[HarryU]

This forum in general has been more useful than anything else I've found online yet. I have some questions though that I hope can be answered here.

I want to do an HTPC build with my son... great project, but, while I'm reasonably tech savvy and have done upgrades on other PC's, I've never built one from scratch.

Here is my thinking of what we'd like to build, along with the things I'm not sure of...

Will be used primarily for watching video, online streaming, web browsing, and some light gaming
Hooked up to a 5.1 Home Theater Sound System and 42" LCD HDTV w/HDMI
I'd like to stay under $400 if possible.

Requirements:

- Windows 8 & XBMC - The Windows OS is likely to be one of my biggest costs in the project. What's my cheapest route on this?
- HDMI for graphics and 5.1 surround sound (are the mobo's with integrated graphics sufficient here, or do I need a more robust graphics/sound card?)
- Internal SSD for fast start-up. Only holding the OS and a few apps (how small can I go?), media will be on an external drive
- USB 3.0 port for the external drive
- Blue-Ray drive? - Would I be better off using a stand alone Blue Ray player, or would using the HTPC as my Blue Ray Player work well?
- How big of a PSU do I need?
- Is it cheaper to build this in a full size ATX case or are prices similar in smaller formats?
- Is a Quad-Core CPU a good idea for this, or not necessary for my purposes?
- Is 4GB RAM sufficient, or will I see improvements by installing 8GB?
- Bluetooth would be nice for streaming music from my phone - best solution?
- Is there an IR remote solution available where I could use my universal learning remote?


I'm currently using an OLD AMD X2 HP Windows XP Media Center PC without HDMI or other things I want. Anything I could use out of that system that I could re-use here?

That's all I can think of for now... anything I'm missing?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

Harry

[GortWillSaveUs]

- Internal SSD for fast start-up. Only holding the OS and a few apps (how small can I go?), media will be on an external drive
- Blue-Ray drive? - Would I be better off using a stand alone Blue Ray player, or would using the HTPC as my Blue Ray Player work well?
- Is it cheaper to build this in a full size ATX case or are prices similar in smaller formats?
- Is a Quad-Core CPU a good idea for this, or not necessary for my purposes?
- Is 4GB RAM sufficient, or will I see improvements by installing 8GB?
- Bluetooth would be nice for streaming music from my phone - best solution?

Let me answer some of your questions:
The smallest SSD I'd use is 64G. But with prices always dropping,...I'd jump up to 128G if price allowed.
An SSD is not really necessary,...so if you're really trying to cut costs,...drop it, and use an existing drive you already own.

Depending on the case, an internal Blu-Ray is the way to go. I use the LG UH12LS28K LightScribe 12x SATA Blu-Ray Combo Internal Drive, Bulk (Black) and it works extremely well.

You do not want a full-size ATX case. The smaller formats are either cheaper or the same price anyway.
The SilverStone Aluminum/Steel Micro ATX Media Center/HTPC Case ML03B (Black) works extremely well for a lot of people here.

Quad-Core CPU is not necessary. Dual core is sufficient, and actually more than sufficient. Especially the AMD A6-5400K APU 3.6Ghz Processor

From what you described 4G of RAM should be sufficient.

Some motherboards have blu-tooth built in. If not,..you can always pick up a USB blu-tooth. This one come to mind,..the IOGEAR Bluetooth 4.0 USB Micro Adapter

Good luck!

[HarryU]

Great help on some of those questions... Thanks!

I think I do still want an SSD, just for the fast boot times. I don't think I want to leave the system running 24/7 when it doesn't get used for days, but I don't want to have to wait 2 or 3 minutes for it to boot up when I do want it.

I appreciate the links on the specific products.

Others?

[Dougie Fresh]

You'll get much more than fast boot times in Windows with an SSD. An interactions that use I/O are way faster so things like browsing your library (fan art loading), etc. It's actually the one place I would not cut corners since it's such a night-and-day experience between SSD and spinny-drive.

For your old system, you could upgrade it with a modern graphics card if it has a PCI-e x16 slot and add an SSD with Windows 7 or 8 (your preference). Or, you could repurpose the old machine as a media server.

[HarryU]

You'll get much more than fast boot times in Windows with an SSD. An interactions that use I/O are way faster so things like browsing your library (fan art loading), etc. It's actually the one place I would not cut corners since it's such a night-and-day experience between SSD and spinny-drive.

Agreed... I put an SSD in my laptop and love it for boot-times as well as overall speed on other tasks too.

Thanks.

[GortWillSaveUs]

An interactions that use I/O are way faster so things like browsing your library (fan art loading), etc. It's actually the one place I would not cut corners since it's such a night-and-day experience between SSD and spinny-drive.

A few caveats:

1. If you download a "lot" of fanart for a large library,....that will take up space on a smaller SSD,..and if you have the fanart stored on another drive,...the SSD then adds no benefit for browsing fanart.
2. If you store your movie library on an unRaid server or something similar,....you will experience delays as the query will have to spin up the drives,..so again,..the SSD then reaps no benefits.

I'm not shooting down the use of SSDs at all,..in fact I love using them myself,...just words of caution that's all.

[Dougie Fresh]

I'm not shooting down the use of SSDs at all,..in fact I love using them myself,...just words of caution that's all.

Definitely -- because each to their own expectations and budget and situation.

[cwide]

Here is my suggestion for people who don't know exactly how much gaming they will be doing.

Build a Celeron G1610 based HTPC... whatever form factor you like. Get a mobo with HDMI out. The integrated GPU on this is good enough for all 2D HTPC purposes. If you find yourself doing heavier gaming or 3D, buy a dedicated video card when you run into that problem.

If you already have a blu-ray player, just use it until you get enough money to put one in your HTPC.

What kind of phone do you have? XBMC has Airplay and there are android streaming solutions as well. No need for bluetooth.

Get an SSD. My Celeron G1610 machine runs circles around (user experience wise) an i3-3225 machine at work. Difference? Mine has an SSD.

Gigabyte ITX - $77

Antec Case with PSU - $80

4 GB Ram - $32

64 GB SSD - $60

Windows 8 - $90

TOTAL: $339 +$50 for LG Blu-Ray

I am really starting to hate Windows for HTPCs. It takes up so much of the cost. If you don't do Netflix there is really no reason. Even if you do Netflix... just buy a $50 Roku for that purpose. Linux is free and does everything except Silverlight related things. Gaming is a different animal however, but if you're just doing emulators than Linux is fine. Check out Steam for Linux for heavier gaming.

[HarryU]

Here's a list of parts I've put together based on recommendations here and others I've read:

http://pcpartpicker.com/user/HarryU/saved/1LAG

The total comes to $419

Not bad, but I'd really like to drop around $50 off that price.

See any places I could cut costs without sacrificing too much performance based on the requirements I'm looking for?

Any advice is greatly appreciated!

[teeedubb]

Ditch windows 8 and use openelec. You'll see a performance increase with that too

[cwide]

Here's a list of parts I've put together based on recommendations here and others I've read:

http://pcpartpicker.com/user/HarryU/saved/1LAG

The total comes to $419

Not bad, but I'd really like to drop around $50 off that price.

See any places I could cut costs without sacrificing too much performance based on the requirements I'm looking for?

Any advice is greatly appreciated!

Really don't "need" the better CPU cooler. It would be nice, but unnecessary for now.

The only cheaper solution I can think of is a Celeron 847 based build. With an SSD this should be good enough for most things (unless you are playing modern games). You MIGHT be able to add a video card to this and play some games, but I doubt it would have the cpu horsepower for much. Emulators would be fine, of course.

Gigabyte Celeron Board - $65 after rebate

No USB 3, but there is an eSata port if you can switch your external to eSata. HDMI. Has been tested to do Netflix HD in Windows just fine.

MI-008 Case - $40

4 GB Ram - $32

Sandisk 64 GB SSD - $60

$50 for Blu-Ray Player

$70 for Windows

TOTAL: $317

Processor is about half as powerful as the build you referenced, but if you HAVE to save money this is really the only option I see. Otherwise stick to your build or the one I previously mentioned (although I forgot the $50 Celeron G1610).

[HarryU]

I think I got it.

Dropped down a notch on the CPU, dropped the additional cooler and will use the heatsink that comes with the CPU, and went to a cheaper case.
Not the case style I'd prefer, but a great case for the $$.

Here's the list:

http://pcpartpicker.com/user/HarryU/saved/1LJ5

Any red flags?

[HarryU]

Alright... I guess I was naive about Blue-Ray. It doesn't help to buy an inexpensive Blue-Ray player for my HTPC if I have to pay a bunch more for software to actually play Blue-Ray movies. It may actually be cheaper to scrap a Blue-Ray player in the HTPC and buy a stand-alone player instead.

Am I right? or am I not aware of a solution that makes more sense?

[Dougie Fresh]

If you want to play the disks as-is, then yes you are right. If you don't mind taking the time to rip the Blu-ray disks to a file, then a Blu-ray reader is necessary but it doesn't have to be in the HTPC. You could get an external Blu-ray player to hook up to whatever PC you use to rip the disks or get an internal one for a different PC.

[HarryU]

So... learning as I go... I currently stream movies fairly often from Amazon Instant Video. Many of the movies are available for streaming in HD... but not through a PC. They require certain devices, like a Roku box, or various Blue-Ray players from Panasonic or Sony, or certain TV's. I can get a Sony Blue-Ray player, refurbished on Amazon for $45 that will play all Blue-Ray disks and stream Amazon HD movies... what's the benefit of putting a Blue-Ray player in my HTPC at that point where I would have to buy the player, additional software to play movies, and then still can't stream HD movies from Amazon?

I can take the DVD burner from my old PC to put into the new HTPC, forget about Blue-Ray through the PC at all, save money and end up with a solution that does more for me.

Does that make sense? Or am is my thinking flawed somewhere?