# MysticalJet HTPC Build Thread



## RanZiv (Mar 1, 2008)

Hey Everyone,

As a sub project to my home theater build, I am beginning the journey of building my HTPC and thought I'd share so I can get some feedback and ideas.

My needs/wants: Overall goal is to have the HTPC control most everything in the theater. The theater is 90% plus movies/gaming. Basically the brains of the room. At a basic level, I want it to control all my media - which would be almost all blu-ray. Do not need 3D at this point, but would build it to have just in case I upgrade in the future. The computer would have access to Cat5 connection for internet and for home networking, so WIFI not necessary. Needs to handle scaling to go from 16:9 to 2.4. I will have a separate NAS/DAS system to store the media files.

Here is my component list.

CPU: Intel Core i3-2100 Sandy Bridge 3.1GHz LGA 1155 65W Dual-Core Desktop Processor Intel HD Graphics 2000 BX80623I32100

Motherboard: Intel BOXDH67BLB3 LGA 1155 Intel H67 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 Micro ATX Intel Motherboard

Case: nMEDIAPC Black Aluminum / Acrylic / Steel HTPC 5000B Micro ATX Media Center / HTPC Case

PSU: SeaSonic S12II 380 Bronze 380W 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Power Supply

Memory: G.SKILL NS 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666) Desktop Memory Model F3-10666CL9D-4GBNS

SSD: Crucial M4 CT064M4SSD2 2.5" 64GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)

Optical Drive: SAMSUNG Black Blu-ray Combo SATA Model SH-B123L/RSBP LightScribe Support

Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-bit - OEM


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## RanZiv (Mar 1, 2008)

Everything listed in the first thread was ordered and received.

Here is my stuff ....










Now you know what I'll be doing this weekend.

Total Cost $636 and a free mouse ...LOL


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## RanZiv (Mar 1, 2008)

Built the HTPC over this last weekend and installed Win7 OS. Got it all up and running and so far works great. So the physical build is done. Here is some photos.

Motherboard and CPU/Fan installed.









Motherboard and PSU installed into case.









The rear inputs.









Getting all the wires connected.









Everything connected and the SSD attached with Velcro. The case does not fit 2.5" drives without an adapter, so velcro was the solution.









The final result in the rack.









Now - the fun part  - installing all the software needed to rip and play. So WMC, XBMC, MPC-HC? - oh my.

Any recommendations here?


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## StereoClarity (Apr 22, 2008)

I've standardized on WMC. There seems to be a loooooong way you can go with it as long as you're willing to explore it. Get Arcsoft Total Media Theater for BlueRay Playback.


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## RanZiv (Mar 1, 2008)

StereoClarity said:


> I've standardized on WMC. There seems to be a loooooong way you can go with it as long as you're willing to explore it. Get Arcsoft Total Media Theater for BlueRay Playback.


I may eventually get TMT for disc playback, but I do have the PS3 to handle that. I keep wavering between WMC and XBMC - especially now since XBMC can bitstream HD Audio. Thanks for the response.


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