Building my own Media Center PC
Well, my new job as a consultant pretty much requires that I set up my own test lab. At my last company, the VMWare box I had cost ~$25,000 three years ago... Here's the one I built for closer to $2,500.
Photos of the various parts are posted to http://adobe.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=s6046yj.b4jo0jtb&x=1&y=-40qvc3
This is the first PC I've built in more than 10 years (kept buying laptops). This time, things were MUCH smoother than I expected based on my past experiences.
As with any project, this project had to start with gathering a list of requirements:
- Media Center Case
- 4 Processor Cores
- 4 GB of RAM (at least this is the spec I started with...)
- 4 Hard disk drives
- Quiet system
- "Fits in" with my AV equipment
Note that video performance was not important to me from the beggining as I planned to interface the PC directly to the TV and manage it primarily through terminal services.
To start with, I did most of my system research at newegg.com, where I purchased the vast majority of the hardware as well. Alot of my research centered as much around the acoustics as it did for performance.
In the end, I settled on this configuration from NewEgg:
| 11-163-076 | CASE SILVERSTONE|GD01B-MXR BK RT | 1 | $249.99 | $249.99 |
| 13-121-315 | MB INTEL BOXDG33TLM G33 775 R | 1 | $126.99 | $126.99 |
| 22-136-178 | HD 500G|WD 7K 8M SATA2 WD5000AAJS | 4 | $109.99 | $439.96 |
| 19-115-017 | CPU INTEL|C2Q Q6600 2.40G 775 8M R | 1 | $279.99 | $279.99 |
| 20-231-122 | MEM 2Gx2|GSK F2-6400CL5D-4GBPQ R | 2 | $119.99 | $239.98 |
| 17-115-022 | DVD-R PHILIPS|DM4L6B25F/17 LS 16X | 1 | $12.99 | $12.99 |
| 17-130-018 | CD-R VERBATIM|95460 52X LS 25PK R | 1 | $10.99 | $10.99 |
| 20-223-087 | CARDREADER ROSEWILL|RSD-CR106 BLACK | 1 | $11.99 | $11.99 |
| 17-152-026 | PSU RAIDMAX| RX-630A 630W RTL | 1 | $109.99 | $109.99 |
| 27-151-141 | DVD_BURN SAMSUNG|SH-S183L LS SATA | 1 | $29.99 | $29.99 |
| 35-186-134 | CPUCOOLER|ARCTIC P4|ACFZ7-PRO R | 1 | $36.99 | $36.99 |
| 11-998-020 | SILENX HDD GROMMET 4 PACK|IXA-GM4 R | 1 | $5.99 | $5.99 |
| 20-134-478 | FLASH 2G|KST MICSD SDC/2GB R | 1 | $20.99 | $20.99 |
| 11-999-209 | ACCES FAN | VIBRAT-DAMP VDK-80 RT | 2 | $2.99 | $5.98 |
| 33-340-002 | BLUTOTH ADPT AZIO|BTD603-132 CLS1 R | 1 | $16.99 | $16.99 |
| 11-999-212 | ACCES PS | VIBRAT-DAMP VDK-PSU RT | 1 | $4.55 | $4.55 |
| 35-186-020 | THERMAL COMPOUND AC|MX-2 R | 1 | $6.99 | $6.99 |
| 23-126-008 | KB LOGITECH|DINOVO EDGE RT | 1 | $151.99 | $151.99 |
| 32-116-215 | S/W MS WIN VISTA 64BT ULT 1P DVD | 1 | $179.99 | $179.99 |
| Total | $1,943.32 | |||
The following Cables were ordered from CablesToGo.com:
| 530-03 | 3 Foot Molded Booted Cat5e 350 MHz Patch Cables | 7 | $1.09 | $7.63 |
| SATA-22P-2 | 2 SATA DATA & POWER CABLE (Dual) Available with Red, Blue or No-LED | 2 | $11.99 | $23.98 |
| C7550BK | 7.5 inch 50lb. Black Cable Tie (Bag of 100) | 1 | $4.25 | $4.25 |
| S/PDIF | Python Brand S/PDIF Digital Audio Cable 6' | 1 | $12.99 | $12.99 |
| 132CX-000 | Premium VGA/SVGA Extension Cable (Male/Male) 10' | 1 | $6.75 | $6.75 |
| $48.85 |
Then, after realizing that I hadn't ordered a PC Tuner Card (Hauppage WinTV-HVR-1600) and needed a USB wireless adapter (NetGear WG111 V3) to use while setting the system up (something I could re-use for the kid's PC), I went to a local PC builder (Hard Drives Northwest) for about $160. This was a bit over-priced, but it was quick and allowed me to finish the build up.
The actual build process went really smooth, as I experienced only a few minor complications:
- This was the first time I've built an ATX system. I thought that the back case cover snapped in from the back, so I had the system nearly entirely built and I had to then loosen all of the motherboard screws in order to get enough space to install the bracket.
- When taking the TV off the wall, I realized that my model didn't have a VGA port! I then had to change gears and buy a DVI-HDMI converter from Radio Shack ($30) in order to get it connected.
- Since the DVD burner was an OEM kit, it did not come with software, so getting the LightScribe software necessary and installed in the right order wasn't terribly intuitive. I still get an error at 99% of printing, but it seems to (mostly) work.
- The cablestogo.com order didn't ship in a timely fashion. I'm actually still waiting for the Ethernet cables and SATA cables. I'm running with older (too long) Ethernet cables and only 2 active hard drives at the moment.
- If I were to do it again, I wouldn't have ordered the following parts:
- CPU cooler (new CPU's ship with them these days)
- Thermal Compound (the CPU cooler has this built in)
- The Hard Disk Drive mounting screws (kit only had 4, they didn't fit in the case, and the case came with rubber screw grommets anyways).
- I originally mounted the hard drives 1 bay apart for air-flow reasons, but realized that the drives themselves covered the mother board's SATA ports (doh!) so I had to move all of the drives to the power supply side of the case. This case is 'rated' for 6 internal HDD slots, but technically 7 could fit if the motherboard was smaller or if the front left corner of your motherboard doesn't need to be accessible.
Since I found a reasonable deal on RAM, I went ahead and stocked up on 8 GB of RAM and Vista Ultimate 64 bit to support that RAM. I was surprised to not have any serious driver issues (except maybe the LightScribe issue listed above) as I had heard Vista 64 could be problematic.
The system is up, running Virtual Server 2005 r2 flawlessly, and it's actually quieter than my laptop! The case takes a lot of credit for the sound, as it ships with lining around the hard disk mounting areas.