Will this do for a low power media system?

demonix

demonix

demonix

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Cowley, Middx
Even though I've enjoyed using my roku box, now that the model I have has been discontinued and with the problems I'm having with the youtube app with it not being able to keep at a constant quality or even being able to play a whole video without stopping for no reason, I've decided that instead of paying £70 for the lower end model that has a LAN port I've decided to spend a lot more on a computer that isn't locked into an ecosystem where I can't access specific content because the content provider doesn't have an app on the roku platform.

My basket at Overclockers UK:

Total: £345.43
(includes shipping: £11.10)
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There isn't a power supply listed because I'll be using the 250W power supply I'll be taking out of the pre-build which should be more then enough to power all of that.

The RAM is likely to be overkill for this build, but since my laptop can't even play 1080p youtube videos properly with a 2.1Ghz dual core (if I need to push it up to the 5370, then it'll have to be done) and 2GB RAM with about 256MB of that tied to the graphics I'd rather err on the side of caution and have more then enough RAM available even after allocating 2GB of it to the graphics, and since all the other stuff that it needs to serve beyond web streaming will be stored on a dedicated file server there isn't any need for additional included storage, but there would at least be a little bit of breathing room if an extra hard drive does need to be installed.

As I've stated, all this needs to do is play video and be about as power efficient as a roku box whilst actually having the ability to completely switch it off without having to pull the power from it.
 
A power supply might help.

Aside from that, yes I suppose it would work... 16GB of RAM seems unnecessary, and that case isn't really that small for a media system.
 
'Scuse the late response, but I had a few numbers to crunch about this build and could only respond once I had all the information collated.

mickyflinn said:
I dont know much about this but would a mini pc do like a intel nuc or shuttle ?
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I had considered a mini PC in the past for minor media playback stuff, but I wasn't certain if the integrated graphics on the cheaper units like the gigabyte brix and MS cubi would be able to handle 1080p streaming even with enough RAM, and kitting out an intel NUC would make it more expensive then that setup.

Acme said:
and that case isn't really that small for a media system.
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Considering what I'm doing related to computers connected to the TV, I didn't want it to look like some generic black box that is meant to be under or next to a TV which is why I went for a blue case instead of a black HTPC style case, but even then if I'd gone for one of the SFF cases, I couldn't use the power supply I was planning to use since it wouldn't fit.

I have done some tests with the aforementioned refurbished computer, and it can handle 1080p and 1080p60 youtube videos without (with its RAM upgrade as it originally only had 2GB) any issues and while that might give the go ahead for getting a mini PC, I can get another refurbished computer with a slightly better processor (the current one has a celeron G1820 and the one I'm thinking of getting has a celeron G1840) for just under £100 which pretty much gets me a motherboard, processor, power supply and windows 8.1 pro license which would mean that I would only have to get a ram upgrade (just over £30 for crucial ballistix sport 8GB kit), an SSD and a more appropriate case which will be limited to micro ATX due to the motherboard (and probably a better cooler for the processor), but this will have to go through further investigation to see if it's even worth going that route or just go down the mini PC route and get an AsRock beebox (which might be the better cheap barebones mini PC I can get that can do what I want since it supports dual channel unlike the gigabyte brix) and get all the required parts for that.
 
Drop the Windows 10 if you are using it for media something like openelec which is free will do what you want.

Next drop down to 8gb ram but go for some quicker stuff this makes a difference with that cpu/gpu

No need for a ssd that large even 120gb is overkill for htpc.

If you change all those bits above that would make you big saving.

The only issue you could run into is high quality x265 support but that shouldn't really be an issue at only 1080
 
edGfaCTor said:
Drop the Windows 10 if you are using it for media something like openelec which is free will do what you want.

Next drop down to 8gb ram but go for some quicker stuff this makes a difference with that cpu/gpu
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Going for faster RAM isn't going to make a blind bit of difference since the maximum that kabini APUs support is 1600Mhz, so anything that's faster would be underclocked back to 1600Mhz which means to fully utilise RAM that is faster then 1600Mhz I'd have to change to a socket FM2+ system.

Also the windows 10 license is to cover all bases in case there's something that doesn't have support for openelec or kodibuntu as this will be more then a media and youtube box.
 
I built my Mom an AM1 system. Man... this platform sucks. It really does. It's really neat that it is an SOC. From a tech standpoint, it's really neat... but honestly, it is just so low performance.

