The Viking Is Coming.....As An HTPC

That's a United States Navy Lockheed S-3 "Viking". Which is the network name for the new bedroom HTPC I'm in the process of building. It's being named according to my network convention of using fighter names for notebook computers, transport aircraft for servers (natch.), and for the various desktops I use have reconnaissance or electronics warfare planes. In an earlier posts I discussed my main desktop workstation, the "Blackbird", as well as our file server, running WHS as the "Hercules". The "Viking" is a little special, and unusual for me in that, not only is it relatively up-to-date computer, but so named in honor of my friend Eric who flew one of these while in service of our country.

 OK, back to the computer end of things. A few months ago, my brother (who else) emailed me to see if I wanted a motherboard that he had replaced. But of course! It's a Mini-ITX form-factor, Zotac H55-ITX, which is an Intel Socket LGA 1156 board, running the H55 Northbridge chip and capable of handling i7/i5/i3 CPUs, complete with onboard b/g/n WiFi! Let me just put it out there that, that's pretty fancy hardware in this neck of the woods!

He even included a cool running i3, and a Gelid Siberian CPU cooler. All I need to get is some DDR3 RAM, and a case to put it in. Things went along slowly largely because I had other projects that took priority and also because I wanted to do it "right". Meaning I wanted to put it in the "right" case, with the "right" power supply, and the "right" boot drive. What that translates into is a compact case, that looks good, but wasn't so small that it wouldn't cool well, plus I strongly prefer a regular ATX PSU instead of something unusual (read: expensive). 

This turned out to be the Cooler Master Elite 120. It not only takes a regular PSU, but a full-sized optical drive as well. Well; imagine that.....just happen to have one of those sitting out in the garage right now! Along with that, I was able to track down a Seasonic SS-430HB power supply as well, so it should be stable AND quiet.

Last night I came across a fellow ThinkPad Forum member selling a new Samsung Series 470, 64Gb SSD for $52.

Of course, I'm also going to throw in a regular mechanical drive as well so that it won't be completely dependent on the server. There happens to be a 2.5" Hitachi 500Gb Travelstar that I've been hoarding for several months now just waiting for the right opportunity.

 
All that's left to do now is to run down some RAM, wait for the parts to show up and enjoy having a HTPC/DVR in our bedroom!