1st Time HTPC Build

riskyfrisky · 8 May 2012 at 20:22

Hello folks,

I'm really keen on the idea of building an HTPC for the purpose of recording TV shows through a standard freeview signal, however, i don't have any clue as to what hardware will best suit my needs.

The OS is taken care of (Windows 7) but the rest of the components are a mystery.

The case needs to be as small as I can get away with, and I would prefer a remote control too. Other than that, a standard mechanical HDD i think would be best rather than an SSD due to capacity; a decent freeview tuner card and a dvd drive.

I would like the HTPC to connect to my 1080p TV too so would i need a discrete GPU rather than an integrated solution?

I look forward to your opions - cheers!

mremulator · 8 May 2012 at 21:35

riskyfrisky said:
Hello folks,

I'm really keen on the idea of building an HTPC for the purpose of recording TV shows through a standard freeview signal, however, i don't have any clue as to what hardware will best suit my needs.

The OS is taken care of (Windows 7) but the rest of the components are a mystery.

The case needs to be as small as I can get away with, and I would prefer a remote control too. Other than that, a standard mechanical HDD i think would be best rather than an SSD due to capacity; a decent freeview tuner card and a dvd drive.

I would like the HTPC to connect to my 1080p TV too so would i need a discrete GPU rather than an integrated solution?

I look forward to your opions - cheers!

For the case I HIGHLY recommend the OrigenAE M10 (see my review on product page). For the CPU, it depends on your budget... I'm currently building a HTPC using an i7-3770S 3.1GHz (3.9 turbo) 65W. 8GB RAM, low profile Radeon 6670 GPU & slot loading Blu-ray ODD. This will be a killer little rig, however, an i3 or i5 and 4GB RAM is also fine for a media PC.

Get the best GPU you can afford though. You really need this IMHO, as it will make a BIG difference when playing back 1080p in MPC (Media Player Classic) for example and you start adding shaders etc. Also helps with Blu-ray hardware acceleration etc. Not to mention gaming.

Bigsy · 8 May 2012 at 23:39

Totally overkill in my book.

Integrated is totally fine, get a cheap llano and run it of a picopsu, it will handle any kind of HD content you care to throw at it, minus the heat and noise.

mremulator · 9 May 2012 at 08:50

Bigsy said:
Totally overkill in my book.

Integrated is totally fine, get a cheap llano and run it of a picopsu, it will handle any kind of HD content you care to throw at it, minus the heat and noise.

Simply not true. Try and play a 1080p MKV with DTS HD Master Audio and add "Sharpen Complex" as a shader in MPC... it will drop frames. Also how can a £60 dedicated GPU be overkill? Got to be worth every penny IMHO. Obviously any i3, i5 or even current AMD CPU is fine.

Legion · 9 May 2012 at 12:51

riskyfrisky said:
Hello folks,

I'm really keen on the idea of building an HTPC for the purpose of recording TV shows through a standard freeview signal, however, i don't have any clue as to what hardware will best suit my needs.

The OS is taken care of (Windows 7) but the rest of the components are a mystery.

The case needs to be as small as I can get away with, and I would prefer a remote control too. Other than that, a standard mechanical HDD i think would be best rather than an SSD due to capacity; a decent freeview tuner card and a dvd drive.

I would like the HTPC to connect to my 1080p TV too so would i need a discrete GPU rather than an integrated solution?

What are you looking for power wise?
i3 cpu's are quite zippy in windows but the IGP is a bit pants and drops frames playing 24p content.
Depending on the content you want to play, the intel cpu's are the only ones that may warrant an extra gpu purchase.

Llano is a bit slower but much better suited to HTPC due to the quality and oomph of the IGP.

If you want ultra low power E350/E450 is the way to go, but bear in mind anytime these cpu's cant use gpu acceleration, they are pretty much dead in the water.
I have an Asus E45M1-I Deluxe board in my office HTPC with a Blackgold BGT 3600 card for recording HD content onto a 2gb green drive.
Case is a Wesena ITX 7-2. Sony slimline slot loading BD drive, 4gb ram, 120w pico psu.

This runs Win7 64bit, I use WMC (windows media centre) to playback recorded tv and XMBC for playing back 1080 mkv's from my server.
I also use Winamp for playing back FLAC files on this little box.

Power draw is a seriously impressive 22w system draw playing 1080 mkv's.

