Posts: 14
Threads: 1
Joined: Jul 2007
Hello,
New to the forum and CQC :-) I am planning on building a CQC box soon.
A few questions.
What is the general requirements for a decent HTPC box to run the program?
I was thinking along the lines of this
Intel E4400 (2.0Ghz) 2M L2 Core 2 Duo Processor
PCI-E Slot Mother board (Asus or other)
Kingston 2GB 667Mhz DDR2 RAM
400GB SATA II Hard Drive X 2 (Raid 0 or 1?)
18x DVD Dual Layer Burner
256 MB video card (Nvida 6800 or better?)
Integrated 6 Ch Audio or sound card (how important is this?)
Integrated 10/100/1000 Lan
450W PS (or greater if required by video card)
I was originally going to put them into a rack mounted case but I don't think I'll have room in my rack now and will likely just stick the CQC box in my AV closet.
Will I need anything else to add to the box or am I missing something like R-232 support that will be required?
Components I have (will likely need drivers for just about everything as I didn't see them on the list)
Display & Video devices
PJ is a Infocus / Kodak 333 ( cinema series of the Infocus 777)
HD-DVD player XA1
Xbox 360
PS 3
Receiver
Sherwood Newcastle R-965
Sherwood Newcastle HSB-600 (HDMI Switcher)
amps
Flying mole cascade
Crown CE2000
Behringer Euro 2500
2 x Behringer FBD (feed back destroyers for the Crown and Euro amps)
Cheers
Calvin
Posts: 14
Threads: 1
Joined: Jul 2007
Almost forgot.
I will be using Insteon lighting controls with dimmers for my lighting in the HT (sconces and small LED's in stairs for back row riser).
Here is a link to my build with lots of pics along with my trials and tribulations over the last months bringing this project to life.
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthrea...ge=1&pp=30
Looking forward to some responses on the parts list and suggestions.
Cheers
Calvin
Posts: 7,970
Threads: 554
Joined: Mar 2005
Will that PC be dedicated to CQC? If so, your hardware list will be insulted by how little CPU CQC takes. It ran fine on my AMD2500, 512MHz for a year.
If it will also be rendering video (ie, theatertek or SageTV or ...), that's another story...
Posts: 40,483
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You could definitely go for less CPU if it's just going to be for running CQC. For the drives you want RAID1. Two 300GB drives is fine for ripped music plus the OS plus CQC.
If you want video, then consider a separate machine for that, because that puts a lot of load on the machine and can tend to destablize it. You want to keep this machine dedicated to automation.
Dean Roddey
Explorans limites defectum
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Any thoughts about having the CQC Server on the Windows Home Server OS? I think someone already tested it out on that and it worked fine, but would you see any drawbacks long term? I like the idea of just having one computer running 24/7, and since you can schedule backups during the off hours, it seems like it would make since.
Blake
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IVB, Blake, Dean,
Thanks for the posts. I won't have much music on the system and likely won't be using a PC to store and play DVD's as to be honest most of my viewing lately has been HD-DVD or Blu-ray and I don't think you can copy them (legally anyways) onto a HD.
Would it be better to run XP or Vista for CQC as that will effect the specs of the machine more then CQC will I think.
If I go with XP I can likely get by with less RAM, and much cheaper video card it sounds like.
That system I had quoted with out the video card is already a pretty basic cheap system up here in my area - I can have that preconfigured an installed at a local OEM for under $600 + what ever I wish to spend to upgrade the Video card and I upgraded the HD to 2 x 400 gig the original system has only one 250 gig drive but everything else is included in that price (box, power supply everything)
How does the visuals on the touch screen relate to the video card in the CQC box ? Do the flashier templates require much power in that regard ?
Cheers
Calvin
Posts: 1,907
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Joined: Feb 2004
Quote: Would it be better to run XP or Vista for CQC as that will effect the specs of the machine more then CQC will I think.
If I go with XP I can likely get by with less RAM, and much cheaper video card it sounds like.
I'd suggest XP, there really is no advantage to running Vista on a system dedicated to CQC.
Quote:How does the visuals on the touch screen relate to the video card in the CQC box ? Do the flashier templates require much power in that regard ?
A touch screen connected to the master server is going to be a very light load. Probably the most significant graphic load is either the cover art browser with animation or a big rollout of a template. Both of those are easily handled with just about any modern video card by ATi or nVidia , no need to go to any extreme.
We also have had quite successful installations with the RDP products from
Touchtronix which end up not using the main video at all.
Mark Stega
Posts: 31
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Joined: Feb 2006
I would like to see some sample screens that use the UBUIRT device and include a bunch of pre-imported IR device that the rest of the community has already created. This would help people get started right out of the box to see the real power of CQC. I'm in the trial stage and have had to spend all of my time modifying someone else's screens, since the downloadable packs don't contain the macro code, to work with IR directly and import IR codes for devices that people are commonly using and have supported RS232 drivers.
Example Devices:
Denon 3806
Hughes HD-HTL
OPPO DVD player
XBOX 360
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Mark Stega Wrote:I'd suggest XP, there really is no advantage to running Vista on a system dedicated to CQC.
A touch screen connected to the master server is going to be a very light load. Probably the most significant graphic load is either the cover art browser with animation or a big rollout of a template. Both of those are easily handled with just about any modern video card by ATi or nVidia , no need to go to any extreme.
We also have had quite successful installations with the RDP products from Touchtronix which end up not using the main video at all.
Thanks for the information Mark I'll look into the Touchtronix screens and do some research on them.
Do you or anyone else know if any of the equipment I have installed has any CQC Drivers yet or will I have to get someone to make them as I know nothing of programming these things?
Cheers
Calvin
Posts: 1,907
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Joined: Feb 2004
The Denon is supported. The Hughes might be, it depends if it follows the protocol implemented in the DirectTV driver. I would imagine the Oppo would be IR controlled. No idea about the XBox, how/why would you control a gaming device?
Mark Stega
