Spec me a ITX HTPC + PVR + Gaming Rig

pumaz · 7 Feb 2010 at 21:30

I'm new to ITX so could do with a little help, I'm looking at either buying something like a ASROCK 330 or building a system to serv all my media needs.

I want something that will be able to cope with playing 1080p mkv's (won't be using Blu Ray) I would also like it to take the place of my Sky+ box by being able to receive Digital freeview and be able to record 2 channels at the same time.

I've not really got a budget but i was thinking tops £500. Would also like to be able to use a 2TB hard drive to put all my mkv's on. So there must be room inside for a 3.5" HD. I don't think i really need a optical drive at all and i guess i'll need windows if i want to run games otherwise i would have just used ubuntu.

Thanks

pcAnywhere · 9 Feb 2010 at 13:07

Can you clarify this:

take the place of my Sky+ box by being able to receive Digital freeview and be able to record 2 channels at the same time

Do you want it to accept DVB-S (from your satellite dish, like Sky+) or DVB-T (which comes from you ariel).

To record 2 channels then you'll need a dual tuner (dual DVB-T cards are common - I've never seen a dual DVB-S card).

pumaz · 9 Feb 2010 at 15:17

pcAnywhere said:
Can you clarify this:

Do you want it to accept DVB-S (from your satellite dish, like Sky+) or DVB-T (which comes from you ariel).

To record 2 channels then you'll need a dual tuner (dual DVB-T cards are common - I've never seen a dual DVB-S card).

I basicly want to get rid of my Sky+ and replace it with freeview but i would like the functions and ease of use of Sky+ so i think i will be needing "dual DVB-T cards"

I've tried to get my head around it, Linux and XBMC looks to do most of what i need except for gaming and TV/PVR so i'm probably better off going for windows 7 but then XBMC won't play back HD in windows on a ION ITX system so basicly i'll be looking at a MATX build so i can use a video card and a better CPU.

Why is it never easy? I saw these new ION & ATOM systems like the Revo and ASRock and thought i could just bung in a bigger drive a TV card and i would have myself the ultimate entertainment system. Sadly NOT unless anyone knows any different?

wakayoda · 9 Feb 2010 at 15:24

no other box will be as smooth as sky+

Baboonanza · 9 Feb 2010 at 16:19

You could try Mediaportal 1.1 BETA. I've got it running on Windows 7 and it uses accelerated rendering so it *should* use the ION chipset to play the video.

Really if you want to play any games at all an Atom is out though. You can get ITX boards that will take the better AMD chips though, and I believe a Zotec H55 board will be out soon.

Personally I'd go mATX. You'll get more for money (no need for a slimline optical drive/special PSU for instance), more options for Cases/CPUs/Mobos and more expandability if you want to add a GPU later.

I recently built a system in the Silverstone Grandia GD04 and it works very nicely.

pcAnywhere · 9 Feb 2010 at 16:19

^ what he said (but you probably knew that..)

matx system is about the minimum given you'll need a PCI-E x16 slot for the GPU and at least one other slot (PCI or PCI-E) for the tuner.

An ION based system (ATOM + Nvidia chipset) should be able to play back HD content (esp as the latest release of flash allows for GPU acceleration) although an ATOM with an older Intel 945G chipset would not work.

accod · 9 Feb 2010 at 16:29

Linux, mythtv, a dual dvb-s card (TBS 6980 is a good dvb-s2 (s2=hd) card which I've heard works well with mythtv), and A LOT of time will give you the ultimate entertainment system you're after.

Baboonanza · 9 Feb 2010 at 16:36

No gaming though

accod · 9 Feb 2010 at 16:51

Yeah but the op already mentioned he looked into Linux and XBMC but discounted them due to lack of pvr, not lack of gaming. Gaming should be done on a separate box to a pvr so I don't think it matters. You wouldn't want a recording to start in the middle of a gaming session, or having to cancel a recording because you want to game.

pumaz · 9 Feb 2010 at 18:18

Thanks for the info. chaps, Scrub gaming from my list of wants, I think it was a big ask really and tbh i don't really need another gaming machine.

I guess if gaming isn't in the mix i'll be ok with Linux, I quite fancy a ASRock ION 330HT, I don't want or need the optical drive, if i removed it would a 3.5 HD fit?

I'm also thinking now i won't be gaming on it i won't need MATX and a ATOM+ION combo will be enough although i would need to find Linux compatible USB HD Dual DVB-T receiver.

Yetiii · 9 Feb 2010 at 22:55

In my opinion, you will never get the ease and simplicity of Sky+ in a self build, you will always find yourself having to configure plugins and updating stuff. I would only consider a self build for this functionality if i am to be the only person using it.

You could go for one of the Humax freesat boxes if you really want to get rid of Sky.

In addition, you could have all of the storage on your main pc and stream everything to a nice small ITX setup with XBMC/Mediaportal.

Baboonanza · 10 Feb 2010 at 09:24

While true, I was actually very impressed with how well MediaPortal handles TV recording. After you've configured everything it (which is of course the tricky bit

) you have all the features of Sky+ plus additional advanced features (like ForTheRecord) and a prettier interface.

My girlfriend is perfectly happy using it and she can barely work iTunes. Her mother has Sky+ though, I wouldn't go that far! I particularly like not having a monsterous sat. dish mounted on my house too. God I hate those things.

accod · 10 Feb 2010 at 12:05

pumaz said:
I'm also thinking now i won't be gaming on it i won't need MATX and a ATOM+ION combo will be enough although i would need to find Linux compatible USB HD Dual DVB-T receiver.

DVB-T is for terrestrial TV not satellite just in case you didn't realise.

pcAnywhere · 10 Feb 2010 at 14:10

pumaz said:
I guess if gaming isn't in the mix i'll be ok with Linux, I quite fancy a ASRock ION 330HT, I don't want or need the optical drive, if i removed it would a 3.5 HD fit?

Looks like a slimline optical drive so I doubt a 3.5 HDD would fit in that place. The ASrock website talks about fitting a second 2.5" HDD into the system - so that's an option

pumaz · 10 Feb 2010 at 17:53

You know what i've spent a few days researching now and i have come to the conclusion that as nice as those ITX boxes are they're not as easy to setup and use as i thought they would be.

So i'm going to scrap the idea and for media I'll carry on streaming Movies etc from my main rig to my 360(bedroom) and PS3(Lounge) using PS3 media server which works great. I'm also going to wait for a Decent Freeview HD PVR to come out then i'm going to dump the Sky+ box.

Thanks for all the help