HTPC parts recomendations

[ChicoQuente]

So I have been thinking lately that I want to build an HTPC as I am tired of using my old crappy PC as a server + Xbox 360 for watching my media. I always have to convert everything I download for use with the 360 and eliminate the 5.1 audio. So I am looking to build a system that I can just connect directly to my theater system and run boxee or plex on it.

I used to keep up to date on hardware/specs and current PC technology, but for the last few years I have stuck to just my laptop and am uninformed now.

My receiver only has 1 optical audio input that is already in use so I was wondering if there is any chance I will be able to build a system that will do video and audio out over a single HDMI cable? I imagine if I were to do that I would have to settle for a crappy on board video card? I play one computer game and 1 game only, Starcraft 2. Ideally I would want a system that can also play that as I am tired of my 13" laptop screen for it.

What would generally be a good amount of RAM to put in an HTPC? Any recomendations on good cases/MOBOs I should look at? I already have 2x 1.5TB HDDs so that is a part I am going to trim some cost on for now and not purchase. Ideally I want the ability to have 4 3.5" HDDs eventually. I really have no clue where to start with this and would love some direction. Any input is appreciated.

Oh and I am not opposed to a pre built if there is a good deal on a system that has good reviews, so if you know of any I am open to hearing them.

[Gee]

The ultimate HTPC

InWin K1 Case (it looks like a DVD Player)
Intel DH61AG Motherboard
4 Gigs RAM (SODIMM)
Slim DVD
2.5" Hard Drive
You will need to replace the stock cooler with a special one designed for low profile cases
VisionTek CandyBoard (Wireless, don't use BlueTooth, does not support wake up feature)

http://www.in-win.com.tw/K1/SPECIFICATIONS.html
http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/motherboards/desktop-motherboards/desktop-board-dh61ag.html
http://www.pureoverclock.com/article1072.html

I have two of these and no one even knows there is a PC inside. Looks like a DVD player. The motherboard has HDMI and it just plugs into my LCD. The CandyBoard keyboard has a wireless dongo and it is plugged inside the case.

Get a NAS for storage.

[ChicoQuente]

Thanks for the information. While that does look like a nice setup it does not meet my needs. I don't want to build a PC and purchase a NAS so I am planning to go solely with the HTPC.

Any other information is greatly appreciated.

[big_raji]

So I have been thinking lately that I want to build an HTPC as I am tired of using my old crappy PC as a server + Xbox 360 for watching my media. I always have to convert everything I download for use with the 360 and eliminate the 5.1 audio. So I am looking to build a system that I can just connect directly to my theater system and run boxee or plex on it.

I used to keep up to date on hardware/specs and current PC technology, but for the last few years I have stuck to just my laptop and am uninformed now.

My receiver only has 1 optical audio input that is already in use so I was wondering if there is any chance I will be able to build a system that will do video and audio out over a single HDMI cable? I imagine if I were to do that I would have to settle for a crappy on board video card? I play one computer game and 1 game only, Starcraft 2. Ideally I would want a system that can also play that as I am tired of my 13" laptop screen for it.

What would generally be a good amount of RAM to put in an HTPC? Any recomendations on good cases/MOBOs I should look at? I already have 2x 1.5TB HDDs so that is a part I am going to trim some cost on for now and not purchase. Ideally I want the ability to have 4 3.5" HDDs eventually. I really have no clue where to start with this and would love some direction. Any input is appreciated.

Oh and I am not opposed to a pre built if there is a good deal on a system that has good reviews, so if you know of any I am open to hearing them.

You seem to have a couple of strange requests, and I'm not sure how to answer them all clearly, so I'll just ramble aimlessly for a bit and hope that it helps you.

Most people that want to build an HTPC want something in a tiny case that looks neat and discrete. The fact that you want 4 3.5" drives is strange in HTPC world. That alone baffles me in regards to recommendations. Since you're probably going to get a big ***** ATX case for it, you can pretty much go with anything you want without worrying about size etc.

Most low end video cards and even on-board video will still have very good HDMI output with both audio and video. On-board video isn't as bad as it used to be a few years ago. In fact, it's very good in many cases. Playing a few simple games and some 1080p video isn't usually a big deal for on-board video on most new systems.

Any price limitations? I can suggest a $200 setup, or a $1000 setup.

If you want to have a tiny HTPC and use a big multi-drive USB-SATA adapter (http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=5606141&CatId=4269) for all your drives, I'd suggest a Zotac ZBOX-ID80 or Zotac ZBOX-AD04 for pre-built system. A barebones one is $230 or so, and you just add a 2.5" drive and some RAM. The CPU in these boxes are kinda crappy for high end stuff, but more than sufficient for multimedia and very basic computer usage.

RAM for an HTPC should be at least 2GB, which is great for basic multimedia playback. Add more if you want to play games, browse the web, do basic computer stuff, etc. 4GB should be a minimum for that.

If you want to build a tiny HTPC out of components, get a small ITX case from Inwin for about $50, an ASROCK ITX Motherboard with an FM1 CPU slot for $100, and get a minimum AMD A6 CPU for it for about $100. Add a 2.5" hard drive and some RAM, or just add the RAM alone and boot off a USB thumb drive. All those parts are on newegg.ca and are quite current and fast. This system will be leaps and bounds faster than a Zotac, but will also be louder and hotter as well.

Other than that, tell us more specifically about what you're looking for, and someone can probably help a bit more.

[ChicoQuente]

Fair enough that I was confusing.

I guess the term of "HTPC" was not the most accurate for what I am looking to do.

Essentially the PC would be used for the following:

1. Running SABNZBD, Sick Beard and Couch Potato to take care of all my media downloading automatically.
2. Storing my media library for watching on TV (via the PC itself, not to stream to other devices)
3. Play Starcraft 2 (I can pretty much guarantee this will be the only game I ever play)
4. Run XBMC, or Plex or some other similiar software so that I can watch my media files on the TV without streaming to another device
5. Have 1 HDD that is for just backing up files from my main machine

I want the machine to be plugged via HDMI to my theater setup as I am tired of converting/transcoding/etc for my files. I want my 1080p rips to stay in 5.1 and not 2.1 so that the Xbox streams it. I want the PC itself to handle displaying the files.

I download a lot of 720p/1080p files so I assume that should be taken into consideration for my ram. Is 4GB still sufficient?

This will be hooked up to my 55" TV, does the TV screen size need to be factored in to any of my spec considerations?

I currently have 2x 1.5TB 3.5" HDDs and run them in a RAID 1. I only have 300GB left and going fast so that is why I wanted to be able to add another 1 of them down the line as needed.

I was looking at this (http://is.gd/AP64zL) video card and thought maybe it would be good. Would it be useful to me? I have some credit there so this could save me some money. And any other parts I could grab at Best Buy would be good too due to that credit.

As for price, I'd probably want to stay under $350-$400 ideally.

[big_raji]

Fair enough that I was confusing.

I guess the term of "HTPC" was not the most accurate for what I am looking to do.

Essentially the PC would be used for the following:

1. Running SABNZBD, Sick Beard and Couch Potato to take care of all my media downloading automatically.
2. Storing my media library for watching on TV (via the PC itself, not to stream to other devices)
3. Play Starcraft 2 (I can pretty much guarantee this will be the only game I ever play)
4. Run XBMC, or Plex or some other similiar software so that I can watch my media files on the TV without streaming to another device
5. Have 1 HDD that is for just backing up files from my main machine

I want the machine to be plugged via HDMI to my theater setup as I am tired of converting/transcoding/etc for my files. I want my 1080p rips to stay in 5.1 and not 2.1 so that the Xbox streams it. I want the PC itself to handle displaying the files.

I download a lot of 720p/1080p files so I assume that should be taken into consideration for my ram. Is 4GB still sufficient?

