Hands on: How to build a Viiv system

Media PCs branded with Intel’s Viiv logo are now on sale, but many people are confused as to how these differ from existing systems running Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005. After all, key Viiv features, such as infra-red remote control, instant on and off, and the ability to record, pause and rewind live TV, are all supported by MCE 2005.

Now that motherboards sporting the Viiv branding are also available, we’ve put together our own DIY system to see what’s really on offer.

Viiv hardware
The heart of any Viiv system is a compatible motherboard, and we used the Asus N4L-VM DH which costs about £90 from Scan. The N4L is a MicroATX motherboard featuring Intel’s 945GM chipset and the required network and audio components.

We fitted an Intel Core Duo T2600 processor, which runs at 2.16GHz and costs about £340 from Dabs; this was one of the fastest models at the time of writing, but slower and cheaper Viiv-compliant versions are also available.

A modern Serial ATA (Sata) hard disk supporting Native Command Queuing (NCQ) is a requirement for Viiv. We used a 300GB Seagate Barracuda 7200.9 model. Viiv doesn’t have minimum requirements for memory, but we fitted a pair of high-performance Crucial 1GB Ballistix DDR2 PC2-6400 Dimms.

Preparing for Viiv
As explained in the Viiv requirements box, it’s crucial to install the correct operating system and drivers, but first you’ll need to modify several settings in the motherboard’s Bios.

To support Viiv’s instant on and off feature, you will need to enable Quick Resume in the Power Management settings; on older motherboards or Bioses this may still be known by its codename ‘Energy Lake’.

While in the power management Bios section, we’d also recommend switching the Standby mode from S1 to S3. This gives you the flexibility of implementing an alternative sleep mode to Quick Resume. The switch from S1 to S3 must be made before installing Windows.

This alternative also requires ‘S3 wake-up by USB’ to be enabled which, on some motherboards such as the Asus N4L, requires a jumper adjustment – see the manual. Other motherboards may allow you to select S3 wake-up by USB with a Bios setting in the power management section.