March 15, 201016 yr Well, I do have one other motivation for the Mac Mini... Wife and I are expecting in May, and from what I've seen of iMovie (or is it iDVD now? I can't remember) it's pretty much the simplest movie editor ever. I'd like an easy way to store and edit home movies for our use, but that won't be the main function of the box for sure. I realize that this too, probably isn't worth the premium, but I'm an Apple honk, so what can I say? iMovie is a great piece of software. (iDVD is used to make DVDs from the stuff you create in iMovie) It's a basic video editor that's easy to use but still has enough features that you won't feel limited. Plus, if you decide that you want more features, Final Cut Express uses a lot of the same interface stuff so the transition would be fairly easy. This is why I like my Mac Mini as a HTPC - it's a great HTPC but I also use it for desktop-stuff too (Handbrake encodes, recording old VHSes and editing them, etc - stuff that is related to media center functions technically...). Which is why an Atom-based HTPC was not really ever an option for me. I certainly see the appeal of an Atom-based box though - they're so cheap, and the new ION-based ones can play 1080p.
March 15, 201016 yr Author @Rajahal: Thanks a bunch! I'm contemplating using NewEgg's no interest credit option to buy the remainder of my machine... have to get said Wife's approval first before doing that though. Looks like I'll need some Cat6 as well to run my wires to my basement. Dunno if I want to know how much that will cost. I only need about 50 feet plus a package of ends, and I'll have to buy a new crimp tool for the Cat6 too. Dammit, I make things so complex! @jdmlight: That's sort of how I justified buying the Mini (that I haven't bought yet) was that it would be used for "all things media", which Apple just seems to handle so seemlessly with their bundled software.
March 15, 201016 yr Looks like I'll need some Cat6 as well to run my wires to my basement. Dunno if I want to know how much that will cost. I only need about 50 feet plus a package of ends, and I'll have to buy a new crimp tool for the Cat6 too. Dammit, I make things so complex! Cat5e is much easier to work with and will do gige just fine. Thats what I wired my whole house with a couple years ago.
March 15, 201016 yr Author Cat5e is much easier to work with and will do gige just fine. Thats what I wired my whole house with a couple years ago. VERY good to know. Will be much cheaper and I already have the equipment (still need the cable) to do that!
March 15, 201016 yr @Rajahal: Thanks a bunch! I'm contemplating using NewEgg's no interest credit option to buy the remainder of my machine... have to get said Wife's approval first before doing that though. Looks like I'll need some Cat6 as well to run my wires to my basement. Dunno if I want to know how much that will cost. I only need about 50 feet plus a package of ends, and I'll have to buy a new crimp tool for the Cat6 too. Dammit, I make things so complex! I just set up a late 2009 2.26 ghz Mac Mini for HTPC with EyeTV for OTA recording. I was going to make my own cables but in the end I got all my cat6, MDP to HDMI and audio cables from MonoPrice and all is well. I'm recording 2 1080p channels while watching a 3rd from just one 1TB Seagate drive connected via a USB emergency drive connector So now I'm gathering parts for my unRaid. Just ordered a Corsair 400 PSU.
March 15, 201016 yr Cat5e is much easier to work with and will do gige just fine. Thats what I wired my whole house with a couple years ago. VERY good to know. Will be much cheaper and I already have the equipment (still need the cable) to do that! check out www.monoprice.com for CAT5e and CAT6 cables. Monoprice has the best prices around for this type of thing.
March 15, 201016 yr Author check out www.monoprice.com for CAT5e and CAT6 cables. Monoprice has the best prices around for this type of thing. Actually tried to do that earlier... site is down for maintenance though :-(
March 16, 201016 yr Author check out www.monoprice.com for CAT5e and CAT6 cables. Monoprice has the best prices around for this type of thing. Actually tried to do that earlier... site is down for maintenance though :-( WOW. Their prices are insanely good. I'll be buying a couple 30ft Cat6 cables from them. Way cheaper and more reliable than making them myself.
March 16, 201016 yr WOW. Their prices are insanely good. I'll be buying a couple 30ft Cat6 cables from them. Way cheaper and more reliable than making them myself. Indeed they are!! I have only made one cable at home (a run through a wall) but the rest I have bought from them. At work we make our own all the time, but that is so we have the exact footage that we need and not much more.
