Small PC (HTPC) strictly for streaming to Apple TV(2)

sahjin

sahjin

sahjin

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Hi

I don't know if this is a strange idea or if anyone has done something like this before but i have being setting up/working on a media center for a while now on and off and i think this is the final process, i have an Apple TV(2) its awesome and i currently stream my media from the mac in my office via iTunes with the actual media being on the NAS but anyway i'm getting away from the point here...

I want to build a super low power HTPC just for the purpose of streaming media to the Apple TV i have done a bit of research and was reading on Toms Hardware an article when they made an i3 machine that used 22 watts idle which sounds great i know the Mac Mini is meant to be great and says it only takes 10 watts when idle but £600+ is £400 too much for what i need, i am just wondering if i need anything special it is literally just going to stream to the Apple TV and i don't think any transcoding takes place (could be wrong) when doing it so i don't need SLI or anything :)

If anyone could help me out or even spec me up that would be awesome...

Thanks for reading!!
 
There is the hack for apple TV from Firecore and they are working on streaming directly from a NAS but it is *far* from working apart from that you can only stream your media from a pc/mac running iTunes hence this thread :)

EDIT: also just in case you didn't see it, it is an Apple TV 2 i have, the black one so it does not contain a HD like the original one so basically the only way to get your content on it is to stream it to it...
 
By any chance do you have an iphone, mac laptop, mac desktop and an apple keychain?

Why would you buy an apple TV :S.

I take it windows pc#s wont work with it then?
 
yeah a windows pc will be fine, hence why i am wanting to build a HTPC, no plans on building a hackintosh here :)

I bought the apple TV because i can rent movies on it, view youtube and stream all my content to the big TV, makes perfect sense to me and has working like a charm since i got it just now want a more permenent low power solution just seems like it would work better than using my pc i work on, don't want to leave it on all the time etc
 
Why not just save money and use your current mac to stream to the Apple TV2. OK, you might want to a low powered system to leave on for long periods of time but it sounds like a little bit of false economy as you'd be spending £250+ to setup a very cheap basic storage server essentially.
 
I know i did think that and i know it does seem like a bit of false economy maybe i should just use my mac but i don't like to keep it on all the time since it is a laptop connected up to a monitor etc for work so it has to be constantly on charge as it wouldn't last long and also the battery isn't what it used to be... but i don't know maybe it is just a bad idea, if i could use just the NAS i would love to but it just doesn't seem to be an option...
 
Ah right, I thought you were using an imac rather than the laptop. I think you might struggle looking for a htpc with storage for £200. Given that all its doing it acting as a server I'd look at an Intel Atom based system.
 
shadow_boxer said:
Ah right, I thought you were using an imac rather than the laptop. I think you might struggle looking for a htpc with storage for £200. Given that all its doing it acting as a server I'd look at an Intel Atom based system.
Click to expand...

Like the revo :). Atom processor. Hook up an external hard drive and you're good to go.
 
Buchanan0204 said:
Like the revo :). Atom processor. Hook up an external hard drive and you're good to go.
Click to expand...

lol. Yep :)

How about this, could use it as a HTPC in another room or bedroom for example and stream to the Apple TV2.

ASRock E350 AMD E-350
2GB DDR3 1333MHz Single Channel Module
Western Digital Caviar Green 2TB
CIT MTX001B, Black, mini-ITX Case with 300W PSU

Can't link to competitors or prices but this lot will come to around £180. Cheap case but comes with a PSU. Case only has enough room (well drive-bays) for a single internal 3.5" drive but could always do away with the optical drive. :)
 
Hi

Yes that sounds good, i have also been looking into the PicoPSU which seems to be quite rare in the UK but i did find a few places to pick one up, how would that work pairing it up with something like the Zotac IONITX-P-E - my main concern here is low power consumption but i also read an article on toms hardware where they built an i3 machine which was 25 watt idle that seems to be pretty sweet for an i3 - could i realistically achieve anything lower - how did apple get the mac mini to only 10 watts...
 
If you dont mind jailbreaking your Apple TV 2 then you can install XBMC on it and should be able to stream directly from your NAS (I dont have any apple hardware to test this on but just double check on their forum). This way you wont need to send money on a HTPC.
 
sahjin said:
This does sound like a great build if that price can be achieved, could i swap out the psu in that case and use a PicoPSU instead, do they work with any mobo ?
Click to expand...

Yeah, a pico psu will be fine. As you say they are quite rare and pricey tho.

If you search around you can get that system for that price and look for offers too.

Also if you go for a pico psu, can get a smaller low profile mini-itx case. You will probably sacrifice expansion though and many won't take full 3.5" HDDs.

Have a look at Alpus cases, cheap but look nice.
 
I'm back again sorry, just been out of the pc game for a long time also when i was i never dealt with any components this small :)

i had a look at those Aplus cases, some of them are very nice but still quite large considering, how small is it possiable to go, i haven't really got that much space, obviously the motherboard dictates the size of the case but some of them just have too much wasted space for me, all that is going to be in the case is the mobo, SSD (2.5 inch) and maybe an optical drive (could be slimline) also don't need space for PSU so i should be able to get a super small case i hope...

EDIT - actually just seen the APlus CS-160 (won't link to it) but it does seem pretty small, might sit nice on top of the NAS...
 
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Oh yeah that is small ha ha - looks sweet i have also noticed here i found a review of the APlus CS-160 (ok seems like my link didn't work but it is on a german site) it contains a 72W psu which looks like a PicoPSU if not it is a similar item...
 
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