Personally and if I were you I'd go with a dual core Llano it's middle of the road with power draw and it will playback anything you can throw at it without ever having to worry if the igp is going to cope with it.
The only exception maybe mremulator's MPC custom settings.

Google Wesena/Streacom cases, they have ir kits as an added extra and don't forget you will also need a pico psu to power these cases.

Blackgold would be my choice for a tv card every time, pricey but well worth the money.

riskyfrisky · 9 May 2012 at 13:23

Superb; the advice on this forum is top notch, thanks chaps!

To be honest the idea of this HTPC build only came to me the other day, so right now i'm just taking all the advice in and looking to see what my options are. There is no specific budget but I am certain that I won't be going for an i7 because I already have a gaming rig (not an i7, but it does the job at the mo and I did get advice recently on upgrading it, which I will be doing).

Getting to the specifics - now that i've put more thought into it - i'm not sure if i need a discrete GPU. I already have a blu-ray player in my PS3 but it gets used so much that it may be a good idea to include a blu-ray drive in the HTPC. Would a Llano IGP have enough grunt for blu-ray purposes? There won't be any games played on it, so if I can manage with an IGP based solution I will.

I'm looking into your case suggestions now - thanks again.

cereal3 · 9 May 2012 at 14:42

Pretty sure llano will handle blu rays just fine

Legion · 9 May 2012 at 14:44

riskyfrisky said:
Would a Llano IGP have enough grunt for blu-ray purposes?

Yes!

riskyfrisky · 10 May 2012 at 13:05

mremulator said:
For the case I HIGHLY recommend the OrigenAE M10 (see my review on product page). For the CPU, it depends on your budget... I'm currently building a HTPC using an i7-3770S 3.1GHz (3.9 turbo) 65W. 8GB RAM, low profile Radeon 6670 GPU & slot loading Blu-ray ODD. This will be a killer little rig, however, an i3 or i5 and 4GB RAM is also fine for a media PC.

Get the best GPU you can afford though. You really need this IMHO, as it will make a BIG difference when playing back 1080p in MPC (Media Player Classic) for example and you start adding shaders etc. Also helps with Blu-ray hardware acceleration etc. Not to mention gaming.

I can see why you would recommend the Origen case, it is a beautiful HTPC case, though the price did make my eyes water. That's my first choice for the case anyway. The plan is to get a Socket FM1 board in there with a Llano chip, along with a freeview tuner and 4 gigs of ram.

Are any of the FM1 boards known to be too large for the Origen case? Looking at some of them and they do look like a tight squeeze to be honest.

mremulator · 10 May 2012 at 13:22

riskyfrisky said:
I can see why you would recommend the Origen case, it is a beautiful HTPC case, though the price did make my eyes water. That's my first choice for the case anyway. The plan is to get a Socket FM1 board in there with a Llano chip, along with a freeview tuner and 4 gigs of ram.

Are any of the FM1 boards known to be too large for the Origen case? Looking at some of them and they do look like a tight squeeze to be honest.

Any Mini-ITX mobo will fit. The trick is in the cable management. I use micro SATA cables, which are so thin, they can easily be routed beneath the mobo. If you go for the Origen, get yourself a Zalman Fanmate II or similar, as the 60mm intake fan is noisy at full speed. Oh... Silverstone or Intel coolers only; I have found nothing else fits in this case (if you are using a dedicated GPU).

riskyfrisky · 10 May 2012 at 13:46

mremulator said:
Any Mini-ITX mobo will fit. The trick is in the cable management. I use micro SATA cables, which are so thin, they can easily be routed beneath the mobo. If you go for the Origen, get yourself a Zalman Fanmate II or similar, as the 60mm intake fan is noisy at full speed. Oh... Silverstone or Intel coolers only; I have found nothing else fits in this case (if you are using a dedicated GPU).

I'd have to replace the fan to be honest, i really do not want a fanmate (got one on my gaming rig, but i prefer automatic fan control).

Exploring another avenue, i've got my old Phenom II X3 720 gathering dust, I could well use that in something like the Lian Li PC C33. I know it's much bigger than i would have liked but my TV would fit on top, so it's an option.

If i do go for the Origen case, you've pretty much sorted the build for me though!

mremulator · 11 May 2012 at 09:22

riskyfrisky said:
I'd have to replace the fan to be honest, i really do not want a fanmate (got one on my gaming rig, but i prefer automatic fan control).

