My quick, simple & effective Mini HTPC build!

[coolamasta]

Hey all,

Decided I wanted something small, low power with semi-decent performance for a new Mini HTPC for my living room, I didn't need a BluRay as I have a top model Sony unit that takes care of BluRay and DVD up-scaling etc. Anyway I fancied trying a Mini-ITX build based on one of the all in one APU's, I didn't want to use an Intel Atom board as I read these AMD Hudson all-in-one APU's are better so went for a Gigabyte GA-E350N-USB3 AMD Hudson Motherboard as it fitted the bill perfectly, spec is:

• AMD E-350 1.6ghz Dual-Core processor
• Built in Radeon HD 6310 (DirectX 11) graphics
• AMD Hudson-M1 FCH Chipset
• Realtek HD Audio, 2/4/5.1/7.1-channel, Support for Dolby Home Theater
• Realtek 10/100/1000 Mbit NIC
• 4 x SATA 6Gb/s connectors
• 8 x USB 2.0/1.1 ports
• 2 x USB 3.0 ports

I also decided on using a Antec ISK100 case which comes with a 90w DC-DC PSU with external power brick, its an awesomely small case which runs almost silent with the 2-speed fan set to low, I did decide though that the front needed treating to a bit of Carbon Fibre wrap, if I didn't like it I could just rip it off but in the end I did like it so its staying for now

Otherwise I have fitted 4GB of OCZ 1333 DDR3 memory and an older OCZ X32 Extreme Series SSD which is only 32GB but I only need this to boot into windows and everything else is accessible from the network, it gets around 180mb/s read speed which isn't bad for an older gen SSD and it boots Win 7 x64 nice and quick

Pictures are quite self explanatory and I done my best to keep the cable management neat, it runs pretty damn quick for a HTPC and happily plays back a 10GB full 1080p mkv using only around 25% of the systems resources while pulling around 16w from the wall

Anyway enjoy the pics and any comments are welcome I can take it lol

 

[coolamasta]

Cheers guys, quick breakdown for me was:

Motherboard - £100
Antec ISK100 - £60
4GB OCZ 1333 - £30
SSD I already had, but a 60GB Agility3 would set you back - £72

All in all without an OS - £262

 

[coolamasta]

Quality.... have you thought about braiding any of the cables? That would look great I think.

I did think about putting some Braiding over the ATX & 12v power cables but I only had red sat about and as you cant really see them with the lid on I couldn't be bothered lol

What software frontend do you use, Media Center?

I don't at the moment to be honest, but I am looking into a good front end as we speak on the AVforums.com I think im going to try Media Center with a couple of nice plug-ins or give XBMC a go, will post some pics up of my findings if anyone is interested?

 

[coolamasta]

Really nice. I wouldnt mind one of these...

Cant find the mobo at that price anywhere though

Overclockers sell it mate, thats where I got this one - http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-330-GI&groupid=701&catid=1903&subcat=1949

 

[coolamasta]

how did you get the "carbon" effect front to fit so well>?

With a lot of messing about and swearing lol, nah just with a Black & Decker heat gun mate, I use decent 3M Di-Noc Carbon Fibre Effect Vinyl which is very strong and hard wearing, its quite thick and would never just be able to be wrapped around tight corners in its standard form without being heated up and manipulated with various tools!

 

[coolamasta]

I know its becoming an old thread now but people have been asking about it recently so thought it was worth a bump and to say its been flawless throughout the last 10 months, its been running without the little Gigabyte heatsink fan and just using the Antec case fan on low speed and it just doesn't get hot

Cheers mate, you think you could take that fan off the cpu heatsink and replace it with a waterblock ?

Not sure why you would want to Watercool one of these mate as they run so cool and quiet anyway

XBMC all the way for me mate - cracking interface, smooth, easy to use...

Snorted

True XBMC is great but I have been using Plex for last 10 months with the PlexAeon skin and it looks and performs amazingly