d_stilgar's HTPC (title anyone?)

[Stonerboy779]

Hopefully you can sort out the issues, the console is looking great

[d_stilgar]

Good news!

So, I finally found a few minutes and went out to my shed to fish out a speaker so I could hear the post beeps. I had a long beep followed by three short, which meant that my video card wasn't seated properly or had bad memory. Since I had two in SLI I just removed the 2nd card and got the same result, so I just switched out the cards and then it booted.

I may or may not get a new card soon to replace it.

What would be a good match for a Q9550? It would be relatively cheap these days I would guess. Is a GTX 660 overkill?

Thanks for the advice. I'll get some progress posted . . . maybe Thanksgiving week. I'll also have some other stuff soon.

[msmrx57]

Good news indeed. Been watching this so I can show the wife how it turns out because I've been thinking of something along these lines. I keep looking on craigslist for an onld console stereo or some other piece that has the right shape/design.

[Outlaw]

Pretty sweet build so far. I think the teal matches the whole 'retro' look of the unit.

Sucks to hear about the board and graphics card.

For a new gfx card. I think the gtx 660 is overkill for a dedicated htpc/light game emulator. I currently use the GTX 660 with my Q9450 to play most games on Med+ settings without issue. It does hd video playback without breaking a sweat but unless you get a great deal on it, I don't think you would need it aside from the argument of "future proofing".

Something like the HD 7770 would work (assuming you don't run dual gpus in future) or if you still want a little more oomph, the 650ti would be good and still save you some money for some extra parts.

Whats also nice with the new cards is they support audio passthrough over hdmi. I haven't tested surround on it yet to give any real opinion on it. I can tell you it was a nice surprise when i found out it was plug-n-play.

The other thing, the 7770 and 650ti will both be less power hungry than the GTX 660, resulting in less heat.

Note- Power ratings taken from HWCompare

9800GT ~108W (x2 if sli)

HD 7770 ~80W ($90+ new)
GTX 650ti boost ~110W ($125+ new)
GTX 660 ~140W ($175+ new)

Any one of the 3 cards and I'm sure many other options would be better suited than the aged 9800s.


If you shopping around and haven't check them out yet, I would recommend checking the for sale/trade section over at hardforum. They have some really good deals and even beat out fleabay 99% of the time.

Good Luck and can't wait to see more!
Outlaw

[d_stilgar]

Thanks for the recommendations. My hope is to play lots of games from my steam account as well, which is why I would want a video card capable of more than just HD playback and some emulation.

I'll look at some reviews over at HardOCP and maybe find a cheap card on HardForum. I really don't need to futureproof when the CPU is a Q9550, but I want to play games at their best settings . . . at only 1080p resolution . . . and not be held back by the CPU. So the question really is, what is the best match for my CPU that won't break the bank. Really, it looks like the 650ti boost would be enough.

Thanks!

[Outlaw]

Going to use big picture?

If your looking to play at 1080p with high+ settings, you prob want the 660/7870 or better..

Other than your extra ram, we have pretty identical systems and the cpu is still pretty powerful considering it's age. With my setup i was gaming at 720p to keep the fps up (60-100+) and because I hated how small everything was at 1080 on my 23" but I also don't play the latest titles either to give you real world opinion.
Q9450
8GB Ram
7200RPM HDD

Usually playing CS 1.6, CS:GO, Civ 5 @1280x1024 lately.

Our cpu's are comparable to IVYs i3-3220 cpu per Anandtech-http://www.anandtech.com/bench/product/677?vs=50

Eurogamer review of GTX660 vs HD7870 vs GTX660Ti vs HD7850
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/df...gtx-660-review


650Ti Boost (unsure of Ram) vs 660 (unsure of Ram) -
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/product/783?vs=782
http://gpuboss.com/gpus/GeForce-GTX-...X-650-Ti-Boost


For under 200 though, I think the 660 is still a solid card (won't/very little cpu bottleneck), again, unless you can get a better deal on a better card. Make sure it has 2GB or more of ram though. Later on, when you upgrade, it will perform even better.


back on track though, any new pics?

