, Motherboard in general) if all I'm going to have moving air is 2x80mm fans pushing through a radiator at the back of the case?

No. XBMC runs on a Celeron processor. An i7 is overkill.
Consider selling your whole system, and build something new (e.g. something based on an intel i3 NUC).

If you want to muck around with your exsting kit, the just get passively cooled stuff. Will not be hard to find a graphics card with no fan.
Big fans are quiet (not sure what size the one on your PSU is, but if its 120mm it shouldn't make much noise).
Small fans like the ones on RAM, Graphics Cards and CPUs are the noisy ones.

Get whatever case you like. But once you've added the cost of all your new bits up, compare it to the cost of a NUC + 4Gb RAM + 32Gb mSata SSD. (Store your movies on external USB or NAS).

Look at the intel NUC thread. You'll save time and money doing it that way.
I'm sure some kid gamer would be more than happy to buy your i7 beast off you (making the NUC option even better).
Get over the emotional attachment to your 4 year old PC.

[teeedubb]

That'd make a nice gaming htpc, but as others have said sell it and get a nuc, especially if you don't plan to game on it. By the time you buy all the new kit to quieten down your existing setup you won't be far off the cost of a nuc, and have something thats just as capable but make less noise , less power hungry and take up less space.

[Beer40oz]

I used to have a big case once but it was my HTPC and Desktop.... I am happy with something small and dedicated to for my HTPC.

[bmather9]

Thanks for all the guidance, but against better judgement I'm still considering using my existing parts, because I should be able to make everything work for about $160.

So my first decision is with the case. If I'm going to do this, I know there are some decent full ATX cases out there that I may end up going with (such as: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...6811204037). But I'd like to find something lower profile if possible; yes I know what I'm looking for doesn't make sense, Full ATX and low profile, but here are a few examples of similar cases to what I'm looking for:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...6811133029
http://www.silverstonetek.com/product.ph...69&area=en
http://www.origenae.com/en/htpc_x10.htm

The first 2 use PCI-e risers to get the job done, which seems like an excellent way to accomplish what I want. Unfortunately neither of them are available, at least that I can find. Are there any other cases that take Full ATX that use PCI risers for thin profile? Other problems with these are that my PSU wouldn't fit, and there's almost certainly no room for my reservoir and pump.

The 3rd choice is one of the thinner Full-ATX cases I've found that doesn't use PCI riser and is probably a much more realistic option for what I'm trying to do. So bring on the thinnest Full ATX cases you know of.

[joelbaby]

If sell your PC - how much will you get for it, realistically?

[teeedubb]

the GPU's alone are going for 100+

http://m.ebay.com/search?cad=1&cnm=&so=1...0&cid=&mfs=

You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink...

[protocol77]

i have several xbmc builds from computers much older than 4 years i have a few Dell Optiplex's in use around my house all it needed was a simply card like a Nvidia GeForce 210 512mb and they will play a bluray as well as any high end machine because they are old and i do not use them for anything else other than xbmc i just have openelec running on them which is light of resources as they are not the speediest of things but with this combo they work well

[bmather9]

If sell your PC - how much will you get for it, realistically?

Honestly I think I'd be lucky to get $400

CPU=$100
GPU=$100
MB=$50
HDD=$30
RAM=$60

Total: $340

Add some more for the water cooling and the case if I can find someone local (live in middle of nowhere) to buy and pick it up without needing to ship.

So with $400 I could probably build a newer smaller machine with roughly equal performance. The main advantage here would be smaller size, which I'm likely willing to overlook. Sure I know XMBC doens't need performance, but in my experience, even simple tasks like surfing the web are not as nice on slower machines. Is my logic still all wrong?

What about full ATX slim cases? Anything out there?

[Dougie Fresh]

You probably could sell the HD5850 and go with a smaller GPU. That'd allow you to also get a smaller PSU (less energy usage, less heat, etc.). You could then move it all to a HTPC-style ATX case. If you already have the parts I don't see how getting a whole new PC is going to really save any money even in the long run. If you can't find a nice case that'll fit the water cooling, I'd consider replacing that as well with a more HTPC-oriented cooler like the Scythe Shuriken.

For the case, a Silverstone or Lian-Li ATX HTPC case can be easily found. If you want to go a bit cheaper, nMediaPC makes some good ATX HTPC cases.

[joelbaby]

There are cases here:
http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=168650
http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=166654

You need to decide if you want a Blu-Ray drive on it. If you do ... you should get a case that can fit one. Don't do any of this pussy-footing around like "Maybe I should have a Blu-Ray player in my HTPC, just in case a friend drops by with a beer and a Blu-Ray movie".

