Set top GBPVR client machine project

[gazoo]

I just started building my uATX machine and wanted to include some pix and description to jumpstart some others if they are considering. This will be an ongoing project, so I'll keep posting till I'm done. If I am successful and there is some demand, I might even start building and selling these on ebay for a modest mark up...but that's a ways off right now.

Here is my build:
ASUS AMD M3A78-EMH HDMI motherboard
CPU AMD|A64 X2 3800+
Low profile Asus cooler (sounded small on description, what I got was huge, but still fits)
Ahanix MCE303 silver case w/remote + iMon VFD + flash reader
2 X 1GB RAM (2GB total) DDR2 800
Sony SATA DVD burner
350W PSU ATX
SIBA IDE to CF adapter
8GB CF Card to be used as the hard drive
Windows XP Pro SP2 w/recent updates

A few notes to be mentioned:
1) I'm trying to make a compact flash based hard drive system, so that's why the 8GB card. Most of my stuff is on my NAS or the server so I don't care much about storage or speed. 2GB RAM, because I figured it would speed things up if I don't have to hit the slow flash all the time
2) The case was mega expensive, but it is top notch in visual appeal and features.
3) The ASUS mb is the one that has the built in 1080p support via the integrated ATI HD3200 video card on the north bridge. It was a little cheaper than the gigabyte one that has been extensively reviewed. Plus the gb one keeps going out of stock periodically.
4) XP because...you don't really want to get me started on Vista, do you? :mad:

This was in the $600+ range (yes, being vague because I might sell these one day, but it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out the cost :p)

Next post (after lunch), I'll put up pictures, etc.

[gazoo]

All the parts went together nicely and was rather uneventful (thank god).
Machine POSTed on the first try (hurray )
Thought they forgot to ship the card reader with the case but turns out it was stuck in the styrofoam in the box. I built it without it so I'll go back later and put it in.

By the way, this case is bigger than it looks - except in height. Height is very nice, but it goes deep and wide.

From the pictures, you'll see I basically didn't bother with the cables because I just wanted to "get on with it already." I'll have to go back and tidy up a bit.

It runs ULTRA cool. There's one side exhaust fan with the case (pulls out air in case exhaust wasn't clear, lol). The air coming out was icy cold. I haven't really run it up yet, but at idle it's cold but a little loud. I'll have to get speedfan installed later to lower fan speed.

I had to wrap the CF card dongle in bubble wrap and tuck it away because it has exposed circuitry (not shown in pictures).

Here are some pictures for you:

[bogyver]

I was hoping someone would take the plunge on a 780g mobo, I cant wait to here how it works for you.
Also are you planing to do 1080i HD mpeg playback, I would like here if the 780g can do the deinterlacing and play back using vrm9 in custom mode with out stuttering.

[scb147]

I was interested in building one of these as well. But I wanted to go a step further and have it be a completely fanless system.

I didn't think of the "CF hard drive" option, I'd just be worried about the number of writes to the card. Has that been increased to some insane number, or are you just going with the notion that if the client PC crashes due to CF failure, it's no big deal?

I preferred to use an Intel Core2Duo ULV or LV due to temperature and power usage. But since AMD bought ATI, the AMD chipsets have an advantage in regards to onboard video.

I like the case though... I usually prefer black, but your silver one is nice.

[gazoo]

Now the fun part. WINDOWS!

Went into the BIOS and set the sata DVD drive as primary so it can boot the windows CD. BIOS looks cool, I believe there's overclocking stuff in there, but I won't look at that until another time. I left video memory at AUTO, but I was tempted to max it out at 256MB (one of the many reasons I went to 2GB instead of the traditional 1GB RAM on XP). I'll sort this video memory out later if becomes an issue.

I had to reformat the CF card/drive because it had FAT32 on it and I wanted ntfs. I tried the quick format version and that failed miserably but the full ntfs reformat worked and it was like 10 seconds long..no problem.

Ok, I had tried to cut down on the install size beforehand by using nLite to burn a smaller version of Windows, but half way through the install I got a weird error and couldn't continue. I really wanted to have nLite work right out of the gate, but I couldn't be bothered so I put in the full install disk because I knew that would work. I'm sure nLite is a fine product, but I have a long road ahead and didn't want to bother fiddling with it all night.

Ok, windows install took a little longer than expected. I attribute that to the CF card. Once intstalled, I went in and immediately turned off the paging file - don't want to kill the CF card before it's time. The system seems VERY sluggish. Click a program in the start menu, and it takes about 10 seconds to start it. However, once started it is quick. I think it's because the program is being read off the CF to memory (very slowly I might add) during that 10 seconds.

Now the part that really discouraged me - Windows updates. I picked out 99 updates (security, software, fixes, etc.) I went to sleep, 8 hours later it's stuck at number 33. I believe it was waiting for a prompt, but trust me, it was taking way too long anyway. I go to work, vnc into it, stuck at 55 waiting for another ok. Check in again, it's in the 90's and is finally done 12 hours after start! OUCH.

I'm guesstimating heavily here, but a normal 99 update takes about 1.5-2 hours on a regular system. Remember, this includes IE7 and WMP11 which take a while by themselves (not to mention WGA and countless reboots).

After that whole ordeal, I'm second guessing the CF card. I started going onto newegg, etc. I remember I have an old 40GB WD PATA drive, but I resist the temptation. I'm going to take this the distance..or so I say now.

Next up, install klite megapack (yeah I know, I've been warned countless times by sub and others, but I really love the megapak), runtime stuff, gbpvr, quicktime alternative, real alternative, etc., and some final CF write minimizing tweaks.

It is a strong possibility that I will give up on this CF pipe dream if it continues to go slow as a D-O-G (dog). I'll keep you all posted....

[gazoo]

I went with the silver case because I am a cheap b*stard - it was $25 less.

I'm going to tweak the system to minimize writes, but if it dies, it dies. It was about $38 or so. I'll probably back it up to a DVD 8GB using norton or something as backup protection.

This will ultimately be connected to the only HDTV in the house - a Westinghouse 720p LCD monitor (monitor because of no tuner, but it's really the bedroom tv). I'm probably going to make the connection via VGA at 1280x720 (the tv's native resolution). VGA because the cable box has the only DVI port used up. However, the board has DVI, HDMI, VGA, and I *think* you can do component via a dongle using headers off the motherboard.

[mkenyon2]

Dimensions on the case?

I'm cheap too, but maybe if you sprung for the faster CF card
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...6820208298
You'ld have better read times.

[gazoo]

True, I was too cheap to go with the 266x vs the 133x. However, I just checked on the install and it is done. The machine seems to be running at an acceptable pace, but I will report back this evening. Anyhow, that's only 2x the speed of what I currently and I think I might need more like 10x what I have.

Case dims:
16.88 In (Width) x 16.25 In (Depth) x 4.13 In (Height w/ 0.45 Inch Stand )

[nitrogen_widget]

You might want to google for TinyXP Vista edition.

It's an Nlited version of XP.
I have used it succesfully for the last yr on my server.
It's light weight & boots into about 200 MB ram.
Still has stuff to run a tuner.

Or Tiny XP Beast edition.
That boots up into about 75MB ram with 50 mb pagefile.
Incredibly fast & works well for a client system.
A tuner won't work in this version at all.
but the install cd is around 150MB's.


Also, with the graphics card, wouldn't an x2 be overkill?
I think the reviews I saw were using a semperon.

One more thing, there is a read / write filter as part of windows embedded free download that will force windows to use ram for it disk activity so you might want to look into that also.

Edit:
They make SD to IDE adaptors.
Did not know this.

[gazoo]

Thanks I'll check those smaller distros out.

The x2 is overkill, but it was like $20-$30 more, so I figured what the heck - have an x2 for that much more and have a reserve just in case I want to do something else like transcode or something at the same time.

I've looked into the embedded stuff (through the mp3car website), and might still do it. It did sound like a pain in the butt though. I am going to use everything except the quick boot up and the ewf (ramdisk stuff) in this article: http://www.windowsdevcenter.com/pub/a/wi...tml?page=1
So I'll do everything else (turn off pagefile, turn off defrag, turn off system restore, etc.) However, I'll only do these things once I have pvrx2 running properly.

I might end up giving up and going hard drive. The CF was a fun experiment.