Personal computing discussed
Moderators: renee, mac_h8r1, Nelliesboo
cobalt wrote:Important, though: note that the intel drivers still have an automatic brightness setting enabled by default, you must turn that off or many of your channels will flicker prominently.
southrncomfortjm wrote:$190 4.0 TB HGST Deskstar H3IKNAS40003272SN(0S03664) 7200-rpm hard-driveI'd go for a 3 TB Western Digital or HGST (Hitatchi) Desktar. They have really good transfer speeds and tend to be quieter than Seagates. My HTPC as I have it now is pretty quiet, but the loudest part are the HDDs. Keep them quiet and the system should be pretty much unnoticeable except when the room is completely quiet.
Losergamer04 wrote:Check out MCE Buddy. You'll like what it can do for archival purposes.
NAS stuff won't work with "protected" channels, but that's uncommon. I think only your "premium" channels have that flag turned on.
JustAnEngineer wrote:southrncomfortjm wrote:$190 4.0 TB HGST Deskstar H3IKNAS40003272SN(0S03664) 7200-rpm hard-driveI'd go for a 3 TB Western Digital or HGST (Hitatchi) Desktar. They have really good transfer speeds and tend to be quieter than Seagates. My HTPC as I have it now is pretty quiet, but the loudest part are the HDDs. Keep them quiet and the system should be pretty much unnoticeable except when the room is completely quiet.
$190 4.0 TB WD AV-GP WD40EURX 5400-rpm hard-drive
$150 3.0 TB HGST Deskstar NAS H3IKNAS30003272SN(0S03660) 7200-rpm hard-drive
$130 3.0 TB WD AV-GP WD30EURX 5400-rpm hard-drive
Of these, I like the 4.0 TB Hitachi.
How do you feel about the $100 Silverstone Grandia GD05 case?
southrncomfortjm wrote:The GD05 is a solid case. Highly recommend a modular power supply for it (Platinum isn’t going to be that important since you don’t need a large wattage PSU, bronze should be fine), as I'm sure any HTPC builder would (I used a non-modular one and managed to get it all in, but it’s not as neat as I would like). I've only got one of the case fans hooked up and things stay nice and cool even when I'm gaming for a while using the 7850 I installed.
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southrncomfortjm wrote:How about one of these?I highly recommend a modular power supply.
southrncomfortjm wrote:A few other things on the K400 – my wife is not tech savvy and she uses it just fine. There are media controls built right into the top of the KB, so you can fast forward, rewind, pause and raise and lower volume pretty easily. Those controls work fine with Media Center, and even with other apps like VLC media player. You really will want the KB/Mouse combo since you will find yourself doing a lot more than just watching TV with an HTPC.
stratagem wrote:Lastly, you can also Terminate any other cable end points in your home to garner a higher signal rate. The Ceton tuners can be picky with signal rates, so ensure those signals are identified within the tuner software and not just with the Cable guy's devices.
JustAnEngineer wrote:southrncomfortjm wrote:How about one of these?I highly recommend a modular power supply.
$54 -10MIR Corsair CX430M (32A, Bronze, Modular)
$55 -20MIR Corsair CX500M (38A, Bronze, Modular)
$81 SeaSonic SSR-450RM (37A, Gold, Modular)
$87 SeaSonic SSR-550RM (45A, Gold, Modular)
If you want an SSD for your OS and programs, how about:
$140 0.24 TB Intel 530 Series SSDSC2BW240A401
$155 0.25 TB Samsung 840 Evo MZ-7TE250BW
Ragnar Dan wrote:stuff
cobalt wrote:stratagem wrote:Lastly, you can also Terminate any other cable end points in your home to garner a higher signal rate. The Ceton tuners can be picky with signal rates, so ensure those signals are identified within the tuner software and not just with the Cable guy's devices.
Ooh, I didn't know that -- can you make a recommendation on terminators? Are there ones I can just stick on the wall jack? My signal could use a slight improvement, and thanks to my HTPC kick now have lots of rooms without need for coax endpoints.