Newbie Media PC HELP

coughs

coughs

coughs

Associate
Joined
9 Aug 2010
Posts
710
I am new to media pc's and stuff but I have built pcs before just not in a small factor, sorry if i'm doing something wrong. I am needing a dedicated pc which will stream movies/songs to XBMC from a external HDD (NAS) or local storage

Would it be better building a media pc in a small factor case or buy a revo 3700?

What do you think?
What storage is recommended for something that I need?

Budget is £300-£600


Is this capable for a HTPC?

Lian Li PC-Q08B
Gigabyte GA-H55N-USB3 Intel H55
Intel Core i3 550 3.20GHz
Corsair XMS3 4GB
Samsung SH-B123L/RSBP 12x BD-ROM / 16x DVD Writer Drive
Hitachi Deskstar 7K3000 3TB SATA 6Gb/s 7200rpm
Corsair TX 650W ATX SLi Compliant Power Supply
 
Last edited:
That's way over spec for a HTPC :p

Will this be replacing XBMC as a front end or purely acting as a storage device? Can you provide a list of all/most of the functions that it will be doing?

We use a Synology Diskstation with 4TB of storage to stream to a WDTV, both of these together would come well under your top budget of £600.

They're both very low power, handle 1080p video absolutely perfectly and the Synology also has a pretty good web interface where you can schedule up torrents, usenet, configure everything etc.
 
All my intentions are is a BIG storage for 1080p Movies/Music albums, something that can run XBMC smoothly and maybe some light web browsing from the sofa.

I see many htpc related threads ask what tv turners they should get? what is that good for? Do I need it for a HTPC?
 
Look in to getting an Acer Revo, Will do everything you need, They're almost silent, very small and use hardly any power. I recommend the R3610 (as it as eSata) with at least 2GB. I use mine as a HTPC / NAS with Windows 7 and XBMC and couldn't be happier :)
 
What's good about eSata? and doesn't it only have space for a 2.5 HDD? What do you use for storage?

Sorry for all the questions i'm new to the htpc scene
 
I put together the following list into an Antec Fusion Remote HTPC Case.

htpc.png


As mine is primarily a front-end unit I haven't needed as much HDD space but that's easily resolvable by just adding more disk.
It runs silently with the case fans on low, and even on medium my V+ box makes more noise.

Honestly, it's an absolutely perfect setup for my needs - hope it helps with getting you to what you want whilst keeping under budget.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom