What are the important elements of a PC for streaming HD?

In The Conversation

I am looking for some advice when purchasing a new PC.

My Set-Up

- I want to buy a PC that will connect to my TV via a HDMI cable.
- The PC will mainly remain in the living room close to the tv. Therefore, I am open to laptop or desktop. If I can get more for my money with a desktop then I will do this. If the price:specs ratio is equivalent, then I would go laptop for obvious mobility benefit.
- The primary use of the PC will be for streaming tv. I will be streaming live sporting events as well as movies etc. I will be streaming using either hola extension on Chrome browser or HMA VPN as I will be using US sites.
- The key thing for me is best possible quality HD with no choppiness or sound falling out of alignment with picture.
- I currently have this setup, but with a 4 year old netbook and the streaming quality is poor.

Advice Requested

When buying a new PC for this purpose, what are the keys things I be looking for in the PC specs to meet my requirements?

I took a look at PCWorld website and saw the following 2 options. Thoughts?

ASUS K30AD-UK004S Desktop PC
TOSHIBA Satellite C50-B-14D 15.6" Laptop

I appreciate any advice.

Cheers
ITC

200motels

I personally wouldn't go near any of the above two, my personal taste is always a desktop PC over a laptop any day, you didn't give your budget, the most important thing to consider in my opinion in any new computer is the processor and the speed of it, second is plenty of ram, third is a decent graphics card and fourth a solid state drive, if I knew you budget I could recommend the a few.

In The Conversation

Thanks 200Motels.

As I am using the PC for streaming online content mainly (and not gaming etc), I was hoping to get something for around the €350 mark.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

same ol sh1te

For a HTPC next to a tv your main considerations should be, small and quiet (possibly fanless), check out the following:

same ol sh1te wrote: »

Intel, Gigabyte, Zotac and ASUS.
http://www.intel.co.uk/content/www/uk/en/nuc/overview.html
http://ca.gigabyte.com/products/list.aspx?s=47&ck=104
http://www.zotac.com/products/mini-pcs/product/mini-pcs.html
http://www.asus.com/ASUS_VivoPC/

There are also plenty of other options I the home theatre forum
http://touch.boards.ie/forum/643

Khannie

In The Conversation wrote: »

As I am using the PC for streaming online content mainly (and not gaming etc), I was hoping to get something for around the €350 mark.

I would look at something that is HTPC specific then. I built one myself which is fanless. If it's in the living room, this is a big, big bonus. If you're not going to store anything on it because you're streaming everything, a small SSD would be enough and it would remove the last element of noise (the hard drive) making it completely silent.

I would suggest: 4G of ram. A reasonable processor. Any modern graphics card would be enough as they all have hardware video decode now (mine is ION2 and works flawlessly for decoding high bitrate 1080p stuff) and a small SSD (32G would be enough for a HTPC, 64 for safety / if you're doing other stuff with it).

In The Conversation

Thanks guys. I appreciate all of the advice. It seems like a HTPC is the way to go.

I have looked up some HTPCs (e.g the Asus vivopc) and it seems that for what you get, they are more expensive than buying a regular laptop.

For example, to get an Asus vivopc with 4gb ram on amazon seems to cost at least €400. However I can get a regular laptop with 4gb ram for under €300.

What am I missing here? If you get less ram for your money with a HTPC (compared to a regular laptop), what do you get more of?

advertsfox

In The Conversation wrote: »

Thanks guys. I appreciate all of the advice. It seems like a HTPC is the way to go.

I have looked up some HTPCs (e.g the Asus vivopc) and it seems that for what you get, they are more expensive than buying a regular laptop.

For example, to get an Asus vivopc with 4gb ram on amazon seems to cost at least €400. However I can get a regular laptop with 4gb ram for under €300.

What am I missing here? If you get less ram for your money with a HTPC (compared to a regular laptop), what do you get more of?

Laptops are everywhere and basic, RAM is cheap so don't let that fool you for price.

I highly recommend a Zotac Zbox - I bought a barebones one and fitted my own 32GB SSD, RAM and OS and it was brilliant. There are dozens of variants, some already preloaded with all the hardware but you can save money by buying these easy to fit extras yourself and install Windows 7 / 8 (a doddle to do).

http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=zotac+zbox&rh=i%3Aaps%2Ck%3Azotac+zbox

Here's the one I had and sold on Adverts, suit your needs perfectly - http://www.adverts.ie/desktops/zotac-zbox-hd-ad01-htpc-pc-crucial-32gb-ssd-2gb-ram/2019329

Oh it comes with a VESA mount to stick to your TV / monitor / wall.

In The Conversation

Thanks.

To be honest, I'm a bit concerned that I do not know enough to be building my own PC.

I see the following on amazon for £309.

Asus M11BB-UK012S Multimedia PC (AMD A4-6300 3.7GHz Processor, 6GB DDR3, 500GB HDD, DVD-RW, AMD Radeon 8370D, USB 3.0, 6-in-1 Card Reader, HDMI, Windows 8.1 64-bit)

What are thoughts on this to meet my requirements?

same ol sh1te

In The Conversation wrote: »

Thanks.

To be honest, I'm a bit concerned that I do not know enough to be building my own PC.

I see the following on amazon for £309.

Asus M11BB-UK012S Multimedia PC (AMD A4-6300 3.7GHz Processor, 6GB DDR3, 500GB HDD, DVD-RW, AMD Radeon 8370D, USB 3.0, 6-in-1 Card Reader, HDMI, Windows 8.1 64-bit)

What are thoughts on this to meet my requirements?

That is a tower, it's not low power or low noise

advertsfox

In The Conversation wrote: »

Thanks.

To be honest, I'm a bit concerned that I do not know enough to be building my own PC.

I see the following on amazon for £309.

Asus M11BB-UK012S Multimedia PC (AMD A4-6300 3.7GHz Processor, 6GB DDR3, 500GB HDD, DVD-RW, AMD Radeon 8370D, USB 3.0, 6-in-1 Card Reader, HDMI, Windows 8.1 64-bit)

What are thoughts on this to meet my requirements?

No "building" involved, just slotting in a stick of RAM and a hard drive and maybe 4-6 screws to tighten. You don't want a big loud power house when a simple modern phone can handle 1080p streams and web video. A HTPC is what you want.

Khannie

advertsfox wrote: »

No "building" involved, just slotting in a stick of RAM and a hard drive and maybe 4-6 screws to tighten. You don't want a big loud power house when a simple modern phone can handle 1080p streams and web video. A HTPC is what you want.

I'm happy to do this ram and HDD insertion for you tbh. It couldn't be easier.

same ol sh1te

A quick search on Amazon threw up this http://www.amazon.co.uk/ASUS-VivoPC-VM40B-01-Desktop/dp/B00GMONZ28/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1408024257&sr=8-5&keywords=asus+vivopc+windows
Comes prebuilt, with 4GB ram, 500GB hard drive and Windows 8. It's no powerhouse, but it's plenty for your streaming needs. Only 65W so the saving in power over 12 months compared to the tower you posted would buy a laptop.

advertsfox

same ol sh1te wrote: »

A quick search on Amazon threw up this http://www.amazon.co.uk/ASUS-VivoPC-VM40B-01-Desktop/dp/B00GMONZ28/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1408024257&sr=8-5&keywords=asus+vivopc+windows
Comes prebuilt, with 4GB ram, 500GB hard drive and Windows 8. It's no powerhouse, but it's plenty for your streaming needs. Only 65W so the saving in power over 12 months compared to the tower you posted would buy a laptop.

That's a lovely machine.

In The Conversation

This is all very useful info for me.

I am going to try to summarise a comparison of the tower I referenced earlier with the htpc.

The tower is a little bit cheaper, it's processor is a little bit faster, it has more RAM.

However it is a tower, not a HTPC, and therefore it will be noisier and it will have a much larger power consumption so I will end paying more in the long run run with electric bills.

In any case, the extra power/capacity offered by the tower is probably not really needed for my purposes.

Does this sound right? Have I missed any other important considerations?

same ol sh1te

In The Conversation wrote: »

This is all very useful info for me.

I am going to try to summarise a comparison of the tower I referenced earlier with the htpc.

The tower is a little bit cheaper, it's processor is a little bit faster, it has more RAM.

However it is a tower, not a HTPC, and therefore it will be noisier and it will have a much larger power consumption so I will end paying more in the long run run with electric bills.

In any case, the extra power/capacity offered by the tower is probably not really needed for my purposes.

Does this sound right? Have I missed any other important considerations?

Spot on, this is so small you'll be able to stick it behind the TV out of view. As there are no fans there'll be no extra dust like you get with a big tower.

In The Conversation

Thanks for the advice guys. I am going to go for that Asus vivopc vm40b with 4gb of ram.

I actually found it on bestbuy site in the US for $249 (which is less than 200 euro). I can get a friend to bring it over from the US.

My only concern is that the processor is only 1.5 GHz. Any body think that will be an issue?

same ol sh1te

In The Conversation wrote: »

My only concern is that the processor is only 1.5 GHz. Any body think that will be an issue?

Nope, ample for your needs, I have similar, in fact an older version of the same Atom chip in my HTPC running OpenElec streaming local network and online 1080p without a problem. Even a cheap as chips smartphone can handle a 1080p HD stream these days, it's not a huge requirement any longer. As you plan on running Windows you're going to need to keep the PC lean on startup software. With Windows even the fastest powerhouse can become muddled down with crap launching at startup if you don't know what you're at, you may have to educate yourself on how to maintain a Windows PC to get the best performance.