Advice: First Time HTPC Build - £300

Alexrose1uk · 23 Aug 2010 at 17:58

C.R.A.Z.Y said:
Acer Aspire Revo R3610 Dual Core, 2gb ram, 250gb hdd, Linux - £189.99

You can then get a 640gb 2.5" hdd for about £50

Thats a route Im considering, then installing Win7 on it and using DXVA with the Ion. I was going to use XBMC but it doesnt play all my files correctly, and Im a little concerned about the hardware being underpowered for slightly more complicated decoding setups once filters are applied and also running off the GPU, its only a 9300, and the CPUs not exactly potent enough to take up much slack

The OP has money for more powerful hardware, so fair play to him, the Revo is good, but has its limitations. Revo doesn't have a remote either which is a bit of a shame

Bitzal · 23 Aug 2010 at 18:25

Thanks Alexrose1uk

Id prob buy that today only its payday friday.

I suppose i could buy chip + other parts and rest on friday

Thanks for your help!

Reality Bites · 23 Aug 2010 at 23:03

how are you guys turning the centre on and off? Does the remote do all you need it do to? Or, do you need a wireless keyboard/mouse setup?

Cycrow · 23 Aug 2010 at 23:50

would depends on the media center software.

but u can usually setup the remote to do everything you need.
some can even startup and shutdown the pc too.

althou the power button usually works fine for that if not

Reality Bites · 24 Aug 2010 at 07:57

I was going to use win7 like th op and media centre. Is it better to use something else for bd playback?

The Deuce · 24 Aug 2010 at 08:57

cant understand why people are suggesting a gfx card when the OP has said the htpc is for movies/streaming and no gaming! Buy a mobo with onboard gfx, go for a 9300/9400 chipset which plays 1080p without any fuss. If you use a single drive for both OS and storage/files then you will experience slowdown if you are downloading straight to HDD, personally a small hdd for OS and large storage is a better option if affordable.

A lot more info and build suggestings are at avforums.com have a pop over there some VERY clued up people visit there and here.

Alexrose1uk · 24 Aug 2010 at 11:28

Recommending a GPU because I have heard whilst basic decoding is fine, when you add additional hardware accellerated filters this is not always the case (in fact someone recently commented they experienced the same with a basic 54xx series card but not a 55xx card because specs are that bit higher), plus the 5 series will bitstream hd audio codecs and the OP mentioned BD playback and an AV amp at a later date, which the 9 series won't. If you noticed its not a gaming series card I specced.
Dual HDD was already recommended.

C.R.A.Z.Y · 24 Aug 2010 at 14:44

Alexrose1uk said:
Thats a route Im considering, then installing Win7 on it and using DXVA with the Ion. I was going to use XBMC but it doesnt play all my files correctly, and Im a little concerned about the hardware being underpowered for slightly more complicated decoding setups once filters are applied and also running off the GPU, its only a 9300, and the CPUs not exactly potent enough to take up much slack
The OP has money for more powerful hardware, so fair play to him, the Revo is good, but has its limitations. Revo doesn't have a remote either which is a bit of a shame

The Revo plays 1080p x264/h264 without even breaking a sweat due to the NVIDIA® ION™ which is fully supported in XBMC. As for the remote XBMC again fully supports the official MS remote or you could buy an array of other compatible remotes. http://wiki.xbmc.org/index.php?title=Remote_Control_Reviews

Pound for pound your not going to make or find a better HTPC than the Dual Core £189.99 Revo with XBMC installed imho.

The Deuce · 24 Aug 2010 at 15:19

Alexrose1uk said:
Recommending a GPU because I have heard whilst basic decoding is fine, when you add additional hardware accellerated filters this is not always the case (in fact someone recently commented they experienced the same with a basic 54xx series card but not a 55xx card because specs are that bit higher), plus the 5 series will bitstream hd audio codecs and the OP mentioned BD playback and an AV amp at a later date, which the 9 series won't. If you noticed its not a gaming series card I specced.
Dual HDD was already recommended.

Really! I must be imagining things with my 9400 series board then, cos I'm damned sure my AV amp receives bit streamed audio from my onboard video. :cool:

remy87 · 24 Aug 2010 at 15:25

I just built a HTPC from 2nd hand parts on MM here
totaled up to about £150 with Antec Fusion Micro is around £55-60 if you look around. Can only fit matx board and low profile PCI slots.
Looks very sleek and do a very good job
so If you want something slimmer get the Antec Micro Fusion.

The Deuce · 24 Aug 2010 at 15:34

The Deuce said:
Really! I must be imagining things with my 9400 series board then, cos I'm damned sure my AV amp receives bit streamed audio from my onboard video.

Apologies Alexrose, I do stand corrected, my board delivers multi streamed pcm and not bit streamed audio, but saying that, I still receive dolby digital, dts, dts HD true HD and more so in my opinion it would still be worth look.

Alexrose1uk · 24 Aug 2010 at 15:49

C.R.A.Z.Y said:
The Revo plays 1080p x264/h264 without even breaking a sweat due to the NVIDIA® ION™ which is fully supported in XBMC. As for the remote XBMC again fully supports the official MS remote or you could buy an array of other compatible remotes. http://wiki.xbmc.org/index.php?title=Remote_Control_Reviews

Pound for pound your not going to make or find a better HTPC than the Dual Core £189.99 Revo with XBMC installed imho.

No pound for pound it is very good, no disagreements but I wasn't just talking decoding but with additional filters. Unfortunately xbmc doesn't play nice with all my 720p files even just decoding using vdpau (on systems massively over spec, so tis not the PCs), I got stutter whilst testing it, so I won't be using it, and on the xbmc forums there are talks of newer revos seeming to be slightly different to the old ones as they no longer perform flawlessly with all blu ray rips even, and again stutter, after a certain build date. Check the Linux help forum in the avatar thread. My own files have issues with xbmc in both Windows and Linux versions, but run fine on other programmes like mpc and wmp, and my media streaming box so xbmc isn't infallible, which is a shame as otherwise I was going to use it myself, I don't feel comfortable recommending the setup because I've seen issues myself, although may get a revo for windows and dxva. Also the lack of remote is a shame.

The op has money to build something more solid, plus he wants to use windows, so why not?

@Deuce - no worries and you are right, still a valid choice. Getting that bitstream light on your decoder is nice too psychologically though haha. My amp actually handles audio more effectively from bitstream than lpcm from my ps3 also, not everything plays equally, although I'm not using cheap amp.