HTPC Spec guidance

Kilkus

Kilkus

Kilkus

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3 Jan 2008
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265
Location
Edinburgh
Hi All

its coming round to my birthday so i've decided to treat myself to a htpc, i'm looking for some guidance really as its been a while since my last build, 2years at least, so i'm a little out of the loop on good components these days.

I'm looking to keep the price down, however there is a few things i would like to have included in the build.

Needs to be quiet and reasonably cool
1080p playback without problems
I'm looking at running 2 drives to start off with a smaller one for the os and then a larger 1-2tb for the media, however i may want/need to extend this in the future so extra hdd bays would be great.
I'm not worried about a flash case its more than likely going to be hidden, but the smaller the better i don't want to be hiding some huge tower :)

Thats it for must haves i guess, i'd like to keep the price down to around £300 if possible.

Any advice and help would be much appreciated

Stu,
 
you want a small case but would want to put 3 or more drives in there? not going to happen really.

heres my selection:

Silverstone Sugo SG05B Mini-ITX Case - Black (300w PSU) <<-- hard to find but worth it.
3.5 Samsung SpinPoint F3 1TB SATA-II 32MB Cache - OEM (HD103SJ)
Gigabyte G41M Combo Intel G41 (Socket 775) DDR2/DDR3 microATX Motherboard
HIS ATI Radeon HD 5450 512MB GDDR3 SILENT Low Profile PCI-Express Graphics Card
Intel Celeron Dual Core E3300 "LGA775" 2.50GHz (800FSB) - Retail
2.5 Western Digital Scorpio Blue 250GB 5400RPM SATA-II 8MB Cache - OEM (WD2500BEVT)
Kingston 2GB (1x2GB) DDR2 PC2-6400C6 800MHz Single Channel Memory Module

TOTAL WITH DELIVERY: £309.68

so thats your goods plus 2 hard drives totalling 1.25tb (1 norm and 1 laptop size as the case will only allow that configuration) and will run at 1080p easily. all for under £300 exc delivery.
 
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Thanks for the reply

yeah i know its probably a lot to ask for getting mulitple drives into a small case but i can at least hope ;) 2 drives would be fine, i'm just thinking of expansion in the future as i want the computer to be able to standalone and not need to stream on a server/network

Thanks again
 
pretty much the same but as the silver stone is out of stock atm in ocuk i recommend:

Lian Li PC-V351B Aluminium Micro ATX Cube Case - Black £88.99
+
Corsair CX 400W ATX Power Supply (CMPSU-400CXUK) £32.99
(has 2 internal and 1 external 3.5" bays(note not as small as you think, i got one and it surprised me when i opened it))

or

Antec Micro Fusion 350 HTPC Case with Remote - Black/Silver (350W PSU Included) £88.99
(has 1 internal and external 3.5" bays, still can use the external one as hdd cage but with the cover on it so u cant see it from outside.)

pretty much same spec
Samsung SpinPoint F3 1TB SATA-II 32MB Cache - OEM (HD103SJ) £44.99
Intel Celeron Dual Core E3300 "LGA775" 2.50GHz (800FSB) - Retail £37.99
HIS ATI Radeon HD 5450 512MB GDDR3 SILENT Low Profile PCI-Express Graphics Card £37.99
Gigabyte GA-G31M-ES2L Intel G31 (Socket 775) DDR2 Motherboard £37.99
Kingston 2GB (1x2GB) DDR2 PC2-6400C6 800MHz Single Channel Memory Module £30.54


i personally love the lian li and more stable corsiar psu which actually make its around 10-20 quid over budget, but the antec is also nice and more HTPC-ish, and has a remote :D

if i was building this i choose the lian li hands down, better build with aluminium, more stable psu and ability to expand, can get 5.25-3.5" converters to get more drive mounts, bigger fans and therefore you can spin them slower and quieter for same air flow. but the antec is okay if you need something smaller to fit in your tv table/ cupboard.
 
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I recommend these components from which I made my HTPC:
Core i3 CPU
H55 Gigabyte MicroATX motherboard
Integrated Intel GMA graphics
Kingston 2x1Gb Dual Channel Memory Modules
Samsung 320Gb primary hard drive
Samsung 1Tb storage drive
Asus Xonar DS 7.1 PCI soundcard
OCUK Aphrodite media case
Wireless Keyboard & Mouse
1metre HDMI cable
Enermax Noisetaker 600w
Xilence 120mm fans
 
NoobieOCer said:
Antec Micro Fusion 350 HTPC Case with Remote - Black/Silver (350W PSU Included) £88.99
(has 1 internal and external 3.5" bays, still can use the external one as hdd cage but with the cover on it so u cant see it from outside.)
Click to expand...

no external 3.5", just a single 5.25 bay, so if u have a cd/dvd/bluray drives then u can only have 1 HDD.

if u want to use an SSD, u could find a place to stick it thou, but u wont get more than 1 3.5" drive in there.

althou an SSD would be difficult to squeeze into the budget.

small cases, and lots of drives simply dont go :P
althou, as u want to hide it, then y not just get a small midi/mini tower, an MATX one would be pretty small, and usually have space for a few drives, also cheaper.

dont get the micro fusion if u plan to hide it, it would be a complete waste.

personally i would get somethingl ike an ION for about £100, add in a cheap case, ram and hard drive, and would easily be within your budget with money to spare.

u could always look at NAS, then any extra storage can be put anywhere without needing space in the case
 
iamtheoneneo said:
heres my selection:
Silverstone Sugo SG05B Mini-ITX Case - Black (300w PSU) <<-- hard to find but worth it.
Gigabyte G41M Combo Intel G41 (Socket 775) DDR2/DDR3 microATX Motherboard
Click to expand...

That wont work I'm afraid, the case is mini-ITX and the motherboad is mATX and will be much too big for the case.
 
Thanks for all the responses guy, i've been pondering over this at work and am looking for some input really, Rather than having the stand alone media center i am now toying with having a media streamer? not sure thats the correct name and then a server where the media would be stored, thought this might be a better solution as i would also be able to use the server to back up my work also.

Someone at work suggested the acer revo, has anyone got any experience with one of these and if there any good at all?

like i say its another avenue i'm looking into so any feedback is much appreciated, once again thanks
 
depends how much your willing to spend on it, and if u have any spare parts at all.

althou if you are looking for a proper media center, ie, one thats look at home with ur tv, and pretty small, quiet, etc.

then having a seperate media server is a much better solution.
the media server doesn't really need much in the way of power either, so i have any spare parts laying around, u could try to use them for the server.

i run a MythTV setup, with my backend running in the loft that stores all the media, records tv, etc.

then my front end is made form an ION with small SSD. The whole thing is 100% passive so 100% silent.
the media streamers are pretty good at playing media thou, and generally cheaper than trying to buy one yourself, and usually pretty small as well.
of course, they are limited.

do u want it just to watch media, or will u use it for anything else, like TV, dvd/bluray player, etc?

a cheap solution would be a NAS with a media streamer.

or go with a full media server/player if you want more from it
 
I use a HP home server and i think it is a lovely little beast... bit expensive though. Cycrow has a point if you have the spare parts build a little and buy the rest.

the passive aspect of a media streamer is great in a living room, low noise is a huge advantage.
 
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