I have completed the months-long project of building a Home Theatre/Gaming “Living Room” computer. I will catalogue the parts & total cost, and show you the components I researched for this project.
I took my time, shopping around, but ultimately as so often, virtually everything except the Air Mouse, TV, and Video Card were purchased from NewEgg. If you have never heard of NewEgg, then you must have been living in a cave somewhere in Antartica, because it is *THE* only web site to buy computer equipment. Period. They are king of the online shopping, and nothing else even comes close.
Now that I’m done touting NewEgg, let’s have a look at the final product:
| $70 |  |
ENERMAX Chakra ECA3052B Black SECC ATX Mid Tower Computer Case – Retail (N82E16811124114)
It has one HUGE 250 millimeter (25 centimeters) fan on the side. The huge fan is very quiet, yet moves a lot of air. It has a facade for the CD=ROM drive. This case had a new feature I was not familar with regarding the installation of the hard drives & DVD drive. It does not use screws to hold them in. It uses a tightening system; hmm, hard to describe. You insert the drive, then slide a plastic slider. when you slide it all the way, then it clamps down on the drive and then the drive cannot move. It works quite well. |
| $90 after rebate |  |
CORSAIR CMPSU-750TX 750W ATX12V / EPS12V SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC Compatible with Core i7 Power Supply – Retail (N82E16817139006)
It’s a good thing I didn’t go with my original choice in power supplies. I was going to get an el-cheapo 450 watt unit, but when I was going through my wish list with Dad, he started thinking about giving me the video card, and then |
| $46 |  |
ZALMAN CNPS 9500 AM2 2 Ball CPU Cooling Fan/Heatsink – Retail (N82E16835118004)
This is the first time I’ve ever bought an after-market CPU fan. This, and the power supply, made me feel like a money-burning consumer more than anything, but I must admit that it does its job quite well. Very well. I was afraid it might not fit in the case, but according to the reviews for the case, almost everything fit. Installing it was a bit of a pain. Installing this thing was probably the most difficult part of the build. Read the photo gallery album for the details on the build. |
| $53 |  |
G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model F2-8500CL5D-4GBPK – Retail (N82E16820231166)
Yeah, yeah, 4 gigs. I wanted 8, but… I found out that ONLY Vista 64-bit (Or possibly Windows 7) can utilize more than 4gb of RAM. This is not the fastest RAM that is out there now; but around the time I was pricing out the system, it was in the top end. Hell, it’s still pretty damn good. |
| $11 for two |  |
ENERMAX UC-8EB 80mm Case Fan – Retail (N82E16811999199)
THESE PUPPIES ROCK!! Out of all the devices I put together for this computer, THESE cheap-ass case fans were the biggest delightful surprise. WHISPER QUIET. I mean, you cannot even HEAR them. As far as airflow, they’re not the super-gusty mega-blowing super fans. But that’s why I bought the Enermax case with the giant fan! BUY THESE. Buy five of them, and replace every fan in your system with one of these. You will be amazed. |
| $150 |  |
AMD Phenom 9750 2.4GHz Socket AM2+ 125W Quad-Core Processor Model HD9750XAGHBOX – Retail (N82E16819103250)
QUAD CORE BABY!!! FOUR 64-bit processors. For some reason, this unit is no longer sold. I’m sure you can probably get a better one for cheaper by now. CPU prices drop faster than acid at a dead show. |
| $139 |  |
GIGABYTE GA-MA790GP-DS4H AM2+/AM2 AMD 790GX HDMI ATX AMD Motherboard – Retail (N82E16813128352)
It’s a motherboard. I originally purchased this mobo primarily because it has HDMI Out. However, I ended up receiving a very nice gift in the video card that is now installed in the HTPC. I did not expect this machine to become a gaming machine, but my dad gave me such an awesome vid card, that it catapulted this up into the higher-end machine range. |
| $95 |  |
SAMSUNG HD103UI 1TB 5400 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive – OEM (N82E16822152135)
This Terabyte hard drive was purchased not for its speed, but for its low power consumption (meaning less heat), and quietness. Higher RPM drives are louder. I happened to grab this while it was on sale, a couple months before I bought the rest of the items. |
| $20 |  |
AZiO AWU254 USB 2.0 802.11g 54Mbps Wireless Pen Adapter – Retail (N82E16833340004)
This is essentially the network card for the machine. Since it’s in the living room, I didn’t want to run a wire through the apartment… hence, wireless. Also grabbed while on sale. |
| $35 |  |
Gyration GyroTransport Air Mouse with 512MB USB DriveThis was not purchased from NewEgg. It was purchased from woot.com. It is an “Air Mouse”. It is like a Wii controller: You hold it in your hand, and it actually picks up the movement of your hand and translates that to mouse movement. VERY NIFTY!!! Perfect for a Home Theatre PC setup, eh? Woot.com only sells stuff for one day, but you find great bargains. Good luck finding this at the same price I paid! |
| $85 |  |
Let’s not forget the Operating System! I bought Windows Vista Ultimate from the Illinois University stores, who give an employee discount. |
| Total: | ||
| $794 | There ya go. Note that this does NOT include the hand-me-down video card I received; however I think that card would sell for about 200 right now. It is because of that card that I am able to run GTA IV, the most resource-hog-heavy game I have ever encountered hands down. |
Now for the real-life photos of the equipment, after I received it. NOTE: You can click on the pictures to see the full version.
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Here’s a close-up of the top front of the case. It’s got audio, 2 usb, an external SATA, and power/reset buttons on the top. |
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Here’s a nice inside-view of that monster 250mm case fan. It’s reversible via a switch. I actually have it blowing into the computer. This, plus the Zalman CPU cooling fan, keep the inside real cool.
TOTAL NUMBER OF FANS = 6 3 case fans |
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The motherboard is stylin’ with all the different colored stuff and the big “GIGABYTE” logo on the big heat sink. |
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Here’s the CPU fan, after the CPU has been installed and the fan put on top of it. This was probably the hardest part. I knew I’d have to attach the fan before inserting the mobo into the case. |
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An extreme close-up view of how the heat sink fits on top of the CPU. |
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Here we have the power supply snugly installed into the case. |
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And here we have the motherboard installed as well. See the plastic sliders for the drives I was telling you about? Click on the picture to zoom in & you can see perhaps what I mean. |
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super-awesome mega-quiet fan in the front… |
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…And one in the back! |
That’s pretty much it. the thing has performed quite well so far, knock on wood. Media Center crashes every once in a while, but I blame crappy OS programming.
