Budget HTPC - where to start?

grumpycrab

grumpycrab

grumpycrab

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18 Mar 2005
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74
Another year, another look to see if there is such a thing as a budget+useable+watchable HTPC. Min reqs:- Blu ray+DVD RW, HDMI to TV, wireless LAN, neat/quiet enough black desktop case to sit under the TV.

No, I don't want a PS3!

That's it really; I don't need TV tuner (we've a PVR which does that job without fuss.). The driving forces behind the requirement are to play Blu-Ray and DVD without fuss and to enable the d/l of TV shows in AVI format and to play them on the TV (hooking my laptop up to do this is a real pain).

If somebody can suggest a case and m/board I'll take it from there. Thanks.
 
iCore 3 has easily got be best value for Money - choose a H55 m-ATX Motherboard you have HDMI LAN HD Audio. Add 2GB or 4GB Memory, Optical Drives, Hard Drive and youre good to go.

If youre not using PCI Slots then a slimline HTPC Case will suffice.
 
i3 is overkill.

Get a Sempron 140 (£20) an AM2+/AM3 board. and win.

I personally got an AMD nvidia 8200 mainboard. Plays my blu-ray flawlessly.

If you want a little more zip get a
AMD Athlon II X2 Dual Core 240

Personally my Sempron 140 plays everything I need.
 
I am on my 4th HTPC. Here are a number of useful points from my experience:

1) Dont bother with blu ray in a HTPC. Get a standalone player. They are cheap now <100 quid. There is no software that integrates well into the HTPC environment to play blu ray. Power DVD IMO, is a bag of sh&t. Also standalone players are as cheap now as blu ray readers!

2) Get the Zotac Ion N330 Ionitx A. 125 quid.

3) Stick in 2GB of ddr2, eg

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MY-060-KS&groupid=701&catid=8&subcat=813 .40 quid.

4) Use a 2.5 inch harddrive, eg

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HD-198-SE&groupid=701&catid=14&subcat=896. 40 quid

Or for extreme performance an SSD like:

Kingston SSDNow V 64gb. Which I got for mine. 100 quid.

4) Put in all in the a M350 Universal Mini-ITX enclosure (google it), which you hang behind your TV. 35 quid.

5) Download the live CD for Linux XBMC. Free.

http://xbmc.org/download/

6) Read the XBMC forums. Update the graphics driver for the Nvidia chipset on the Zotac.

Enjoy boot up times of < 5 seconds with ssd. Play mp3, flac, 1080p/720p mkv and avi.

Total cost with no SSD=240 quid. With SSD, 300 quid.
 
entireweb said:
I am on my 4th HTPC. Here are a number of useful points from my experience:

1) Dont bother with blu ray in a HTPC. Get a standalone player. They are cheap now <100 quid. There is no software that integrates well into the HTPC environment to play blu ray. Power DVD IMO, is a bag of sh&t. Also standalone players are as cheap now as blu ray readers!
Click to expand...

Couldnt disagree more. I use Arcsoft TotalMedia Theatre 3 with Slysoft AnyDVD HD (for some minor encryption issues but thats more down to my TV). Integrates with MS Media Center (windows 7) perfectly, yet to have an issue.
 
neil_g said:
Couldnt disagree more. I use Arcsoft TotalMedia Theatre 3 with Slysoft AnyDVD HD (for some minor encryption issues but thats more down to my TV). Integrates with MS Media Center (windows 7) perfectly, yet to have an issue.
Click to expand...

Rubbish, your talking ****, my man. The point of a "real" HTPC is to stick it in the living room, and use it with nothing but a remote control. Your method, which we all know about, doesnt allow that. Even if it did, you Arcsoft sh&t + any dvd solution, costs more than a proper Blu Ray player FFS.

Its people like you, and your ***** Lian Li power waster, that give this forum a bad name. BTW MS Media Center:) WHAT A NOOB man. Use Linux, its free and ***** on your solution.
 
Last edited:
oookay...

how come it works with a generic media remote then? anyway im replying to the OP's original wanted spec.
 
I would second that.. they make great htpc.. Ive got the standard 330.. and with XBMC as the media front end, its second to none...
 
entireweb said:
Rubbish, your talking cr&p, my man. ...
...Its people like you, and your sh&tty Lian Li power waster, that give this forum a bad name. BTW MS Media Center:) WHAT A NOOB man. Use Linux, its free and sh&ts on your solution.
Click to expand...

Do you have something against neil_g or do you just like moaning and trying to annoy people cause this is the 2nd thread that you've come along and published your ideas while insulting others.
I believe this is the behavour that gives forums a bad name, not someone publishing their opinions that fit what an OP was asking for.

