Arch SFF HTPC/Firewall mini ITX goodness

DuncanF · 2009-04-21 23:08:06

I've ordered components to build a SFF HTPC to run MythTV and other media applications. Components are as follows:

An intel atom 330 on a D945GCLF2 intel board, 640 gb WD HD, Apex MI-100 4BAY Desktop Blk 250W min ITX case, 2gb kingston value ram, Samsung DVD burner, a Hauppauge 1178 WinTV-HVR-1600 tv tuner, and a BTC 9019URF Wireless Multimedia keyboard with joystick mouse.

In standard benchmarks the atom 330 can run 720p perfectly under windows, so that is fine as I have no desire to run 1080p as I find it largely unnecessary and my TV only supports up to 1080i anyways. I'm going to be running arch x86-64 on it and will write a little article up on performance and usability once it is all put together. Sorry if this is a waste of space, just thought people might be interested in seeing how arch and mythTV will run on a SFF HTPC with such low power consumption as an intel atom 330. If I recall correctly it only uses 8W on average.

Last edited by DuncanF (2009-04-21 23:53:54)

DuncanF · 2009-04-21 23:53:12

Also at some point i'm planning on building a firewall/router off of another miniITX chasis but with a much lower powered cpu, and was contemplating using arch to build it and setup from scratch or head over to a firewall distribution such as mon0wall, any thoughts on that?

evr · 2009-04-22 00:46:47

sounds like a cool project, 8W of power sounds pretty nice. If i may ask, how much are all the components going to end up costing?

DuncanF · 2009-04-22 00:56:51

Ordering from amazon it was about 400 including shipping but from newegg it would be about 340 but I don't order from them as I live in alaska and they like to screw us in bad places, charging nearly 60% of the total item cost.

Edit: Just t clarify, that's for the HTPC as I will be doing the firewall in the future.

Last edited by DuncanF (2009-04-22 01:12:35)

Kenni · 2009-04-25 19:21:07

I also have some MythTV frontends based on the Intel Atom processor. Depending on the video format you will or will not be able to playback 720p on a D945GCLF2 board on Linux. Playing back 1080i/p video isn't doable on a Intel Atom processor with a integrated Intel graphics card.

About the power usage; 8watt is probably the CPU alone (I'm too lazy to check right now), I would from experince guess that your system would use around 40-45watt.

In general, if you want to do 1080p, you need a Nvidia-based graphics card, which can take the load from the CPU with the VDPAU technology. Problem is that you can't get a mini-itx board with PCI Express x16 (needed for the graphics card) for a decent price. Nvidia ION is going to solve this issue, so watch out for new Nvidia ION based boards like the following:
http://www.hexus.net/content/item.php?item=18158

I'm going to upgrade all of my (Atom+Intel graphics) mini-itx frontends to Nvidia ION based boards, when they get available in a few months.

So, if you come by this thread looking for inspiration for hardware for a new HTPC, then I would recommend to wait a month or two and get a board based on Nvidia ION. Since the Nvidia graphics card will take all of the load off the CPU, the CPU can instead use its time on other things, for example reencoding recorded videos

schuay · 2009-04-25 20:58:35

just bought my second atom 330 based mini itx system today, this time for 270 euros:

> Gehäuse Mini-ITX JOUJYE(NU-0528i-B-CR), internes Netzteil, Schwarz
> http://www.ditech.at/artikel/GITX21/Geh … hwarz.html
> 81.90
>
> Mainboard INTEL D945GCLF2D, Atom 330, 2 x 1.60GHz, Mini-ITX
> http://www.ditech.at/artikel/MINM06/Mai … i-ITX.html
> 69.90
>
> DDR2-RAM 2048 MB, PC2-667 MHz, CL5, CORSAIR ValueSelect
> http://www.ditech.at/artikel/QDGV6B/DDR … elect.html
> 21.90
>
> DVD-+R/-+RW SATA LITEON DS-8A2S, Slimline, bulk, schwarz
> http://www.ditech.at/artikel/DVROS2/DVD … hwarz.html
> 35.90
>
> Festplatte 2,5" SATA II 320 GB Seagate Momentus 5400.5, 8 MB Cache
> http://www.ditech.at/artikel/F232SSA/Fe … Cache.html
> 59.90

this one will replace my parents' huge and butt ugly pc (+ failing video card).
also thinking about arch x86_64.. probably going to get i686 though to avoid chroots/multilib setups. this setup is similar to my first mini itx pc, adding a dvd burner, a 320g 5400 drive instead of 160gb 7200, and an internal card reader.

Last edited by schuay (2009-04-25 21:03:37)

pyther · 2009-04-25 21:22:41

You are not going to run the system on 8watts! The Atom 230 (Single core) uses about 4 watts, but that is the cpu only. My system runs at about 31watts. (No DVD, 2.5" IDE HD, 1GB Ram, fans). You'll probably run at about 50-60watts which is still pretty good.

Last edited by pyther (2009-04-25 21:23:18)

Zariel · 2009-04-25 23:20:43

I want a VDPAU capable HTPC, which I will build when I have some money, I plan to run a server with a very large capacity so then just NFS the server as storage.

Kenni · 2009-04-25 23:37:11

Zariel wrote:

I want a VDPAU capable HTPC, which I will build when I have some money, I plan to run a server with a very large capacity so then just NFS the server as storage.

This is exactly what I do...a quad core with 4x750GB HD etc. as backend and mini-itx based frontends boting over PXE with no harddrives, no fan on CPU and passive external PSU. The only moving mechnical part in my frontends are the DVD-drive, when a DVD-movie is inserted But usually the DVD is a DVD-image on the NFS-share anyway.

Arch Linux

#1 2009-04-21 23:08:06

Arch SFF HTPC/Firewall mini ITX goodness

#2 2009-04-21 23:53:12

Re: Arch SFF HTPC/Firewall mini ITX goodness

#3 2009-04-22 00:46:47

Re: Arch SFF HTPC/Firewall mini ITX goodness

#4 2009-04-22 00:56:51

Re: Arch SFF HTPC/Firewall mini ITX goodness

#5 2009-04-25 19:21:07

Re: Arch SFF HTPC/Firewall mini ITX goodness

#6 2009-04-25 20:58:35

Re: Arch SFF HTPC/Firewall mini ITX goodness

#7 2009-04-25 21:22:41

Re: Arch SFF HTPC/Firewall mini ITX goodness

#8 2009-04-25 23:20:43

Re: Arch SFF HTPC/Firewall mini ITX goodness

#9 2009-04-25 23:37:11

Re: Arch SFF HTPC/Firewall mini ITX goodness

Board footer