New HTPC

Django x2

Django x2

Django x2

Soldato
Joined
28 Sep 2008
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Britain
Guys, SSD has gone pop in an HTPC I first built in 2008 (Q6600, 8GB DDR2, 60Gb SSD, OriganAE Case). It used to have a lot more storage, but that's all based on the NAS in the loft now.

I was going to replace the SSD but you know what, tech as moved on.

Because I pull media content from the NAS, I really just need a nice small unit, dead quiet, that can have a browser, HDMI, Windows, and I can install Plex HT onto.

Suggestions in a post please :) I'm guessing an Intel NUC might be a good start?

TIA
 
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Intel Nuc i3 in a fanless case would be my guess.

Akasa Newston S case £70 + PSU £16
5th Gen i3 + mobo - £200
Kingston 120GB SSD - £50
Kingston 4GB Ram - £30

All in should set you back about £375-400.

What NAS are you using?
 
they do...but you asked for silent and NUC stock cases are fan-cooled and I hear can be quite loud when used in the same room
 
maybe if you try googling the case I listed for you, you may find out?

There is such a thing as a case that's designed to be fanless and yes...it won't fry what it's designed for. Shock horror.
 
My Intel NUC has a heatsink and fan and not a case fan. Not sure removing said HSF and putting the board/cpu in a random cause would be much help without a massive fanless heatsink.

Or is it a case (lol) of that case itself actually being the heatsink? In which case all would be good!
 
I currently use a i3 NUC in the standard case and the fan noise does not get intrusive at all.
 
sansnom said:
maybe if you try googling the case I listed for you, you may find out?

There is such a thing as a case that's designed to be fanless and yes...it won't fry what it's designed for. Shock horror.
Click to expand...

I get it, but the case is fugly. It's not as nice as the standard Intel NUC case. If the i3 is not intrusive then I'll probably jump on with that At the end of the day, as I say, it's only really for Plex and some browsing.
 
If you want to save some money you could also look at the Gigabyte Brix range, I recently got the BXBT-1900 model which plays HD content just fine from my NAS using Kodi.

I originally had the BXBT-2807 model, although it could play content fine through Kodi, when I tried streaming something like BT Sport via the web browser it really struggled. I could see the CPU was maxing out so I decided to send it back for a refund and get the 1900 instead. The 2807 has a dual core Celeron CPU in it while the 1900 has quad core Celeron CPU.

Of course both of these get trumped massively with the i3 versions of NUCs/Brix's.
 
I've spec'd the NU5i5RYK Kit box with a M2.SM951 Samsung 128Gb (wow, finding a suitable M2 SSD and all the key / notch variances was a PITA), and 8GB (2x4Gb) Crucial DDR3L Memory.

Looking forward to this little project.
 
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