HTPC for XBMC < £200

Associate
Joined
23 Jun 2007
Posts
552
Location
South East
I'm after suggestions for a budget XBMC system capable of playing 1080p Bluray rips from my HP Microserver. I'm not fussed about fancy audio connections - I only use the TV's audio output.

From my searches the Acer RL70 has been suggested but could possibly need a SSD and some more RAM bumping the price slightly? Also I don't want to run it from the N40L as it is already fairly busy and noise factors.

So any ITX solutions with integrated graphics worth looking at? I'm happy to buy some/all second hand if needed.

Is AMD Trinity worth looking at?

I've been out of the hardware loop for a while! :o
 
Last edited:
Man of Honour
Joined
13 Nov 2009
Posts
11,595
Location
Northampton
Associate
Joined
11 Jul 2011
Posts
1,632
Location
Abertillery - S.Wales
Would this case/psu be OK instead of the CM & OCZ combo?

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-237-LL

As long as it stays low power (<150w), you'll be fine. Unless you can upgrade the PSU in there for something with more grunt that will still fit.

For 1080p playback, Intel is pretty much of the question as IIRC they have a 1080p bug when using onboard.
Trinty would be your best bet, but due to the current lack of ITX mobo's, llano would be better right now.
 
Last edited:
Man of Honour
Joined
13 Nov 2009
Posts
11,595
Location
Northampton
Soldato
Joined
14 Dec 2003
Posts
5,683

Very interested in something a bit like this. Worried about the CPU though - if you added a blu ray drive to that would it be able to decode them fine?
 
Associate
OP
Joined
23 Jun 2007
Posts
552
Location
South East
Would be fine, I had an Athlon II x2 235e, Geforce GT210, 2hdds and that pulled around 110w running prime at the wall so this will pull considerably less.

its the case I would go for, I just hadn't spec'd it as I was trying to stick as close to your budget as possible.

Cool thank you. Appreciate your input :)

I've sent a webnote asking when they'll have stock - hopefully I'll hear soon..
 
Associate
Joined
9 Jan 2010
Posts
739
Location
Sunny Brizzol
Have a look at this that I built the end of last year using the Gigabyte AMD Hudson M1 board as mentioned by someone above, it will play everything I chuck at it in 1080p, even 30GB BluRay rips :)

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18353574&highlight=startername_coolamasta

htpc20.jpg
 
Last edited:
Back
Top Bottom