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Self Build Help

will56

Can someone with better knowledge than me offer some advice please ?

I'm thinking of upgrading my current set up of a Pi B+ NAS and Android Mini PC.
The Mini Pc is a Tronsmart A928 - Android 4.2, CPU: RK3188t 2gb Ram.
The Pi acts as a samba share and also a torrent box.

I'm considering purchasing a Barebones PC, either Intel NUC or a Gigabyte Brix to do the job of both devices.

Is this possible ?
I'm hoping the upgrade will let me use some of the better skins on Kodi and some extra functionality on the back end for downloading and file sharing.

Or am I better off keeping the processes seperate ?
IE buy something like a Synology NAS and look for a player with better ram/processor ?

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TheDoc

I'd get rid of the Pi ASAP. I genuinely don't know how anyone uses it and get's proper functionality, unless they are happy to accept skimpt performance and operation. Maybe the new model is vastly superior, but I was a first adopter of the Pi when it first came out and while it "could" operate as an XBMC compatible device, here is a big difference between "can run" and "runs well". The Pi was rubbish for me. I tried first to use it as a download manager ( to manage my downloads from newsgroups, with my infra of sickbeard, couchpotato and sabnzbd) and then to operate as an XBMC device.

The download manager idea canned when it turned out the Pi was pretty brutal in terms of writing data, and download speeds. The XBMC lasted a little longer, but frequent crashes, sluggish responsiveness and other issues led me to put it back in the drawer to gather dust.

I went to amazon and built a HTPC for €300 and I havn't looked back since. It does everything I need. Manages perfectly my download infrastructure (download speeds of 25-30mb/s) and is flawless running XBMC. I skimpt a "little" in that I went for a normal HDD and I designed the machine for 720p playback (1080p overkill for me, don't need it).

I have a NAS seperate that sits beside it. It's an old Netgear Stora with 1TB storage, but does everything I need. I have a second 1TB drive I need to format and then I can hotplug it in, and then have 2TB (or have an active backup).

I posted my part list here before I'll find the post and give you the link. But my recommendation is literally go built a HTPC.

I've tried a RAKE of devices that price wise look nifty, but performance wise are nothing compared to a proper HTPC. I think I'll upgrade mine over the summer with a SSD to bump performance more. I went with a 500GB HDD on purchase, and while it's TOTALLY fine now, and more storage on the machine itself then I would ever use( I only use the NAS, the 500GB HDD has like 420GB free) I guess having SSD's in my other PC's annoy me that the HTPC doesn't boot as quick as the rest haha.

I'll drop a link in a new post when I find my build.

TheDoc

Actually wasnt that hard to find

This was originally £410, but then typical with amazon loads of parts got reduced so my final price was £310, which I guess was about €350 at the time.

I'd probably spent €400 down the years on toys and gimmicks that were supposidly going to do what I wanted, but never delivered. I'd say if I did the build again, or recommended it to someone, I'd remove that 500GB HDD and put in a 120GB SSD (assuming the user has a NAS, which every HTPC enthusiast should have)

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)

will56

TheDoc wrote: »

Actually wasnt that hard to find This was originally £410, but then typical with amazon loads of parts got reduced so my final price was £310, which I guess was about €350 at the time.

I'd probably spent €400 down the years on toys and gimmicks that were supposidly going to do what I wanted, but never delivered. I'd say if I did the build again, or recommended it to someone, I'd remove that 500GB HDD and put in a 120GB SSD (assuming the user has a NAS, which every HTPC enthusiast should have)

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)

Thanks TheDoc. Once it all runs well I think an all in one system would be a better option for me

TheDoc

Can't fault my HTPC, does literally everything I want. Just to re-iterate, it is 720p which is what I specifically wanted. I don't see enough gains from 1080p to warrant the price and the storage size of the files. Also I opted out of a Bluray player since I have a PS3 sitting beside the HTPC.

Manages, downloads and plays all my media flawlessly.

will56

TheDoc wrote: »

Can't fault my HTPC, does literally everything I want. Just to re-iterate, it is 720p which is what I specifically wanted. I don't see enough gains from 1080p to warrant the price and the storage size of the files. Also I opted out of a Bluray player since I have a PS3 sitting beside the HTPC.

Manages, downloads and plays all my media flawlessly.

