And, for reasons I cannot fathom, my TV doesn't seem to like the idea of pulling video from an HDMI cable but audio from another source.
No TV will do this. You are failing because you are using your shitty TV speakers. Get some sort of audio system up ins.
Yes yes yes. Once I have money raining from the fucking sky and I'm in my awesome new not-a-shoebox-filled-with-beer-and-yarn apartment. No room for a worthwhile audio system in my current place.
And then of course, we still have the issue of an obtrusive (and loud) tower setup with old hardware. If I'm plunking down for an audio system, I might as well update the rest of the hardware and get something that I want.
For under $100 you can get some amazing sound. You can do like we did in Beacon. Two bookshelf speakers plus tiny cheap amplifier. Monoprice to get cables and a switch to select your audio source.
If you want surround sound you can get a packaged home theater system for about $100 and then an optical switching device for about $40. Again with cheap optical cables from Monoprice.
Anyway, getting an HTPC is only different from getting a regular PC in the following ways:
1) You might get a sideways case 2) You might make quietness a higher priority
1) Or just turn a regular compact tower on it's side, it's really about the same. 2) Who makes loud PC components any more? My new i7 is whisper quiets even as it gets so hot it's hitting thermal throttling. God the stock CPU cooler is a piece of crap.
And, for reasons I cannot fathom, my TV doesn't seem to like the idea of pulling video from an HDMI cable but audio from another source.
No TV will do this. You are failing because you are using your shitty TV speakers. Get some sort of audio system up ins.
Yes yes yes. Once I have money raining from the fucking sky and I'm in my awesome new not-a-shoebox-filled-with-beer-and-yarn apartment. Priorities.
Sounds like a pretty good apartment, though.
It's really not bad, aside from the lack of central A/C.
It'd be more spacious if we did a better job of keeping it clean, organized, and not full of stuff we don't use.
But it's largely moot. Landlady's in a nursing home. Her son is putting the house up for sale next week.
It's going to necessarily be the case that we have to move, but now the "Do I have a roof over my head" question is in flux. New owner might have us stay on, OR they might tell us we need to leave.
Aren't there laws about that sort of thing? If I buy an apartment building I'm pretty sure I can't kick out the tenants.
It's a private house, which I think has different rules. It's 60 days in New York IIRC in my situation. Have to double check.
Aside from the imminence of a sale, the place is small and the neighborhood isn't the best. So, y'know, lots of reasons to move - this is just a catalyst.
And, for reasons I cannot fathom, my TV doesn't seem to like the idea of pulling video from an HDMI cable but audio from another source.
No TV will do this. You are failing because you are using your shitty TV speakers. Get some sort of audio system up ins.
Yes yes yes. Once I have money raining from the fucking sky and I'm in my awesome new not-a-shoebox-filled-with-beer-and-yarn apartment. No room for a worthwhile audio system in my current place.
And then of course, we still have the issue of an obtrusive (and loud) tower setup with old hardware. If I'm plunking down for an audio system, I might as well update the rest of the hardware and get something that I want.
For under $100 you can get some amazing sound. You can do like we did in Beacon. Two bookshelf speakers plus tiny cheap amplifier. Monoprice to get cables and a switch to select your audio source.
If you want surround sound you can get a packaged home theater system for about $100 and then an optical switching device for about $40. Again with cheap optical cables from Monoprice.
Yeah, the Beacon setup was pretty damn good. That'll be the plan for the future.
Anyway, getting an HTPC is only different from getting a regular PC in the following ways:
1) You might get a sideways case 2) You might make quietness a higher priority
1) Or just turn a regular compact tower on it's side, it's really about the same. 2) Who makes loud PC components any more? My new i7 is whisper quiets even as it gets so hot it's hitting thermal throttling. God the stock CPU cooler is a piece of crap.
I think you missed that part about my old, loud-ass PC. You've heard it when it's on. Loud as fuck. With my newly-found Normal Hearing superpowers, I've discovered that it's incredibly irritating to have constant loud background noise. Funny that.
I'll dig up what I built a while ago that is currently still sitting under my TV and share it here. It works great to this day, and can play every game I ever buy in Steam still. It was pretty cheap too.
It's going to necessarily be the case that we have to move, but now the "Do I have a roof over my head" question is in flux. New owner might have us stay on, OR they might tell us we need to leave.
The roof-over-our-heads thing is NOT a problem. Worst case, we put all our shit in storage and live with somebody else for a month or two. Pete, I know you think your mom is crazy, but we COULD shack up with her if we really have to. We have plenty of friends with guest space as well, and I am sure we could come to an arrangement until that increase in income that will allow us to rent a reasonable place.
Also, you are assuming the house will actually sell any time soon.
