Ponmayilal
Attitude matters
And finally my HTPC is alive and kicking.
Configuration:
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-MA78-GM-S2H: Rs.5290.00
Read review here: *www.ocworkbench.com/2008/gigabyte/GA-MA78GM-S2H/g1.htm
Processor: AMD Athlon x2 4800+ (2.5 MHz65W) Rs.3500.00
Memory:Transcend DDR2 800MHz 1GBx2 Rs.2000.00
HDD: Western Digital Caviar SE16 (16MB buffer)
250GBx2 in RAID 0 mode Rs.5390.00
DVD Writer:Samsung SH203D/IDBH SATA Rs.1180.00
FDD:TEAC 1.44 MB Rs. 280.00
OS:Windows Vista Home Premium OEM Rs.5100.00
Cabinet: Zebronics Cube (w/o SMPS) Rs.2200.00
See catalogue here: *www.zebronics.net/pro_catlog.pdf
SMPS: VIP Gold 400W Rs.1500.00
Total Rs.26440.00
VAT @4 % Rs. 1058.00
Total System cost: Rs.27,498.00
Other pertinent info:
- Gigabyte recommends a minimum of AMDx2 4200+(2.2MHz) processor plus 1GBx2 of DDR2 800MHz memory for smooth playback of HD-DVD and Blu-ray discs. AMD Athlon x2 BE-2400 (2.3 MHz) with its low Power consumption of 35W would have been a better choice, but not available right now.
- Floppy disk drive is not necessary.The RAID drivers to be loaded during OS installation can be fed from a USB pendrive.This is nowhere mentioned in the manual.
Initial Preparation:
1. Downloaded the latest Bios and drivers – Chipset, Audio,LAN,RAID - from Gigabyte website, extracted them and loaded into the pen drive.
2. Downloaded Vista (32 bit) service Pack 1 (434.5 MB) from here *www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=b0c7136d- 5ebb-413b-89c9-cb3d06d12674&DisplayLang=en and loaded it into the
pendrive.
Assembly:
The system was assembled meticulousy and after a final check, switched on, keeping an eye on the processor fan. And here was the shock. I was greeted with dead silence.Immediately I pulled out the Antec 460W SMPS from my other HTPC and tried.When switched on, the system fans turned on momentarily, to go dead immediately. (I did not see even this momentary rotation with the VIP Gold SMPS). That gave me a clue that the problem is not with the power supply and the SMPS is switching off due to an external fault.I then pulled out the power cables to the peripherals, one at a time from the system fans (3 in number), the FDD, the optical drive and the two HDDs.When the power cable to one HDD was pulled out and the system switched on, the system came alive and booted. I was very much relieved that the fault was not in the motherboard, processor or the memory.It was a holiday for Holi that day and the next day was Sunday. I could get the replacement for the defective HDD only on Monday.Anyway, I flashed the new bios using the bios-utility, installed the OS on the working HDD, played around and familiarised myself with Vista Premium.
OS Installation with RAID 0:
After I got the replacement HDD from the dealer on Monday, everything went on smoothly. I configured the RAID array in the bios and started the OS installation.At the load driver screen, I loaded the raid driver from the pendrive and installed the OS on a 50GB partition.Windows version 6.0.6000 build 6000.The installation took about 20-25 minutes.
I immediately started the SP1 installation from the the pendrive and this took about 27 minutes.At the end of it I had Windows version 6.0.6001 build 6001.
Next I installed the chipset drivers (ATI Display Driver and Northbridge Filter driver),Audio driver(ATI HDMI Audio, Realtek High Definition Audio) and the LAN driver.
A quick check of the Device Manager revealed that there are no ! or ? mark anywhere and everything is perfect. What a relief !
Once the LAN driver was installed , I was on the net in no time to check for any updates.( Almost all the updates have already been included in the SP1) Only the two following updates (12.7 MB) showed up and were installed.
Windows Malicious Software removal tool March 2008 and latest definition update for Windows defender.
Only one optional update showed up but that was an Oct 2007 Realtek LAN driver, which I ignored since I have installed the Feb 2008 LAN driver. (Windows update does not seem to have taken cognizance of this ! )
Now I have an up-to-date and clean install of Windows Vista Home Premium SP1 and I am delighted.
After a disk clean-up I defragmented drive C (25 minutes) and the final figures are
Used Space 14,17,65,42,720 bytes (13.2 GB).
So now you know that a clean install of Windows Vista Home Premium SP1 requires a minimum of 15 GB hard disk space.
(Initially I toyed with the idea of using a v-lited Windows Vista, but gave up when I stumbled upon the fact that SP1 cannot be installed on a v-lited Vista.)
And finally I partitioned the rest of unallocated space in my HDD using Windows Disk Management and here is the partition details.
C OS 50GB
D Data and Downloads 19.53GB
E Audio 78.13GB
F Photo 87.89GB
G Video 228.25GB
Windows performance:
Processor: calculations per second 5.1
Memory: memory operations per second 4.5
Graphics: desktop performance for Windows Aero 3.4
Gaming Graphics: 3D business and gaming graphics
performance 3.6
Primary hard Disk: disk data transfe rate 5.9
Windows Experience
Index Base Score ( lowest of the above ) 3.4
It’s time to back-up:
What software should I use to back-up? I have been using Acronics True Image 10 with XP and months back I have purchased the upgrade to ATI 11 also. Should I use it for Vista? Vista is known for incompatibilities with many a software. I have also read that many people who have tried ATI on their system but not happy, have problems in completely uninstalling it, to try some other back-up software. It is by now a known issue. Many of these back-up software, modify the MBR in someway, which cannot be undone by an ordinary and even experienced user.Should I take a plunge? Time to take a hard decision.
Recently I have read a rave review about Storagecrafts Shadowprotect Desktop v3.1 and here it is *www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2704,2254465,00.asp . I made a quick google search and read more about it and then the order went, my networth now less $80. I downloaded and installed it in no time and made an immediate back-up of C from within Vista . I also burnt the bootable recovery CD from the ISO downloaded alongwith the software . It uses Vista PE and once the system boots from the CD and loads the back-up software , I loaded the Raid Driver from the pendrive and checked that I am able to access the hard drive for an emergency restore. Made a trial backup of drive D from the CD also. I am sure it works fine.
To do: 1. buy an LCD monitor with HDMI input
2. buy a TV tuner card. My eyes are set on Compro
Videomate Vista E800F or E600F
3. buy a Blu-ray DVD writer
4. Order Power DVD ultra
and that will be a dream fulfilled
Last edited: