HTPC wanted

Headshot

1. What is your budget? 250 euro ( the lower the better tbh)

2. What will be the main purpose of the computer? HTPC/Internet. Basically want it to be my NAS unit too

3. Do you need a copy of Windows? [Yes]

I can buy from amazon.co.uk, hardwareversand and computeruniverse.

So basically im fed up of my main computer being on for so many hours a day. I hoping the HTPC will take over in terms of torrents and browsing the internet. 1TB hard drive will do me for the mean time.

I want it to be low on energy and very quiet (very important to me)since its going to be in my bedroom and be on a few nights of the week. It will never be used for games btw.

I dont want a big case, its to be pretty small. I was looking at this one Cooler Master Elite 120 Advanced USB 3.0 Mini ITX Case but if someone can recommend better, go ahead please.

what else would I need for a HTPC please

Wossack

have you the 1TB hard drive already?
having done something like this before, I really would try and go for as passive a set up as possible - sleeping in a room with a humming pc aint worth it imo

how many HD's are you thinking about expanding too over the life of this NAS? fwiw the BitFenix Prodigy cases are lovely - though prob too pricey for your budget

Headshot

No, actually ill be needing 2TBs
I dont see myself expanding on HD's all the much tbh. 2TB's will keep me going for along time

Ya the Bitfenix is a very cool case but to big for going into my tv stand.

Im not looking at this



I probably could get cheaper from the german sites but its just a mock up. I know its adds up to 350 euro alright and over my budget but is there anything I should take out of that to lower the price and still give a great performance

edit

ugh I forgot windows 7 too

250 euro is not a realistic price I reckon

Evd-Burner

Hello. Have you thought about or ever heard about a raspberry pi?

It is a 2w mini computer. At the moment I have my raspberry pi set up as the following.

1. Media Center (via HDMI, controlled by tv remote also via HDMI)
2. NAS - (2TB USB DRIVE)
3. FTP (dydns setup)
4. Torrent Box. (I can set my PI to download from anywhere, also smartphone apps for setting the torrents)
5. Web server for my own custom apps.

6. Planning on setting up an air to stream remotely from my phone but need to write a script to pause torrents and slow down everything else.

I had the external hard drive already and a 4gb sd card so in total it cost me 45 euro for the raspberry pi. It sits on top of my router and takes its power from the usb connection on the router.

Over the course of a year the pi will only cost 3.61 in electricity. The external hard drive will cost extra as it must be powered by itself.

You can add in internet browsing but it won't be great. And also all of the programs running on mine are set up to be daemons so if the power goes everything will start up straight away.

If you are afraid of linux and how to set one up I could help ye.

http://www.raspberrypi.org/faqs

raspberry pi running raspbmc media center.

Evd-Burner

It would leave you with enough money to buy an android tablet for browsing the web :P...

justsomebloke

have a look at this. only an atom processor but if you have any spare RAM and a hard drive it could work out pretty cheap

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056862121

Wossack

they're the way to go alright I reckon
shuttle barebones, or perhaps zbox (or custom one with a zotac all in one board (perhaps passive.. :P)) as alternatives

Headshot

justsomebloke wrote: »

have a look at this. only an atom processor but if you have any spare RAM and a hard drive it could work out pretty cheap

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056862121

I think that is the best route to take

I see you got one justsomebloke. Do you plan to put more ram and what hard drive in it?

And what os will you be installing?

Tea_Bag

Headshot if you're interested in the raspberrypi I could lend you mine for a week or two to see if you like it. I'm doing nothing with it at the moment but I've got raspbmc installed I think.

Headshot

Tea_Bag wrote: »

Headshot if you're interested in the raspberrypi I could lend you mine for a week or two to see if you like it. I'm doing nothing with it at the moment but I've got raspbmc installed I think.

Thanks for the very kind offer but at the moment in time the ARCTIC MC001-N is the way to go I think

justsomebloke

Headshot wrote: »

I think that is the best route to take

I see you got one justsomebloke. Do you plan to put more ram and what hard drive in it?

And what os will you be installing?

I only got it today. I had 4 GB of RAM and a 60 GB SSD 'spare' so I'm using that as the guts of the machine.

OS wise I'm going to stick a €15 copy of windows 8 on it and go from there but mine isn't going to be used a NAS. If I did need a NAS I would probably shell out for the Pi as well and just use this as a client

Tea_Bag

yea that thing looks sweet. just a pity about the atom CPU, I wouldn't use it myself but I'm really impatient with computers. most of the hardware acceleration will be taken care of by the GPU so it's probably good enough. I'll be interested to hear how you find it.

PogMoThoin

Tea_Bag wrote: »

yea that thing looks sweet. just a pity about the atom CPU, I wouldn't use it myself but I'm really impatient with computers. most of the hardware acceleration will be taken care of by the GPU so it's probably good enough. I'll be interested to hear how you find it.

The Atom cpu is perfect for XBMC, why would you need faster?

Wossack

consider a Rii (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Rii-2-4GHz-Wireless-Keyboard-Touchpad/dp/B004FSFYG8/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1359993988&sr=8-1)
or
logitech dinovo mini (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Logitech-920-00586-diNovo-Mini/dp/B0012NIYSO/ref=sr_1_1?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1359994034&sr=1-1)

to complete the set

Sofiztikated

Can the Pi be used for Netflix/4OD/iPlayer?

Sorry for hijacking, I'm in a similar position.

Tea_Bag

PogMoThoin wrote: »

The Atom cpu is perfect for XBMC, why would you need faster?

tbh, I use my HTPC for more than just playing media, so even my Pentium G2120 has to work hard on occasion. it usually ends up as another LoL client, hosts multiple Voip and Minecraft servers, streams media to all the Xboxs, PCs and phones in the house.

it's a PC that's going to be on 23/6, might as well use it...

PogMoThoin

Tea_Bag wrote: »

tbh, I use my HTPC for more than just playing media, so even my Pentium G2120 has to work hard on occasion. it usually ends up as another LoL client, hosts multiple Voip and Minecraft servers, streams media to all the Xboxs, PCs and phones in the house.

it's a PC that's going to be on 23/6, might as well use it...

To me that is a PC, not a HTPC. My own definition of a HTPC and my main requirements when building mine was something silent (fanless) and low power (Atom), but I have a home server tucked away upstairs to perform all the other tasks.

Headshot

ARCTIC MC001-N 114 euro
ram 22 euro
remote 13 euro
WD Caviar Green 2TB SATA 6Gbps Power Saving Internal Hard Drive OEM 80 euro from amazon.co.uk

229 euro there

Ill probably install XBMC. Never used anything besides windows so that should be a nice experience

PogMoThoin

Sofiztikated wrote: »

Can the Pi be used for Netflix/4OD/iPlayer?

Sorry for hijacking, I'm in a similar position.

Yes, these plugins are available in XBMC. You will not get the iPlayer without a VPN or Smart Dns service though, they are geo-blocked

PogMoThoin

Headshot wrote: »

Ill probably install XBMC. Never used anything besides windows so that should be a nice experience

You have 2 choices really;
OpenElec (bootable XBMC) or
XBMCbuntu (a light linux distro with XBMC on top), bootable to XBMC as well, but as it's based on Lubuntu you can do lots with it, there are plenty of guides to do lots of things on Ubuntu and a huge community only willing to help

Tea_Bag

PogMoThoin wrote: »

To me that is a PC, not a HTPC. My own definition of a HTPC and my main requirements when building mine was something silent (fanless) and low power (Atom), but I have a home server tucked away upstairs to perform all the other tasks.

yea, but there is no reason the HTPC cant be both. my CPU, GPU and PSU are fanless. there are 2 fans in it, a pair of Corsair SP120 quiet editions, running at ~600rpm to cool the 6Tb worth of HDD's and an SSD. the loudest part is the hum from the green drives, but youve to be standing on top of it to hear them. its as close to silent as makes no difference. last time i checked, it draws 90W at the wall. its no Rpi, but for a HD6450 + 3.1ghz Ivy bridge CPU is packs a punch at 90W.

EDIT: sorry for going off topic here.

Yeah I think HTPC means different things to different people. Personally I just use mine to watch things on. I prefer to keep my media server away from the living room, both for aesthetic reasons and noise reasons.

The OP described what he wanted to do so I wouldn't worry too much about whether its called a HTPC or a general purpose machine.

PogMoThoin

Deleted User wrote: »

Yeah I think HTPC means different things to different people.

Yeah, but the OP's original request was

I want it to be low on energy and very quiet (very important to me)since its going to be in my bedroom and be on a few nights of the week. It will never be used for games btw.

The Atom PC couldn't be any more perfect. Tea_Bag suggested a Raspberry Pi and then fobbed off an Atom as being weak cpu

Tea_Bag

PogMoThoin wrote: »

Yeah, but the OP's original request was


The Atom PC couldn't be any more perfect. Tea_Bag suggested a Raspberry Pi and then fobbed off an Atom as being weak cpu

I didn't suggest the raspberrypi..

I suggested he borrow mine before buying one, for the very same reason that it's pretty limited.

Headshot

I forgot to update this

Im currently an owner of the MC001. Loving it tbh

I cant hear it what so ever during the night, its a joy to use.

Thanks once again justsomebloke.