I think you missed that part about my old, loud-ass PC. You've heard it when it's on. Loud as fuck. With my newly-found Normal Hearing superpowers, I've discovered that it's incredibly irritating to have constant loud background noise. Funny that.
Yeah Pete, my point was you can't even get PC parts like that anymore. Everything is quiet now. Even my massive video card that's two slots wide and as long as the motherboard is whisper quiet until unless I'm playing graphically intensive game.
Also, I'd seriously avoid a sideways case and just lay a tower on it's side. They're either extremely overpriced, or the layout is very poor and it's hard to get components in or the heat out. A small tower laid on it's side is just better and usually cheaper.
I guess if you're a racing game fanatic who likes Gran Turismo more than Forza, and you just HAVE to play the newest one.
Multiple times now I've gotten myself really excited because I remembered I never got around to playing Metal Gear Rising/Dragon's Dogma/Armored Core 5, went to the piratebay, and then remembered those games weren't on the PC. I also want to play Last of Us, but I remember that one is only on Sony.
That being said, I've been enjoying a lot of good Dolphin gaming lately.
It's going to necessarily be the case that we have to move, but now the "Do I have a roof over my head" question is in flux. New owner might have us stay on, OR they might tell us we need to leave.
Pete, I know you think your mom is crazy
"Peter, please be safe. Don't drink too much. Be careful in the ocean."
"Mom, I'm a grown-ass man. I've done this before."
"Make sure John is safe too."
*facepalm*
Sure, we can shack up with friends. I'd rather not. I'd much rather find a new place to call home in as expedient a fashion as is reasonable, and settle in. I hate hate hate being in flux.
Also, I'd seriously avoid a sideways case and just lay a tower on it's side. They're either extremely overpriced, or the layout is very poor and it's hard to get components in or the heat out. A small tower laid on it's side is just better and usually cheaper.
I've seen them for prices that are pretty reasonable compared to a typical tower. The difference between 20 bucks and 40 bucks isn't enough for me to care - I'd much rather have something that looks like the thing I want rather than something that looks like I stuck shit on its side. It's a personal aesthetic preference.
If you keep making fun of that, you and John are going to drown in a horrible rip-tide accident.
HTPC CASE LIANLI|PC-C37B RT $149.99 MB ASROCK|H61M-VS H61 LGA1155 R $59.99 VGA PNY|VCGGT4301XPB GT430 R $69.99 PSU ANTEC|500W EA-500D GREEN RT $59.99 CPU INTEL|CORE I3 2120 3.3G 3M R $149.99 MEM 2Gx2|GSKILL F3-10666CL9D-4GBRL $34.99 HD 500G|WD SATAIII WD5000AAKX % $39.99 DVD ROM SONY | DDU1681S-0B % $16.99 MS WIN 7 HOME SP1 64BIT 1PK - OEM $99.99
The big thing to watch out for is low profile cases. Some sideways cases are low profile and need a low profile video card. A normal full-sized video card is too tall. Obviously low profile video cards are inferior in the horsepower department.
Oh, no doubt. This is the thing I found most recently. Bump it up to micro-ATX and I've got way more options for roughly the same footprint. That mini-ITX case is the size of many micro-ATX cases. This one isn't a lot bigger, though I kind of want to build something that fits into this little fucker.
Anyway, speaking of media PCs, does anyone know of a third party Xbox wireless controller receiver that doesn't suck? The genuine article apparently doesn't exist anymore.
EDIT: The answer was find a genuine one on eBay. Nevermind.
Anyway, speaking of media PCs, does anyone know of a third party Xbox wireless controller receiver that doesn't suck? The genuine article apparently doesn't exist anymore.
EDIT: The answer was find a genuine one on eBay. Nevermind.
Make sure it's actually genuine and not false advertising. I'm thinking of getting a second one. Sometimes you wanna use XBox controller on the desktop PC, not the HTPC.
Re: Noise Usually the GPU fan spins up the loudest due to the air pocket under it not moving much. I have an mATX case with a side fan and still get GPU overheats from time to time (Ambient being 40 degrees and all.) but it's rare.
A good trick to try if you get too much noise from the GPU is to take the heatsink off and put a better thermal paste on.
Don't go too tiny. Bigger is easier, and will both last longer and likely be quieter.
Yeah, trying to get into the super super small ITX cases requires too much sacrifice to really be worthwhile - at least for what I want to do. This could change in the next iteration of these APU's though - if this is going to be a trend for AMD, then they're likely going to continue developing along these lines in a parallel market.
The tricky part is the power consumption. Right now, the A10-6800k pulls ~160W at peak draw. That's too much for many of the very small HTPC builds; Intel really has the minimal power consumption game in the bag. That means you're relegated to the low-power segment for that sort of thing.
