HTPC + Home Server

diegowhite

Hi,

I previously used a laptop as my HTPC hooked up to an Infocus x9 projector and an Altec speaker system.

I'm upgrading the speakers to a Yamaha rx-v673 amp and a 5.1 floorstander setup.

I want to spec a HTPC which will do the following:
Play up to 1080p video from various sources, avis, blu-ray, youtube, vimeo
store movies etc up to 2TB
convert and stream movies, music, files, etc realtime to an iPad, laptop and apple airports around the house
digital audio out to the amp
hdmi output to the projector
I want to be able to rdp into it remotely to queue up movies to download etc

I went on pcspecialist to make up a spec, I came up with this, came in at £750 (I'd like to spend less if I could) but I think it's a bit of overkill for what I want, any ideas on what power I require for my needs?



Case
Silverstone GD05B Black Brushed Aluminium Case + 450W PSU

Processor (CPU)
AMD A8-5600K Quad Core APU (3.6GHz) & Radeon™ HD 7560D Graphics

Motherboard
ASUS® F2A85-M: (M-ATX, DDR3, USB 3.0, 6Gb/s)

Memory (RAM)
8GB SAMSUNG DUAL-DDR3 1333MHz (2 X 4GB)

Graphics Card
1GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GT 610 - DVI, HDMI, VGA - 3D Vision Ready

Memory - 1st Hard Disk
2TB 3.5" SATA-III 6GB/s HDD 7200RPM 64MB CACHE

1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
12x BLU-RAY RE-WRITER DRIVE, 16x DVD ±R/±RW

Sound Card
Creative Sound Blaster® X-Fi™ Xtreme Audio (£28) *SPECIAL*

Network Facilities
WIRELESS 802.11N 300Mbps PCI CARD (£16)

USB Options
2 x USB 3.0 PORTS + 4 x USB 2.0 PORTS AS STANDARD

Operating System
Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit w/SP1 - inc DVD & Licence (£79)

Office Software
NO OFFICE SOFTWARE

Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE

External Hard Drive
WD 2TB My Book Essential USB 3.0 External HDD WDBACW0020HBK (£92)

Warranty
3 Year Standard Warranty (1 Month Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)

Delivery
2 - 3 DAY DELIVERY TO REPUBLIC OF IRELAND (£19)

Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 9 to 11 working days

multimate

diegowhite wrote: »

Hi,

I previously used a laptop as my HTPC hooked up to an Infocus x9 projector and an Altec speaker system.

I'm upgrading the speakers to a Yamaha rx-v673 amp and a 5.1 floorstander setup.

I want to spec a HTPC which will do the following:
Play up to 1080p video from various sources, avis, blu-ray, youtube, vimeo
store movies etc up to 2TB
convert and stream movies, music, files, etc realtime to an iPad, laptop and apple airports around the house
digital audio out to the amp
hdmi output to the projector
I want to be able to rdp into it remotely to queue up movies to download etc

I went on pcspecialist to make up a spec, I came up with this, came in at £750 (I'd like to spend less if I could) but I think it's a bit of overkill for what I want, any ideas on what power I require for my needs?



Case
Silverstone GD05B Black Brushed Aluminium Case + 450W PSU

Processor (CPU)
AMD A8-5600K Quad Core APU (3.6GHz) & Radeon™ HD 7560D Graphics

Motherboard
ASUS® F2A85-M: (M-ATX, DDR3, USB 3.0, 6Gb/s)

Memory (RAM)
8GB SAMSUNG DUAL-DDR3 1333MHz (2 X 4GB)

Graphics Card
1GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GT 610 - DVI, HDMI, VGA - 3D Vision Ready

Memory - 1st Hard Disk
2TB 3.5" SATA-III 6GB/s HDD 7200RPM 64MB CACHE

1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
12x BLU-RAY RE-WRITER DRIVE, 16x DVD ±R/±RW

Sound Card
Creative Sound Blaster® X-Fi™ Xtreme Audio (£28) *SPECIAL*

Network Facilities
WIRELESS 802.11N 300Mbps PCI CARD (£16)

USB Options
2 x USB 3.0 PORTS + 4 x USB 2.0 PORTS AS STANDARD

Operating System
Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit w/SP1 - inc DVD & Licence (£79)

Office Software
NO OFFICE SOFTWARE

Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE

External Hard Drive
WD 2TB My Book Essential USB 3.0 External HDD WDBACW0020HBK (£92)

Warranty
3 Year Standard Warranty (1 Month Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)

Delivery
2 - 3 DAY DELIVERY TO REPUBLIC OF IRELAND (£19)

Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 9 to 11 working days

I think processor is a bit much maybe get an i5 good quality one make sure to look at benchmarks for your processor and get 4-6gb ram. Do you not have any windows 7 licenses, I think that windows would be better than Linux for this because of rdp and converting videos, bit what about win8 that is more optimised with tile interface than win7

BigEejit

Why buy a seperate graphics? The one in the cpu should do all that you require. The motherboard has hdmi out...

multimate

BigEejit wrote: »

Why buy a seperate graphics? The one in the cpu should do all that you require. The motherboard has hdmi out...

3d ready

PogMoThoin

multimate wrote: »

3d ready

Go faster stripes, the onboard is 3D ready too

multimate

PogMoThoin wrote: »

Go faster stripes, the onboard is 3D ready too

I didn't see that

PogMoThoin

multimate wrote: »

I didn't see that

Because it's a made up fancy buzz word that means capable of some sort of 3D......... if your TV is compatible and you're playing a file with the technology the TV supports
http://www.techradar.com/news/television/hdtv/what-makes-an-hdtv-a-3d-ready-tv-666341
http://www.projectorcentral.com/what_does_3d_ready_mean.htm