Possible HTPC/Home Server Builds - Thoughts?

Caspar86

Caspar86

Caspar86

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1 Aug 2011
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Been thinking about building a HTPC/home server for a while and have started to throw together a couple of builds. However, I'm not sure how much better one would be than the other. I don't want to spend more money than need be when what I want them to do is to tick the following boxes:

  • Play HD video and music straight from the HDD and stream it over the network
  • Stream video directly from the likes of iPlayer, YouTube, and so on...
  • Always on server so I can store files I want to access when I'm not at home or stream video/music
  • Rip DVD/Bluray (willing to forfeit this)
I've come up with two builds so far, one significantly more costly than the other. Neither include optical drives or PSU as I'll figure those out as soon as I know the rest and I may be willing to forfeit the optical drive in the budget build for a second HDD. Are there things in the list above that the budget build wouldn't be able to do that the higher end one would?


HIGHER END BUILD - Approx. £575 w/o PSU or Optical Drive

  • Zotac Z68ITX-A-E Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard
  • Intel Core i5 2500K 3.3 GHz
  • 2TB Western Digital WD20EARX 3.5" (To add more later on)
  • Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-15000C9 1866MHz Dual Channel Kit
  • Lian Li PC-Q11B

BUDGET BUILD END - Approx. £290 w/o PSU or Optical Drive

  • ZOTAC FUSION350-A-E OR Asus E35M1-I DELUXE AMD
  • (2x2GB) PC3-8500 DDR3-1066MHz
  • 2TB Western Digital WD20EARX 3.5"
  • Lian Li PC-Q07B

Thanks for any help.
 
Last edited:
Also thinking about an alternative build for approximately £330

  • Asus P8H67-I
  • Intel Core i3 2100 3.1GHz
  • 8GB (2x4GB) Corsair DDR3 XMS3, PC3-10600 (1333)
  • 2TB Western Digital WD20EARX 3.5"
  • Lian Li PC-Q07B
 
Thanks hawker. I'm thinking about sticking a GPU on there and running a few games on the thing eventually, so I'm planning ahead with the RAM. Going to go with the PC-Q08B in the end. The 6 HDD bays made it a bit too tempting to ignore (even if it is ugly).
 
Ended up with a few changes.

For the case I've decided I'm probably going to go for the Lian Li PC-QO8B. Want something with at least 4 3.5" HDD bays and that seems to be hard to find. This was the best I could see. The 2 3.5" and 2 2.5" seems a little too few with the PC-Q11B. 2.5" drives seem a bit on the pricey side anyway and don't offer a lot of storage. Any other suggestions on a case? I'd love to find a decent case with 4 bays.

Narrowed the motherboard down to 3 options - most likely going for the Asus or the Zotac. The Asus if I can find a case with 4 3.5" HDD bays and the Zotac if I can't. May as well have the option of using all 6 bays on the Q08B.

Gigabyte GA-H67N-USB3-B3 - No WLAN? Don't want to take up the PCI slot with a WLAN card and only 4 SATA points.

Asus P8H67-I Deluxe - SO-DIMM memory and only 4 SATA points. Any disadvantage to using SO-DIMM?

Zotac H67ITX-C-E - 6 SATA points, but have read it can be a bit power hungry and little fan control?

All seem to offer the same Wake On LAN support.


Going to stick on an AMD 6670 or 6750 for gaming and I've also heard that the i3 has issues with 24p video. Also means I'm not interested in the Z68 chipset as I'm not going to use the hybrid graphics or likely to use the SSD cache. For the CPU I'm almost certainly going for the i3 2100 3.1GHz since I'm putting the GPU on there and there doesn't seem to be any difference between that and the 2105.
 
Zotac H67ITX-C-E
Intel i3 2100 3.1GHz
4GB 1333MHz DDR3
2TB Western Digital WD20EARX
AMD 6670
Lian Li PC-Q08B
PSU?

That's how its looking at the moment - approx £450 w/o psu
 
Asus E35M1-I DELUXE E-350
4 GB DDR3
Lian Li PC-Q08B
2TB Western Digital WD20EARX

is coming in at approx. £320 without PSU

can I really justify the price of the i3 build for what I want to do (bearing in mind it may eventually have 5 HDD on there and be function as a server and HTPC at the same time)?
 
think i'm going to go with the zotac and i3 build

still need a psu. i'm guessing 300W would be enough. maybe 250W at a push? any recommendations for this case that aren't going to get in the way of the HDD bays?

also can anyone recommend a good, silent 100mm cpu fan?
 
If I use a 350W PSU instead of a 250W PSU then that isn't going to draw any more power with that build, is it? It just means that its capable of drawing that power if it needed to?
 
timciren said:
Zotac has 2 pwm fan points, maybe that enough for a mini case ?
I have a mini Shuriken for my 2600K, but the stock cooler on my 2100T is fine and pretty quiet.

I think the seperate option gives much more longevity andd future upgrade options

I am tempted to try the Be Quiet BN134 PSU. 35OW maybe be more than needed but it will be quiet
Click to expand...

Will the BN134 fit into the PC-Q08? It wants a full ATX PSU, doesn't it?
 
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