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I'm looking to build a htpc, I've decided to go the route of a full case to hold all my hard drives in the one place. I want 1080p, 3d files and 3d blu ray and the best possible sound ie THX. Obviously you can spend the earth But what is overkill? What's the best system to do all I want? Starting with a Silverstone LC16 case but even choosing a motherboard is proving difficult. Can anyone shed some light? Finally this will be a media only machine with up to 5hdd.
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Before you go all out think of the noise a machine with 5hdd would generate sitting next to your TV, even if you go SSD the fans and power supply would generate a ton of noise.
My advice build a NAS separate from your HTPC and throw it in the basement or closet somewhere to store all your video's music and pictures which can be shared across multiple HTPC clients say bedroom, living room, tablets and who knows maybe a theater room in the basement at least that's my setup.
Build a HTPC which does not need much maybe 4GB RAM dual core HDMI out and make it as quiet as possible so when you are watching your shows you do not need to crank up the sound to cover up the fan noise of your monster server. You can even get tons of cheap clients like ATV1, PIVOS, Raspberry PI, and many others you would need to forget about a Blue-Ray player.
I have been running XBMC for about 10 years and found this to be the best solution for file sharing and a complete home media solution.
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That is my solution as well. I have a synology NAS and a little zotac zbox with 4G ram and a SSD. This runs fast and quiet.
The bonus of having a NAS is I can still access my files while away from home which I do quite often.
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When it's dead but you keep hitting it with a shovel anyway.
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That means no disk drive right? It sounds sensible but what's the cost involved to have both?
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Peoples opinion on 'noise' is relative. My XBMC machine is an ATX case with ATX motherboard, A6-3870K, 5 HDDs and a 600w desktop PSU. In my opinion it's not loud at all, quieter than say watching a DVD on an Xbox 360 or something, but other people may consider hearing the machine at all to be a problem.
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Azrielus, I disagree with those in this post as I have built over 50 htpc's and have yet to have a problem with noise being any louder than my old cable DVR. I would def do an SSD. You shouldn't have to keep the case fans or the CPU fan at full speed which can keep your noise down as well. If you have any concern regarding sound, buy some aftermarket fans as most will reduce your noise 50-70%. I agree that the routes that have presented above can save you some money but to get the most functionality with the least risk of complication and the least setup in one place I would stay along the lines of what you were thinking originally. Look at one of the asrock pro boards to achieve the number of hard drives you're looking for. Good Luck.
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Ufff. PC-Q08 plus a bunch of WD GPs and some common sense, it's quite possible to build a combined HTPC/storage box that's virtually unnoticeable noise-wise. You can put an i7 in it if you feel like it. Not that you'd need it.
