Very Small Micro/Mini ITX HTPC

Bam

Bam

Bam

Associate
Joined
23 Oct 2003
Posts
212
Hi Folks.

After some thinking, I've decided I want to spec out a low budget and VERY small HTPC for XMBC. I had thought about, and almost purchased a NAS for storage, and Pi for the HTPC, but I am aware that a Pi may not be great for delivering large 4-5GB mkv files?


The machine needs to be:

- Very quiet (will be sat in the front room)
- Very Small
- Preferably use a PicoPSU rather than a standard PSU to reduce noise.
- Able to take a 2TB 3.5 disk, but that seems rather optimistic from my searches around Mini/Micro ATX cases

Budget is around £200-250

Would the below spec work together?
YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i3-4130 3.40GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £89.99
1 x Akasa Crypto Vesa Mini-ITX Case with 80W PSU - Black £59.99
1 x Asus H81I-Plus Intel H81 (Socket 1150) DDR3 Mini ITX Motherboard £58.99
1 x Kingston 120GB SSDNow V300 Drive SATA 6Gb/s 3 2.5" (7mm height) Solid State Hard Drive - (SV300S37A/120G) £49.99
1 x Corsair XMS3 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CMX4GX3M2A1600C9) £41.99
Total : £313.85 (includes shipping : £10.75).





Need to order this weekend, else Santa wont be bringing me any pressies.. :)
 
Last edited:
 
The build will work, have a look at single channel memory as I think Kabani is only single channel memory controller and if just used for playback will be fine.

I need to look at something similar in the new year - still contemplating going back to a Celeron NUC or look at the AMD Am1.
 
RJC said:
The build will work, have a look at single channel memory as I think Kabani is only single channel memory controller and if just used for playback will be fine.

I need to look at something similar in the new year - still contemplating going back to a Celeron NUC or look at the AMD Am1.
Click to expand...

correct single channel
Also i was looking at the nuc as i can get the celeron version while i am away for £85 but people say it struggles playing films is that true
 
I used my NUC (Celeron version) and this played 1080p MKV files without issue, I was running open Elec.
 
So these are my current options:

YOUR BASKET
1 x Toshiba Hybrid 1TB SATA 3GB/s 2.5" SSD Hybrid Cache - OEM (MQ01ABD100H) £72.98
1 x Antec ISK300-150 Black Mini-ITX Case 150W PSU 2 x USB3.0 & E-Sata 0.8mm £64.99
1 x AMD Athlon 5350 2.05GHz Quad Core Processor - Retail (Socket AM1) £43.99
1 x TeamGroup Elite 4GB (1x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz Single Channel Module (TED34GM1600C1101) £29.99
1 x Asus AM1I-A AMD AM1 (Socket FS1b) DDR3 Mini ITX Motherboard £26.99
Total : £248.54 (includes shipping : £8.00).



Changed the drive from SSD to SSD Hybrid 1TB


Or the Raspberry Pi route:

YOUR BASKET
1 x QNAP TS-212-E 2 Bay Network Attached Storage For Personal Cloud £127.99
1 x Western Digital Caviar Red 3TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache WD30EFRX - OEM HDD £96.98
1 x Raspberry Pi Model B +, SoC mini motherboard, 512 MB RAM, 4x USB 2.0 £31.99
Total : £266.57 (includes shipping : £8.00).



Ultimately I am looking for a way to stream (XBMC) movies to the TV, replacing my old ATX box, so storage is a consideration, which is why the NAS route is more appealing as I can add an additional drive and backup to Crashplan. Is there any real world performance issues here with either route?

Has anyone got a Pi+NAS setup, does it perform well?
 
I'd go with a more powerful system

Product Name Qty Price Line Total
Kingston 120GB SSDNow V300 Drive SATA 6Gb/s 3 2.5" (7mm height) Solid State Hard Drive - (SV300S37A/120G) £49.99
(£41.66) £49.99
(£41.66)
AMD Athlon 5350 2.05GHz Quad Core Processor - Retail (Socket AM1) £43.99
(£36.66) £43.99
(£36.66)
BeQuiet System Power 7 350W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £32.99
(£27.49) £32.99
(£27.49)
TeamGroup Elite 4GB (1x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz Single Channel Module (TED34GM1600C1101) £29.99
(£24.99) £29.99
(£24.99)
Raijintek Metis - Silver Mini ITX Case £29.99
(£24.99) £29.99
(£24.99)
MSI AM1I AMD AM1 (Socket FS1b) Mini ITX Motherboard £24.95
(£20.79) £24.95
(£20.79)
Sub Total : £176.58
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
UPS Access Point
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £8.00
VAT is being charged at 20.00% VAT : £36.92
Total : £221.50
 
Yeah I opted for the ITX and Pi route.

Looking at the below:

YOUR BASKET
1 x Silverstone Strider SST-ST30SF SFX Series - 300 Watt Power Supply £41.99
1 x Cooler Master Elite 120 Advanced Mini-ITX Case - Black £39.95
1 x AMD Athlon 5150 1.60GHz Quad Core Processor - Retail (Socket AM1) £35.99
1 x TeamGroup Elite 4GB (1x4GB) DDR3 PC3-10666C9 1333MHz Single Channel Module (TED34GM1333C901) £26.99
1 x Asus AM1I-A AMD AM1 (Socket FS1b) DDR3 Mini ITX Motherboard £26.99
1 x MSI AM1I AMD AM1 (Socket FS1b) Mini ITX Motherboard £24.95
Total : £206.45 (includes shipping : £8.00).




I have plenty of hard disks lying about, but I will get some WD reds when I can. Hopefully this box can stay on 24/7 with that CPU.

Thanks for the food for thought, still tweaking parts (performance vs budget)
 
So I'm set on the below:
YOUR BASKET
1 x Kingston 120GB SSDNow V300 Drive SATA 6Gb/s 3 2.5" (7mm height) Solid State Hard Drive - (SV300S37A/120G) £49.99
1 x AMD Athlon 5350 2.05GHz Quad Core Processor - Retail (Socket AM1) £43.99
1 x Silverstone Strider SST-ST30SF SFX Series - 300 Watt Power Supply £41.99
1 x Cooler Master Elite 120 Advanced Mini-ITX Case - Black £39.95
1 x MSI AM1I AMD AM1 (Socket FS1b) Mini ITX Motherboard £24.95
Total : £200.87 (includes shipping : ).




The only query I have is around the PSU. I've seen talk of '120 watt power brick', so a questions or two:

a)where can you get them (OC?)
b) Would 120 power the above + 1/2 2TB 3.5 Drives?
c) How do they connect to that board, adapters, or ?

EDIT: I think based on the eXtreme PSU calculator, that I just exceed 150w with my setup (including a possible 2 x 3.5 HDD), so I'll stick with the 300w PSU.

Sorry for the Q's.

Thanks :)
 
Last edited:
If you wish to use a power brick you need to buy a pico psu as well or simply buy a power brick and the Asrock Am1 board where you can plug the power brick straight in to the board it self.
You will be OK to power an SSD and Backup drive and 2 sticks of ram i use a 120watt power brick myself.
 
chippy08 said:
If you wish to use a power brick you need to buy a pico psu as well or simply buy a power brick and the Asrock Am1 board where you can plug the power brick straight in to the board it self.
You will be OK to power an SSD and Backup drive and 2 sticks of ram i use a 120watt power brick myself.
Click to expand...

What case are you using ?
 
As you're not using a graphics card I'd dump that Elite 130 and get a Silverstone Sugo SG05 - a lot smaller and comes with a bronze-rated 300W PSU. More than enough.

I love my Sugo lol
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom