sam9s HTPC Project! powered by XBMC!!

[haisaikat]

Which website specs are you talking about Zotac India has 1GB DDR5 version.

ZOTAC - It's time to play! - GeForce GT 440

Thanks now I do find that earlier I was looking at some urls which missed mentioning that there is a 1GB versuion for DDR5.

I looked at the following
GeForce GT 440 512 MB GDDR5 vs. 1 GB DDR3 Video Card Review | Hardware Secrets

ZOTAC Reveals NVIDIA GeForce GT 440 GPU Series - HotHardware

 

[sam9s]

@ All,

After a few days of research this is what I've selected as an upgrade for my HTPC - dual display and S/PDIF out are a must.

I have - Proc - E5300 dual core 2.60 GHz + Cabinet + DVD writer + Logitech wireless Keyboard/mouse + cheapo RAM - Dynet 400 MHz (shall I buy new one ?

Can you please share your views !

Zotac Geforce - GT440 GDDR5 [ 1 GB ]

GA-G31M-ES2L

PSU OPTION 01 OR PSU OPTION 02

ASUS XONAR DG

If Required -

G.Skill DDR2 -2GB

TIA

Everything looks good, RAM you can probably go for a better brand. G Skill as you mentioned. Dual display is something to be careful about. NOt sure why would you need dual display, but if its for gaming you need a much powerfull card to render games. GT440 wont do. If you just wanna share two desktops at one time, that would not be a problem.

 

[novice-akki]

Everything looks good, RAM you can probably go for a better brand. G Skill as you mentioned. Dual display is something to be careful about. NOt sure why would you need dual display, but if its for gaming you need a much powerfull card to render games. GT440 wont do. If you just wanna share two desktops at one time, that would not be a problem.

Dual-display is a must only because I have limited space and can accommodate one machine/HTPC, which can be used for everyday computing and watching movies on Plasma TV (dual-display = so that I dont have to connect/re-connect VGA cables for comp. monitor and plasma) rather use HDMI for Plasma TV and VGA cable for monitor.

Even I realize a better quality RAM will suit more.

I'm not a hardcore gamer. So, primarily it'll be movies/music. But I wont mind if I can play casual games, maybe (that's not make or break factor).


TIA

 

[sam9s]

OK that is not exactly Dual Display, but I got your intentions. Except gaming there should not be any problem with what you want ......

 

[haisaikat]

sam, situation is complex but require some inputs from you.. too many options spoil out decision..


If I go for the LC19 or ML02 cases from Silverstone case for the size will I still have the capability to run my existing Pentium Dual Core + ASUS micro ATX mobo in it as the rated power of their extenal power adapter is only 120 Watts? I have still not been able to figure out as to which GPU will fit here. I am ready to give up 3D and just stick to 2D BD playback from a BD ROM drive for the time being but wondering if the power supply will be enough

 

[sam9s]

^^ Which pentium dual core you have, I mean exact model. We can then check its power requirments. Also list the board model number. Not sure if you mentioned these details earlier, but the PSU rating would entirly depend on these.

 

[haisaikat]

^^ Which pentium dual core you have, I mean exact model. We can then check its power requirments. Also list the board model number. Not sure if you mentioned these details earlier, but the PSU rating would entirly depend on these.

Processor is Intel Pentium Dual Core 3.2 GHz E5300 (or E5800) and mobo is ASUS P5G41T-M LX

Processor seems around 65 Watts but no idea about the Mobo, if the power adapter will not support all these, I am not really keen on buying a fusion mobo for another 7K over and above the cabinet. I will need to look for either increasing the power supply (not sure if available) or look for another cabinet at less than 4 inches

 

[sam9s]

^^ 65W is the TDP, for E5300, thats not the actual power consumption, actual power sonsumption for 5300 would be around 30-32W at 100% load. GT440 avg power consumption is around 50-60W. Another 30-40 for mobo. mmmmm I think 120W would run short. With couple of HDDs added, I think we are looking at a min PSU load of 200W to be on the safer side.

I have a 450W PSU with 1x2 TB HDD. Rest config you already know.

 

[haisaikat]

^^ 65W is the TDP, for E5300, thats not the actual power consumption, actual power sonsumption for 5300 at Idle would be around 30-32W at 100% load. GT440 avg power consumption is around 50-60W. Another 30-40 for mobo. mmmmm I think 120W would run short. With couple of HDDs added, I think we are looking at a min PSU load of 200W to be on the safer side.

I have a 450W PSU with 1x2 TB HDD. Rest config you already know.

Please help, I need a to find a cabinet badly at less than 4 inch with internal or external power supply. Must support Micro ATX and should have the front 5.25 inch drive tray (normal preferable or slim will also do) but should not be exactly 4 inch to just fit in as that will have air circulation issues.

 

[haisaikat]

guys, will the 1GB DDR5 GT440 card fit somehow into the nMediaPC 1080p case?

 

[hydra]

That case will take only half-height (low profile) cards (= height of 4.2 inches/106.68 mm). The Asus GT440 is a full height card.

@sam9s, do any of the other manufacturers build it in half-height size?

 

[sam9s]

guys, will the 1GB DDR5 GT440 card fit somehow into the nMediaPC 1080p case?

I just picked one random case, HTPC 2000[, says supports full height PCI cards, so it should fit GT440.
Check in detail. HTPC 2000 height is 6.6 inches and Zotac GT440 height is 4.3 inches with a margin of a big inch it still should easily fit. Anyway keeping 4.3" as the margin for the card you can search for the right nmediapc htpc case.

