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+--- Thread: Best xbmc set up for living room. (/showthread.php?tid=176832)
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Best xbmc set up for living room. - Red99 - 2013-10-29
If anyone has advice or a link to a thread on what would be the best set up to run xbmc in my living room to my 3d 1080p tv. I have an external hard drive with 2 tbs of blu rays at around 30gbs each. Also would like to do 3d movies through xbmc when the next update comes out. Any box like an ouya or mini pc (Mac mini?) that would be able to play movies at 1080p and do 3d with a 2tb usb hard drive hooked up to it. I'd prefer not to have a giant rig next to my receiver that's why I needed something smaller to fit in the tv center. And I would also like to keep the movies at the original size. Any ideas or suggestions would be great. Thanks.
RE: Best xbmc set up for living room. - dagatech - 2013-10-29
An Intel NUC with an i3 or better should do the trick. I don't think any of the Android boxes would work well for you.
RE: Best xbmc set up for living room. - Red99 - 2013-10-29
Yeah I looked into the mx2 but no 1080p is not going to work. Then I checked out the ouya but I've heard mixed reviews on the hardware. I've never researched the NUC, will do so now. Thanks for the reply.
RE: Best xbmc set up for living room. - JPCRacing24 - 2013-10-29
Besides completely building your own, I completely agree that the NUC is a really nice device to use.
RE: Best xbmc set up for living room. - trent33 - 2013-10-29
Red, if you have a little bit of patience, seems like 1080p on the MX2 is just about to happen:
http://matricom.net/forums/#/discussion/792/g-box-mx2-1080p-teaser-screen-shots
I'm very close to pulling the trigger on a MX2 because of this
RE: Best xbmc set up for living room. - Red99 - 2013-10-29
Still researching the NUC, looks great but for the money can't you just build a home theater pc by yourself? NUC is about 300 but with the right components you need it'll end up being 700. I found this http://mymediaexperience.com/htpc-builds/value-htpc/
Basically setting up your own system for just under 500 if you don't get the blu ray drive.
Suggestions?
RE: Best xbmc set up for living room. - dagatech - 2013-10-29
Oh, you can absolutely build your own, it just didn't sound like you wanted to. Not sure how you get 700 total for a NUC though; the base plus memory and a small SSD (or boot to usb), and you're set.
that build is fine, but I would go with Haswell chips (1150) for less power use and mini ITX boards if you want small. A full ATX htpc case is about the size of a standard receiver, so subtle it aint. For example, something like this:
CPU: Intel Core i3-4330 3.5GHz Dual-Core Processor ($129.98 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: ASRock H87M-ITX Mini ITX LGA1150 Motherboard ($94.99 @ Microcenter)
Memory: Crucial Ballistix Sport 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($65.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Kingston SSDNow V300 Series 60GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($54.99 @ Amazon)
Case: Apex MI-008 Mini ITX Tower Case w/250W Power Supply ($49.19 @ Outlet PC)
Total: $395.14
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-10-29 16:35 EDT-0400)
(note i'm not recommending those specific components, although they're fine - just demonstrating)
RE: Best xbmc set up for living room. - trent33 - 2013-10-29
Celeron Brix, $169: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16856164005
4GB RAM: ~$40
SSD is optional because you can run XBMC & OpenElec on a cheap USB thumb drive.
Plug in your external HDD and you're good to go.
~$210 total.
RE: Best xbmc set up for living room. - dagatech - 2013-10-29
(2013-10-29, 22:38)trent33 Wrote: Celeron Brix, $169: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16856164005
4GB RAM: ~$40
SSD is optional because you can run XBMC & OpenElec on a cheap USB thumb drive.
Plug in your external HDD and you're good to go.
~$210 total.
celeron won't do 3d though
RE: Best xbmc set up for living room. - trent33 - 2013-10-29
(2013-10-29, 22:42)dagatech Wrote: celeron won't do 3d though
Really? How lame. Thanks for the correction
Kabini-based BRIX where are you
RE: Best xbmc set up for living room. - Red99 - 2013-10-29
http://www.engadget.com/2013/03/23/intel-nuc-review/
I'm new to the NUC completely so I saw the 598 total price tag and that got me thinking. Definitely want to do 3d and 500 would be just about my top for a budget. Researching cpu s now and seeing that Intel might be the best way to go with its hd 4000 over Amd. Noob question but is building from scratch and buying and then adding on to the NUC just about the same thing? I've never done it before.
I'd be interested to see how the mx2 would handle Gotham with 3d too. But I figure building would be better in the end. Dagatech that looks really tempting.
RE: Best xbmc set up for living room. - calev - 2013-10-29
Installing your own psu and motherboard is about the only difference if im reading your question right. Other than cheaper you get another benefit from building your own. The CPU will be clocked twice as high since you have more room for airflow.
RE: Best xbmc set up for living room. - Red99 - 2013-10-29
That sounds great. And the NUC cpu and mother board can't be replaced right? Now I'm really thinking about building my own. Dagatech listed some items that look good and i will need to research more. Thinking windows 7 is the best way to go if I ever want to do more than just movies and do casual gaming via steam or anything. So the NUC is for the easy way out but building it up with those specs listed before will come out better and maybe less expensive in the long run?
RE: Best xbmc set up for living room. - Red99 - 2013-10-30
Any idea of what version of windows 7 I'll need for an htpc build? and those specs from the first page I'm already beginning to grab and other recommendations or should I just stick with those? They look good so far with good reviews.
RE: Best xbmc set up for living room. - calev - 2013-10-30
any version of windows 7 or 8 should be fine. Windows 7 comes with windows media center where windows 8 doesnt but there are media apps in the metro store. Really for light gaming Ubuntu isnt that bad. Steam works good natively or through wine.