[h0gg1e]

I'm a long time popcorn hour user and after messing around with xbmc I'm more than sold ... so now I'm replacing my popcorn and building a new htpc.

I've been lurking the forums and I think a suggestion by eskro will do everything I need. Based on the below build will the following work?

1. I have my library on a remote server, with the artwork stored remotely with the movie .. will I notice any slowing issues while navigating through my collection? (I'm on gigabit ethernet).

2. Will this build be able to run some of the more taxing skins out there? Currently I'm using Night, but I like having all options available.

3. What OS xp or 7 does everyone recommend?

4. Anyone had any success with a build like this playing psx and dreamcast emulated games? I might throw a few PC games on it as well ... but a handful of dreamcast emulated games would be awesome!

5. Has anyone had success using a emulator frontend as taxing as hyperspin on a build like this? - I'll most likely have all the emulator binaries and games on a usb attached drive.

6. Will this be able to play SBS 3D rips?

7. I assuming since it can play Netflix it can do Hulu ... just looking for verification.

8. Lastly .. how quite is this build? It has a fan so it's not silent ... but some noise doesn't bother me ... I already have 2 laptops in the same room at all times.

Thanks for the help - thanks to eskro for the build suggestion.


Here's the cheapest possible build for you! (windows OS only)


[MOBO+CPU+iGPU] ASRock E350M1 Zacate Dual-Core 1.6Ghz HD6310 ALC892 Mini-ITX ($110 + $7)
[CASE+PSU] Apex MI-008 Black mini-ITX 250W ($40 + $0)
[FAN] SilenX IXP-74-09 120mm 800RPM 38CFM 9dBA ($13 + $0)
[SSD] Kingston SSDNow 30GB 2.5" SATAII Trim Read:180MB/s Write:50MB/s ($56 + $0)
[RAM] CORSAIR 2GB 240-Pin DDR3 DDR3 1333 ($22 + $0)
TOTAL: ($248)

Yepp, believe it or not, this $248 HTPC will do all you want!
*PLay 1080P
*BitStream HD-Audio
*Play Netflix-HD
*Stream Server Files at Gigabyte Speed
*Can accommodate a Regular 5.25" Optical Bluray Drive

Enjoy your new HTPC
Don't forget to show us some pics and a small video

[Kirky99]

No experience with that build, however, I have MAME running fairly well on my ATOM/ION. I'm only playing the classics, so I can't say much about the laser disk games there now, etc. My gut tells me that anything less than a full blown desktop CPU/graphics card and you're risking your gaming. I tried Gauntlet Legends about a year back on MAME and is was a slideshow on my desktop. I think they were talking at the time about possibly playing at usable framerates on the 6 core CPUs. I'm not sure how much MAME leverages the GPU in it's emulation.

Hyperspin is a pig! I love it to death, but it needs more CPU than anything else. It was flash based if I recall, which means it might work better these days with hardware acceration, but that's something else I haven't tried.

I'm just throwing a dart on this one, but I doubt that build will do much with emulators.

[eskro]

ok lets do this....

1.
no you'll see no lags at all,,,
mainly because XBMC cache's the Artwork and stuff on the OS drive...

2.
the ZACATE platform is better than any ATOM platform....
But less good then a Celeron platform,,,,
KInda sits between the 2...
However, the heavy AEON MQ2 seems to run pretty well on it based on user's opinions...
Not super hyper fluid,
but works ok, its usable...
as usual, i recommend install windows on a 30GB or more SSD...

3.
Windows7 hands down!!

4.
Dreamcast and PSX are still demanding emulators to me....
I dont really think you'll enjoy running those on a Zacate platform,,,
thats what my guts tell me,,,

5.
dont know about those Emu Front END...
i know XBMC can gather infos on games like it does on Movies and such...
and there's the application launcher to launch the games if i recall good...

6.
Forget about 3D, not strong enough,,,,

7.
yes it can play HULU...

8.
that build is good, but i guess not for you....
the fact that you wanna run Dreamcast games will require you
to buy another build preferably with a dedicated GPU card
and a stronger CPU...

[h0gg1e]

I love this board! Crazy awesome support! Thanks for the quick responses.

With SBS 3D and hopefully running some dreamcast games (but not 100% required).

It looks like this might be the build for me ... should I pull the trigger on this one?

INTEL

[cpu] Intel Core I3-2100 3.1GHz LGA-1155 Dual-Core 65W ($123 + $0)
[mobo] MSI H61M-E33 (B3) LGA-1155 Micro-ATX ($70 + $0)
[gpu] ASUS GeForce GT520 1GB DDR3 64-bit Fanless Low Profile ($60 + $0)
[case] SILVERSTONE ML03B Micro-ATX ($60 + $0)
[psu] Antec EarthWatts 380W ATX12V ($40 + $0)
TOTAL: ($353)

[SlyMaelstrom]

1. I have my library on a remote server, with the artwork stored remotely with the movie .. will I notice any slowing issues while navigating through my collection? (I'm on gigabit ethernet).
On gigabit, you should have no problem streaming high bitrate video.

2. Will this build be able to run some of the more taxing skins out there? Currently I'm using Night, but I like having all options available.
Not sure about Night, but the example build you listed should be able to handle all skins that I'm aware of pretty well.

3. What OS xp or 7 does everyone recommend?
I'd go with Windows 7 simply because of the support. XP was, and probably still is, a better operating system in my opinion, but down the line people are just going to stop supporting it long before they stop supporting Windows 7. I don't think Windows 7 has that much more overhead over XP, so I don't think either choice represents a serious performance issue.

4. Anyone had any success with a build like this playing psx and dreamcast emulated games? I might throw a few PC games on it as well ... but a handful of dreamcast emulated games would be awesome!
Absolutely... one of the reasons I built an HTPC was so that I could leave all of my hardware and game collecting dust in the closet while I emulate everything and keep a nice clean media room. I currently have all consoles up to PS2 and Gamecube fully emulated on my HTPC and it's wonderful. Bear in mind, I'm running a much more powerful computer than what you're looking at. I'm going to go out on a limb and say you're going to have trouble emulating any console from the PSX onward with perhaps the exception of the N64 (which seems to be easier to emulate).

5. Has anyone had success using a emulator frontend as taxing as hyperspin on a build like this? - I'll most likely have all the emulator binaries and games on a usb attached drive.
Sorry, I never touched hyperspin.

6. Will this be able to play SBS 3D rips?
I would say so. There are a few threads on this in the XBMC forums. Some people have claimed they run 3D even on the Apple TV 2 without a problem as most of the 3D processing is actually handled by the monitor.

7. I assuming since it can play Netflix it can do Hulu ... just looking for verification.
Windows can do Hulu, of course, but if you're concern is the TV shows then I would look into BlueCop's Free Cable add-on which aggregates a ton of network websites (CBS.com, NBC.com, ComedyCentral.com, etc) and is, in my opinion, far better than Hulu and it's still in alpha.

8. Lastly .. how quite is this build? It has a fan so it's not silent ... but some noise doesn't bother me ... I already have 2 laptops in the same room at all times.
Shouldn't be too loud... hard to say what the case fan is going to sound like, though. Things like that can vary from unit to unit.


Just a note: I ordered an Apple TV 2 and will get it over the weekend. I intend to mess around with it see how it handles video because the claims on this forum seems to vary. It's only $80 refurbished, so I wouldn't rule it out if I were you and silence is a concern. I could keep you updated on my process and opinions on it if you'd like.

[eskro]

the Intel Core I3-2100 is a very good build right there, but this one would be good enough!


[mobo] GIGABYTE GA-MA78LMT-S2 AM3 Micro-ATX ($60 + $0)
[cpu] AMD Athlon X2 3.0GHz Dual-Core AM3 65W ($60 + $0)
[gpu] ASUS GeForce GT520 1GB DDR3 64-bit Fanless Low Profile ($60 + $0)
[case] SILVERSTONE ML03B Micro-ATX ($60 + $0)
[psu] Antec EarthWatts 380W ATX12V ($40 + $0)
TOTAL: $280

[SlyMaelstrom]

[cpu] Intel Core I3-2100 3.1GHz LGA-1155 Dual-Core 65W ($123 + $0)
[mobo] MSI H61M-E33 (B3) LGA-1155 Micro-ATX ($70 + $0)
[gpu] ASUS GeForce GT520 1GB DDR3 64-bit Fanless Low Profile ($60 + $0)
[case] SILVERSTONE ML03B Micro-ATX ($60 + $0)
[psu] Antec EarthWatts 380W ATX12V ($40 + $0)
TOTAL: ($353)

This build looks way better for emulation, but the GPU will end up choking quite a bit and it will crap out big time on PC games. Still, though, your expectations are not absurd for this build. You'll have no problem with 3D and I think you should be able to get some decent speed in Chankast if not 100%.

[h0gg1e]

SlyMaelstrom - what does your machine look like?

Curious about emulating PS2 ... not that I'm looking to do that on this htpc ... just curious.

I've read Apple TV 2 not being able to play 1080p ... i have piles of 1080p content, so I don't think that would work.

[SlyMaelstrom]

I've read Apple TV 2 not being able to play 1080p ... i have piles of 1080p content, so I don't think that would work.

I've read that too which would pretty much be a deal breaker for me... but I've heard plenty of people claim that they can play a lot of 1080p content. I bought one for my father cause he'd be cool with it regardless and would use it mostly for Icefilms, Free Cable, and ESPN3. I'm gonna give it a look-see and if I can get a good amount of 1080p content playing smoothly and it isn't actually downscaling it down to 720p, then I'm telling everyone I know to buy one. You could get an apple TV with XBMC and drop cable and it pays for itself after the first month in my area.

----------------------

As for my PC, I'm currently running the following (important stuff):

Intel Core i3 530 @ 3.6Ghz
ASRock H55M Pro
4GB G.Skill DDR3 1333
eVGA GTX 460 1GB


I have that running on a 750W PSU (which is overkill), a couple of 1.5TB drives in RAID 0, a Hauppage TV Tuner so I can get the local channels for free, and in a month or so I plan on getting one of the $100 AverMedia HDMI capture cards to get my PS3 rolling right into my PC.

And if you want to know what it looks like, then all of that is sitting in an nMedia 5000B with a BD-ROM and I tore apart an Antec Veris Elite so I could fit it into the embedded LCD display slot.

Overall, it cost a whole lot of money. Probably nearing $1000 or so when I bought it all. In reality, it's about $250 towards making a a nifty home theater movie player and $750 towards playing PS2, Gamecube, and some modern PC games with great framerate... was it worth the extra cash? Part of me says yes, part of me says no.

[RudolfR]

I have an ATV2 running a recent nighly build ant it's pretty capable of playing back SD and HD video.
It does decode 1080p, but the output is limited to 720p.

Works well, but it's quite picky about the formats (h264 encoded, mkv container)
That's the only format decoded in hardware.

It's a nice device for in the bedroom.

[h0gg1e]

Done and done ... trigger equals pulled.

Decided for going a little bigger than I needed and went with ... thanks for all the suggestions and help this forums is AMAZING!

[cpu] Intel Core I3-2100 3.1GHz LGA-1155 Dual-Core 65W ($123 + $0)
[mobo] MSI H61M-E33 (B3) LGA-1155 Micro-ATX ($70 + $0)
[gpu] ASUS GeForce GT520 1GB DDR3 64-bit Fanless Low Profile ($60 + $0)
[case] SILVERSTONE ML03B Micro-ATX ($60 + $0)
[psu] Antec EarthWatts 380W ATX12V ($40 + $0)
Kingston 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1066
Kingston SSDNow V Series SNV125-S2/30GB 2.5" 30GB SATA II Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)

[eskro]

youll enjoy you htpc thats 4sure!!

congrats!!

fantastic build!!

hope you'll take some pictures and a tiny video for us to enjoy