How much to does a HTPC cost to build?
- Thread starter w1llyg
- Start date
Soldato
- Joined
- 4 Aug 2007
- Posts
- 22,399
- Location
- Wilds of suffolk
I salvaged an old processor (E6750), bought a cheapo motherboard and salvaged 2GB of DDR2. Used an old disk drive for boot drive, used my old Vista OS.
Graphics doesnt need to be massive, think I got a HD4350, cheap as chips.
Power supply I bought the cheap antec one thats now £30.
The most expensive bit for me was the case as the asthetics had to be right for other half. Bought a silverstone one that was about £80 from memory.
I am sure all in you can get setup for about £200, plus storage. Depending what bits you can salvage you can take chunks out of that budget, or upgrade to mush better parts should you need to.
I do all my ripping on my quad (strip subs, foreign langs etc), and use an external HDD to transfer to my HTPC.
I also have a external HDD mount so I use up my old sata HDDs to store my series etc on them. Sorta of defeats the point of a HTPC in a way, but they take up less space than loads of DVD cases and allows the DVDs/Bluerays to be stored in the loft out of harms way.
I will probably rebuild at some point with better components and do some serious soundproofing, new TV cabinet vibrates where as old one didnt ^^
Graphics doesnt need to be massive, think I got a HD4350, cheap as chips.
Power supply I bought the cheap antec one thats now £30.
The most expensive bit for me was the case as the asthetics had to be right for other half. Bought a silverstone one that was about £80 from memory.
I am sure all in you can get setup for about £200, plus storage. Depending what bits you can salvage you can take chunks out of that budget, or upgrade to mush better parts should you need to.
I do all my ripping on my quad (strip subs, foreign langs etc), and use an external HDD to transfer to my HTPC.
I also have a external HDD mount so I use up my old sata HDDs to store my series etc on them. Sorta of defeats the point of a HTPC in a way, but they take up less space than loads of DVD cases and allows the DVDs/Bluerays to be stored in the loft out of harms way.
I will probably rebuild at some point with better components and do some serious soundproofing, new TV cabinet vibrates where as old one didnt ^^
Soldato
- Joined
- 4 Aug 2007
- Posts
- 22,399
- Location
- Wilds of suffolk
Oh and player software, thats actually quite expensive if you need full on Blue Ray Surround. Bundled that you often get with say a blueray ROM drive is often limited (eg PowerDVD is limited to 2 channel)
Soldato
- Joined
- 4 Aug 2007
- Posts
- 22,399
- Location
- Wilds of suffolk
I bought a wireless keyboard with built in mouse pad to navigate. I used an extension cable from a back USB port and plugged the receiver into this, then blu tacked it a bit back from the front under a shelf. Hidden from view and easy to use.
I love my HTPC, its also web enabled so can browse web from main room on 40" screen rather than PC screen. Wouldnt be without it now, and a great use of your older equip as it becomes redundant. Check email, even that Excel spreadsheet you may wanna play with abit from the comfort of you fav chair
I love my HTPC, its also web enabled so can browse web from main room on 40" screen rather than PC screen. Wouldnt be without it now, and a great use of your older equip as it becomes redundant. Check email, even that Excel spreadsheet you may wanna play with abit from the comfort of you fav chair