No one has a problem with you sharing your opinions about media centres, but why insult people at the same time?
 
entireweb said:
Rubbish, your talking ****, my man. The point of a "real" HTPC is to stick it in the living room, and use it with nothing but a remote control. Your method, which we all know about, doesnt allow that. Even if it did, you Arcsoft sh&t + any dvd solution, costs more than a proper Blu Ray player FFS.

Its people like you, and your ***** Lian Li power waster, that give this forum a bad name. BTW MS Media Center:) WHAT A NOOB man. Use Linux, its free and ***** on your solution.
Click to expand...

Since when has a standalone blu ray cost less than the £46 i paid for my blu ray reader and software for the PC?

Why would I not want a keyboard to use a HTPC pc fully.

Why are you a troll?
 
entireweb said:
Rubbish, your talking ****, my man. The point of a "real" HTPC is to stick it in the living room, and use it with nothing but a remote control. Your method, which we all know about, doesnt allow that. Even if it did, you Arcsoft sh&t + any dvd solution, costs more than a proper Blu Ray player FFS.

Its people like you, and your ***** Lian Li power waster, that give this forum a bad name. BTW MS Media Center:) WHAT A NOOB man. Use Linux, its free and ***** on your solution.
Click to expand...

thats down to perspective, use it as you like man


as long as its a pc used for movies its a HTPC , linux is a bitch to set up , MS is the standard for this.. your worse then a Mac fan boy
 
errata said:
Since when has a standalone blu ray cost less than the £46 i paid for my blu ray reader and software for the PC?

Why would I not want a keyboard to use a HTPC pc fully.

Why are you a troll?
Click to expand...

he said arcsoft, anydvd and the reader....and as much as he is an arse, he's not wrong.

anydvdHD = £87
arcsoft TMT3 = £56.

...thats already more than i paid for a sony bdp-s360 with 3 films recently, and thats not even including the cost of the bd reader.
 
james.miller said:
he said arcsoft, anydvd and the reader....and as much as he is an arse, he's not wrong.

anydvdHD = £87
arcsoft TMT3 = £56.

...thats already more than i paid for a sony bdp-s360 with 3 films recently, and thats not even including the cost of the bd reader.
Click to expand...

that depends if you want your "blu-ray player" to do oh so much more though surely?
 
james.miller said:
which also depends if you want the hassle that goes with it or not:)
Click to expand...

the most hassle i had with mine was with older hardware and expecting it to muddle through, but if you build a box to cope with blu-ray and HD content then after that, for me, its been a walk in the park.
 
james.miller said:
he said arcsoft, anydvd and the reader....and as much as he is an arse, he's not wrong.

anydvdHD = £87
arcsoft TMT3 = £56.

...thats already more than i paid for a sony bdp-s360 with 3 films recently, and thats not even including the cost of the bd reader.
Click to expand...

understand your point but read his first post point 1 not his follow up.

any hd is optional, arcsoft is a premium product, no standalone player does what they can do, what a cheap standalone blu does can be replicated by a basic PC blu ray rom with power dvd circa £50 quid or in my case £47 when the pound was little stronger
 
neil_g said:
the most hassle i had with mine was with older hardware and expecting it to muddle through, but if you build a box to cope with blu-ray and HD content then after that, for me, its been a walk in the park.
Click to expand...

building it isnt the problem. i have both a standalone (well, ps3) and a htpc thats capable of bluray playback...and a laptop, and none of them are as simple as a standalone. i'm not denying its easy to build one, and relatively easy to set one up (if time consuming) but a lot of people dont want that, they want something that will play a disc and compared to putting a disc in my ps3, having it turn on automatically and play the disc automatically, there's nothing as quick or as simple that matches it imo.

any hd is optional.....
Click to expand...

if you ask a lot of people, thats very much open to debate. look at the amount of people who had to go out and buy anydvdHd just to play the latest discs because arcsoft and cyberlink were so slow at releasing updates. its silly really as it's only the ligitimate builders who get shafted...as usual.

, arcsoft is a premium product, no standalone player does what they can do, what a cheap standalone blu does can be replicated by a basic PC blu ray rom with power dvd circa £50 quid or in my case £47 when the pound was little stronger
Click to expand...

that's still £80 odd quid, and it doesnt cover things like hd audio if that's important. im not going to count the price of second hand hardware here, because you can just as easily go out and buy a second hand bluray player.

There's no easy does it all solution and although playback as improved vastly on the pc, i cant kid myself and say its as easy as a standalone.
 
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