HARDWARE ADVICE on work/htpc/music server

[Ali Alizadeh Weshky]

i know the title seems odd, but i am currently in the market to build a new pc for general use (web, office, some photoshop ) AND use it at the same time as an htpc hooked on my phillips tv.

 

case: streacom fc10 (already ordered it)

mb: GA H81N with a dedicated DAC usb port ( i don't know if it really works as they claim)

ram: crucial 2x 4gb

cpu: intel i5 4590s

psu: streacom 240w internal fanless psu that connects to the sidepannel for heat dissapation OR an external 240w dell adapter with the hdplex 250 dc to dc convertor

hdd: an intel ssd from my laptop, and later i am plannng to add wd red drives.

right now i have a lot of external hdd, is it a good idea to strip them and put the drives in the case?

 

DAC: chord electronics chordette gem

amp: marantz pm6004 paired with triangle titus ex speakers

remote: ipad with JRemote installed

 

my goal is to buil a pc that is 24/7 on (like an htpc) , but where i have the possibility to drag and drop files into it, and offcourse run jriver on the tv and the normal desktop on an external monitor.

i love to run my movies at high settings, and my music sound solid with the dac.

 

so what do you guys think? is it a good idea? what components are good or have to be changed?

 

thank you

[Hifidelit]

Just a few general points, make sure the motherboard is compatible with the case.

HDP were going to make a larger capacity linear PSU to go with their 250w dc converter, Larry told me November but I haven't seen it on their site yet but may be worth contacting them

 

I use my HTPC with a Philips 40" led TV for the desktop and JRiver using a Logitech k400r so you may not need an external monitor or even the ipad/jremote but that's personal preference. If you have a "lot" of external drives and you want to strip them and put them inside you need to be able to power them so bear that in mind.

[Ali Alizadeh Weshky]

Just a few general points, make sure the motherboard is compatible with the case.

HDP were going to make a larger capacity linear PSU to go with their 250w dc converter, Larry told me November but I haven't seen it on their site yet but may be worth contacting them

 

I use my HTPC with a Philips 40" led TV for the desktop and JRiver using a Logitech k400r so you may not need an external monitor or even the ipad/jremote but that's personal preference. If you have a "lot" of external drives and you want to strip them and put them inside you need to be able to power them so bear that in mind.

 

thanks for the reply

 

in the past i had a lot of corresponens with larry from hdplex, he helped me a lot with some audio hardware info. if i am not mistaken, the new caps v4 pipeline has a 250w psu from hdplex, how is this possible? hdplex doesn't offer this products at this moment, odd. anyway

 

the keuboard you have is a solid option, but due to my work, college,... i need a pc monitor.

about the power needed, i am going to go with 240w , and according to my calculations, i will be way below that around 180 ( future upgrades included, such as extra internal hdd, vga,)

[Hifidelit]

Chris is using the 250w dc converter with a HDP linear psu, I looked at the equipment and it didn't specify so I guessed he was using the 100w linear. The new one was bigger but not 250w if I remember correctly from Larry's mail.

[SeeHear]

i know the title seems odd, but i am currently in the market to build a new pc for general use (web, office, some photoshop ) AND use it at the same time as an htpc hooked on my phillips tv.

 

case: streacom fc10 (already ordered it)

mb: GA H81N with a dedicated DAC usb port ( i don't know if it really works as they claim)

ram: crucial 2x 4gb

cpu: intel i5 4590s

psu: streacom 240w internal fanless psu that connects to the sidepannel for heat dissapation OR an external 240w dell adapter with the hdplex 250 dc to dc convertor

hdd: an intel ssd from my laptop, and later i am plannng to add wd red drives.

right now i have a lot of external hdd, is it a good idea to strip them and put the drives in the case?

 

DAC: chord electronics chordette gem

amp: marantz pm6004 paired with triangle titus ex speakers

remote: ipad with JRemote installed

 

my goal is to buil a pc that is 24/7 on (like an htpc) , but where i have the possibility to drag and drop files into it, and offcourse run jriver on the tv and the normal desktop on an external monitor.

i love to run my movies at high settings, and my music sound solid with the dac.

 

so what do you guys think? is it a good idea? what components are good or have to be changed?

 

thank you

 

Hi Ali,

 

I notice you want to run Photoshop along with general computing and A/V playback. I suggest you go with a mobo that will support 32 GB or RAM and, ideally, that you add a second small HDD for photoshop to use as a cache. This may necessitate a larger mobo and case, but you'll be able to run your music with no interruption while editing images. If the photoshop use you anticipate is light, you may not want to bother with the additional RAM and cache drive.

 

Also, I've found that though Intel advertises the on-die video will support 1080P, I have less than satisfactory video results playing movies via Jriver on a machine similar to what you're proposing to build: mini-itx (Asus P8H61), i7 4770K, 8gigs of RAM with a Juli@ card for audio processing. If you use the onboard USB (I'm very curious to hear how well it works for you), you could put a fanless video card in the one PCIe slot a mini-itx board has (instead of the Juli@ I use) to alleviate the video issues I experience.

 

I'm interested to hear how you decide to proceed and how it works out.

 

Regards,

James

[Ali Alizadeh Weshky]

Hi Ali,

 

I notice you want to run Photoshop along with general computing and A/V playback. I suggest you go with a mobo that will support 32 GB or RAM and, ideally, that you add a second small HDD for photoshop to use as a cache. This may necessitate a larger mobo and case, but you'll be able to run your music with no interruption while editing images. If the photoshop use you anticipate is light, you may not want to bother with the additional RAM and cache drive.

 

Also, I've found that though Intel advertises the on-die video will support 1080P, I have less than satisfactory video results playing movies via Jriver on a machine similar to what you're proposing to build: mini-itx (Asus P8H61), i7 4770K, 8gigs of RAM with a Juli@ card for audio processing. If you use the onboard USB (I'm very curious to hear how well it works for you), you could put a fanless video card in the one PCIe slot a mini-itx board has (instead of the Juli@ I use) to alleviate the video issues I experience.

 

I'm interested to hear how you decide to proceed and how it works out.

 

Regards,

James

 

hi james

 

the first argument you are refering to is for me not so important, i rarely do scool work and at the same time watch a movie or listen siriously to music. and if i do, it is going to be wave or aiff files that are ripped from my cd collection. so not a heavy task i presume.

 

the second one is rather suprising to me, i ave never hear that people had "problems" with their intel 4600 igpu , to be honest, i really want to add an gpu to my system, but don't know wich one and the extra cst is always an issue to some people .

 

i am currently running photoshop from an 5 year old i7 laptop with an ssd, so i think it will run just fine on my chosen system. though, i was considering to buy 1 module of 8 gigs in stead of 2 sticks of 4gb.

 

regards ali