I have replaced that machine's motherboard and CPU with an ASUS H81M-A and a Haswell Celeron and it's faster now. Yes, Intel's worst 1150 CPU is faster than the AM1 quad cores. The AM1 machine stuttered when it started playing Netflix videos for a few seconds. The Celly system does not.

Also I don't know if all AM1 motherboards suck or not or if was just the one I had but that AM1B-ITX (ASRock) was the most problematic motherboard I have ever seen. Absolutely horrendous.

Nuff said.
 
demonix said:
Going for faster RAM isn't going to make a blind bit of difference since the maximum that kabini APUs support is 1600Mhz, so anything that's faster would be underclocked back to 1600Mhz which means to fully utilise RAM that is faster then 1600Mhz I'd have to change to a socket FM2+ system.

Also the windows 10 license is to cover all bases in case there's something that doesn't have support for openelec or kodibuntu as this will be more then a media and youtube box.
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True ram speed upgrade is pointless I was thinking of the FM series at the time but then again why add 16gb to begin with even 8gb is overkill for htpc.

I don't see how paying £100 for Win 10 covers all bases you go for the free options if you do not like you pick up a key for win7 or 10 for £20 but what is not to like about openelce it's just kodi

Just go down the Intel route it would be better option and it will allow options in the future when people are selling off old cpus
 
mistersprinkles said:
I built my Mom an AM1 system. Man... this platform sucks. It really does. It's really neat that it is an SOC. From a tech standpoint, it's really neat... but honestly, it is just so low performance.

I have replaced that machine's motherboard and CPU with an ASUS H81M-A and a Haswell Celeron and it's faster now. Yes, Intel's worst 1150 CPU is faster than the AM1 quad cores. The AM1 machine stuttered when it started playing Netflix videos for a few seconds. The Celly system does not.

Also I don't know if all AM1 motherboards suck or not or if was just the one I had but that AM1B-ITX (ASRock) was the most problematic motherboard I have ever seen. Absolutely horrendous.

Nuff said.
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I based the idea off a video from jayztwocents where he decided to see if he could build a gaming PC for under $400 with store purchased parts, and what he got as the processor was exactly the same one I'm using here which is why I thought just the processor without the dedicated GPU and enough RAM to max out the allocation to the graphics part (that might have been one of the issues as the board might not have allocated enough RAM to graphics, which is why I manually set the allocation to the maximum allowed on the refurb when I upgraded the RAM on that) would be enough to stream media.

edGfaCTor said:
I don't see how paying £100 for Win 10 covers all bases you go for the free options if you do not like you pick up a key for win7 or 10 for £20 but what is not to like about openelce it's just kodi

Just go down the Intel route it would be better option and it will allow options in the future when people are selling off old cpus
Click to expand...

When I meant covers all the bases, it meant that it covers all the services I would want to access unlike kodi which doesn't even cover half of what I might be watching, and these addons can easily become broken like what has been done with the youtube app on roku, but even then there are other free options for plain web based streaming that could be considered as long as they don't use something microsoft based for the player.

I also decided on 16GB because I wanted more then enough RAM available after the 2GB allocation to the graphics to comfortably run the OS and the web browser along with any optional media centric software like kodi (also don't you need 16GB minimum to use google chrome ;) even though I won't be using it at all).

I'll still build this system, but it's going to to be more of a test to see if it would work although the motherboard and case are going to be changed to micro ATX (the case is likely to be something like the bitfenix prodigy M), and if it doesn't work then I can still make use of it with a few extra components and a case change and get a refurbished intel system that can take its place unless I decide to go down the mini PC route with either an asrock beebox with a quad core celeron or the asrock deskmini 110 with either the pentium G4500 or the core i3-6100T (and before anyone asks the T SKU has a TDP of 35W which is about as close as you can get to kabini).
 
I have the specced cpu and mb with a 4gb 1600 stick of ram in a mItx box under the TV. Works well for kodi and catch up TV.

You can get some free performance by putting the multiplier up one and running 105 bus to make it 2.205 ghz.
 
My basket at Overclockers UK:

Total: £318.07
(includes shipping: £11.70)
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I've made a few changes to the configuration, namely the RAM and the case but the windows 10 license is just a placeholder as I'll be starting with the free OS options and if there are any issues it'll be going windows 10 since I'll rather have an OS with longer then four years support.

I've also made the change to the case because if I want to add local storage beyond the sole free SATA port on the motherboard, I can just get a four port SATA3 RAID card to add more drives (I could have used the zalman M1, but I'm basing my options on what is in stock).

These specifications are subject to change if I decide that there isn't much need for the change in the case and go back to the metis.
 
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