Old Multibox PC transforms into a Home Theater PC.

[pinotnoir]

This is my current project. My old Intel Q6600 pc has been turned into a new home theater pc. I am sure many of us have old boxing pc's that are collecting dust. Why not turn them into HTPC's? I purchased a new case, blueray drive, wireless keyboard, gigabit router, and wireless n adapter. I wanted to up my speed to gigabit for wired and N for my HTPC. I am using my old wireless to run all my Iphones, Ipad, and PS3's on Wireless G band. This lets me dedicate the new gigabit router to N band for better speed. Here are the pictures of my progress so far.

Once I build a network attached storage (NAS) I will begin ripping all my dvd's to it. This is pretty fun! I have only scratched the surface of what HTPC's can do. My two ATI 3870's breathe life again. Plus they have a built in 5.1 sound to push audio over the HDMI cable to my AV Receiver.


The parts.

http://i54.tinypic.com/10pmtth.jpg

Front

http://i55.tinypic.com/23icb2b.jpg

Top

http://i55.tinypic.com/2wntqtz.jpg

Rear

http://i52.tinypic.com/8yreb6.jpg

Windows Media Center Movie Menu

http://i53.tinypic.com/14464o8.jpg

Windows Media Center Main Menu

http://i55.tinypic.com/oh63qs.jpg

[MiRai]

Very nice, dude. After I saw the pics I walked out into the living to check to see how much room there is out
there to put one of these. :) Two questions:

1. Does Crossfire actually do anything for a Media PC or is it just added heat in the case? I would assume it
does nothing since video cards are really only used when they're rendering polygons in a game. Movies on a
screen don't have polygons in this sense.

2. I can't exactly tell from the pics but, are those fans sucking outside air into your case or are they
exhausting out? With a much tighter enclosure for the system and less airflow I would be monitoring temps
to see how high they were getting.

[TamanXXX]

As a cautionary note, be gentle with that keyboard. I went threw two of those in in a short time till I switched to this,

http://www.memoryexpress.com/Products/PID-MX29017%28ME%29.aspx

[pinotnoir]

Very nice, dude. After I saw the pics I walked out into the living to check to see how much room there is out
there to put one of these. :) Two questions:

1. Does Crossfire actually do anything for a Media PC or is it just added heat in the case? I would assume it
does nothing since video cards are really only used when they're rendering polygons in a game. Movies on a
screen don't have polygons in this sense.

2. I can't exactly tell from the pics but, are those fans sucking outside air into your case or are they
exhausting out? With a much tighter enclosure for the system and less airflow I would be monitoring temps
to see how high they were getting.



The Crossfire does nothing but add heat if you don't play any games on your HTPC. I kept them in because that use to be my boxing machine. If I want to play games I still have the power. I have not fired up WOW yet but I plan on it. Those cards are Toxic Vapor cooled so the whole machine is pretty quiet.

The rear fans are blowing out and one side fan is blowing in.

That mini keyboard is pretty cool. I will keep that in mind if this one dies.

[Duane]

Very cool. Do you have a complete parts breakdown on your build? Also what software are you running?

[pinotnoir]

Very cool. Do you have a complete parts breakdown on your build? Also what software are you running?

This was my old multiboxing rig in a new case.

Parts Included

Case - NmediaPC 6000B HTPC
CPU - Intel q6600 quad core
Ram - 8gig's Corsair
Hard Drives - 500g Segate and 150g Raptor
Video Card- 2 ATI 3870's
Motherboard - Asus P5W Dh Deluxe
Network Adapter - Netgear Wireless N USB
Optical Drive - Liteon BD Burner

Software - Win 7 64bit Home

If I build another one I will go with Micro ATX or Mini IXT motherboard. This build saved me money because all I needed was the BD, Case, Networking upgrades, & Keyboard.

[Duane]

This was my old multiboxing rig in a new case.

Parts Included

Case - NmediaPC 6000B HTPC
CPU - Intel q6600 quad core
Ram - 8gig's Corsair
Hard Drives - 500g Segate and 150g Raptor
Video Card- 2 ATI 3870's
Motherboard - Asus P5W Dh Deluxe
Network Adapter - Netgear Wireless N USB
Optical Drive - Liteon BD Burner

Software - Win 7 64bit Home

If I build another one I will go with Micro ATX or Mini IXT motherboard. This build saved me money because all I needed was the BD, Case, Networking upgrades, & Keyboard.
Thanks! I've thought about building a HTPC for a while but have run across very few complete build specs.

[pinotnoir]

Here is a good place to find more information about building them.

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/forumdisplay.php?f=26

[pinotnoir]

Oct 10th my contract expires with U-verse and I am cutting the cord. Over the air HDTV and HTPC on every TV streaming from the internet and my Synology Nas is all I need. This is going to save me a ton of money per month.

[Svpernova09]

Oct 10th my contract expires with U-verse and I am cutting the cord. Over the air HDTV and HTPC on every TV streaming from the internet and my Synology Nas is all I need. This is going to save me a ton of money per month.

I cut the cord last November, upgraded to a 22/5 Internet connection. Haven't looked back. $170/month saved every month we don't have DirecTV. I did the same thing with my old Multiboxing PC. Put it out in the living room as a media PC. Wife loves it. Also just put a RaspberryPi (http://www.raspberrypi.org/) running RaspMBC (http://www.raspbmc.com/) in our bedroom to play media from the living room PC in there.

[Peli]

Awesome. I didn't know that they made cases like that for HTPCs. I just took a beat up old tower that I had lying around (from my college days, so it experienced several trips between home and school) and transplanted all of my old components into it. Works great and my entertainment center is large enough to be able to just have the tower inside one of the cabinets standing upright, but that case makes it seem like it belongs a lot more.