[MrLondon]

I was wondering if you can actually hear the fans from the shuttle as I am debating in either building this or a fanless chassis instead, as I am getting annoyed with the fans from the E450 Acer RL70.

[nss/]

With this build can I plug in an external HardDrive with USB? I googled the SSD storage, but I assume that these arent portable? Is there any negatives to using an external harddrive for storage using XBMC?

You can plug in an external USB hard drive no problem. The shuttle has both USB 2.0 ports and the faster USB 3.0. It's just a case of pointing XBMC to the external USB hard drive for your media. SSD drives tend to be a lot smaller in storage size compared with traditional mechanical hard drives but read/write and access times are a lot faster. In a typical setup you could use an SSD drive as a boot drive where your operating system and programs are located and the larger mechanical drive just as media storage.

I was wondering if you can actually hear the fans from the shuttle as I am debating in either building this or a fanless chassis instead, as I am getting annoyed with the fans from the E450 Acer RL70.

I own one of these shuttles and find it as good as silent. There is a slight whisper from the fans but you have to be right next to it to really hear it. Normal use is silent.

[MrLondon]

thanks for that nss, can you tell me if the connector for the ODD drive is compatible with the laptop Blu ray drive which has the mini connectors on it?

[ltsmashie]

Thanks NSS, I appreciate the reply.

[nss/]

I've got a normal slim DVD drive in mine (Sony - AS-7800H slot loading Drive), which uses the combined SATA and power connector in one molding.

I took a few pics when building it, albeit not that great quality but hopefully below it should show you what it is...

A picture speaks a thousand words........


DSCF5668 by NSS86, on Flickr

This link shows a blown up picture of the connector:

http://i01.i.aliimg.com/img/pb/881/066/2...eb4_90.jpg

[ltsmashie]

Right so I've decided to go for it and build this. But want to sense check a few things before I purchase everything.

Firstly I'm going to go with a windows build, as I want to be able to use various programs on the machine if necessary (Word, Excel, Chrome, Dropbox etc.)
Are there any downsides to getting windows 8 given that it's fairly new (will I have problems using xbmc etc?) or am I better off going for windows 7? Or am I being silly and can I get my requirements on a linux based system?

Getting the barbone here: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Shuttle-XH61V-Ba...609&sr=8-1 @ £153

Intel Celeron G530 here: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Intel-Celeron-Du...982&sr=1-1 @ £34

Storage - I'll be using a 1tb External hard drive which I have and a OCZ Noc-Msata
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/30GB-OCZ-Techn...474c3#shId @ £40

Memory: http://www.amazon.co.uk/2GB-Memory-Shutt...609&sr=8-7 @ £8.27

Keyborad: Logitech diNovo Mini http://www.logitech.com/en-gb/product/di...ni?crid=26 @ £66

Total price £301 (excl. windows OS)

Am I missing anything? Am I right in thinking I don't need a ir reciever? Would anybody make any changes to the build (other then trying to find second hand versions of the above on ebay)

I had originally been thinking about having a wireless or bluetooth speaker in my bedroom connected to the machine, so that I can play music off it in the bedroom when the tv is off (using my android tab to see what the xbmc was doing) Is this practicle? Or am I better off just getting a Bluetooth speaker and using my tablet to play music off it (using grooveshark or similar)

Hopefully the above makes sense, and as is obvious I am a complete novice when it comes to this. So I appreciate your patience and help.

Thanks

[ltsmashie]

Any advice?

---

Any advice?

[nss/]

Out of interest what sort of content are you intending to playback on this?

DVD rips , Blu ray rips, etc

The reason I mention this is I had some issues playing very high bit rate blu rays in windows, using the exact same processor as yourself. 95% of stuff played fine, but when we got to a 35gb Blu ray rip it would struggle using software decoding. Windows / XBMC and GPU acceleration also doesn't seem to play nicely using the above combination, which is why I went over to Openelec in the end. Again bear in mind this applies very high bit rate stuff. Otherwise its a fantastic processor...

If you playing back a lot of 720p content and smaller size/lower bit rate blu rays rips you will be fine.

Have a read through this thread which details my experiences with it.
http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=146023

A couple of other things to note, if your going with a Windows install I'd probably go for a larger hard drive, at least a 60GB I'd say, time you get the rest of your programs on, maybe even a 90GB SSD. A normal 2.5" SSD will also be fine here.

Also the shuttle uses laptop sized memory and not your normal desktop size, as in your link.
It needs to be (204 Pin) SO DIMM DDR3.

I used this memory...
http://www.ebuyer.com/164770-corsair-2gb...3x2gsd1066

Using the media centre with the TV off and using the Android Tablet works great. Have a look at Yatse remote. I use this on my Nexus 7 and works great. It also does Wake on Lan, which means you can be extra lazy and turn the machine on without even getting up :-)

[Tocaliteb]

Please could someone advise if the Core i3 3225 would be a suitable processor for this barebones pc? Primary purpose will be Netflix HD / BBC iplayer HD / general internet plus occasional streaming 1080p MKV files via powerline? I'm considering using this with Windows 8.

Thanks in advance for any help.

[ltsmashie]

Out of interest what sort of content are you intending to playback on this?

DVD rips , Blu ray rips, etc

The reason I mention this is I had some issues playing very high bit rate blu rays in windows, using the exact same processor as yourself. 95% of stuff played fine, but when we got to a 35gb Blu ray rip it would struggle using software decoding. Windows / XBMC and GPU acceleration also doesn't seem to play nicely using the above combination, which is why I went over to Openelec in the end. Again bear in mind this applies very high bit rate stuff. Otherwise its a fantastic processor...

If you playing back a lot of 720p content and smaller size/lower bit rate blu rays rips you will be fine.

Have a read through this thread which details my experiences with it.
http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=146023

A couple of other things to note, if your going with a Windows install I'd probably go for a larger hard drive, at least a 60GB I'd say, time you get the rest of your programs on, maybe even a 90GB SSD. A normal 2.5" SSD will also be fine here.

Also the shuttle uses laptop sized memory and not your normal desktop size, as in your link.
It needs to be (204 Pin) SO DIMM DDR3.

I used this memory...
http://www.ebuyer.com/164770-corsair-2gb...x2gsd1066s

Using the media centre with the TV off and using the Android Tablet works great. Have a look at Yatse remote. I use this on my Nexus 7 and works great. It also does Wake on Lan, which means you can be extra lazy and turn the machine on without even getting up :-)

Thanks for taking the time to post this, it is much appreciated.
I don't have any blu rays currently and wouldn't really be rippping any going forward. A large collection of DVD's and netflix streaming etc will make up the bulk of the usage, so i'm guessing the build will be fine to cover this.
Thanks for pointing out about the memory too. My brother has just told me that he is chucking his laptop out, its a couple of years old but has an i5 processor in it (will have to check on the model), I wonder could this be used instead of the above to save some money?

As you can tell i'm very much in the early learning phase, but I am learning a lot!

Thanks again

[Tocaliteb]

This is probably a very stupid question, as I've never built a PC before - if I buy the barebones Shuttle XH61V, memory, SSD & i3 processor - do I need to use thermal paste? What other tools would I need other than screwdrivers?

[BooToo256]

Yes, the thermal paste is included with the Shuttle barebone

[solamnic]

Isnt the new shuttle ds61 a better option?(smaller)

[BooToo256]

It doesn't look available yet, it is more expensive, cannot host a b-ray player and the fan system noise is unknown...
The only upside is the integrated memory card reader.

If someone want to buy it and report the result, please go ahead

[cyrusir]

Hi all,

do i need to buy a hard drive at all?

What if i boot xbmc from open elec on a usb key instead?

I already have a 2tb nas, so local storage isnt a priority