Media @ Home

It all started in 2005 when I got tired of chasing my photos and music spread over several laptop and desktop systems in my home. I decided to consolidate my media library and put it on a single PC, so it would be easier to share, manage and back-up.

After weeks of unsuccessfull attempts of trying to make a blueprint for a decent do-it-yourself HTPC for under a $1000 I decided to go with a ready-made Gateway FMC-901X [review 1, review 2] bought from eBay for under $600.

The FMC-901X came with a wireless keyboard which had a built-in joystick-type mouse. It also had an IR Windows MCE remote control with a “green button” on it.

The FMC-901X had the most beautiful and functional full-size case I’ve seen (at that time), with all commonly used buttons such as Stop (A), Play (B), Pause(C), Replay(D), Skip (E), Rewind (F) and Forward (G) on the front panel.

It also had a little swing-open panel up front that housed some external ports, flash cards reader and Media Center buttons. Which allowed for a natural media-component-style look and remote-less operation if the need be.

The flash card reader allows to use any of the following cards: SmartMedia (SM), CompactFlash (CF), SecureDigital (SD), Memory Stick (MS), Memory Stick Pro (MS Pro), MultiMedia Card (MMC), which comes in handy when friends come around and you need to offload some pictures from their camera.

The original FMC-901X configuration was as follows:

• OS: Windows XP Media Center Edition 2004
• Motherboard: custom made for Gateway, 800Mhz
• Chipset: Intel® M865G
• Processor: Pentium 4 3.0GHz with Hyper Threading (HT)
• RAM: 512MB DDR400
• Hard Drive: 250Gb Ultra ATA100 7200rpm
• Optical Drive: DVD+RW/DVD-RW/CD-RW multiformat drive
• Floppy Drive: Integrated 6-in-1 memory card reader
• Video: 128MB ATI Radeon 9800 Pro AGP Graphics with VGA, DVI and S-Video Out
• Audio: Creative Labs 7.1 Audigy card with SPDIFF digital optical out
• External Ports: 4 USB 2.0 Ports (2-Rear/2-Front) and 3 Integrated IEEE 1394 (FireWire)
• Keyboard and Mouse: Wireless Multifunction Keyboard/Mouse
• Remote Control: Infrared Media Center Remote and Receiver
• TV Tuner: Integrated Hauppage PVR-250 analog TV Tuner
• Modem: V.92 56K Modem
• Network Adapter: Integrated Intel® 10/100 Ethernet Adapter
• Dimensions: 17″ x 5.75″ x 14.5″ (WxHxD), approximately 26.46lb.

Since then I did several rounds of upgrades including:

• Swapping default 250Gb HDD with 2 SATA drives 300Gb each, which required the installation of PCI/SATA adapter card. Since there were no available PCI slots in the case I had to say “good bye” to a PCI modem card (which I never used anyways);
• Adding external Western Digital MyBook (500Gb) hard drive for back-ups;
• Moving system to Windows MCE 2005 and later on to Windows Vista Home Premuim;
• Adding 1Gb of Ultra RAM to make Vista happy;
• Swapping Hauppage PVR-250 with Hauppage HVR-1600 combo analog/digital (QAM/ATSC) TV tuner
• Adding Gefen’s DVI Detective (EDID repeater) to alleviate the issue with Vista not recognizing a TV connected with DVI-HDMI connector after TV was turned off and then back on. The repeater continually transmits the EDID to the computer, essentially “tricking” the computer into thinking that the video is present, even when it is not connected. This keeps computer from deactivating inactive DVI ports.

The system works fine most of the time with some quirks here and there (did I mention it is powered by Windows? ).

The CONS in this HTPC are:

• lack of free space for further updates
• excessive heat in the case
• a bit noisy fans