Designing Next Generation Media Center PCs Scott Vouri Gen. Manager, Multimedia NVIDIA Corporation Keith Uhlin Home Theater System Integrator Push To Play, LLC

Session Outline What is a 2 nd generation living room PC? Feature sets and price points of first generation Sharpening the pencils 2 nd generation feature sets and price points Form factors and back panels Generation 1 versus consumer A/V components A different approach Designing a quieter PC Designing a cooler PC

What Is a 2 nd Generation PC? Feature set Price points Form factor and back panel design Noise Heat

Typical Feature Sets And Price Points MC PC 1 MC PC 2 MC PC 3 CPU Speed 2.8GHz3GHz3GHz Memory256MB1GB512MB Hard Drive 40GB80GB200GB Opto Drive DVD-ROM CD/RW+DVD- ROM DVD+RW/+R Maximum Decoding Resolution Standard Definition 1080i MPEG-2 Maximum Display Resolution 1280 x x x1536 Analog Tuners 012 ATSC Tuners 000 Form Factor Desktop Living Room Price$499$1099$1799 Source: Various online computer sales web sites

Sharpening The Pencil

New Price Points Gen2 PC 1 Gen2 PC 2 Gen2 PC 3 CPU Speed 3GHz3.5GHz4GHz Memory512MB512MB1GB Hard Drive 120GB120GB250GB Opto Drive DVD+RW/+RDVD+RW/+RDVD+RW/+R Maximum Decoding Resolution Standard Definition 1080i MPEG p WMV 1080i MPEG p WMV Maximum Display Resolution 2048 x x x1536 Analog Tuners 122 ATSC/DVB-T Tuner 001 Form Factor Living Room Price$630$915$1160 Source: Various online computer component sales web sites

New vs. Old MC PC 1 Gen2 PC 1 MC PC 2 Gen2 PC 2 MC PC 3 Gen2 PC 3 CPU Speed 2.8GHz3GHz3GHz3.5GHz3GHz4GHz Memory256MB512MB1GB512MB512MB1GB Hard Drive 40GB120GB80GB120GB200GB250GB Opto Drive DVD-ROMDVD+RW/+R CD/RW+DVD- ROM DVD+RW/+RDVD+RW/+RDVD+RW/+R Maximum Decoding Resolution Standard Definition 1080i MPEG p WMV 1080i MPEG p WMV Maximum Display Resolution 1280 x x x x x x1536 Analog Tuners ATSC/DVB-T Tuner Form Factor Desktop Living Room Price$499$630$1099$915$1799$1160

Form Factors and Panel Designs Typical Media Center PC chassis

Emerging Chassis Styles

Form Factors and Panel Designs Typical Media Center PC back panel

A Different Approach – Familiar Grouping

Current Media Center PC Noise Levels Measured using ISO Standard 7779: 1st microphone is placed 50 cms above box and 2nd microphone is placed 50 cms in front of box and 120cms above ground at angle of 45 degrees MC PC 1MC PC 2MC PC 3 Ambient Reading 40 dB33 dB36 dB

Current Media Center PC Noise Levels Comparative noise levels Traffic 60 – 70 dB Quiet urban night 40 dB Whisper 25 dB A human can distinguish a change of 3 dB MC PC 1MC PC 2MC PC 3 Ambient Reading 40 dB33 dB36 dB

CPU Coolers Big and slow is better than fast and noisy Passively cooled is even better (how about 0 dB?) Designing a Quieter PC Power Supply Units Temperature controlled work best Speed increases as temperature rises Spend the effort to find quiet fans

Current Media Center PC Heat Levels Measured using thermistors placed on major components plus inside and outside of case. Measured at idle and while recording two TV shows plus playing a DVD. MC PC 1MC PC 2MC PC 3 Internal Temperature 34.4 C40 C37.6 C

Designing a Cooler PC Choose a CPU with low power consumption See popular review web sites Take advantage of demand based speed and power technology Bundle software that make sit easy for the end user CPU cooling technology has come a long way

Designing a Cooler PC Now we need to focus on other components

It’s All About Air Flow Do Leave plenty of space around hard disk drive Direct air flow at the hard drive Direct air flow across gpu and tuner cards Use extra case fans

It’s All About Air Flow Don't Block airways with cables Stack graphics and tuner cards too close together HDDTunerGPU Temperature w/ indirect airflow 56 C62 C64 C Temperature w/ direct airflow 50 C57 C59 C

Call To Action Maximize your customers’ living room experience by designing PCs with More powerful feature sets High definition video Compelling price points Attractive form factors Consumer friendly back panels No noise Passively cooled components

NVIDIA Solutions for a Cool and Quiet PC GeForce 6600 Passive High Definition PureVideo NForce chipsets nTune software automatically adjusts settings to find coolest quietest operation of CPU, GPU,MCP, RAM, Voltage and Fans Hardware firewall offloads CPU for media-centric tasks NVTV Better TV than your television

Community Resources PSU and CPU Cooler Manufacturers Info on building cool and quiet living room PCs center/default.mspx

Additional Resources Web Resources: Whitepaper, sample BOMS, noise and heat data: nvidia.com

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