blurpenguin

HTPC you say... Home Theatre PC, or more a less a computer built to hold all the media/video/photo/music files which i have, so the entire family has access to it.
Of course the Home Theatre part... where u hook it to a TV/LCD screen, and sound to a nice set of speakers... for some home entertainment...

heh... so here is my worklog/ picturelog of my project which began early this year...

Please bear with the grainy pictures... i did most of the installation in the middle of the night...


First of, the processor - the heart of the machine, so to say... Thankfully some bloke was upgrading and i got this decent Intel Core 2 Duo E7200 @2.53Ghz for RM280, 2nd hand. This is almost overkill for running the media centre, but who knows... the extra power will be there if you need it later...


It is actually my first time really getting my hands down and dirty at installing/building a computer myself... most of the time, i just customize and let the shop people assemble it.

I didn't really had any proper place to fix this, and just used my desk to prop all the stuff... heh! didn't even ground my self properly, but i did take some precautions like touching my other computer metal case prior to handling the motherboard... (to get rid of static)


Inserting the chip! I really looked at the manual a couple of times just to make sure I was doing the right thing... heh... 1st time mah... but it was straight forward lah... almost impossible to get wrong.


Next was to apply some thermal grease and installing the cooler fan. Here I again referred to some online guide to apply the correct amount of grease. (the grease is to maximise the heat transfer from the chip to the cooler)


Whilst shopping for a decent computer case to be my media centre, i came across this obscure shop selling some old stock of Lian-Li PC-V850 case!


It was a steal at RM150. Normally Lian-Li full aluminium casings are sold at a premium side... but somehow i think the shop was trying to get rid of old stock, thus the rock bottom price.


You have to remove the drive cage, to install the DVD/rw (LG-RM75), i also took the opportunity to replace the floppy adapter with a plain bezel i had (from my other Lian-Li case)


Here, it is installed back with no ugly floppy adapters...


The Green Drive... heh... marketing! anyways... it's a 1Tb WD Harddisk (RM345) for my rapidly growing accumulation of HD video files.


The case has 2 HD drive cages at the sides... U screw in some studs in the drive, slide them in this cages... and lock them... DONE! simple and easy. Only when u need to increase to 3hd's is when u need to think further...


Motherboard installation: first of it to screw in the standoffs... points where the motherboard will be placed...


Then place in the mobo... with the back plate too.. tighten! & we are almost done...


I bought some decent RAMs, Kingston KHX6400LLK2 44412 (2x2Gb) for RM240 - it came with some cool aluminium heat spreaders attached to them... i still prefer the corsairs with extended fins... but they were more expensive...


Next up... fixing all the case connectors to the mobo, and preparing the space for the Power Supply.... (note: yeah the PSU is located in the front of the case)


U have to attach the plate to the PSU, in order to fix it in the slot allocated for it in the case... special design... (I bought this PSU 2nd hand... a Enermax Liberty 500W for RM120)


Here it is, fixed in the case... next up will be all the other wiring connections...


I wasnt very good in making it all neat and tidy... but i mostly crammed all the excess wiring under the DVD/RW... allowing lots of air-space.


I fitted in the primary HD at the back (a smaller 160Gb hd as a primary OS disk) and it's about complete!


Lastly i fixed in a wireless card, and found this keyboard to complement the system... (card-RM100, keyboard-RM70)


The keyboard was a plesant surprise... the pointer needs getting used to... but overall a decent compromise...

Heh! I had hoped/wished for the Grand Prize of RM50k + a Family trip to Tokyo Disneyland for 4... but we got the Consolation Prize in the end!

2 months ago i sent in about 9 photos of Hannah early years for the Dumex 50th Year Aniversary Competition.. "Si Manja Paling Ceria" Contest. A rep called several weeks later saying I had won a camera for my efforts and will courier the prize to me... though, i still don't know which picture won.

I received it today... a Panasonic Lumix Entry Level Camera (Model LS80), which will replace my parents aging digital Casio... Since it's entry level, the build is a bit plasticky... but the functions all look good... way better then any entry level Olympus i have seen... + this camera has 8MP & AntiShake!

Not too bad lah... it was only a RM20 investment! (wash photos, envelops & stamps) and it got me a RM549 return! (the supposed value of said camera)


I also recently purchased a replacement camera for the one which was Stolen/Lost in Redang. The insurance claim gave us RM850, enough to buy us a brand NEW! Canon Ixus 860IS - one model up from the one stolen (Canon Ixus 850IS)... I didn't want to fork out an additional RM300 for the very latest model as this looks good enough... hopefully i won't regret this decision!


woo... lot's of digital cameras in the house... & Hannah will get my parents Casio digital camera when i exchange the Panasonic with them, as the current one she's playing with seems to be giving up the ghost!

WAH!HA!HA!HA!... saw this today... as I was window shopping in ACE Hardware... couldn't resist to buy and try. I think Ju blogged about it before... not sure... but I think i heard a favourable review... so i splunked down RM9 and we shall see...

Notice the "1 drop Smell Gone tag by ACE themselves...
all so corny...", even the "No More Smell When & After Passing Motion"
- i bet the copywriter had a field day churning that out!

impressive "Sh*t" logo! even a malay one!

equality in sexes... girl in front... guy squat type at the back...
+ "Berkesan seperti silap mata"... woo hoo!fuuunnnyyyy!

Hannah's birthday's around the corner and we had promised to buy her a proper bicycle... poor thing... we had said that 1/2 a year ago when she first asked for one...

her current bicycle looks like this - only mostly plastic!

u would think... caring parents should buy their kids stuff immediately, but no... we opt it as a birthday gift... so she has waited for approx 6 months...

anyway, we went window shopping yesterday... and wow! bicycle prices have gone up eh... even a kids bicycle would cost us rm180!... wow... anyways... we saw this nice sized red one for her but duh! her eyes caught on to a smaller pink version... but it was too small for her already but the "pink" overruled her judgement... sigh!...

anyway we will still be searching and hopefully we will overcome the pinkness this time...

deadline approaching though... :p

got lots of NEW stuff for the New Year...

first is the birth of our 2nd daughter... phoebe... (theoratically born last year.. but still!!!... she's currently at the stage... where her cries are ... WoW!... super loud)

then we got our new TV... after months of watching a blank reflective glass box... (hannah misses the mirror effect though)

and a new fridge... our current one has reached its limit in space for our family usage. (we now have way so much space, hopefully enough to meet 2 generations needs when the time comes)

so... New Stuff... Pray! too we will have greater revelations, greater expansion (abeit minus the suffering), greater vision... for this NEW YEAR!

p/s : blogging is also a new thing for this year... kinda stopped for 1/2 a year... wanted to try again, and it seems Blogger is the most simplest and nicest... so here i go again trying to blog...