Building a budget HTPC

YOUR BASKET
1 x Gigabyte GA-E350N-USB3 AMD Hudson M1 DDR3 Mini ITX Motherboard £81.98
1 x Thermaltake Element Q mini-ITX HTPC Case - 220W Power Supply £56.99
1 x Sandisk Ultra SSD 60GB 2.5" SATA-2 Solid State Hard Drive - (SDSSDH-060G-G25) £49.99
1 x Crucial 4GB (1x4GB) DDR3 PC3-10600C9 1333MHz 204-Pin SODIMM Module (CT51264BC1339) £16.99
1 x OcUK Professional 2.5" to 3.5" SSD Adaptor Plate - Black £4.99
Total : £222.95 (includes shipping : £10.00).



This is an example of a budget HTPC. The E-351 is a motherboard and APU all in one. It is quite capable of 1080p playback and is used in several of the Revo models.
The SSD will help with quick booting and quiet operation as it has no moving parts.
The only thing it won't do it play back 3D MLC files natively, so if 3D is something you may consider then you will need the next model up which is the E-451. (An extra £20-£30)
You can easily install openELEC on this with XBMC - they has AMD APU specific installs as well which will help: OpenELEC Fusion Builds

This should leave you with some extra ££ left over for a 2TB HDD to put in your PC which you can put your media on - or get an BluRay disk drive to play Blu Rays from.
 
buckeejit said:
I'm a bit unsure now as it will be placed under my tv and my mum's room is right below mine and she already complains about the noise of my PC lol. ****, looks like the microserver idea is out the window :(
Click to expand...

The ones I've heard aren't THAT loud - no louder than a small PC. However, for a lot of people, they find them loud. However, I just like having my equipment out of the way. It's mainly the HDD that make the noise, so getting a single platter drive, or some WD greens may be sensible. You can install quieter fans and use a passive gfx card for example.

If noise is an issue something like the Revo (c£170) would suit you well then as it's as quiet if not more than a laptop - which gives you a budget for a NAS or External hDD solution if you want.

The microserver is a bit more of a dedicated box, and it's not really designed for an HTPC - however can be used as such very well as it makes it an "all in one" solution rather than lots of peripherals (which I hate).
 
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I find my Microserver not to noisy, I have it in my living room with 4 Samsung drives @ 2tb with Freenas 8.

I use AC Ryan to play my movies, but I am looking at going a different route.
 
R088ieS86 said:
YOUR BASKET
1 x Gigabyte GA-E350N-USB3 AMD Hudson M1 DDR3 Mini ITX Motherboard £81.98
1 x Thermaltake Element Q mini-ITX HTPC Case - 220W Power Supply £56.99
1 x Sandisk Ultra SSD 60GB 2.5" SATA-2 Solid State Hard Drive - (SDSSDH-060G-G25) £49.99
1 x Crucial 4GB (1x4GB) DDR3 PC3-10600C9 1333MHz 204-Pin SODIMM Module (CT51264BC1339) £16.99
1 x OcUK Professional 2.5" to 3.5" SSD Adaptor Plate - Black £4.99
Total : £222.95 (includes shipping : £10.00).



This is an example of a budget HTPC. The E-351 is a motherboard and APU all in one. It is quite capable of 1080p playback and is used in several of the Revo models.
The SSD will help with quick booting and quiet operation as it has no moving parts.
The only thing it won't do it play back 3D MLC files natively, so if 3D is something you may consider then you will need the next model up which is the E-451. (An extra £20-£30)
You can easily install openELEC on this with XBMC - they has AMD APU specific installs as well which will help: OpenELEC Fusion Builds

This should leave you with some extra ££ left over for a 2TB HDD to put in your PC which you can put your media on - or get an BluRay disk drive to play Blu Rays from.
Click to expand...

Thanx mate, I think I'm going to go with this although I might choose a different case. You talk about a HD to put media on - I've already got an external drive, could I connect via wireless (power line) to play bluray files and the like?
 
It depends on the external drive. Does it have an ethernet port or does it only have USB?
If it's just USB then you will have to plug it into your media center or your upstairs PC and share it from there.

I mentioned the drive because, as an example, RJC has a media server. He's using the MicroServer to hold all the media files then using an AC Ryan to play them from.
These are similar devices: link

Connect these up to your network and stream any media files that are compatable with them.
 
R088ieS86 said:
It depends on the external drive. Does it have an ethernet port or does it only have USB?
If it's just USB then you will have to plug it into your media center or your upstairs PC and share it from there.

