Can you build a HTPC for sub £350?

NeilF

NeilF

NeilF

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Know nothing about them but I was looking to spend over £300 on a Netgear EVA9150, so if I can build a nice super friendly HTPC for the lounge running XMBC surely that must be a better option?

Only want to play videos and view photos... All I'll do it copy media to it wirelessly.

Main concerns are:-
- keeping cost down.
- must be super (girlfriend/wife) friendly to use!
- must be super quiet. I don't want to hear it! ie: No noisy PSU fans etc!
 
How does this look?

350htpc.jpg


That board had built in wifi. As for noise: the PSU is silent and you can control the one case fan through the motherboard and find an inaudible speed for it. Here is a look at that case - http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?p=13895662. Aslo, here is a review of the motherboard- http://www.tweaktown.com/reviews/1679/zotac_nforce_630i_itx_wifi_lga775_powered_mini_itx/index.html.
 
I've heard the recommended spec for running XBMC is twin 3ghz?

Also, the case would have to be typical hifi component style. ie: To fit in a media tv stand/cupboard...


Anyway, so with a remote, that cost just over £350... So it's possible :)
 
As regards actually doing PC like stuff on the machine. How do you achieve that if all you've got on it is XBMC? ie: You want to ensure its hard drive is network shared, so you can copy files to/from it from your main PC? How do you do that?

Sorry for the noooobness!
 
siumatfung said:
you buy a seperate netowrk drive which is connected to a router so all the pcs on the network can access it
Click to expand...

I'd want to put a drive locally on the machine so:-
1) I don't have to have anything else turned on to use it.
2) It's the fastest performance.
3) It would only be connected wirelessly most likely, so HD stuff could be tricky.


Again, with XBMC installed, how do I see/set the usual PC stuff? ie: How do I set a share on its drive? How would see its CPU temp. How would I install its drivers?
 
Could you not run XBMC on windows (windows 7 RC is free until march 2010). In windows you could sort out all the drivers, do usual PC stuff, overlclock if u like and then turn on XBMC when you want to use it.
 
cmndr_andi said:
Could you not run XBMC on windows (windows 7 RC is free until march 2010). In windows you could sort out all the drivers, do usual PC stuff, overlclock if u like and then turn on XBMC when you want to use it.
Click to expand...

The idea of a media player in the lounge for me is ease of use. Surely with the above scenario, you'd have to boot up into (for example XP), taking 30-40 seconds, and then from there (somehow) run XBMC? Doesn't sound very friendly, yet alone girl friend friendly?

I had the impression you could install just XBMC on a machine, and boot straight (quickly) into it?

Excuse my noobness if applicable!
 
You can indeed install XBMC on your computer and boot from it. But from what I can tell you won't be given the option to do normal pc things or monitor temperatures like you were wanting. But for simple use, then installing XBMC as the bootable OS is probably best.

However, Windows 7 boots up very fast - and if you have a shortcut to XBMC progam right in the middle of the desktop It isn't going to be difficult to run. That would then give you the option of using it as a normal PC and do normal PC networking and drive sharing alongside the media viewing.

Also - if you want HD stuff it can work over a wireless. At home I use a TP-Link TL-WR941ND wireless N router (cost me £40) and Wireless N adapters. I can easily stream 720p movie files from one computer to another wirelessly without any stuttering.
 
cmndr_andi said:
You can indeed install XBMC on your computer and boot from it. But from what I can tell you won't be given the option to do normal pc things or monitor temperatures like you were wanting. But for simple use, then installing XBMC as the bootable OS is probably best.

However, Windows 7 boots up very fast - and if you have a shortcut to XBMC progam right in the middle of the desktop It isn't going to be difficult to run. That would then give you the option of using it as a normal PC and do normal PC networking and drive sharing alongside the media viewing.

Also - if you want HD stuff it can work over a wireless. At home I use a TP-Link TL-WR941ND wireless N router (cost me £40) and Wireless N adapters. I can easily stream 720p movie files from one computer to another wirelessly without any stuttering.
Click to expand...

Just seems a shame to have to pay for an operating system (eg: Windows 7) , adding even more expese, that will never really be used.

I really wouldn't want to have films and stuff wireless fed to the unit. I'd just copy/move them onto the HTPC in effect to just get them out of the way of my main PC.


I'm weighing all this up against:-
1) Just getting a Netgear EVA9150 which will just work out of the box, and handle photos in a reasonable fashion. Costs over £300.
2) Just forgetting about photos and getting a cheap and chearful Western Digital TV with a 500GB passport drive for well under £200.

So as the price (& hassle) of a proposed HTPC goes up, the other two seem more appealing...
 
3cly13wqe6vd67eiqu97.jpg


Leaves you more than enough to get a pair of 200mbps powerline adapters. So so much better than wireless and work a treat. Should be able to get a pair for sub £40 at auction + dvd + hdd of your choice.
 
siumatfung said:
yeh unfortunately :D
Click to expand...

So XBMC can just run as an application running on a Windows OS then? So if I had a PC with XP on it, I could just put XBMC on it and run it?

So what if I just put XMBC in the startup? So it would run XBMC by default?

Also, can you not configure a machine to power off into hybernate? ie: Where it turns off but saves its current position on the disk? So when you power back on, you come straight back to where you were?
 
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