VIDEOCARD
We strongly recommend choosing a videocard that’s equipped with
HDCP, even though we’re not ready to endorse Blu-ray or HD-DVD.
As much as we hate the DRM millstone that Hollywood insists on
hanging on these next-gen devices, we don’t want to be forced to
replace an expensive videocard should we decide to upgrade later.
This limited us to two choices: We could have put any dual-
GPU GeForce 7950 GX2 card in the case. They’re surprisingly quiet
and unquestionably powerful. Our other option was MSI’s new
GeForce 7600 GT. With a 580MHz core and 750MHz memory, the
card is overclocked nearly as high as the fastest 7600 GT we’ve
tested (XFX’s 7600 GT XXX Edition).
We decided to go with the MSI card for three reasons: First, it’s
moderately quiet, thanks to a large, two-slot heatsink augmented
by a small fan that forces air across it. Any 7950 GX2 we could have
chosen would have two fans. Second, the 7600 GT draws power
only from the PCI Express bus—it doesn’t require any extra juice
from the PSU. This not only enabled us to put a smaller power sup-ply in the box, but it also
reduced our overall ven-
tilation requirements; an
important consideration
for a PC that needs to fi t
in an entertainment cen-
ter. Our third motivator
was budget: This 7600
GT is street-priced at
$180, compared to an
average price of $
for a 7950 GX2.
The 7950 GX2 is
obviously more power-
ful, so if you’re a heavy
gamer and this will be your only PC, you’ll have different priorities.
But since we wouldn’t want to be mid-game when our HTPC’s
PVR functionality kicks in, the MSI card suits us fi ne.The videocard in your home-theater
PC should have HDCP, even though
we’re giving both of the new high-def
disc formats the bum’s rush for now.SOUND
Researchers have demonstrated that sound quality
infl uences one’s perception of visual quality. A great
sound system makes a mediocre display look better,
and a poor sound system makes a high-end display
look worse. A great sound system is even more cru-
cial when you want to take pleasure in music.
Onboard audio has come a long way, but we’ve
yet to hear a sound chip on a motherboard that
can compete with the sonic purity of Creative Labs’
X-Fi. The primary culprit is noise: Listen closely to
any onboard audio system and you’ll hear the snap,
crackle, and pop of interference from nearby com-
ponents infi ltrating the signal path. You’ll never
hear that with an X-Fi.
And there’s nothing quite like playing a round
of Battlefi eld 2 with one of these puppies: The
positional audio keeps you immersed in the game’s
universe. Because we’re building a home-theaterPC, we’ll want to plug it into a surround-sound
A/V receiver with room-fi lling speakers (augment-
ed by a powered subwoofer), as opposed
to a self-amplifi ed, near-fi eld speaker system.
Audio connections between an X-Fi and an
A/V receiver are problematic if your receiver lacks
six discrete analog surround-sound inputs—the
X-Fi won’t pass 5.1 sound from games along a
digital path. Although the X-Fi will pass digital
audio from your movies across digital connec-
tions, it will down-convert all your 5.1 gaming to
a two-channel stereo signal.
If you have analog inputs on your receiver,
it’s no problem. But if you don’t, that’s where
Creative’s $100 Home Theater Connect DTS-
comes in. This handy device takes in 5.1-chan-
nel analog surround sound, encodes it to DTS
Interactive format your amplifi er understands in
real time, and outputs a digital signal via coaxial
and optical SPDIF.Creative’s Home Theater
Connect DTS-610 can be an
essential tool for integrating
your PC into your surround-
sound system.COOLING
Providing adequate cooling to a home theater
PC is a unique challenge given the case’s
small size and the need for quiet operation.
Typically, the only way to achieve nearly silent
air cooling is to pair a super-sized cooler with
a large, slow-spinning fan that moves plenty
of air, but runs whisper-quiet. Unfortunately,
it’s not possible to install a gigantic cooler in
an HTPC, due to obvious size constraints.
Though a stock CPU cooler will fi t just fi ne
inside the case, most stock coolers are any-
thing but quiet—although this applies more
to Intel’s Pentium 4 than it does to AMD’s
procs. In general we recommend low-profi le
coolers for HTPCs. There are several on the
market, and they are designed with the sizeconstraints of an HTPC case in mind.
Water-cooling is a more expensive option,
but it works very well in terms of both cool-
ing performance and silence. The two kits we
recommend for HTPC usage are the Zalman
Reserator 1 Plus and the Thermaltake
Symphony Mini. Both kits are dead silent and
use large external reservoir/radiators to carry
heat entirely out of your entertainment center.
For our HTPC, we chose an all-new,
low-profi le Zalman CNPS 8000. Unlike most
low-profi le coolers, this one actually performs
quite well, and kept our X2 3800+ CPU chilly
at all times. It’s easy to install and kept temps
in check without making any noise—that’s just
the way we like it.Most low-profile coolers are
so small they sacrifice perfor-
mance for size, but Zalman’s
CNPS 8000 CPU cooler doesn’t.HOME THEATER PC HOME HOME THEATER PCTHEATER PC HOME HOME THEATER PCTHEATER PC HOME HOME THEATER PCTHEATER PCTHEATER PC
30 MAXIMUMPC OCTOBER 2006