That title should have actually read: My HTPC Could Wake the Dead, but its getting much quieter. It’s been quite a while since I’ve discussed HTPC’s (mine in particular) so I thought a quick re-cap and update of where I’m at with my system might be in order.
Late last summer I picked up the idea of building a HTPC (for the third time) and finally followed through with it. However one aspect in particular wound up quite different than what I had originally intended, the operating system. Back in August I indicated that I had no intention of using Vista in my HTPC but my version of MCE (circa 2004 as far as I can tell) just wasn’t operating as smoothly as I’d hoped, so with that and against better judgment I tried Vista. I’m really glad I did.
Yeah I’d heard all the horror stories, the wailing and gnashing of teeth over driver incompatibilities and the near furor over Vista’s handling of DRM. The funny thing is, outside of a few minor quirks, Vista’s been a pleasant surprise to use and I honestly wouldn’t consider going back to a XP based media center solution.
Maybe I’m just the luckiest guy in the world (I can rule that out right now) or my particular flavor of hardware compliments Vista but I honestly wasn’t expecting this level of enjoyment out of my “new†HTPC. One thing I was expecting however was a noisy machine and I certainly got one. Here’s a good rule of thumb for building home theater PC’s folks, no matter how much you plan on spending to make t quiet, add another 15-25%. Building one is a breeze, getting it quiet enough to tolerate being in the same room with it is another story altogether.
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