[Piston Broke]

Hi all

I curently have a htpc with a aplus gl3 case but the case fans are LOUD it did have 7 fans 2 on each side, 2 on the rear and one under the psu. I have removed the four side fans and left the two at the rear and will soon remove the one under the psu. But it is still loud

As this pc uses an abit nf7 motherboard with and athlon 2800 xp cpu it is a bit long in the tooth I have strugled to find drivers for the onboard sound so have put in an even older trust 5250 soundcard which is working ok with win 7

I have read about the hp proliant microserver thread on here and like the look of it as it would replace my nas and run XBMC in one case but now I am unsure which way to go

Do I go for the HP or a mini itx build or reuse my exsiting case and replace motherboard and cpu etc if I don't go with the HP I would keep my readynas duo

If I reuse the case I will remove all the fans and keep an eye on the temps, As this pc is only conected to my tv is there any software to remotely monitor the pc temps on my laptop via lan??

[poofyhairguy]

I say turn the current computer into a NAS and then get another (small and quiet) frontend for actual playback.

[Piston Broke]

Hi Poofy

I already have a readynas duo nas that serves my needs in that department was just thinking of getting the nas and frontend in one box with the hp microserver. If I go with an ITX front end I'll reuse current pc in another room.
Is there any advantage to an ITX over the HP as noise won't be a problem as it will be in a cabinet with all my other av equipment

[Piston Broke]

Ok so now I have decided against the hp microserver this is my curent thinking

An Acer Revo 3700 currently at £184 inc delivery
or

(Mobo) ASROCK M3A770DE 770 Socket AM3 Motherboard £46.96 or Gigabyte GA-MA78LMT-US2H 760G Socket AM3 £48.02
(cpu) AMD Athlon II X2 250 3.00GHz Socket AM3 £42.87
(Mem) Kingston 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 1600MHz CL9 £37.00
(gpu) Asus GeForce EN210 SILENT 512MB DDR2 £31.98
total of £158.81 as I have already got case, Psu and hdd(psu and Hdd will be upgraded in the future)

I haven't decided on live or windows 7 instalation yet for the upgraded parts but the revo will be live

This machine will be a frontend for XBMC it has to have a Optical or coaxial spdif to conect to my amp and hdmi to conect to the tv

The pc in my first post will be reused in another room in a different case and the original case reused and fans disconected/upgraded if I go with the upgraded board etc.

All the media is on a Nas so internal storage isn't a problem

I currently use input director to keep it simple for my wife if I go live will use web interface or remote prob via Iphone but a harmony 700 or one may come later

Any comments most welcome

[poofyhairguy]

If you already have a NAS, maybe just get the Revo for a smaller size.

With that said the custom box is obviously more futureproof.

[Piston Broke]

Thanks poofyhairguy my revo 3700 just came today just got to get it set up and xbmc live/openelec installed haven't decided which yet also splashed out on a second Readynas Duo (2Tb version) so I can have one for back ups and one for media

Thanks for all your help


Alain