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This PC's primary use is computing, with sound reproduction running a close second. While it isn't used for gaming, it does have a decent video card, and a fresh 4-core CPU. The black box on the desk is storage for my old joystick, cable modem, the little head units for the sound card and the speaker system, a USB hub, and a little modem. It also serves as an elevated base for the wireless access points. The PC isn't overclocked, but the CPU and video processors produce a serious amount of heat, about 100 W from the CPU, and 50 to 75 W from the video processor. This is where I write, use AutoCAD and SolidWorks (for both work and fun), listen to music, watch TV, and occasionally watch movies.
When I'm at the desk, I'm about 40" from each speaker, and the sub is about 60" away, by my left foot. This is most certainly a near field situation, and the location is in the corner of the room. Acoustically, I've learned some interesting things about this layout:
When the main monitors (satellites) are this close together, and you position yourself this close to them;
The stereo image is very sharp and stable when you put your head at the point of an isosceles triangle formed by the speakers and the listening point.
This position is really required for critical listening. While facing the small monitor when music is playing, I have heard some bizarre things. It's not a problem, just the observation of the inevitable effects rising from positioning the left speaker almost behind my head.
Small lateral head movements will cause large image shifts. This is just a function of the geometry of the layout. As you move away from the speakers, the image begins to stay stable during left-right movements.
I finally realized that toeing-in the speakers is expedient, this listening position is almost an equilateral triangle, my head is 45° off-axis to both speakers when they are aimed straight forward. This has the odd effect of beaming some of the upper midrange and lower treble right past my head (outboard, over each shoulder). I toe the speakers in until my head is no more than 10° to 20° off axis.
The bass is great like this. While this was just dumb luck, I suspect this may be true with most subs. There are no serious pressure nodes this close to my sub, and I can hear any sound it makes, right down to its cut-off frequency.
If you are a critical listener, a system needs to be very quiet at this distance. I'm using this system at a distance where most users would cross a room to place their ears close to the speakers when checking for noise or distortion.
Since I spend a lot of time on this PC, I opted for the quietest cooling solution I could find; Zalman's Reserator 1 with no fan. I have installed a small pump in the case to drive the circulation rate up. No engineering applied, I just looked at the operating temperatures before and after installing the second pump. Both the CPU and video processor temperatures dropped 15° F after the change. I mention this because it is easy to increase the flow rate of the coolant to the point where it doesn't spend enough time in contact with the high temperature elements in the system to absorb all of the heat it can. In extreme cases, the operating temperatures reported by the chips will increase after adding a bigger pump. My effort proved to be successful, the CPU in my PC runs at about 105° F, and the video chip runs at 111° F under a light load and has never gone over 130° F. The case has two 80 mm fans running at about 600 RPM to extract some of the additional heat left in the case. On water cooling:
For silence, I haven't seen anything like Zalman's Reserator1. Sure, it's big, but it just sits there, looking kinda cool (and it makes a good foot warmer in the winter). I'm sure there are other passively cooled solutions out there, I just haven't seen them.
The first time I did this, I tried the giant video card heat sink that covers the whole card. It looked mondo cool, and worked great, then you throw it away when you upgrade. Now I use a small chip cooler for the video processor chip that may work on the next card I buy.
Danger Den is a good source for pumps and CPU water blocks.
Swiftec from Newegg worked fine for the video chip.
Small passive pin style heat sinks for the memory chips are working fine for me (I don't game though).
Since moving to a server for data storage, I went with two fairly quick 80 GB hard drives. No capacity issues, the programs are on the C drive and the page file and local data are on the D drive.
I'm still using my old Creative Audigy Platinum sound card. It may not be state of the art, but it does have an amazingly clean stereo analog output.
The actual components in the system are:
Intel i7-860 CPU
Asus P7P55D
Four GB of RAM
EVGA GeForce 9800 GTX video card
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130339
Swiftech VGA Water block
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835108095
Swiftech memory chip heat sinks
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835108071
Six year old Antec tower case (rattles and hums)
I've had to put foam or foam tape between the face plate and the frame.