I mentioned the drive because, as an example, RJC has a media server. He's using the MicroServer to hold all the media files then using an AC Ryan to play them from.
These are similar devices: link

Connect these up to your network and stream any media files that are compatable with them.
Click to expand...

I don't want to get a media streamer. The HD's are hooked up to my PC now, will I need to connect to the PC via wireless to gain access when sharing the drive?
 
Guys, I've been hunting and I came across one of my old PC's which has the following motherboard and I was wondering if it could be used for an HTPC?

ConRoe945G-DVI
LGA 775 for Intel® Dual Core Core™ 2 Extreme / Core™ 2 Duo / Pentium® D / Pentium® 4 / Celeron® D processors
Intel® 945G Chipset
Supports FSB 1066/800/533 MHz processor, EM64T CPU and H-T Technology
Supports Dual Channel DDR2 667/533 x 4 DIMM slots with max. capacity up to 4GB
Intel® Graphics Media Accelerator 950, Pixel Shader 2.0, DirectX 9.0 and Max. shared memory 224MB
1 x PCI Express x16 slot, 1 x PCI Express x1 slot
Supports PCIE Gigabit LAN 10/100/1000 Mb/s
Dual VGA Output: Support D-Sub and DVI-D ports with DVI Graphics-SI Card by independent display controllers
Hybrid Booster - Safe Overclocking Technology
Untied Overclocking : During Overclocking, FSB enjoys better margin due to fixed PCIE/ PCI Buses
4 x SATA2 3.0 Gb/s connectors
7.1 CH Windows® Vista™ Premium Level HD Audio (ALC888 Audio Codec)
Worldwide First Embedded MB with Windows® Vista™ Premium Logo
Free Bundle: 1 x DVI Graphics-SI Card HD 8CH I/O: 4 ready-to-use USB Ports, HD 7.1 channel audio jacks


If it would work, could I get a graphics card with HDMI for my HTPC? Think I would just need to upgrade the Ram.
 
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It has a PCIe lane in it which will fit a graphics card so yes it would work.
What CPU is in it?
How much RAM?

will I need to connect to the PC via wireless to gain access when sharing the drive
Click to expand...
with the above motherboard you would have to get powerline adapters or use the spare PCIe x1 lane for a wireless card.
 
R088ieS86 said:
It has a PCIe lane in it which will fit a graphics card so yes it would work.
What CPU is in it?
How much RAM?
Click to expand...

To be honest mate, I don't know. I can't see it :(

IMG_0607.jpg


edit: I booted it up and it says that it's Intel 2160 @ 1.80GHz if that helps?

In system info, it said Processor: x86 Family 6 Model 15 Stepping 2 Genuine Intel ~2015MHz

1GB Ram, I'll need to upgrade this.
 
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With a graphics card that would work absolutely fine. I have a e2160 in my media server. Very low powered chips.

How big are those HDDs in there? you can use them for storage if you build your library up! I'd still recommend a 60GB SSD, will be faster and quieter.

The motherboard is mATX so if you wanted to find a case there are a few HTPC cases out there that support mATX boards. Google "Silverstone ML03" Its a nice looking case that won't break the bank.
 
Thanx R088ieS86 but I think I'll have to scrap that idea as I wanted to plug an optical cable into the HTPC for sound but it appears there's no output, I think it should be S/PDIF.
 
Love those speakers :) I have some.

Looks like your back to something similar to the Hudson M1 build I posted above, which has optical output or maybe a sound card, some have optical out... unsure as I have never used one. If you don't fancy that case you probably won't need the SSD adapter because most other cases house 2.5" drives.
 
Think I've made my decision - Just going to built it up from using the contents of my old PC and I'll see how I go.

It's got XP on it at the min, could I use that or am I better using Linux?

If I get a powerline adapter, can I use wireless for my current PC as well as the HTPC? An ethernet cable is plugged into my PC at the min. How would connect the HTPC to my PC to get files of the external HD connected to my PC? Sorry, I'm stupid lol.
 
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Ive got a hp microserver for storing the media and then Ive got an acer revo connected to my tv with xbmc for playback.

Works a treat :)
 
buckeejit said:
Think I've made my decision - Just going to built it up from using the contents of my old PC and I'll see how I go.

It's got XP on it at the min, could I use that or am I better using Linux?

If I get a powerline adapter, can I use wireless for my current PC as well as the HTPC? An ethernet cable is plugged into my PC at the min. How would connect the HTPC to my PC to get files of the external HD connected to my PC? Sorry, I'm stupid lol.
Click to expand...

Provided they're both connected on the same network just map the drives to each other.
 
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