[raul_219]

Hi. I'm thinking of building a cheap HTPC to use with XBMC and I have some questions. I'm pretty much set on the hardware but just in case anyone has some suggestions:

A6-5400K APU
MSI m-ITX A75 E53
Antec ISK 300-150 m-ITX Case w/150W PSU
G-Skill 4GB DDR3 (2x2)
AData 64GB SSD
Windows 8.1 Pro

I was thinking of using OpenELEC instead but I can get a windows license for free through my university so I prefer windows for flexibility. Now to I already a have a very capable gaming PC in which I have a couple of drives with all my media (over 2TB) and I was thinking of just sharing my folders from here to my new htpc, which would be connected to my tv and 5.1 audio receiver. But then I would have to keep my PC on every time I want to watch something. Instead, I could get something like the Synology 2 Bay Diskstation for $200 and a 3TB Red WD drive and just use NFS to share my media to the htpc, with the option to add another drive when I run out of space, my current PC is already packed with drives. Would that be worth it? How easy is it to share folders from windows 8.1 if I decide to keep my media in my gaming PC?

[Dougie Fresh]

FWIW, I don't build mini-ITX AMD systems any longer because they are just such a pain to keep cool. If you're not playing games, a simple Intel Celeron like the G1620 + a decent mini-ITX motherboard would do fine and run much cooler.

[scurvydan]

Sucks if you have lots of media. I used to have a tower with 6TB in it then moved some to a NAS and made a small HTPC. I think I liked the tower better. My issue was copying the things I wanted to keep to the NAS took a lot longer! I have since changed my HTPC case to a bigger one that holds 2 hard drives which I put new and rotating stuff on and I filled my 2TB NAS with the things that I new I wanted to keep for a long time.

It all boiled down to file transfer time for me.

[raul_219]

FWIW, I don't build mini-ITX AMD systems any longer because they are just such a pain to keep cool. If you're not playing games, a simple Intel Celeron like the G1620 + a decent mini-ITX motherboard would do fine and run much cooler.

I usually favor Intel when building any system but i was under the impression that an amd apu was better for playing 1080p media. I do intend to run snes and n64 emulators here. Would the celeron be enough for that?

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Sucks if you have lots of media. I used to have a tower with 6TB in it then moved some to a NAS and made a small HTPC. I think I liked the tower better. My issue was copying the things I wanted to keep to the NAS took a lot longer! I have since changed my HTPC case to a bigger one that holds 2 hard drives which I put new and rotating stuff on and I filled my 2TB NAS with the things that I new I wanted to keep for a long time.

It all boiled down to file transfer time for me.

I actually like the idea of using internal storage instead of having a nas. But then I would have to change to a bigger case. Maybe the cooler master elite 120/130. A little bigger but still m-itx. And it would be cheaper that's for sure.