2011-09-30, 20:11
I have been waffling back and forth between a Mac Mini or custom HTPC for XBMC use as my Boxee Box has become too unreliable for movie playback in my home theater room.
My setup consists of a Yamaha RXV-1800 AVR that supports lossless bitstream audio as well as a Panasonic 65VT30 Plasma.
The HTPC needs to fit in a small shelf area inside of a Standout Designs solid cherry wood cabinet. This cabinet does have ventilation in the form of multi-speed fans that vent air from special enclosures in the back of the cabinet.
My source will be 99% playback of Blu-ray MKV rips, usually with just the lossless audio track ripped (DTS-MA or True-HD). The audio does not have to be lossless to the AVR, although obviously that is preferred. I would like to output reliable 1080p/23.976 video to my AVR so that my display can do the deinterlacing to 1080p/60, as it does a much better job of this than a video card or blu-ray player will do.
The build;
AMD A4-3400 CPU/GPU - $69.99
(heatsink/fan for above) - ??
2X2 Kingston 240-pin DDR3 Value RAM (or equiv) - $25.99
Gigabyte GA-A75M-D2H - $69.00
Thermaltake Element Q Mini ATX case - $64.99
Patriot Torqx 32GB SSD - $69.99 (before rebate)
Total cost $320.95 + OS (windows 7 pro 64 probably) + any additional cooling/IR needed - rebate on SSD (if it comes through)
And I will need some solution for IR that will allow me to power the device on and off and have full, reliable control from my Harmony One. I don't want the setup to be particularly loud either, so I am open to suggestions on quieter cases/fans for this particular design.
My setup consists of a Yamaha RXV-1800 AVR that supports lossless bitstream audio as well as a Panasonic 65VT30 Plasma.
The HTPC needs to fit in a small shelf area inside of a Standout Designs solid cherry wood cabinet. This cabinet does have ventilation in the form of multi-speed fans that vent air from special enclosures in the back of the cabinet.
My source will be 99% playback of Blu-ray MKV rips, usually with just the lossless audio track ripped (DTS-MA or True-HD). The audio does not have to be lossless to the AVR, although obviously that is preferred. I would like to output reliable 1080p/23.976 video to my AVR so that my display can do the deinterlacing to 1080p/60, as it does a much better job of this than a video card or blu-ray player will do.
The build;
AMD A4-3400 CPU/GPU - $69.99
(heatsink/fan for above) - ??
2X2 Kingston 240-pin DDR3 Value RAM (or equiv) - $25.99
Gigabyte GA-A75M-D2H - $69.00
Thermaltake Element Q Mini ATX case - $64.99
Patriot Torqx 32GB SSD - $69.99 (before rebate)
Total cost $320.95 + OS (windows 7 pro 64 probably) + any additional cooling/IR needed - rebate on SSD (if it comes through)
And I will need some solution for IR that will allow me to power the device on and off and have full, reliable control from my Harmony One. I don't want the setup to be particularly loud either, so I am open to suggestions on quieter cases/fans for this particular design.
