5. Building A High-End Media PC, Continued

Working with a full-size ATX motherboard inside the LaScala 14M quickly reminded us why micro ATX is the preferred form factor for HTPC builds. Even in a spacious HTPC case like this one, the Gigabyte GA-MA69G-S3H was a tight fit. The 24-pin primary motherboard ATX cable had to be shoehorned underneath the hard disk cage, and we had to put our memory into the DIMM slots closest to the CPU to leave enough room for the two DVD players (one Blu-ray, the other HD-DVD) in the 5.5" drive bays. We also had to purchase an extra long IDE cable to hook up both of these ATAPI drives to the board's single IDE connector.

Cabling inside the case also became a bit of a tangle as we hooked up all three case fans, four drives and cabled various case attachments (USB, Firewire, VFD, and controls) to the motherboard. Those who attempt to follow in our footsteps will do well to install the CPU and cooler, and the 24-pin ATX and IDE cables on the motherboard, before tacking it down inside the case (we'd also recommend putting standoffs to support this board at all corners and at least somewhere near the halfway point along each long edge).

Cable tangling is evident in this birds eye view of the high end system from rear

We also found that 8800 card in this build - however much it boosted graphics performance and video output (and a very good job of both it did) - to contribute too much to the system's overall noise level for our liking. We prefer our HTPCs to be barely audible at their loudest; this one was barely audible at its quietest, and when the 8800 cranked up during graphics benchmarking, both the power supply fan (normally inaudible) and the GPU cooler registered on our ears. It wasn't really loud, nor was the quality of the noise especially grating (mostly a typical fan whooshing sound) but it was loud enough to be noticeable when watching DVDs during quiet scenes with the glass doors to our entertainment center open. When those doors were closed, the system was inaudible at all times. Thus, we still think that a passively cooled 7600 or 8600 card makes more sense for HTPC use, even though it will cause those incredible 3DMark05 numbers and the PCMark05 graphics ratings to decline to levels on par with those reported in our recent DIY HDMI story. We can live with that, and we think you will want to as well.

This is the back of the high end media PC

As we installed and reinstalled Windows MCE during the high-definition DIY HDMI system builds and on this high-end build, we realized the wisdom of our earlier remarks that a system with both Blu-ray and HD-DVD drives is better than one with only a combo drive. That's because HD-DVD drives will read conventional CDs, while Blu-ray drives will not, nor will the LG GGW-H10N Blu-ray/HD-DVD combo drive read CDs, either. We mistakenly inserted CDs for everything from Windows MCE, to motherboard and graphics card drivers, as well as other software into the wrong drives, which the drive subsequently rejected. We couldn't help but think that those who purchase the $1,200 LG drive had best also include a CD-player in their budgets even if it's just a cheapo USB attached model.