Spec me Media streaming/HTPC

Recently been enjoying streaming to my Chromecast from my phone, although I think I would enjoy the convenience of having a dedicated machine. I'm not quite sure what the difference is between a media pc or home theatre pc. I have built a gaming rig, figured a pc for media might be cheaper. I had considered the Raspberry Pi route, although when I watched some YouTube videos showing the playback, I noticed that the videos would freeze occasionally. I also looked looked into amd 5350 which gets mentioned quite a lot another video shows that it too also stutters sometimes.


I guess what I am after is something that is relatively small (mini-itx), quiet, and can stream 1080p. Planning on using Linux or OpenElec. Bonus points if it is able to run snes/ sega genesis emulators (not really too concerned with this). Not too concerned whether it's and Intel build or AMD, as long as it's fine outputting 1080p without stutters

Budget is £100-£300. I understand that is low and that I may need to look into buying some part second hand. I am really just looking for baseline that I can work off of. I know Kaby Lake is about to release, not sure about Zen, which may lower the prices of older components a bit (or increase them).

Many thanks

Have you looked at android tv boxes?

I have a Minix U1 with kodi installed to playback video.
You can use it to view pictures and listen to music but I just use a file browser for that.

Being android, I would assume there are emulators out there too.

Nvidia are just about too/have released a newer version of the shield, which are meant to be the best boxes.

SimonC said:

Have you looked at android tv boxes?

I have a Minix U1 with kodi installed to playback video.
You can use it to view pictures and listen to music but I just use a file browser for that.

Being android, I would assume there are emulators out there too.

Nvidia are just about too/have released a newer version of the shield, which are meant to be the best boxes.

Click to expand...

I haven't considered Android at all, didn't really think about it. I kinda assumed that these android boxes don't last long but will have a look at it again. I'm guessing the Nvidia shield stuff will be expensive; a friend of mine had one until he had to send it back due to the battery not holding charge.

It plugs into the mains, no batteries needed, so not sure what he had?

I've had mine year and half or so works perfect still, air mouse, cheap £10 bluetooth keyboard, stream from my nas, good stuff.

SimonC said:

It plugs into the mains, no batteries needed, so not sure what he had?

I've had mine year and half or so works perfect still, air mouse, cheap £10 bluetooth keyboard, stream from my nas, good stuff.

Click to expand...

I remember the thing he showed me looked like a clamshell nintendo DS sort of thing. Did a quick search, I can see Nvidia has updated it to a tablet

This one is what I mean.

https://www.nvidia.co.uk/shield/shield-tv/