You have a wife. I'm sure she'd really appreciate an ATX case in the living room.
Has she ever whispered ....oooooh .... Silverstone .... so smooth...?
How many families use a keyboard with a trackball to watch a film?

THE PROBLEM IS - YOU HAVE A GAMING PC!
Your Motherboard doesn't have an HDMI out, and your CPU has no Integrated Graphics.
Your Graphics card does these jobs, but its got a fan on it, and you want a quiet PC!!!
Your original question is like: I've got an old Ferrari ... how do I convert it to go on off-road camping adventures?
The answer is you don't.

You want to spend $160 converting your machine into an HTPC. Even in that $160 budget you haven't factored in a small SSD to hold XBMC and the Operating System . XBMC runs better with an SSD because of all the pictures it downloads which need to be retrieved quickly.

Sell it, take the $340 add in the $160 and you've got $500 for a real HTPC.
Take a look at Eskro's builds here: http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=94199
You could even swap out the i3 in build 5 (which is only marginally slower than your 4yo i7) for an i5 which is faster the i7. http://www.cpubenchmark.net/high_end_cpus.html
Just use the onboard graphics in the i3/i5. No need to buy a seperate GPU.

You say at one point:
"Give me all the full size ATX cases which ARE SLIMLINE that you know of".... and then say:
"The main advantage here (of using a NUC) would be smaller size, which I'm likely willing to overlook"


You know what... go nuts with the watercooling idea. Keep all the existing kit. Watercool the GPU instead of Fan Cooling. Get a transparent case with UV lights and lit up pipes. Watercool the PSU and take the fan off it - now that pesky thing won't make any noise. Have a tropical fish tank next to the HTPC to take advantage of all that lovely warm water.

[bmather9]

You need to decide if you want a Blu-Ray drive on it. If you do ... you should get a case that can fit one. Don't do any of this pussy-footing around like "Maybe I should have a Blu-Ray player in my HTPC, just in case a friend drops by with a beer and a Blu-Ray movie".

I have no need for a Blu-Ray, it was more of a nice to have idea, but I've decided against it.

You have a wife. I'm sure she'd really appreciate an ATX case in the living room.
Has she ever whispered ....oooooh .... Silverstone .... so smooth...?
How many families use a keyboard with a trackball to watch a film?

As for the wife, yeah she'll be a critic, but as long as the case looks nice it will be fine. I guess I have different view of how I'll use my HTPC, but I already have a Logitech Revue (google TV) which came with a nice thin wireless keyboard and trackpad. I use it frequently and find it so much nicer if I need to type in a search string rather than some stupid overprice remote. More than just home theater it will get plenty of use with web browsing, youtube, and the like.

THE PROBLEM IS - YOU HAVE A GAMING PC!
Your Motherboard doesn't have an HDMI out, and your CPU has no Integrated Graphics.
Your Graphics card does these jobs, but its got a fan on it, and you want a quiet PC!!!
Your original question is like: I've got an old Ferrari ... how do I convert it to go on off-road camping adventures?
The answer is you don't.

You're absolutely right, that's why I've struggled with this, but now my friend just told me he has an nMEDIAPC case he'll give me, so my mind is made up. My GPU doesn't have a fan because it liquid cooled.

You say at one point:
"Give me all the full size ATX cases which ARE SLIMLINE that you know of".... and then say:
"The main advantage here (of using a NUC) would be smaller size, which I'm likely willing to overlook"

This is moot now that I have a free case, but of course I want a smaller case. The NUC is smaller than a slim ATX case and much smaller than a full ATX case, which is nice, but I'm willing to overlook that advantage to just use the hardware I already have.

You know what... go nuts with the watercooling idea. Keep all the existing kit. Watercool the GPU instead of Fan Cooling. Get a transparent case with UV lights and lit up pipes. Watercool the PSU and take the fan off it - now that pesky thing won't make any noise. Have a tropical fish tank next to the HTPC to take advantage of all that lovely warm water.

Yep, the wife would kill me with all that gamer junk showing outside the case! I do appreciate everyone's advice here, but now that I have a free case that will fit all of my hardware I'm good to go. In a year or 2 when I pissed off at my huge liquid cooled HTPC I'll come running back here for help in a new build from scratch. Thanks!

[Dougie Fresh]

I missed the part about a free case. What did you get?

IMHO, I'd just take what you have and cram it into the HTPC case and see how it goes. It's paid for. You can always downsize the GPU and PSU if you find it's running too loud/hot.