The fans are rubber mounted
The water pump is rubber mounted and the rubber blocks are anchored with double sticky foam tape
The HD racks are tied down, but slightly isolated with foam tape
Seasonic 500W power supply (very quiet)
Smallest, not-slow hard drives I could find for cheap
Western Digital Caviar Blue hard drives, 7200 RPM, 8 MB cache
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136195
I wouldn't want to be in the same room as 15000 RPM Raptors and I can't afford solid state drives yet.
BD-ROM + DVD/CD Burner
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827106300
For BluRay movie Play Back
Rosewill 3.5" internal card reader and USB port
Cooling system;
Old Reserator1 reservoir.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835118015&Tpk=reserator%201
This does exactly what it should;
Handles mid-level heat loads (no overclocking, single video card)
Makes no noise at all (take the top off the reservoir, no water in it, and turn on the pump for a few seconds, you will hear a tiny whir)
This system now includes a Danger Den 12 V pump (installed in the case)
The low flow pump in the base of the Zalman Reserator was not enough for the smaller video chip cooler and the 100 W load from the CPU
Danger Den MC-TDX water block for CPU
Swiftech VGA Water block
Swiftech memory chip heat sinks
Case Fans
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835186031
Rubber isolated mounts, quiet fans that work.
This is proving to be a very successful system, it has no problems running any of my main applications while watching high definition TV or listening to music. The 32" monitor is an older Olevia 720 P TV. This has proven to be a great monitor with a huge working area area for spreadsheets and AutoCAD. It also presents a good TV image, even at 3'. When I finally upgrade to a full 1080 P TV I'll stay with the 32" size, the video will be even better, and apps will look even sharper. Right now, the AC is running, and its vent is the loudest thing in the room. With the AC and ceiling fan turned off, a very low level air-flow sound can be heard, and, if you listen hard for it you will occasionally hear HD head activity. Occasionally, the sides of the case will resonate. I can usually stop this by pressing lightly in the middle of the panels. When I get the chance, I'm going to try some heavy sound deadening mats on the inner surfaces of the side panels, I think it will stop this.
I'm still running XP Pro, along with Office 2003, IE8, AutoCAD 2004 Mechanical Desktop, SolidWorks (2007), SounEasy, PCB express, and other audio testing and design programs.
The following are used for Audio-Video (see HTPC Clients - Bedroom System for screen shots and more info):
Playback;
As of December 2010, I've switched to J.River MC. XBMC is gone...
Music
Plays wave files and mp3s
Internet Radio
DVD movies
Plays VOB files using the .IFO files
Works for both multiple TV episode videos and movies
Total Media Theater Platinum
Plays BluRay Movies (automatically launched by J.River MC)
Beyond TV Link
Looks to the BTV service on the server to;
Play live analog and HDTV channels from my cable provider
Play Recorded HD and Analog TV
Ripping;
DVD Fab for DVDs and BluRay movies
As of December 2010, I'm also using J.River MC for ripping my new CDs to wave format. (I was using Exact Audio Copy (EAC) for ripping music CDs to wave format.)
I've found Amazon.com to be a great source for album art.
Find the album cover and save the picture as "folder.jpg"
Put this file in the folder containing the album and XBMC will use the folder image for its thumbnail image.
This PC doesn't function quite like a dedicated HTPC. I sit close to it, and use my keyboard and mouse more often than a remote control, even when using the media software. So far, this isn't a problem, all of the media players work with mouse control, and the Firefly remote that came with the Beyond TV software does a good job controlling the media applications when I want to use the PC from my easy chair across the room. Event Ghost was used to allow the FireFly Remote to control J. River MC and TMT3 functions.
Jay R. Taylor
March, 2010
Home Computers as Audio Source Components HTPC Clients - Bedroom System Server Network Throughput Considerations
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