Recipe for a Silent SG33G5M Home Theater PC (HTPC)

December 13, 2009

1. Replace the default Power supply with the Shuttle PC62 power supply. PC62 is a fanless, 90+ efficiency design and delivers 220 Watt which is suitable for high-performance Shuttle system configurations. (remember: this is a Home Theater PC, not a Game PC).
2. Use an ATI Radeon HD 4550 Graphics card for the best blu-ray display. Make sure it has a HDMI-output and has a fanless design like Gigabyte GV-R455D3-512I.
3. Get a blu-ray dvd-drive. My current blu-ray drive - Pioneer BDR-202 - is NOT a good choice: with some blu-ray discs it spins to fast and makes noise. LG GGC-H20L seems to be an excellent drive for playing blu-ray.
4. Software: Corel WinDVD Pro 2010 + Slysoft AnyDVD HD.
   note 1: I have WinDVD 9 Plus blu-ray (january 2009). This software is not available anymore and is replaced by Corel with WinDVD Pro 2010.
   note 2: WinDVD has a great 'plus': the fantastic upscaling capabilities for standard DVD thanks to software called ALL2HD. It's not only about upscaling but also about reducing judder and improving image quality. There is no need to replace your standard DVD's with BD-DVD's...
   note 3: the most important piece of software is AnyDVD HD. This will provide a hassle free environment for playing any DVD!!! This is the only piece of software that needs regular updates to make sure you can play the latest blu-ray discs. Updates of AnyDVD HD are easy to install (average size of 5 mb).

Some final remarks

As of may 2008 I have a silent SG33G5M HTPC with great Blu-ray capabilities. Only 1 problem left: the bd-drive - Pioneer BDR-202: with some dics it makes noise.

In january 2009 the blu-ray capabilities improved with a new ATI Radeon HD 4550 graphics card: Gigabyte GV-R455D3-512I.

2009 has been a fantastic blu-ray/dvd year! I own over 20 Blu-ray titles now and I am fascinated by the improvement of image and sound quality of blu-ray compared to standard DVD. With my SG33G5M I never experienced any display problem with any DVD and the quality of both image and sound is comparable with top-quality stand-alone blu-ray players.

TIP

Replace your Shuttle remote (and all other remote controls) with a Logitech Harmony One. It's not only a good way to get rid of all those remote controls but it also proves to be a BETTER remote control for your SG33G5M. I quess the remote signal from the Harmony One is much stronger which makes it much easier to control your HTPC. With the Logitech Harmony One it's easy to control Windows Media Center and Corel WinDVD.

• Intel Core2 Duo E6750,
• 2 Gb DDR2 667mhz Dual Channel Dane-Elec,
• HD Samsung Spinpoint 250 Gb Sata2,
• BD-DVD drive: Pioneer BDR-202
• Shuttle PC62 fanless power supply
• Operating system: Vista Home Premium