 

[captainrizal]

Finally I installed XBMC in my Zotac Nano HTPC and loaded few movies as well. I have few queries to clarify before I proceed to further configuration.
1. I have configured my HTPC to boot directly to XBMC as suggested in Sam's thread but it seems I have missed something. When I switch on my HTPC it shows windows 7 welcome window and then it boots to XBMC unlike what is shown in Sam's video where it directly boots to XBMC after initial start up.
2. Do I have to add movies one at a time to XBMC? Can I load all movies at one go? Please suggest. I have made separate folder for each movies.
3. Zotac Nano comes with dedicated MCE remote. How to configure it? I have iphone and android phone. Can I configure both for remote controlling XBMC?

 

[baijuxavior]

1. You are doing it right. You will now need to change the windows welcome screen and startup animation to have a complete feel of an HTPC.
2. You can load all movies in one go.
3. The mce remote control can be used out of the box. But some customization is recommended to change the functionality of certain keys like power, green start button etc. Please see this site. Download the setup files to configure your mce remote.

 

[captainrizal]

1. You are doing it right. You will now need to change the windows welcome screen and startup animation to have a complete feel of an HTPC.
2. You can load all movies in one go.
3. The mce remote control can be used out of the box. But some customization is recommended to change the functionality of certain keys like power, green start button etc. Please see this site. Download the setup files to configure your mce remote.

Thnaks Baiju for the remote set up file. I will try to configure. Could you elaborate more on how to change windows welcome screen and startup animation? Also how to load all movies at one go??

 

[haisaikat]

I just picked one random case, HTPC 2000[, says supports full height PCI cards, so it should fit GT440.
Check in detail. HTPC 2000 height is 6.6 inches and Zotac GT440 height is 4.3 inches with a margin of a big inch it still should easily fit. Anyway keeping 4.3" as the margin for the card you can search for the right nmediapc htpc case.

sam, i found earlier in sylverxtone lc19 case that there were some angular pci afzpters which allowed cards to be instzlled parallel to the board, is the same posxible for this nmedia 1080 case? Also another question i had,suppose no way Gt440 will fit, is there any low profile versionof the same which would be equally balanced?

 

[baijuxavior]

I have mentioned how to configure windows screen in my htpc thread.

Put all movies in separate folders under a dedicated drive or a common folder. In XBMC , add this drive or common folder as the video location and set the content as movies. For naming movies, use a format like moviename (year).

example:

D:\movies\Cowboys And Aliens\Cowboys and Aliens (2011).mkv

 

[sam9s]

Finally I installed XBMC in my Zotac Nano HTPC and loaded few movies as well. I have few queries to clarify before I proceed to further configuration.

1. I have configured my HTPC to boot directly to XBMC as suggested in Sam's thread but it seems I have missed something. When I switch on my HTPC it shows windows 7 welcome window and then it boots to XBMC unlike what is shown in Sam's video where it directly boots to XBMC after initial start up.

As baijuxavior said you need change the windows logon and shutdown screen. Refer his thread, he has explained it pretty nicely. Try that out if it does not work we will then further troubleshoot

2. Do I have to add movies one at a time to XBMC? Can I load all movies at one go? Please suggest. I have made separate folder for each movies.

You can load all movies in one go. Refer my below post for specific details

http://www.hifivision.com/home-thea...s-htpc-project-powered-xbmc-3.html#post255241


3. Zotac Nano comes with dedicated MCE remote. How to configure it? I have iphone and android phone. Can I configure both for remote controlling XBMC?

No sure about the remote that comes with zotac, but for android download the Official XBMC Android remote, then go to network settings of XBMC, and select 1,2,3 and last two options, you can also provide the port 8080 and put a U.N and Pass, but that is for some other application. You then need to know the ip address of you XBMC machine. for that go to command prompt and type ipconfig, that will give you your IP address. Install the xbmc remote on your phone and configure it. It would ask you the IP, port which is 8080 and if I remember correctly the UN and Pass as well. It then would connect to XBMC and then you can use it as the remote and viewer as well.

 

[sam9s]

sam, i found earlier in sylverxtone lc19 case that there were some angular pci afzpters which allowed cards to be instzlled parallel to the board, is the same posxible for this nmedia 1080 case? Also another question i had,suppose no way Gt440 will fit, is there any low profile versionof the same which would be equally balanced?

frankly speaking I have never heard if any such thing existed. so not sure if its their with nmedia case, but I seriously dont think the cards not gonna fit in the case I mentioned. I have checked the dimensions and it clearly fits.

 

[captainrizal]

Its quite simple actually,

Anyone trying to configure xbmc app in android (ver 1.5 and above) phone

XBMC (HTPC) --> network --> check mark all options (share video-upnp+allow control upnp+allow control via http+ allow programs to control xbmc+allow other programs on ther system to control xbmc)

port - 8080 --> user - xbmc --> password (any)

Now in android phone - add host - name of instance (can be any) --> your internal ip (can find it in xbmc screen as well) --> port 8080 --> user and password (same as you fed in xbmc network in HTPC) --> leave all other boxes as they are

switch on wi-fi in phone and open xbmc in desktop (reconnect in phone if required) --> it should work !!

I'm trying to configure my phone for using as xbmc remote. where do you find internal ip address in xbmc screen?