Exploring another avenue, i've got my old Phenom II X3 720 gathering dust, I could well use that in something like the Lian Li PC C33. I know it's much bigger than i would have liked but my TV would fit on top, so it's an option.

If i do go for the Origen case, you've pretty much sorted the build for me though!

The OrigenAE is fantastic. Don't forget the iMON HD display, remote sensor and slot loading ODD bay. Regarding the fan... all 60mm case fans are noisy buggers. You defo need a little fan controller IMHO. I'll have pics of my new build up later hopefully BTW.

cokecan · 11 May 2012 at 09:56

I would also recomment the Streacom FC8 as a slightly cheaper and 100% passive alternative (and potentially silent depending on noise level of the HDD) to the M10

Both me and Bigsy have one cooling an i3 2120T and Llano A6-3500 respectively

riskyfrisky · 11 May 2012 at 12:57

Well, i've had a change of heart chaps, i've decided to go for the Lian Li option. I already have the X3 Phenom II, a gigabyte mobo, memory and several desktop hard drives that are all currently in a midi tower case running Windows XP and it never gets used.

In an ideal world i'd have the Origen because it is a cut above, but this way all i need is the TV tuner, a wireless keyboard with touchpad and the Lian Li case to wrap it all in. It will sit below my TV nicely and will hopefully not look too bulky; that's my only concern.

It's not set in stone yet though so plenty of time to make a final decision.

The Deuce · 11 May 2012 at 16:57

I'm currently using a Llano HTPC setup, A3870k. For those that say this setup wont handle blu-ray, I've never heard so much rubbish, the AMD will whip the Intel into shape in an htpc configuration, it's far more suited to it than a poor performing IGP Intel setup. Obviously couple a decent gpu with an i3 or i5 then the intel wins hands down, but that's not what an htpc is, it's meant to be SILENT

mremulator · 12 May 2012 at 08:29

The Deuce said:
I'm currently using a Llano HTPC setup, A3870k. For those that say this setup wont handle blu-ray, I've never heard so much rubbish, the AMD will whip the Intel into shape in an htpc configuration, it's far more suited to it than a poor performing IGP Intel setup. Obviously couple a decent gpu with an i3 or i5 then the intel wins hands down, but that's not what an htpc is, it's meant to be SILENT

Who in this thread said that Llano "wont handle blu-ray" ??

Oh... My Saphire HD6670 LP is silent BTW ;-)

The Deuce · 12 May 2012 at 11:42

mremulator said:
Simply not true. Try and play a 1080p MKV with DTS HD Master Audio and add "Sharpen Complex" as a shader in MPC... it will drop frames. Also how can a £60 dedicated GPU be overkill? Got to be worth every penny IMHO. Obviously any i3, i5 or even current AMD CPU is fine.

mremulator said:
Who in this thread said that Llano "wont handle blu-ray" ??

Oh... My Saphire HD6670 LP is silent BTW

errr YOU did, maybe you should re-read what you've written

btw my crossfired 6670 with my apu is silent also :rolleyes:

if we are willy waving!

Bigsy · 12 May 2012 at 11:51

Well technically a hd6670 isn't silent unless its passively cooled? Either way the big psu required to power it won't be silent.

Llano will even do 3d blueray without issue. And to be honest I find it difficult to believe a llano can't handle these hd filters in mpc, is there any evidence of this?

My llano can easily play very high quality 10-bit mkv perfectly these aren't even gpu accelerated at all and still don't push the cpu to no where near its limits.

The Deuce · 12 May 2012 at 12:52

Bigsy said:
Well technically a hd6670 isn't silent unless its passively cooled? Either way the big psu required to power it won't be silent.

Llano will even do 3d blueray without issue. And to be honest I find it difficult to believe a llano can't handle these hd filters in mpc, is there any evidence of this?

My llano can easily play very high quality 10-bit mkv perfectly these aren't even gpu accelerated at all and still don't push the cpu to no where near its limits.

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-268-SP&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=1983

and no big psu to power it as it uses the power from the mobo only

Bigsy · 12 May 2012 at 14:32

The Deuce said:
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-268-SP&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=1983

and no big psu to power it as it uses the power from the mobo only

Eh? That makes no sense? It's 66watts that power has to come from somewhere.