This will be hooked up to my 55" TV, does the TV screen size need to be factored in to any of my spec considerations?

I currently have 2x 1.5TB 3.5" HDDs and run them in a RAID 1. I only have 300GB left and going fast so that is why I wanted to be able to add another 1 of them down the line as needed.

I was looking at this (http://is.gd/AP64zL) video card and thought maybe it would be good. Would it be useful to me? I have some credit there so this could save me some money. And any other parts I could grab at Best Buy would be good too due to that credit.

As for price, I'd probably want to stay under $350-$400 ideally.

You'd be surprised at how little PC power you need to do what you're requesting. Screen size doesn't matter in the slightest, only resolution.

I had a PC that did exactly what you were talking about, with the only difference being that it saved everything to a crappy little proprietary HP NAS on my network. It ran sabnzbd, sickbeard, couch potato, and XBMC all on ubuntu 10. It used the on board video (some crappy intel gma965) DVI out coupled with the Toslink audio through a little $20 box from Monoprice to merge it to HDMI audio and video. I had the NAS folder mounted via NFS, and had everything downloading, saving, and playing from the NAS. I booted off an 8GB live USB stick. It played 720p flawlessly, and 1080p with some very mild sporadic stuttering. Playback of 720p never even got bogged down during downloads. It was a 5 year old Pentium 4 3.0ghz with hyper threading and 512mb ram. I only retired it a few months ago, mainly because of heat and fan noise.

Keeping that in mind, I'd say just go out and buy anything. Cheap, expensive, doesn't matter. Try to stick with nvidia and intel for maximum linux compatibility, although that's less of an issue as the years go by. Don't bother spending too much on features you don't need. Get a media center remote and IR dongle for it if you want to use a universal harmony remote. There are way too many choices to suggest, and unfortunately I don't know of many ATX components off the top of my head for HTPC purposes.

[ChicoQuente]

If I were to change my requirements to drop out the need for 4 HDDs in the machine, and offload those to another device, would one of those Zotac machines meet my other requirements? (Including Starcraft 2)

Edit: So it seems like the 4 HDDs is the biggest factor in determining the case I need this in. If I take the requirement out does it greatly improve my odds of fitting this in an HTPC case and still getting a good enough system for Starcraft 2? If YES to this question, what are my HDD options? I currently have 2x 1.5TB 3.5" HDDs and still want to use them, and probably add at least one more. Is there some way to handle that?

[ChicoQuente]

EDIT: Nevermind.

[babouche]

Would this (http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=71146&vpn=systembundle1&manufacture=Bundle%20Deals&promoid=1413) be good for what I am looking to do?

the crap bundle can't play nothing cause it doesnt have HDMI nor a graphic card
on the other hand http://www.ncix.com/products/?sku=65326&vpn=ZBOXNANO-AD10-PLUS-U&manufacture=Zotac will play 1080p no problem but too slow to play SC2

but zotac is still way better than the antec cause the antec is big and ugly, wont play any games, and needs a graphic card but it will only accomodate a cheap one because of the 350W
also no usb 3.0 and no wifi no bluetooth for the crap bundle

if you want there's the Shuttle SZ77R5, but will accomodate any video card but you will have to invest more

[ppl4golf]

I have done HTPC for a while long time...even before HD content has become mainstream.

I was adamant about HTPC cases that looked good and small and had to be 'desktop' style.

As it is now, I am not using any of those cases anymore except for 1-2 machines with only 1 HDD inside. They are just there playing second fiddle to media player and rarely get much action. They are still a PITA to work with and really don't look that good IMHO.

Just go with a nice black understated quiet tower and tug it out of sight. Double it up as server. Get into using el cheapo media player like Aios, WDTV Live, etc to play videos. These units are smaller, look better and can playback better than any HTPCs out there for the majority of the content.

It is far more important to have a decent, healthy , cool environment for the components especially the HDDs to reside.

