Computer Setup

Aww yiss, mutha fuckin HTPC

Nice fish tank, How hard is that to keep clean?

The edges blow to keep clean, but its awesome because the water goes past the surface, so it looks like a cube of water.

How much maintenance do fish tanks require? Also, I love the setup.

Bettas put out very little waste, plus the Amano shrimp clean and eat algae and poop, so its pretty minimal.

So it's close to maintenance free? I would have thought that a beta would kill anything else, even a shrimp. I assume that the plants are plastic.

Depends on the betta - mine would annihilate anything in it's tank. My grandmothers on the other hand has a bunch of Tetra and Guppies (Large fins - easy to nip - that's what bettas like to go for) and they've lived fin for years with no nipping incidents to report.

Didn't you say you have a shrimp in the tank with the beta? Or does the beta simply not care about the finless shrimp?

I'm not OP :) Mine had nano shrimp for a while - but they became a tasty treat at some point.

That's cool! Can I ask what the model is? Or where ya got it?

Is that the new prodigy M? If so Id love more pictures of the inside and build process if you can, ive been thinking of getting one myself!

Its the Bit Fenix Phenom. Sorry though, I don't have any more photos of the build process. :(

That's the Phenom though internally its the same as the Prodigy. But by the way the mobo is mounted it looks like he has the mITX version not mATX

Could you go into the process of this or maybe post in r/buildapc by any chance? Looking to do this exact setup as I've been looking at the bitfenix either with freeNAS or windows server.

Nice Fluval Edge, whats in it?

Amano fresh water shrimp with a crown fin betta fish. And thanks.

Very nice, cool set up (gaming setup and fish).

What's so good about the case? Is it smaller or something. I love the look of it myself

Small footprint, slick look for the living room, can fit a full sized GPU and PSU.

That...is gonna be my next computer case. :)

Just curious but why did you chose to go with the 6970? Was it an extra card, or did you actually buy it just for this?

The HD6970 and two 1tb WD Caviar Black spindle hard drives were extras I had after upgrading my primary machine. GREAT card though, blows through anything I give it.

I have the HD6970 and I can confirm it will play pretty much anything. Mine is 2 years old and still running surprisingly well.

Gotta love having that piece of hardware that just performs great for years, the best card I've ever had the pleasure of using would have to be the 8800 gt, back in the day it was amazingly priced and not much slower than the GTX, still use the bloody thing whenever something breaks

OK that's what I assumed

That's like the ideal setup. Well done sir!

Thank you. We dropped cable and use it solely for everything. Saving over $40 a month.

I'm also looking into ways to drop my satellite cable provider. What services (Hulu Plus / Netflix) have you signed up for to accommodate the loss of cable service? What seem to be the best services?

Can we get a spec-list? What games do you find work best on it with the controller?

Well, the HD6970 GPU and the two WD Caviar Black 1tb drives I already had, so I didn't put those into cost. But here's a PCPartPicker list of approximately what I paid:

I want to know how to build computers but I definitely dont know how.

There is just something so off-putting about the Times New Roman looking typeface on Thermaltake PSU's. I don't trust it.

Probably because so much cheap Chinese stuff uses serif fonts. Then again I used a 700W Thermaltake Toughpower for like seven years with zero issues, unlike the series of recent Corsair power supplies I've gone through.

OP how do you find that keyboard ? would it go good with something like plex media centre ?

It's a Logitech k400. Amazon regularly has it on sale for $20-25. amazon link

Yep. Picked mine up for $24 after waiting a month for Amazon to drop the price (it was all the up at $45).

I bought one of those. Not dissapointed, excellent battery life. Perfect reception, ok mousepad, perfect size (not too big). Must have if you have an entertainement system plugged to your TV.

I thought you needed an nVidia graphics card to stream games from another PC ~ but I have no idea.

Steam OS only supported nVidia graphics when first released, that may have changed by now, I'm not sure. But for in home streaming you just meed two steam clients on the same LAN, Windows, Linux, OSx, or even Steam OS all can be streamed to. And you can even stream non-steam games!

I'm not streaming. But if you want to stream from one PC to another within your home network, you just need SteamOS installed on the receiving PC (to my knowledge).

Steam in-home streaming works with any installation of the Steam desktop application, SteamOS is not necessary.

What software are you using to run the home theater portion?

Hah, I remember when my pc was HTPC, had that exact keyboard and controller setup. Very nice. I'm a fan of those Bitfenix cases too, I think they look so clean.

I'm planning a similar build for if/when I drop cable for an HTPC/Steambox. Was planning on just using Win7 as I have hardly any Linux experience. Did you go with Steam OS or is that just Big Picture Steam running in Windows? If Steam OS, what factored into your decision to use that over Windows?

I love the case for that purpose. Probably not for a regular gaming build, but for a living room machine? Perfect.

Great pc.... Why didn't you spend more on getting a decent keyboard though??? Or do you only use the controller for games?

Dedicated in the living room. So I use the 360 controller. If I want keyboard and mouse then I use my gaming computer setup in my office.

The Logitech K400 is the best coffee table keyboard/mouse solution for non-gaming purposes. One piece, small, lightweight, and well built. Battery lasts months.

They even claim the battery will last a year or more. Crazy.

Just bought this keyboard yesterday. it kicks ass

I've had the K400 as my HTPC keyboard for over 3 years. Never replaced the battery and it's a small, cheap solution. Sometimes they are on Amazon for $25 these days, and that's a bloody steal.

I know, I use it too for my android TV dongle.

How's the software set up on the box? I've actually been really interested in installing SteamOS to my HTPC. Do you run Plex or XMBC inside SteamOS or do you dual boot into another OS?

Ive got the same logitech keyboard/mouse for watching movies/porn in bed. I love it, although the range isn't brilliant.

I love that keyboard so much i bought 2. have them in an htpc and arcade machine. such a wonderful keyboard, and i've had it nearly a year without a battery change.

I even put my wife behind the build. Lol.

But she's behind the object... Are you an idiot or a troll?

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