Htpc build

ince

ince

ince

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29 Dec 2011
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I have a main htpc in the living room.

I am looking to build a small one for the bedroom. I want to connect with hdmi.

I will have xbmc on there and would consider a small hard drive but this is not essential.

I would like to stream files from the main htpc and stream some stuff from the web.

Any suggestions. Looking for a nice control interface as well not keyboard and mouse.

Can this be done for £500.
 
YOUR BASKET
1 x Plextor M5S 128GB Solid State Drive - (PX-128M5S) £82.99
1 x MSI A75IA-E53 AMD A75 Chipset (Socket FM2) DDR3 Mini ITX Motherboard £71.99
1 x Thermaltake Element Q mini-ITX HTPC Case - 220W Power Supply £56.99
1 x AMD A6-5400K Black Edition 3.60GHz (Socket FM2) APU Trinity Dual Core Processor (AD540KOKHJBOX) £55.99
1 x TeamGroup Xtreem LV 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-17000C11 2133MHz Dual Channel Kit (TXD38G2133HC11DC01) £49.99
1 x Liteon IHOS104-06 4x BD-ROM (Black) - OEM £29.99
Total : £359.94 (includes shipping : £10.00).



Would even play games believe it or not. Not sure what you are looking for as a remote. XBMC has a remote app for smartphones, there are also free apps to use the smartphone as a basic keyboard and OS in windows. You could even use a Xbox pad to navigate XBMC and that would cover the gaming as well :)
 
That remote whilst looking good seems v expensive.

Build looks good. Won't be gaming only watching media with it
 
I posted this for someone else recently:

YOUR BASKET
1 x Seagate Barracuda 2TB 7200RPM SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST2000DM001) HDD £67.99
1 x Gigabyte GA-E350N AMD Hudson M1 DDR3 Mini ITX Motherboard £59.99
1 x Thermaltake Element Q mini-ITX HTPC Case - 220W Power Supply £56.99
1 x Corsair Builder Series CX 430w Modular '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply (CP-9020058-UK) £39.98
1 x Corsair Value 4GB (1x4GB) DDR3 PC3-10666C9 1333MHz Single Channel Kit (CMV4GX3M1A1333C9) £29.99
1 x Samsung SH-118AB/BEBE SATA 18x DVD-ROM (Black) - OEM £14.99
Total : £281.93 (includes shipping : £10.00).



The Hudson includes mobo, cpu, cooler and graphics all in one unit, and is built for HTPC use. Just add your HDD, PSU and RAM and you're done. Easy powerful enough for media consumption. If you find the 1100 too expensive, you could look secondhand for a Logitech Harmony one. Excellent remote, recently been discontinued.
 
robfosters said:
I posted this for someone else recently:

YOUR BASKET
1 x Seagate Barracuda 2TB 7200RPM SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST2000DM001) HDD £67.99
1 x Gigabyte GA-E350N AMD Hudson M1 DDR3 Mini ITX Motherboard £59.99
1 x Thermaltake Element Q mini-ITX HTPC Case - 220W Power Supply £56.99
1 x Corsair Builder Series CX 430w Modular '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply (CP-9020058-UK) £39.98
1 x Corsair Value 4GB (1x4GB) DDR3 PC3-10666C9 1333MHz Single Channel Kit (CMV4GX3M1A1333C9) £29.99
1 x Samsung SH-118AB/BEBE SATA 18x DVD-ROM (Black) - OEM £14.99
Total : £281.93 (includes shipping : £10.00).



The Hudson includes mobo, cpu, cooler and graphics all in one unit, and is built for HTPC use. Just add your HDD, PSU and RAM and you're done. Easy powerful enough for media consumption. If you find the 1100 too expensive, you could look secondhand for a Logitech Harmony one. Excellent remote, recently been discontinued.
Click to expand...


I've been stuck going round in circles trying to decide on a HTPC setup and I quite like the look of this one. Been looking into a HTPC capable of playing 3D movies and blu-ray ISOs. Does any one know if the Hudson is capable of 3D movie playback? Or would a FM2 setup be a better option?

Also does any one have any experience with the Thermaltake Element Q case being able to squeeze in 2 x 3TB and a SSD while still allowing for a blu-ray ROM drive? I am starting to think that the CoolerMaster Elite 120 would be better suited to my needs, although the I would prefer the smaller case for under the TV if I could squeeze everything in.

Cheers in advance for any advice.
 
I was looking to something like this but in the end plumped for a Arctic MC001. Works perfectly with BR Isos 720/1080p movies but cant tell you about 3D. Perfectly silent and works fine with Openelec with XBMC. I have 4Gb and 40Gb intel SSD and its pretty flawless. I am using mine with a harmony one remote with no issues as well. :)
 
Ok gone away and done some further reading and come up with the following spec for the HTPC.


Seagate Barracuda 3TB 7200RPM SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM x 2
Samsung 120GB SSD 840 SATA 6Gb/s Basic - (MZ-7TD120BW)
MSI A75IA-E53 AMD A75 Chipset (Socket FM2) DDR3 Mini ITX Motherboard Silverstone Milo ML03 HTPC Case - Black (SST-ML03B)
AMD A6-5400K Black Edition 3.60GHz (Socket FM2) APU Trinity Dual Core
Pioneer BDC-207DBK 8x BluRay ROM / DVDRW SATA-II Optical Drive - Black Corsair Builder Series CX 430w Modular '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply
Kingston HyperX Blu 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit
Akasa AK-190-SM Smoke Ultra Quiet 80mm Fan - 3 pin

Total : £635.00


After measuring the space on the TV stand I ended up having to rule out the CoolerMaster Elite 120 case due to height restrictions. Price is a little more than I would have liked but considering a large chunk of the cost comes from the harddrives I can't really see any way to reduce the cost and maintain function. Can any one see any issues with the components I have chosen? Will be looking into remotes once I am happy with how the setup is running.

Had a look at the Arctic MC001 but it seemed like I would struggle with hard drive space.

Thanks again
 
No worries I missed the bit that you needed decent hdd space. I have all mine on my server upstairs. :)

I would change the HDDs to either WD Green or Reds as a couple of 7200RPM in a desktop are no issues but in a HTPC "may" get a little noisy, 7200Rpm really isn't necessary for AV use.
 
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