[supernerd]

Most people that want to build an HTPC want something in a tiny case that looks neat and discrete. The fact that you want 4 3.5" drives is strange in HTPC world. That alone baffles me in regards to recommendations. Since you're probably going to get a big ***** ATX case for it, you can pretty much go with anything you want without worrying about size etc.

HTPC's can be many things and can come in many flavors to suit different needs/wants. I agree that it's more common to see small, discrete, low-profile boxes which compete against set-top boxes in terms of profile, but there's a lot of people out there who want a powerful "do-it-all" HTPC as well. Just look around newegg and NCIX and you'll see there's still a lot of full sized HTPC cases (Im a sucker for the ones with the front screen), that can accommodate builds with SLI and multiple drives for a RAID array (ie. the Zalman HD160XT can take 5 HDDs plus an optical drive). Although HTPCs can vary a lot in preferences, I'll admit there is one common requirement you'll see though -- that you should aim to be quiet -- and with larger cases, that's a bit easier to do.

Personally, I've switched over to all zotac boxes for HTPC's, but I used to be a sucker for massive, powerful HTPCs as well (and I've built several for personal clients, and still do)... although to be fair, those builds all break the bank -- usually like $3K+ everytime, because usually, the case alone would set me back $500 or more (not saying it has to be THAT expensive.. but if you're going for that kind of HTPC, usually, money is secondary).

[lead]

start with something like this

http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16856119050


and a standalone nas due to its efficiency and power consumption because they run 24/7 for hosting all your files. Or a 4 bay esata/usb that will be on when needed. Usually one of those booksize offers enough hard drive space for usenet/torrents etc that can later be scheduled to dump any storage device needed.

The hudson is a good choice for its power consumption/gpu capabilites.

[number8888]

Because you want to play SC2 you need more than just a HTPC. You most likely want to get a mid-range video card, which means you will need a mATX case at least. There's a lot of nice looking HTPC cases for that form factor which can also accommodate as many as 4 HDD's.

For example: http://ncix.com/products/?sku=35507&vpn=HTPC-5000B&manufacture=NMedia%20System&promoid=1404

Unfortunately these cases can be quite large to fit all the components, so check the space you want to put it in first and make sure the case fits.

If it wasn't for the SC2 requirement (and to a certain extend the HDD's) than you can easily get an Atom or Fusion box and hook it up to a NAS to do what you need. Heck you can even try a Rasberry Pi box running XBMC.

[ChicoQuente]

Because you want to play SC2 you need more than just a HTPC. You most likely want to get a mid-range video card, which means you will need a mATX case at least. There's a lot of nice looking HTPC cases for that form factor which can also accommodate as many as 4 HDD's.

For example: http://ncix.com/products/?sku=35507&vpn=HTPC-5000B&manufacture=NMedia%20System&promoid=1404

Unfortunately these cases can be quite large to fit all the components, so check the space you want to put it in first and make sure the case fits.

If it wasn't for the SC2 requirement (and to a certain extend the HDD's) than you can easily get an Atom or Fusion box and hook it up to a NAS to do what you need. Heck you can even try a Rasberry Pi box running XBMC.

That's a nice looking case. I could definitely go with something like that. As far as I can tell it should not be too hard for me to meet my requirements with a mATX mobo, is that correct? Aside from the HDDs which that case seems to accommodate I think the only other addition would be the video card? I am looking at this (http://is.gd/AP64zL) one as I have a BB gift card that would cover it and it seems more than sufficient for my needs. Do you for see any other issues that I am overlooking?

[ChicoQuente]

So I think I will be going with the case above (link (http://is.gd/FUuR0r)) as it seems to meet my needs. I have not been able to figure something out though. In the picture it seems to show an optical drive or at least a DVD logo. Is that just for show or is there an actual drive? I assume it is not included if it is a drive, and if that is the case where do I find one that fits?

[mr_raider]

If you want quality media playback, and light gaming, you can't beat AMD Llano solutions.
Something like this:

http://www.newegg.ca/Product/ComboBundleDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.864886