Outlaw

[d_stilgar]

Going to use big picture?

back on track though, any new pics?

I will definitely use big picture mode and might even mess around with SteamOS when it's released. My biggest beef with it so far is that it is completely beautiful . . . and that I wish I could somehow import my XBMC library into it. That's it really, haha. No, more than that there are just things that it doesn't do nearly as well as being in normal mode or on a PC.

And the whole thing really points out issues with Steam's whole log on thing. I really want to be on more than one machine at once. I want to be able to play one game in one room and another game on another PC in the living room at the same time. To get around the problem I now maintain two accounts and fill my 2nd library with extra copies of games I get.

As for new pics, I don't really have any because I haven't done anything picture worthy. It's mostly been just fiddling and fixing things. I still need to take the whole machine apart again so I can cut an inch off the plywood base it's all screwed onto so that I can mount it to the drawer sliders without it hitting the front door hinges.

I still haven't figured out what I'm going to do for the old controller ports. They all have weird requirements that I hope I can get around, like needing to plug in your game controller before plugging in the adapter. That really won't do.

Then I need to figure out a way to very easily and quickly import a few hundred (maybe thousand) games into XBMC with the advanced launcher so I can just launch them from within XBMC.

And I'm fiddling with the idea of building an Adalight system for the machine. It would be totally awesome and add a lot to the entire build, but would cost . . . ~$75-130 to make it happen.

But, I'll get the drawer thing working soon and then post some more pics and a video.

[Outlaw]

In beta. seems to be pretty cool and seems like it would solve your problem. It will also be part of steam os.
http://store.steampowered.com/sharing/

Looks like steam os will support streaming too per this article-
http://kotaku.com/valve-announces-steam-os-1371869324

Valve also announced four new features that will be available both for SteamOS and the standard Steam platform: streaming, family sharing, parental restrictions, and options for movies, music, and other media.

For the controller adapter-

I still haven't figured out what I'm going to do for the old controller ports. They all have weird requirements that I hope I can get around, like needing to plug in your game controller before plugging in the adapter. That really won't do.

Does that mean it has to be plugged into the adapter before plugging into pc? Seems like a pita. Maybe plug into a hub that you can turn on/off so you don't have to keep unplugging and plugging back in?

Not familiar with XBMC. Good luck with that import, lol


That Adalight system looks pretty cool. Normal use, I think it would be distracting, but something like music videos or music for parties, it would be a cool feature. Definitely have to see pics when you do that.


Good luck and can't wait for more pics
Outlaw

[d_stilgar]

The issue with family sharing in steam is that it's fine as long as I'm not playing any of my games. But as soon as I want to play anything with my account, even a free to play game, then the other person gets kicked out of whatever they are playing, even when it's a different game.

It's irritating when I have 300+ games in my library and I want to play Borderlands 2 that I can't play any of the other 299 games in another room on another computer, and I don't think family sharing is going to solve the problem, at least not yet.

I'm not sold on the streaming yet either, but we'll see. It might solve some issues, especially if I never plan on gaming in two rooms at once (so no friends over for lan parties), and will make a HTPC setup much cheaper as a 2nd device. In any case it will be free, so that's awesome.

The switch idea for the USB sounds like a good idea. It really is a dumb thing to have to work around.

Even though the machine is looking pretty bad right now, I'll move some more files over, set up Dolphin Emulator, get one game in the XBMC library, and make a little video in the next week. I think it's time to show off how awesome this setup really is.

I hear Adalight is best for animated movies. Because of the way cameras work, it always looks more extreme in videos, and the software can be configured so that it's much more subtle. In any case I think it's that extra feature not seen very often, so I like it. It's also been on my to-do list for a few years, but I never have the money. I have some now, so it would be fun . . . if I can find the time to get it put together.

[Stonerboy779]

Can't wait to see more it's really making me want to work on one of my consoles but it is a project for the future when i have a house haha