It looks more and more like micro-ATX with full-height expansion slots is the way to go. At that point, CPU + discrete card makes more sense (because I don't need to bother saving room) than an APU - though it'd be one fewer component to buy, and to swap out during upgrade time. The smallest budget I can see working for that is ~$400 (well, maybe $350 if I opt for less RAM), and that's enough to get a more powerful traditional setup.
Anyway, speaking of media PCs, does anyone know of a third party Xbox wireless controller receiver that doesn't suck? The genuine article apparently doesn't exist anymore.
EDIT: The answer was find a genuine one on eBay. Nevermind.
Make sure it's actually genuine and not false advertising. I'm thinking of getting a second one. Sometimes you wanna use XBox controller on the desktop PC, not the HTPC.
Well it was no more expensive than the rip off ones, and the picture looked genuine so that's about as good as I can get. As for your PC, might I suggest a wired xbox controller? I have one and I love it it, no batteries to go dead on you and no big bulge on the bottom to store said batteries. 9ft cord so plenty of slack to game at my desk and just throw it under the monitor when I'm not using it.
I find that nearly everyone who ever tells me their computer is "silent" just has bad hearing.
Depends if you mean "Makes no noise when I've got my face right next to it." or "Makes less noise than I can notice, even trying, when it's under my desk.".
My usual test is, can I get to sleep with it in the same room.
Another thing to keep in mind with computer noise is pitch. A high pitched whine is more noticeable than a deep whur.
Comments
If you want surround sound you can get a packaged home theater system for about $100 and then an optical switching device for about $40. Again with cheap optical cables from Monoprice.
2) Who makes loud PC components any more? My new i7 is whisper quiets even as it gets so hot it's hitting thermal throttling. God the stock CPU cooler is a piece of crap.
But it's largely moot. Landlady's in a nursing home. Her son is putting the house up for sale next week.
It's going to necessarily be the case that we have to move, but now the "Do I have a roof over my head" question is in flux. New owner might have us stay on, OR they might tell us we need to leave.
Aside from the imminence of a sale, the place is small and the neighborhood isn't the best. So, y'know, lots of reasons to move - this is just a catalyst.
Also that sucks about the house being sold but jesus at least you can get out of that neighborhood.
Also, you are assuming the house will actually sell any time soon.
Also, I'd seriously avoid a sideways case and just lay a tower on it's side. They're either extremely overpriced, or the layout is very poor and it's hard to get components in or the heat out. A small tower laid on it's side is just better and usually cheaper.
That being said, I've been enjoying a lot of good Dolphin gaming lately.
"Mom, I'm a grown-ass man. I've done this before."
"Make sure John is safe too."
*facepalm*
Sure, we can shack up with friends. I'd rather not. I'd much rather find a new place to call home in as expedient a fashion as is reasonable, and settle in. I hate hate hate being in flux.
MB ASROCK|H61M-VS H61 LGA1155 R $59.99
VGA PNY|VCGGT4301XPB GT430 R $69.99
PSU ANTEC|500W EA-500D GREEN RT $59.99
CPU INTEL|CORE I3 2120 3.3G 3M R $149.99
MEM 2Gx2|GSKILL F3-10666CL9D-4GBRL $34.99
HD 500G|WD SATAIII WD5000AAKX % $39.99
DVD ROM SONY | DDU1681S-0B % $16.99
MS WIN 7 HOME SP1 64BIT 1PK - OEM $99.99
This keyboard:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B005DKZTMG/ref=pe_175190_21431760_M2T1_SC_dp_2
This was back in 2011. You can do better for probably less money now. ;^)
EDIT: The answer was find a genuine one on eBay. Nevermind.
Usually the GPU fan spins up the loudest due to the air pocket under it not moving much. I have an mATX case with a side fan and still get GPU overheats from time to time (Ambient being 40 degrees and all.) but it's rare.
A good trick to try if you get too much noise from the GPU is to take the heatsink off and put a better thermal paste on.
The tricky part is the power consumption. Right now, the A10-6800k pulls ~160W at peak draw. That's too much for many of the very small HTPC builds; Intel really has the minimal power consumption game in the bag. That means you're relegated to the low-power segment for that sort of thing.
It looks more and more like micro-ATX with full-height expansion slots is the way to go. At that point, CPU + discrete card makes more sense (because I don't need to bother saving room) than an APU - though it'd be one fewer component to buy, and to swap out during upgrade time. The smallest budget I can see working for that is ~$400 (well, maybe $350 if I opt for less RAM), and that's enough to get a more powerful traditional setup.
I'm glad I get to turn it off sometimes. My mornings are blissfully silent.
My usual test is, can I get to sleep with it in the same room.
Another thing to keep in mind with computer noise is pitch. A high pitched whine is more noticeable than a deep whur.