The Lounge PC Part 1: The Hardware

This will be a series of posts about putting together a computer (hardware and software) to be used in the lounge. These can be called PVRs (personal video recorders) or HTPCs (home theater PCs) but I’m not using those terms as I’m looking for something more general purpose. I want it to do all that but I also want to be able to use it for internet access, video editing, playing games etc.

After much research these are the components I selected (this was back in March so my choices might be different today):

• Antec Fusion MediaCentre case
• Asus P5B-VM Micro ATX (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard
• Intel Core 2 DUO E6600 “LGA775 Conroe” 2.40GHz
• Akasa AK 955 – Processor cooler
• GeIL 2GB (2×1GB) PC6400C5 800MHz Value DDR2 Dual Channel Kit (GX22GB6400DC)
• Samsung SpinPoint T HD501LJ 500GB SATA-II 16MB Cache
• Terratec Cinergy 2400i DT DVB-T Dual Digital TV Tuner (PCI-Express)
• Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium

This is very much phase 1 of the project – you may have noticed the absence of an optical drive and graphics card. The plan was to use an old DVD-ROM drive and integrated graphics (yes, really!) until phase 2 becomes possible (more on that later).

In this type of environment the case is extremely important, and the Antec Fusion delivers in spades:

In addition to its gorgeous brushed aluminum hi-fi styling, the case is expertly designed to provide good airflow whilst keeping noise levels to a minimum. It does this with a well designed layout and two 120mm side fans. The case also includes a two line display and a decent 430W power supply, all at a price below similar but less well equipped cases. Maybe I was swayed by already owning a fanastic Antec P180 case, but the Fusion really is a great case. The only possible downside is that it only takes micro-ATX motherboards, restricting the choice of motherboards.

The Akasa CPU cooler doesn’t look much different to the stock cooler that came with the CPU, but it features 4-pin power management (PWM) so that the fan speed (and therefore noise) is kept to a minimum, based on the CPU temperature. Another consideration was the fairly low profile of this cooler – I looked at a Scythe Ninja cooler which can be used without any fans, but that would have needed to stick out of the top of the case by quite some distance!

There was less choice when it came to the TV tuner, as I wanted it to have two tuners and media center drivers for Vista. The TerraTec Cinergy fit the bill nicely, and was receiving good reviews.

In the next part I will look at the installation and configuration under Vista, and look at the features offered by Vista Media Center.