garrlker Wrote:What parts are you getting?
I'm glad that you asked.
Asrock Smart Remote:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/NEW-FREE-SHIPPING-ASRock-Smart-Remote-Controller-/200851452283?ssPageName=ADME:L:OC:US:3160
CIR remote for asrock motherboards. I don't know why the fuck asrock doesn't sell these to retailers. You have to get them on ebay.
Scythe Sumurai ZZ Rev. B CPU cooler:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B007R7PPJK/ref=pe_309540_26725410_item
There are quieter and much more powerful options available. And I hate push pins which this uses. Yet I chose this one because of its extremely small dimensions. I couldn't be sure that the better options wouldn't block the ram or video card on my mini-itx board. The cpu socket looks dangerously close to the pci-e socket and I didn't want to painstakingly try to estimate the distance between them or end up with a cooler that doesn't fit. I chose not to use the stock cooler due to potential noise issues. I want this thing to be dead silent.
SilverStone Sugo Series SG05BB-LITE Black Chassis:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811163231
I can't even begin to quantify the amount of time I spent looking as cases. I eventually gave up on the idea of a small affordable media center style case that doesn't suck. They don't exist. I'm not going to go into detail here but if you want a small affordable chassis that packs a punch the sugo series is what you want. There is very little competition for it and none of the ones that are still available stack up well. It seems that most of the companies making good htpc cases just gave up and discontinued their products when silverstone entered the market. Which is a shame because some of them looked very promising.
A side note: Why SECC steel (steel electrogalvanized cold-rolled coil)?
I have noticed that in the modern era there is widespread hate for products that use steel instead of aluminum, including in computer cases. Let me quickly tell you why some of us still prefer to use good old fashioned steel.
1. It's cheaper. Depending on the thickness sometimes much cheaper.
2. It has much better acoustic properties. It does not reflect sound as well as aluminum does. For an htpc this is important.
3. With a computer case filled with electronics and using a thin layer the weight difference becomes negligible.
4. 400% more American. Or to be serious more likely to be mined and processed in America.
Silverstone also offers sugo cases with built in PSUs and aluminum front covers (instead of plastic). While they may look better they are far more expensive and the PSUs are noticeably louder than seasonic PSUs according to both user and professional reviews. Since I would end up replacing the PSU anyways I decided against it. If they made sugo cases with the aluminum front panel and no built in PSU for a decent price I might have considered it.
That's all I'm going to say about the case for now. But I certainly have a lot more to say about the things I found out during my research.
3 ft. Rosewill Ultra-Slim HDMI cable:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16882021231
For connecting the htpc to the receiver. Anyone who thinks you need to buy expensive hdmi cables needs to be purged from the earth immediately. Since the receiver will be right next to it 3 ft. is all I need.
Azio BTD-V201 Class 1 Bluetooth 2.1 adapter:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833340012
For the wiimote obviously.
BUFFALO AirStation HighPower N150 Wireless USB Adapter:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833162032
Extremely well rated wlan adapter with excellent range/signal strength and 802.11n support. The wlan signal is awful on the living room so it is very important that I have a good adapter.
G.SKILL NS 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231396
The NS edition has no heatsink. I originally bought it in case my wider HSF didn't have enough clearance to fit ram with heatsinks. In hindsight I probably should have changed this back since I ended up getting the scythe samurai ZZ.
SeaSonic SS-300SFD 300W SFX12V v3.1:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817151089
Sugo series mini-itx cases use SFX form factor PSUs to save space. Seasonic makes amazing SFX PSUs that are quiet and affordable. 300 watts is plenty for my build. I could probably get away with 200 watts in fact. Unfortunately fanless is not an option unless you buy an expensive high wattage unit. And modular is not an option due to the SFX space constraints. If you want a fanless and/or modular PSU you need to go with an ATX size PSU. Which means you need a micro-atx chassis or bigger. I considered using a picoPSU to save space but decided against it since the top of the line models would barely provide enough power and I always like to have some headroom available.
Microsoft Xbox 360 Wireless Controller for Windows:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16823109243
I needed a solid wireless controller with good range that would work with most emulators. After doing some searching on the net this seemed to be the logical choice.
Intel Pentium G2020 Ivy Bridge 2.9GHz:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116886
$65 for a 2.9GHz dual core ivy bridge with HT and TB disabled. Enough said. 55watt TDP should be easy to cool in a mini-itx case even with a small heatsink, low rpm ran, and minimal case airflow. Yet at the same time this cpu still packs enough punch to make any OS feel snappy and run most games at fullspeed even on dolphin/pcsx2.
ADATA XPG SX900 64GB SSD:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820211595
High speed $80 64GB SSD. It was between this or the Intel 330. I decided on this one based on the price and ratings. This will allow the system to boot almost instantly, consume less power, and remain silent.
ASRock B75M-ITX:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157310
Asrock is amazing. Enough said. Also they have the best CIR support hands down. In fact the only other Intel mobo provider that even supports CIR at all is Intel. And their boards are shit. Oh god don't even get my started on their bios options.
Why mini-itx? To keep the size down of course.
Why B75? Cheap, loaded with features, good quality, and compatible with ivy bridge cpus without the need for a bios update.
Asus GT640-DCSL-2GD3 GeForce GT 640:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121706
I'm slightly worried about this one. This is the only passively cooled GT 640 I could find on newegg or amazon. Making it the fastest passively cooled nvidia graphics card I could find. I chose nvidia just to keep my linux distro options more open. And if I end up running win 7 the SSAA will be nice. I went with a passive card to keep noise down. Finding data on low end gpu noise levels was borderline impossible for some reason. And what little data I did find led me to believe that having a stock cooler would raise the total noise level of the system by at least 10-15 db. This card has a 65 watt TDP. Which is very low for a GPU but still fairly significant as far as microprocessors go. So I'm not totally sure if the airflow in the case will be good enough to keep it cool. I took a gamble here and I'm hoping it will pay off. Otherwise I will have to install a case fan next to it to blow air over it. It's also a very large heatsink but it looks like the sugo chassis should be big enough to fit it. At least I sure hope so.
Total cost is around $650 including all of the peripherals which add up to at least $100 by themselves.
Anti-Ultimate Wrote:Kinda offtopic but how come 4 players mario kart double dash now runs fine on my old i7?
Off-topic? In the random thread? What is this black magic!
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