About 3 weeks ago
Cheap HTPC XBMC build - Less than £100
- Thread starter wildest_jjk
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About 3 weeks ago
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Nope I cannot find it for that price you mentioned. I really don't think it's officially being sold in this country!
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I need to make a decision then really although its difficult. Either I take a risk with the Pi and hope it will work with everything I need. Or I spend a little more and build a custom HTPC.
Custom pc all the way
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Not sure whether or not its worth going with an FM2 socket instead of an AM1 in terms of future proofing.
If you go through google shopping there are a few options from the bay (US) or shops in europe, but still at like double a typical AM1 mobo cost. Shame, it's like the most compelling case to go AM1 and it shouldn't cost so much more.
Might be worth posting on the 'things you wish OCUK would stock' board!
Ah I know! Try searching for the Biostar A68N-5000 
(also not stocked by OCUK) It's an A4-5000, fanless w/heatsink, integrated onto a mITX board. Seems to be going for £55 which is a very good deal. The A4-5000 seems to be pretty much the Athlon 5150, with a 15W TDP.
(also not stocked by OCUK) It's an A4-5000, fanless w/heatsink, integrated onto a mITX board. Seems to be going for £55 which is a very good deal. The A4-5000 seems to be pretty much the Athlon 5150, with a 15W TDP.
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As far as I can see the Motherboard/CPU combinations are as follows:
This is a minefield because even second hand components don't seem to be much cheaper. Unless I'm looking at the wrong thing.
The case/PSU is still causing problems but I'm still looking. Not sure how worth it the Biostar board is to be honest.
- AMD Athlon 5350 + Gigabyte GA-AM1M-S2H (Mini-ITX) ~£65.98
- AMD Athlon 5350 + ASRock AM1H-ITX (Mini-ITX, no PSU needed) ~£91.99
- AMD A4-5300 + MSI A55M-E33 (Micro-ATX) ~£56.94
- Biostar A68N-5000 (AMD A4-5000) ~£55
This is a minefield because even second hand components don't seem to be much cheaper. Unless I'm looking at the wrong thing.
The case/PSU is still causing problems but I'm still looking. Not sure how worth it the Biostar board is to be honest.
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I'm using an Intel NUC (Celeron) in my bedroom, runs OpenELEC and works absolutely fantastic
Silent, only uses 17w of power and plays 40GB full HD 1080P rips flawlessly
You can get the Intel DN2820FYKH NUC for £92 from the tree place, and then just add a 30GB mSATA HDD, or if you're tight, a USB stick, and then a 2GB DDR3 SODIMM. Don't bother with the Ivybridge/Haswell models, they are considerably more expensive and use the same amount of power (17w). OpenELEC doesn't require much CPU power so save the money.
I prefer the mSATA though as its quicker
Worth looking into
I'm going to change my living room HTPC to one of these, from an Intel Core i3 2100T with ATI 5570 and 4GB of RAM
It's just overkill for running XBMC alone and takes up much more space
a friend has the Pi running OpenELEC and the NUC is leaps and bounds faster and will run whatever you throw at it within XBMC
Good luck
Silent, only uses 17w of power and plays 40GB full HD 1080P rips flawlessly
You can get the Intel DN2820FYKH NUC for £92 from the tree place, and then just add a 30GB mSATA HDD, or if you're tight, a USB stick, and then a 2GB DDR3 SODIMM. Don't bother with the Ivybridge/Haswell models, they are considerably more expensive and use the same amount of power (17w). OpenELEC doesn't require much CPU power so save the money.
I prefer the mSATA though as its quicker
Worth looking into
I'm going to change my living room HTPC to one of these, from an Intel Core i3 2100T with ATI 5570 and 4GB of RAM
It's just overkill for running XBMC alone and takes up much more space
a friend has the Pi running OpenELEC and the NUC is leaps and bounds faster and will run whatever you throw at it within XBMC
Good luck
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'Powercool Q5' can be found around, mini ITX case with a 180W PicoPSU built in.
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Another good find! There's even a Powercool K3i which has a 120W PSU do you think that would be enough?
Thanks
Thanks
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Thanks for your advice! I am still looking at the NUC's but I think I can build an HTPC for pretty much the same price or even less.
It depends what I prefer I guess!
Cheers
Another good find! There's even a Powercool K3i which has a 120W PSU do you think that would be enough?
Thanks
TDP of these Kabini/J1800/J1900 SOC systems is like 25W at full chat. That gives you some headroom and then some
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Hey can I ask what case you use? I don't think I've asked yet.
Cheers
The case i use is too big for under the Tv its the Coolermaster 130 Elite but coolermaster must have issues with making these cases as the ssd holes dont line up.
2nd hand is the way to go
E8200 - £15
4gb ram - £20
P35 board - £15
5450 ati card - £25
300w xfx psu - £20
Any old cheap case will do, plus the cost of hard drives.
That's what mine cost about 2 years ago with parts from members market etc - runs everything fine 1080p, full HD audio, XbMC etc
E8200 - £15
4gb ram - £20
P35 board - £15
5450 ati card - £25
300w xfx psu - £20
Any old cheap case will do, plus the cost of hard drives.
That's what mine cost about 2 years ago with parts from members market etc - runs everything fine 1080p, full HD audio, XbMC etc
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Ok thanks
Hmm if I can find the parts a lot cheaper than that then maybe. But I can't see me saving much really when compared against some of the newer components.
I still haven't decided!