HTPC for... this side of £350?

dbmzk1 said:
E-350 pre-built ones are just way too slow and annoying!
Click to expand...

im not having a go here but ive read a lot of threads on this model and they seem to cope fine for a htpc,have you had one as this is the route im looking to go down but mine is just for surfing the net and backing up all my blu-ray and dvd collection to watch back through TMT5 and mediabrowser
 
sunderland said:
im not having a go here but ive read a lot of threads on this model and they seem to cope fine for a htpc,have you had one as this is the route im looking to go down but mine is just for surfing the net and backing up all my blu-ray and dvd collection to watch back through TMT5 and mediabrowser
Click to expand...

Personally I'd go for the SU2300 over the E-350. It is a stronger cpu than the E-350 has. Yes it has ~5W higher power usage but that little extra cpu I think is worth it. Systems seem to be very similar in price too.
 
Jeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeehus. There is sooooooo many choices. Not too sure on the ND22, the poor performances on the wifi tests would be a worry and not sure I can really justify the cost of that. I don't mind something a bit bigger if I will get more for my money.

Soooo... now i'm stuck again. Can't even find a case I want!
 
How much are you looking to spend on the case?

The Antec s good... I myself prefer Lian Li or Silverstone

Something like Silverstone GD05 (pretty cheap)

But for almost the same price as the Antec.. you can get teh Lian Li PC-C50B (this is the one I'm getting)... just be careful on the selection of the blu-ray rom (for example, samsung is not recommended as the eject button is not compatable with the eject button of the case.
 
Nameless_87 said:
How much are you looking to spend on the case?

The Antec s good... I myself prefer Lian Li or Silverstone

Something like Silverstone GD05 (pretty cheap)

But for almost the same price as the Antec.. you can get teh Lian Li PC-C50B (this is the one I'm getting)... just be careful on the selection of the blu-ray rom (for example, samsung is not recommended as the eject button is not compatable with the eject button of the case.
Click to expand...

Had a little look at those and not to keen tbh. I didn't want to spend too much on a case but the Antec has me thinking again. :p
 
saitrix said:
dbmzk1,

I suggest you learn how to use xbmc properly with the software to compliment it before saying its useless. If you use xbmc with a combo of sabnzbd, sickbeard and couchpotato you would find you wouldn't ever have another problem with naming, plus get other bonuses. The system I suggested is an su2300 based system which is a lot better than the atom but doesn't use much extra power, for example it idles at 23w for the whole nd22 system.

If you want fast booting then look on YouTube for openelec boot time with ssd. Though I suggest keeping with nvidia gpu's with Linux based OS's.
Click to expand...
sunderland said:
im not having a go here but ive read a lot of threads on this model and they seem to cope fine for a htpc,have you had one as this is the route im looking to go down but mine is just for surfing the net and backing up all my blu-ray and dvd collection to watch back through TMT5 and mediabrowser
Click to expand...

XBMC can be a right pig to get right every time even with additional software. For what I use it for, it's useless. It's FAR easier, faster and just generally better to browse using basic folders and files in Windows than it is to mess about with a fancy menu that serves no real purpose other than to look pretty for the 10 seconds it will be on the screen before my movie starts. Personal preference I guess.

There's not much in it in terms of CPU grunt to be honest, though the SU2300 is faster the E-350 can bit-stream HD audio and is better at any 3D accelerated task. I agree the Intel/Nvidia route is the only way to go if you are interested in Linux, but it's much easier to use Windows. But no matter which you pick once you start browsing the web or downloading at high speed etc etc then both will start to get very annoying very quickly. For not much more you can get a proper PC which retains reasonably low power usage but has desktop performance when needed and is fully user configurable. For comparison my entire A8 system idles at 35W and runs up to about 50W while playing a 1080p movie and a varying amount up to around 110W while gaming, which it does very well. Get an A6 rather than an A8 and under-volt it and you would be looking at much lower power requirements with similar performance.

Stains said:
Jeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeehus. There is sooooooo many choices. Not too sure on the ND22, the poor performances on the wifi tests would be a worry and not sure I can really justify the cost of that. I don't mind something a bit bigger if I will get more for my money.

Soooo... now i'm stuck again. Can't even find a case I want!
Click to expand...
You can get some quite compact microATX or Mini-ITX cases. The one I've listed is not too bad, although quite deep. It can lie flat or stand like a tower which is a nice feature.

You can defiantly get a lot more for your money than the pre-built systems :)
 
Last edited:
m in the process of slowly sorting out a HTPC, as presently use XBMC through my laptop(hdmi).

Anyone saying XBMC is not good needs to look at it a lot better. It is brilliant. Puts a very professional feel to your films/media.

Gives you info and makes searching a hell of a lot easier. Plus sometimes i forget what a certain film was about, with XBMC it tells me there and then. Something a simple folder structure would not do.

Bear in mind some of us have lots of films on there system.


Just really want to find a nice case with the optical drive mounted on left or right. Simple looking (black) with facility for IR would be a bonus as use a logitech harmony one for all my media devices in the lounge.
 
I'll recommend a cheap Mac Mini from ebay.

Mine plays all my Blu-Ray rips without issue, fed from a NAS, is silent and has a full OS for web surfing if needed :)
 
dbmzk1 said:
XBMC can be a right pig to get right every time even with additional software. For what I use it for, it's useless. It's FAR easier, faster and just generally better to browse using basic folders and files in Windows than it is to mess about with a fancy menu that serves no real purpose other than to look pretty for the 10 seconds it will be on the screen before my movie starts. Personal preference I guess.

There's not much in it in terms of CPU grunt to be honest, though the SU2300 is faster the E-350 can bit-stream HD audio and is better at any 3D accelerated task. I agree the Intel/Nvidia route is the only way to go if you are interested in Linux, but it's much easier to use Windows. But no matter which you pick once you start browsing the web or downloading at high speed etc etc then both will start to get very annoying very quickly. For not much more you can get a proper PC which retains reasonably low power usage but has desktop performance when needed and is fully user configurable. For comparison my entire A8 system idles at 35W and runs up to about 50W while playing a 1080p movie and a varying amount up to around 110W while gaming, which it does very well. Get an A6 rather than an A8 and under-volt it and you would be looking at much lower power requirements with similar performance.
Click to expand...

Fair enough there it is personal preference, I love going through the menu and deciding like that. But in the end of the day use whatever works best for yourself!

I will admit I started looking at these full desktop cpu based htpc's and I have seen some amazing results on some forums. I have seen someone using a G620 system which was idling at 22W! Now that is amazing really, so I will admit it has opened my eyes up to these setups. Looks like more research required into them.
 
Not sure why some people are having problems with it downloading the wrong TV / Movie information etc. I can think of maybe 2 - 3 times it's got it wrong and I've been using XBMC loads for almost 2 years.

Personally I'd go for whichever system uses the least power. If it is just a HTPC then I think all the offerings are capable of playing back HD with GPU offloading. I can't be more specific on models as I'm using a custom Zotac ION build from September 09 so I'm not really up to speed on the latest kit.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom