€800 home media centre

fletch

1. What is your budget?
~€800

2. What will be the main purpose of the computer?
Home media centre...play youtube/movies/t00rents/internet browsing etc...
Boot up time is important but the SSD I already have should take care of that.
I have an Acer Revo R3610 and it struggles to play videos at 720P on youtube which is very frustrating :mad:
It's important that I can connect the machine to my surround sound system via HDMI
No flashing monstrosity of cases either...and quiet running would be nice too

3. Do you need a copy of Windows?
No

4. Can you use any parts from an old computer?
Yes have a 250GB Samsung SSD, wireless keyboard and mouse

5. Do you need a monitor?
No as it will be hooked up to surround sound/TV system

5a. If yes, what size do you need.
n/a

6. Do you need any of these peripherals?
n/a

7. Are you willing to try overclocking?
No

8. How can you pay?
Bank Transfer/Paypal/Credit Card

9. When are you purchasing?
As soon as possible

10. If you need help building it, where are you based?
n/a

fletch

I was thinking of something like the spec in this build....
Would this be total overkill for a non gaming machine? Would my money be better spent increasing the RAM rather than on a good graphics card?

RogerThis

Have you looked at the Intel Nuc's? I have one setup to my TV running Windows 8.1

Idunno442

I'd say €800 is probably a lot more than you would need for a media centre.

GTX 750 ti €120ish
i3 4440 €105ish
Seagate barracuda 2TB €75ish
Corsair vs 350W PSU €33ish
Enermax Ostrog case €40ish
Crucial Ballistix Sport 8GB ram €67ish
MSI H81M-P33 €47ish

That's roughly €447 off of hardwareversand without using geizhals for any discounts. I like Discounts off of geizhals will bring that down a bit. This even is probably overkill for a home media pc to be honest you could probably drop to 4GB ram, Pentium processor and save another €80 or so. The 2TB off storage could be lowered too but I figured that it might as well be big given the budget. I like the look of that case myself, but maybe you prefer a different case, or smaller case. Its an ATX, could get mATX or ITX instead if you wanted a smaller case. Have to change the motherboard and maybe PSU if you wanted to do that.

You could probably get away with a much cheaper graphics card too if it is just for media.

Just putting this out there as a starter, someone else might give you a better option.

If you want to spend more on it by all means you could go with more expensive motherboard, 80+gold psu, i5 processor and more powerful graphics. I don't think it would make any real difference for a media pc though.

Idunno442

€487 ish, I don't maths well

OU812

Get yourself a second hand mac mini, install a copy of Plex or XBMC (think it's changed name recently), boot straight into that & it'll do everything you need, you'll never have any hassle either.

marco_polo

Whats the ideal size here, you reallly don't need a hell of alot of grunt in a htpc these days tbh, pretty much any old on board graphics will do the job.

I think I have a 35 euro AMD A4-5300 in mine that does the job just fine. Probably get something a little bit more powerful if you intend doing alot of stuff in the background not just playback on a single device

fletch

RogerThis wrote: »

Have you looked at the Intel Nuc's? I have one setup to my TV running Windows 8.1

Thanks for the suggestion...will look into them.

I thought the Acer would be sufficient as a media PC but it really struggles playing a video on 720P or above. Not great when it's hooked up to a 46inch TV. I suppose it's nearly 5 years old now and things have moved on.

I have a few quid to spend so don't mind maxing out my budget to get a decent setup. I also want something that will last a good few years.

Serephucus

Are you looking for storage as well, or just playback?

Have a look at SVP (Smooth Video Project), and see what you think. At first, I wasn't sure, but going back to 24FPS video now feels really horrible. If you do like it, you'll need some CPU grunt for 1080p playback. An i3 at the absolute least, preferably an overclockable i5.

Idunno442

If its just media and you want to max out the budget, you could get silent noctua fans/cpu cooler and the like for silent running. You could buy very large ssd storage if you need storage. Get a really nice case and 80+ gold silent running psu. Corsair RM 650W doesn't fan doesn't turn on unless its under load (from what I remember) plus 80+ gold so might save a bit on power. That'll be ~€100. A noctua cooler and fans should get close to silent, cooler about €70, fans about €10 each.

Say 2 noctua case fans (NOCTUA NF-S12B redux-1200) adds €24 to my earlier suggestion. Corsair RM psu another ~€70 and noctua cooler and another ~€65 for a noctua cpu cooler.

now the previous suggestion is up to ~€600

No need for the cooling of those noctua's but the lower noise levels might be a bonus.

I don't know any particularly silent cases off the top of my head. NZXT H440 (?I think) is nice and quiet. Doesn't have any place for a cd/dvd drive though.

I can't see there being any great need for an expensive graphics card if its just for media (unless perhaps you're watching 4k video).

I guess you could go for a stronger CPU too if the budgets there anyway. Say i5 4460 @~€;168 adds another €63. Now you're at €663.

Depending on the selection of case it could add another ~€40/50. So you could be up to ~€700.

With the extra €100 you could beef up the gpu. HIS r9 280 IceQ x2 @~€;188 could be an option. Then your up another ~€50 to ~€750.

Again this is off hardwareversand with no geizhals discounts. So with the remaining bit of the budget you could swap out the crucial 8GB ram set for 16GB-Kit G.Skill PC3-10667U CL9-9-9-24 @€;130. That brings you up to €810 plus another €12(?) shipping. Put it through geizhals and that will bring you back below the budget.

I don't know if theres any real need for 16GB ram, r9 280 in this machine but that should give you a pretty time proofed media machine. Serious overkill on the psu and fans but if theres a budget to be spent and its a media machine silent running seems to make sense in my mind.

On the other hand if its going to be used for gaming then drop the cpu cooler, the fans and maybe a cheaper psu and beef up the graphics car (gtx 970?). If its going to be used for some form of video/audio work or something, drop the cpu cooler and put in an Intel Xeon E3-1220v3 (€203).

Idunno442

your going to want to check my (bad) maths there too

TheDoc

Built a HTPC during the summer that came in at 400 euro.

Manages all my downloads.
Dead quiet
No buffering issues
1080p playback if required
Snappy as ****.

800 is way over the top, if you were interedted you could save a fair amount of money.

I'll post my spec later

Luck100

Just built one myself, it's sitting on my rack next to TV with AV receiver and UPC horizon box. Overkill for just media, but I use it for gaming/backups/torrents/plex server/plex home theater. It autoboots into PLEX home theater and runs perfectly with the Harmony remote.

Intel Core i5-4690 3.5GHz Quad-Core
Noctua NH-L12 37.8 CFM
MSI H97M-G43 Micro ATX LGA1150
Crucial Ballistix Sport 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600
Silverstone GD09B HTPC case
SeaSonic 550W ATX12V / EPS12V
Pioneer BDC-207DBK Blu-Ray Reader, DVD/CD Writer
Microsoft Windows 8.1 pro (64-bit)
Scythe Gentle Typhoon 37.0 CFM 120mm
Scythe Gentle Typhoon 37.0 CFM 120mm
Logitech K400 w/Touchpad
FLIRC USB Dongle for Media Centre
Harmony Remote

also these parts left over from other PC:
Mushkin Chronos Deluxe 240GB 2.5" SSD
Western Digital Caviar Green 3TB 3.5" 5400RPM
EVGA GeForce GTX 670 FTW 2GB


The MSI motherboard was a dud (constant blue screens with hardware error code) so I changed it for an Asus Z97-A. I have it up and working now for about a week and it's awesome.

terryduff12

Just wondering TheDoc Did you get a chance to post the Spec for your €400 HTPC ?

TheDoc

sorry totally forgot about this thread as I wasn't following it.