Have your played 1080p files on your system ?
I don't have many at the the moment but I wouldn't rule it out in the future

Is there any sites apart from Amazon that would be good for sourcing parts ?

unkel

TheDoc wrote: »

I don't see enough gains from 1080p to warrant the price

What makes 1080p more expensive? Surely the cheapest, most basic graphics cards (and indeed even on board graphics) can play 1080p these days?

Tbh I rarely watch anything on a lower resolution than 1080p these days. And most of what I watch is on a small enough monitor (24"). It's just so much nicer than low definition...

will56

Here is a build using parts recommended from another site, how does it look ?
I'm thinking of including a Blue Ray drive if I go for a case this size since it has the space

WD Red 3TB for NAS 3.5-inch Desktop Hard Drive - OEM

Inwin BP655 Mini ITX Case with 200W PSU and HD Audio - Black

AMD APU Athlon 5350 Quad Core Processor (Socket AM1, 2.05GHz, 2MB, 25W, AMD Radeon 3, AD5350JAHMBOX

Mod AMD ASRock AM1H-ITX Motherboard

Silicon Power S70 2.5 inch 120GB Solid State Drive - SSD

HyperX FURY Series 4GB DDR3 1600MHz CL10 DIMM Memory Module

TheDoc

unkel wrote: »

What makes 1080p more expensive? Surely the cheapest, most basic graphics cards (and indeed even on board graphics) can play 1080p these days?

Tbh I rarely watch anything on a lower resolution than 1080p these days. And most of what I watch is on a small enough monitor (24"). It's just so much nicer than low definition...

Well I went with a CPU that had an integrated GPU, albeit a decent one, from reviews it seemed to struggle at 1080p. So you might want to look into getting a dedicated GPU for a start. So thats another €140 min onto your budget.

If you are into digital media, 1080p at proper conversions are pretty big on space. Proper 720p movies for example, are between 4-6GBs. Now you can get them at the 700mb range, or under 2GB, but they are not the highest quality conversions, and personally I prefer to highest quality ones. It's miniscule in reality, but just a preference for me.

But the 1080p proper copies, can get to the 10-15GB region. So storage needs to be a factor if you were going for a full 1080p system.

From the research I did before building my system, 720p was going to be the maximum in terms of optimisation. If I wanted to go down the 1080p route, I'd have needed to invest another €200 and I didn't want to.

I've a 42" TV at home and to be honest I can't tell the difference between 720 and 1080, so I've been happy enough with 720.

When you say "low definition" do you mean SD ? To be honest I don't know how anyone has not moved over to 720p as a bare minimum at this stage. I actually can't even watch my normal DVD's anymore. I'm at the point where I decide to watch one of my DVDs, then I go download the 720p version

TheDoc

will56 wrote: »

Have your played 1080p files on your system ?
I don't have many at the the moment but I wouldn't rule it out in the future

Is there any sites apart from Amazon that would be good for sourcing parts ?

I have played 1080p on my system, and while it does work, buffering does tend to happen through Kodi( thats what XBMC is now called). That freaks my ****, and I hate it.

As I mentioned above, the file size's are much bigger, so thinking about storage is another factor, and in reality I just didn't see he gains from 1080p to warrant the change. I've got some Blurays, and they just don't appear that much better, or noticable in terms of gains, over 720p at the size telly I'm on (42)

TheDoc

Just as a point of note, be careful with the R3 series there. You linked a motherboard with integrated GPU. My machine has the GPU integrated into the CPU.

When I was doing my research the R3 series for motherboard integration had little to NO information I could find, but I found some users who had them in laptops, and noted how they could barely get 10fps on some REALLY old games. So it made me weary in regards to how it would run media.

will56

TheDoc wrote: »

Just as a point of note, be careful with the R3 series there. You linked a motherboard with integrated GPU. My machine has the GPU integrated into the CPU.

When I was doing my research the R3 series for motherboard integration had little to NO information I could find, but I found some users who had them in laptops, and noted how they could barely get 10fps on some REALLY old games. So it made me weary in regards to how it would run media.

Thanks, I'll do some more research so

will56

Am I better off having my media stored on a NAS and download management carried out by the NAS and have the HTPC as the player ?

Or should I lump the whole lot into one machine/case