[mcnovy]

Hey,

I know that alot of topics is up regarding this.
I have read alot about this, but haven't been able to find any good answer..

First off.. Why do anyone feel that it is necessary to build a HTPC
bigger than say an i3 or Atom based PC.?

As it is right now, I have a BoxeeBox in my bedroom, and DuneHD in my living room.
I have my movies on a NAS server.

the DuneHD is connected to my onkyo receiver with 7.1 speaker setup,
and I would like to be able to stream 3D video (future proof), and high bitrate MKV/ISO's of bluray movies, also bitstream sound, TrueHD and so on.

My DuneHD can handle this, except 3D. but the menu navigation is rather boring and slow, but all in all, I am quite satisfied, but I just got keen on building an HTPC with XBMC.

whether I will run Linux, or Windows is undefined right now.

the last thing, Where I have a big concern.
Power consumption. at idle, and while playing.

I read a review with the i3 2100t and a H67 chipset, where they claimed a idle power at 10 watt, which is rather impressive, but other reviews I have found, measures higher power consumption's.

so.. does anyone have some answers and advice's for me..?

thanks

[wsume99]

There always seems to be a lot of variation in the power consumption values when product reading reviews from different sites. I think there are two primary reasons for this ...

1) Different MBs can produce a big difference when it comes to power consumption. I have seen some tests where it can be as much as 7-10 watts.

2) A lot of review sites use large capacity PSUs when they test the i3. PSUs are very inefficient when the load is below 20%. So if you select a lower capacity PSU (like a 120w picoPSU) then you are going to get better results than when you use a 700w PSU.

[ph77]

Yes, it all depends on the board and the psu.
I'm a fan of http://www.silentpcreview.com/ for more realistic reviews.

Generally the Intel boards are more minimalistic and have lower power consumption.
Competitors put more bells and whistles and naturally the board consumes more power.
But it really depends on what you really want. If you choose an i3 2100T for low power there is no point getting anything else than an Intel board, as you will not be able to overclock/undervolt the cpu anyway. If you want more bios customization or more features go for an MSI or a Gigabyte board, but also choose a cpu that allows some customization (2100 or i5 2400).

An efficient psu like a Pico one is a must for low power. You'll hardly need more than 120w in your htpc (except if you attach several drives/extra cards on it). A good practice is to get a watt-meter and measure your maximum consumption under boot (where the disks draw a lot of power, 15-20 watts each) and stress, using a "normal" PSU. Then you can buy an adequate PicoPSU (60/90/120 or 150w) according to the max number, some safety margin and any future expansion plans.

[wsume99]

I'm a fan of http://www.silentpcreview.com/ for more realistic reviews.

+1

The forums on their site are a good source of info as well. You can find lots of examples of people over there using i3/i5 CPUs with picoPSUs. Some are even using them with discrete graphics as well.

[DavidT99]

I have an AMD zacate HTPC in a Akasa Crypto case with the internal 65w PSU. Apart from the mobo (ASRock E350M1) I have a 2.5" HDD and a 50mm case fan.

My power consumption figures are;

Power off: 0.2w
Booting: 30w or less
Idle (Ubuntu desktop): 18.5w +/-0.5w
Idle (xbmc): 25w +/-2w
Playing SD movie: 25w +/-1w
Playing 720p HD movie: 27w +/-1w

I don't have a figure for playing a 1080p movie because these files don't play well with my present system.

David

[outatouch0]

Does a computer running really effect one's power bill that much?
I am not being snide here. I am actually serious. Leaving an average light-bulb on is 65watts. Any throttling down below that is all to the good isn't it?
The power hog is the Television screen IMO.

[DavidT99]

Does a computer running really effect one's power bill that much?
I am not being snide here. I am actually serious. Leaving an average light-bulb on is 65watts. Any throttling down below that is all to the good isn't it?
The power hog is the Television screen IMO.

When looked at against your overall household power consumption it is minimal, I doubt it is even noticable, but if you have 3 or 4 implementations of xbmc and a NAS serving the media then it does start to add up.

David

[ph77]

When looked at against your overall household power consumption it is minimal, I doubt it is even noticable, but if you have 3 or 4 implementations of xbmc and a NAS serving the media then it does start to add up.

David

Exactly. Both me and my wife work from home. So, I count two capable workstation PCs, plus a corporate laptop (all these running 8-12 hours per day), plus one application/file/media/mythtv server (running 24/7), plus one HTPC + HDTV + AV receiver + Projector. Others have HTPC's in bedroom & kitchen, PC's in children rooms. If you can save wattage by choosing energy efficient components/systems of any kind, no matter if the difference is five watts or a hundred, it all adds up over time and benefits your pocket and the environment.

[mcnovy]

Well.. maybe 1 computer is minimal, especially low power HTPC's,
but my setup includes
2 NAS server (one:2bay - one:5bay)
modem,
router with wireless,
Boxee,
DuneHD.
2 Televisions,
my computer,
my amp,
three:Sonos amp's (Which doesn't turn off)
PS3,
Xbox,
Wii
and I could actually go on for a while..
that is a LOT of standby power, and I would like to have the HTPC running, so I didn't have to wait 1 minute for it do start up, plus I would like to run some automation software on it..
so I really think that power consumption is an important part of the HTPC.

[outatouch0]

If you can save wattage by choosing energy efficient components/systems of any kind, no matter if the difference is five watts or a hundred, it all adds up over time and benefits your pocket and the environment.

I agree, when building mine, power consumption played a part in my choice of components. For me though, it was only secondary ie. if two components were somewhat equal in performance.
Put another way, while I wont set out to waste power I wouldn't sacrifice performance for minor power savings.

I was curious what other's point of views are since it was listed as a priority for the OP. Thanks for your replies

To the OP, I just migrated to HTPC from Patriot Box Office. The PBO worked mostly as it was supposed to. I finally got fed up with the crippled LAN speeds. I looked at other mini-box solutions but there were so little options with Gigabit LAN.