March 16, 201016 yr Author DING DING DING! AND IT'S OVER! HE JUST COULDN'T RESIST IT ANY LONGER! COOLER MASTER Centurion 590 RC-590-KKN1-GP Black SECC (N82E16811119152) - $69.99 SUPERMICRO MBD-C2SEA-O LGA 775 Intel G45 HDMI ATX Intel Motherboard (6 SATA Ports) (N82E16813182161)- $124.99 CORSAIR CMPSU-400CX 400W ATX12V V2.2 80 PLUS... etc (N82E16817139008) - $39.99 After MIR Intel Pentium E5300 Wolfdale 2.6GHz LGA 775 65W Dual-Core - Retail (N82E16819116074) - $61.99 G.SKILL 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10600) Dual Channel Kit (N82E16820231134) - $64.99 2 Western Digital Caviar Green WD10000CSRTL 1TB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Drives (N82E16822136236) - $189.98 Lexar JumpDrive FireFly 2GB USB 2.0 Flash Drive (N82E16820191269) - $9.99 All Components Purchased Parts Cost - $566.92 Shipping Costs - $15.05 Total Cost - $581.97 I'm very happy with this machine at this price. I'm super stoked for it to get here. My PSU that I ordered Friday when there was a deal on it will be here today, but the rest will probably arrive Friday. I also managed $5.00 more off my processor on their St. Patrick's Day deal as well... so I saved a total of $20 in discounts total. Let's just say I have the world's best wife, who told me to go ahead and use the Newegg 12 months same as cash deal on their credit card. I'll be moving from talking hardware to talking config very soon!
March 16, 201016 yr Congrats on the purchase(s). And your a lucky man to have a wife like that. For now at least I don't have to worry about the waf (wife approval factor), but I figure if I get most of this stuff out of the way now, I don't have to worry about it later. All my crap will come along with me
March 16, 201016 yr Author Yeah, she knew she was marrying a geek, and along with that came computers and video games. She grew up with it with her dad, so she should know what to expect. I'm just glad she puts up with it
March 19, 201016 yr Author Well, the rest of my kit arrived today! 5:00 cannot get here fast enough. I'll post pics on what $581.97 has purchased shortly. Last night I loaded my two hard disks and my PSU into the case, so I only have the mobo/processor/RAM left to do. Hope to be up and running by 7:00 tonight!
March 20, 201016 yr Author So after much frustration, I'm finally up and running. Right now I can only use 1GB of my 2GB of memory. For some reason if I install both sticks, the machine powers on for about 1 second and then powers off. After a couple seconds it will try to power on again, then power back off. If I use either stick of RAM on it's own, it works perfectly. Frustration #2 was an easier one. It should be noted in the docs that when preparing your flash drive, if you're using Windows 7 (and I'm assuming Vista too) that you need to go to the properties for the executable and mark it to run as administrator. Otherwise it doesn't let you have access to the drive's MBR. Up and running now though, and the machine has been calcing parity for a while. Gonna let it do it's thing overnight and then check out how to use it in the morning.
March 20, 201016 yr I assume you are putting them in DIMM1a (nearest CPU) and DIMM2a (third from CPU)? Try setting the memory manually rather than relying on SPD to set it up correctly. Either of these should work. DDR3-1333. DRAM Timings tCL 8 - tRCD 8 - tRP 8 - tRAS 24 - Command Rate 2. DRAM Voltage 1.65V DDR3-1333. DRAM Timings tCL 8 - tRCD 8 - tRP 8 - tRAS 21 - Command Rate 2. DRAM Voltage 1.65V I hope the Supermicro will let you choose a voltage other than 1.5V, being a server grade board they tend not to have such choices and rely more on people buying tested/approved RAM modules. Gskill is generally aimed at the gaming market where bios tweaking is positively encouraged. [email protected] are very helpfull and may have a setup that works with this board.
March 23, 201016 yr Author Unfortunately, I cannot find anywhere in the BIOS that allows me to set anything to do with the RAM. I went to turn it on the other day, and it did the same thing with only a single stick for a couple seconds before actually starting. I put the other stick in and have had no problems since so I'm starting to think I just have bad RAM. Gonna RMA :-(
March 23, 201016 yr You should run Memtest on both sticks (individually) just to be sure. It would be quite the annoyance to RMA one stick just to find out a bit later that the other stick is bad as well.
March 23, 201016 yr Author It was a dual channel kit, so they're both going back. It's just annoying to have to send anything back, so yeah, I'll run Memtest on it before they go back.
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