building xibalba - part I
There has been over a month since my order on IPC2U.de. And, today, after a small misunderstanding (the guys in ipc2u included their version of my telephone number, generated by /dev/random, on the package), I finally got the Small Board Computer and I begun collecting all the necessary parts to build the Home Theater PC that will be named Xibalba.
Let's get it from the beginning:
After buying my new (and only, as a matter of fact) TV, a Sony Bravia P2530, I found out that:
- Picture quality of greek analog TV channels really sucks.
- Picture quality of current greek DVB-T channels probably sucks the same.
- Picture quality (and the overall quality) of most channels in Hotbird sucks too.
- My only PC powerful enough to playback high definition Matroska videos is my laptop...
- ...and my laptop does not have a DVI connector.
So, it came to this:
Either I would buy a new, standard desktop PC, or I would make my life less easy and far more interesting, and build a not-so-standard PC based on a mini-ITX motherboard.
(Ok, I admit, I envy my good friend 'air-guy' for his Intel Core2 Duo HTPC inside a Thermaltake Mozart case. Based on the dogma D.A.A.C. - that my other good friend ants has pointed out that defines me - I decided to build a rather different but maybe better :P HTPC )
I had to dismiss all the mini-ITX based on VIA/C3 CPUs, as there were not capable of playback high definition video, plus they lacked any support for HDMI or PCI-express cards.
After a little search, I came across IEI technology's SBCs, and in particular KINO-690AM2 and KINO-690S1. They both included a feature-rich motherboard with embedded graphics card of AMD/ATI, capable of playing all types of high definition content, up to date. The 690AM2 had Socket AM2, while 690S1 came with the new socket S1 of AMD that can use mobile CPUs like the Turion, or very-low-powered, like the newer Sempron.
I chose 690AM2, because I needed to keep the cost low:
- Turion CPUs, although found, are rare, more expressive and slower than their Athlon counterparts.
- 240-pin DIMMs that 690AM2 model use, are far cheaper than SO-DIMM of the 690S1.
As the place where the whole HTPC will be built may not allow a standard desktop PC to fit, but is pretty big (details will be revealed in the next part), I considered that thermal issues wouldn't be a problem.
Here are the content of the package that came from IPC2U, regarding the HTPC:
From left to right:
- The mini-itx motherboard (or SBC, if you prefer) KINO-690AM2
- The mysterious HDTV cable that ends to three RCA connectors (?)
- The low-profile CPU Heatsink that will not be used after all - but I bought it to be sure (the cost was small). It is supposed to be able to remove 46W of thermal energy.
The mini-itx motherboard included all this stuff in the photo:
- The SBC
- 1 IDE cable
- 2 SATA cables
- 1 SATA power cable
- 1 dual RS-232 cable (for COM3 and COM4)
- a I/O shielding
- many mini-jumpers
- a Utility CD
and a Quick Installation Guide.
And now, the moment of truth has come. Which CPU should I choose? How much memory? Hard disk or CF for OS storage? And how all these things were going to be assemblied?
(to be continued...)
After buying my new (and only, as a matter of fact) TV, a Sony Bravia P2530, I found out that:
- Picture quality of greek analog TV channels really sucks.
- Picture quality of current greek DVB-T channels probably sucks the same.
- Picture quality (and the overall quality) of most channels in Hotbird sucks too.
- My only PC powerful enough to playback high definition Matroska videos is my laptop...
- ...and my laptop does not have a DVI connector.
So, it came to this:
Either I would buy a new, standard desktop PC, or I would make my life less easy and far more interesting, and build a not-so-standard PC based on a mini-ITX motherboard.
(Ok, I admit, I envy my good friend 'air-guy' for his Intel Core2 Duo HTPC inside a Thermaltake Mozart case. Based on the dogma D.A.A.C. - that my other good friend ants has pointed out that defines me - I decided to build a rather different but maybe better :P HTPC )
I had to dismiss all the mini-ITX based on VIA/C3 CPUs, as there were not capable of playback high definition video, plus they lacked any support for HDMI or PCI-express cards.
After a little search, I came across IEI technology's SBCs, and in particular KINO-690AM2 and KINO-690S1. They both included a feature-rich motherboard with embedded graphics card of AMD/ATI, capable of playing all types of high definition content, up to date. The 690AM2 had Socket AM2, while 690S1 came with the new socket S1 of AMD that can use mobile CPUs like the Turion, or very-low-powered, like the newer Sempron.
I chose 690AM2, because I needed to keep the cost low:
- Turion CPUs, although found, are rare, more expressive and slower than their Athlon counterparts.
- 240-pin DIMMs that 690AM2 model use, are far cheaper than SO-DIMM of the 690S1.
As the place where the whole HTPC will be built may not allow a standard desktop PC to fit, but is pretty big (details will be revealed in the next part), I considered that thermal issues wouldn't be a problem.
Here are the content of the package that came from IPC2U, regarding the HTPC:
From left to right:
- The mini-itx motherboard (or SBC, if you prefer) KINO-690AM2
- The mysterious HDTV cable that ends to three RCA connectors (?)
- The low-profile CPU Heatsink that will not be used after all - but I bought it to be sure (the cost was small). It is supposed to be able to remove 46W of thermal energy.
The mini-itx motherboard included all this stuff in the photo:
- The SBC
- 1 IDE cable
- 2 SATA cables
- 1 SATA power cable
- 1 dual RS-232 cable (for COM3 and COM4)
- a I/O shielding
- many mini-jumpers
- a Utility CD
and a Quick Installation Guide.
And now, the moment of truth has come. Which CPU should I choose? How much memory? Hard disk or CF for OS storage? And how all these things were going to be assemblied?
(to be continued...)
posted in [hardware] at Saturday, 29 September 2007, 12:24
