Advice on HTPC??

[Rafa]

Another help me build thread. Will be majority used for playing movies that will be streamed from main pc in other room. I've used a buddies pc to make sure it will stream HD, which it does. Only thing is weird is that it won't do the TrueHD, it does the HD-DTS fine. I'm thinking it's either a setting or the type of vid card he has(few years old). Anyways, not wanting a processing beast, just enough(or more) to play HD flawless(sound & picture) thru vid card. TV-tuner will probably come later down road.

Budget: $400 or less

Have the software
Will be getting a SSD for OS

Help on:
Wanting a budget HTPC case(about same size or smaller than your avg. receiver.)
MB either ATX or micro(as long I can still get a good vid card for)
Decent processor
Good vid for HD movies that will play all HD audio formats

thanks

[Rafa]

So far I have this case:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811204035

[Jewrrick]

So is the SSD included in the $400 budget?

[Rafa]

yes
They've gone down in price, so hopefully I can still meet that budget. I could squeeze a tad more, but trying to stay there.

[Jewrrick]

ok, I'm using some of the cheapest components out there and I'm having a really hard time but maybe I can eliminate some stuff. Does it need an optical(DVD/Blu ray) drive?

Since this is going to be simply streaming from another PC that is networked to this one, over i assume wifi, it doesn't need a HDD to save a lot of stuff to just the SSD with a little extra room for the occasional thing saved to it.

[Lason]

your going to need lots of hard drive for a HTPC and the SSD is killing your budget.

Are you wanting to know what SSD for $400 or the whole thing for $400?

[Jewrrick]

my understanding is he wants it ALL for $400

[Rafa]

For now, I won't need the bluray drive. My workhorse is in the other room along with all my HDD's. I have probably 5-6TB's of space. I already have a bunch of HD movies on it. It will be streamed via ethernet cable. Haven't had anytime to really look right now, pretty busy at work. Brian called me up and mentioned to look at Llano by AMD which has cpu/gpu built in. I'm only looking for probably an SSD of about 32G. I have a ps3 as well which I will use for actual BR disk's. The $400 is my goal, BUT I can go a tad higher, just not too much, being it's just for streaming movies, music, internet, and netflix. Later down the BR and/or tv-tuner maybe.

HTPC case..Case I posted is not bad in price, plus it has built in card reader
MB & CPU
Vidcard, but looks like I might be able get the MB to have it build in, as long as it is able to support all HD formats.
Power suppy

[Lason]

Oh I missed your going to be pulling from another computer. Why dont you make that one the HTPC then? When your all done, your going to have 18 computers daisy chained lol

[Jewrrick]

pm your email and I will send you a list from newegg.

[Tx Redneck]

http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=0366607

http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=0366949

Along w/your case you picked out.

[Rafa]

Oh I missed your going to be pulling from another computer. Why dont you make that one the HTPC then? When your all done, your going to have 18 computers daisy chained lol

cuz that one is a big sumbitch...lol

pm your email and I will send you a list from newegg.

it's coming

http://www.microcenter.com/single_pr...uct_id=0366607

http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=0366949

Along w/your case you picked out.

awesome man

[Jewrrick]

Email sent.

you can also use the MB/CPU combo he posted instead of the MB/CPU/GPU I posted. His will run about $65-70 more than mine and you will get a better proccesor and just a little bit lesser GPU.

[roliath]

my 1080p htpc

zotac ionitx-a-u (board + psu)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813500027

lian li pc-q07 (case)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811112227

Grab 2gb of ram of whatever flavor you like, same goes for your hdd.





I'd go with a llano build if I was gonna build an htpc, similar to this build.

http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1636235

[Rafa]

^^thanks for the link...you don't need that $100 bill do you?...haha
TXredneck mentioned llano as well and looks like a lot of folks are using that for their htpc. That case is pretty slick for what it is. Gonna see if I can find one that's horizontal. Still haven't had a chance to look up parts. Had some time but work got in the way.....LOL