Welcome

I've been thinking about building a home theater PC for about two years, and a few weeks ago I finally did it. I think the thing that pushed me to do it was the generous gift of a digital video camera from my sister and her husband at Christmas. We didn't have a computer that could interface with the camera, so we couldn't live up to our end of the bargain, which was sharing movies of the kid with them. At any rate, I had started saving money a few months ago to build an HTPC in a year, and the tax refund, along with some RAM donated from my folks, made it possible to push our schedule up a bit.

For those new to the concept, an HTPC is sort of like a TiVo box, in that you can record television programs, play them back, skip the commercials, etc. Unlike a TiVo, you can burn your recorded shows to DVDs if you want to keep them. In addition, an HTPC can also do anything an normal computer can do, so you can put all of your music on it, play video games, surf the web (though looking at text on a television screen isn't the nicest experience), etc.

For the technically minded, this is what's in our HTPC:

• Case: Antec Fusion
• Motherboard: ASUS M2NPV-VM
• Processor: AMD A64 X2 3800+ 65W
• Heatsink: Thermalright SI-128, passively cooled
• RAM: 2GB Kingston DDR2-677 ValueRam
• Hard Drive: 400GB Samsung Spinpoint T Series
• DVD Drive: LG GSAH10LI Supermulti DVD burner w/Lightscribe
• TV/Radio Tuner: nVidia DualTV w/ MS OEM Remote
• Operating System: Microsoft XP Media Center Edition 2005

After I assembled the computer and got it set up, it was time to put it in our TV stand. The case that I chose has an intake on one side and some fans blowing out on the other. As you can see, our television stand doesn't really allow much room around the computer, and with its solid sides there was no room for any of the airflow. The temperatures inside the case got alarmingly high after I put it in and turned it on.

I had known this might be a problem and Erica and I had been looking for an inexpensive TV stand that had open sides, but we were unable to find anything that looked nice and was reasonably priced. Our current TV stand was a $30 special at Wal-Mart that we bought several years ago when we moved into our first apartment; we're not too attached to it, but it's cheaper than buying a new one. With the scope of the problem established, I decided to take some drastic actions with our current stand, knowing that if it didn't survive the experiment that it would be no great loss. After a quick trip out into our driveway with the drill, dremel, and handsaw, I had myself an ugly solution. At some point I will get a file and smooth out the edges and cover them with something more attractive, but the important part is that it's functional.

It has been nice having the HTPC around. The scheduled recording functions mean that we can see shows that normally come on too late for us to watch, and for the few shows that we are addicted to, like 24 and Lost, we don't have to worry about being home at a certain time to see them. While Erica was gone this weekend I installed a video game on it and played long into the night. Eventually I want to get some video game controllers and find some games that we can both play. Erica enjoyed playing some of the racing games like Star Wars Podracer in college, so we'll see if we can track down something appropriate.

All in all, I think this project has been a rousing success. Thanks to HTPCNews, Missing Remote, Silent PC Review, and The Green Button for news, reviews, and discussion forums that allowed me to make informed build decisions.

—Jack

Labels: digital life, HTPC