Corsair Builder Series CX 430 Watt ATX/EPS 80 PLUS Bronze Power Supply Unit

AMD A4 5300 CPU (3.4GHZ, 1MB Cache, 2 Core, HD7480D, Socket FM2, 65W, Retail Boxed)

LiteOn IHAS124-04 24x SATA Half Height Internal DVDRW Drive - Black

Cooler Master Elite 120 Advance - Mini-ITX Small Form Factor Computer Case, supports standard ATX PSU - White, USB 3.0

Corsair CMX4GX3M2B1600C9 XMS3 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 1600 Mhz CL9 Performance Desktop Memory Kit

WD 500GB Desktop SATA Hard Drive - Green

ASRock FM2A88X-ITX+ Motherboard (Socket FM2+, AMD A88X, DDR3, S-ATA 600, Mini ITX, 1x PCI Express 3.0 x16, A-Style)

Came in at £310 including shipping. All from Amazon. I went there as I wasn't in a rush and they can have massive price fluctuations. The build was originally coming in at £410, but when I saw my basket price show £310 I pulled the trigger.

Note that there is no dedicated GPU, the AMD processor there has built in graphics, that when I was researching proved to be a really good onboard graphics card, and to be fair it hasn't disappointed.

I tend to stick to 720p due to size and out of habit, but downloaded some 1080p's that seemed to run fine. I never sat through a whole film though, was only testers. So not sure for definite if its 1080p viable.

I use it to to manage all my downloads, which then filter into Kodi(xbmc new name) and then watch all my stuff. Also at the point where I use it even to watch DVD's now. It's so low power consumption and quiet we leave it on 24/7

I didn't go big on the Hard drive as I have a NAS with ample TB's of storage. The 500GB I got only cause it was hardly any price diff to the smaller ones, but substantial enough in the saving against a 1TB

And I'm posting this now, via VNC to the HTPC while in work,so has that benefit for the slacker among you

the motherboard also comes with bluetooth and wifi connectors. I didn't connect them up at first but have now. Basically its a wifi receiver( i dont really need as I use ethernet) but the bluetooth adaptor lets you connect devices.

So the misses uploads her photos to the PC and then onto backup storage online. I sometimes just use my phone to control XBMC, and all the other stuff you can do with Bluetooth.

Although I grabbed a bargain bin logitech wireless keyboard/mouse combo from Harvey norman that is pretty slick and works really well.

This article was the inspiration for the build. Changed only a few bits, and mostly cause it was out of stock or not available
http://lifehacker.com/5936546/how-i-built-the-media-center-of-my-dreams-for-under-500

Serephucus

My only change to the above would maybe be to chuck the cheapest SSD you can find in there. Doesn't really matter what size. Depends on if what you're building is solely for playback, or will be storing some stuff as well.

If you want something really small, you could also grab this NUC:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Intel-Compact-Barebone-SO-DIMM-DisplayPort/dp/B00HVVKRRW/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1420477703&sr=8-2&keywords=intel+nuc

This 120GB SSD:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Crucial-CT120M500SSD3-Internal-including-Screws/dp/B00BQ8RFAI/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&qid=1420477753&sr=8-6&keywords=msata+ssd

And this 8GB of SO-DIMM RAM:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Crucial-CT102464BF160B-PC3-12800-Unbuffered-NON-ECC/dp/B006YG8X9Y/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1420477819&sr=8-3&keywords=so+dimm+ddr3

For about £320.

TheDoc

Yeah I decided against a SSD as I run my movies from a NAS, and with the HTPC being relatively unbloated ( it literally contains a web browser, Kodi and download stuff) the gains from an SSD wouldn't be noticeable, so I was able to cut down on that cost.

On reflection, probably could have gone with a 60GB SSD over the 500GB HDD. I'm pretty sure that HDD I have is totally unused, so yeah good shout on the SSD, gives you that little extra snap.

The above, I boot from cold in less then 10 seconds in fairness, actually quicker then my main PC which is weird. Joys of keeping your HTPC down on bloat though