Recommend me a case and a couple of questions
#1
I have some PC parts left over from previous builds that I plan on turning into a Kodi media device.

The cpu will be an i7 2600k
Have a 240gb Kingston HyperX drive that will be the main Disk
8GB of ram

Now I am looking for a case not much bigger then say an Xbox one. Also would I need a dedicated gpu or should sandy bridge be enough to play anything on Kodi? Any other recommendationS? If I could fit a closed loop water cooler on the cpu that would be perfect to minimize noise. So basically if the case can support a single 120mm radiator that would be good.
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#2
That's a little bit of overkill for an HTPC, but as you have the bits... Sandy Bridge is OK for everything except 23.976Hz output, as until Haswell there was an issue with Intel GPUs. You can get round this by syncing playback to display, and speeding 23.976Hz content up to 24.000Hz - but then you have to either resample audio (which means no bitstreaming) or drop/dupe audio (which means possible audible artefacts but you can bitstream) Putting in a low cost nVidia will solve this.

Do you need to deinterlace? (Are you watching Live/Recorded TV or DVD/Blu-ray content that was shot interlaced - like concerts, sport etc.)
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#3
Silverstone do some very compact HTPC cases. The case size you'll be looking for will either be for a mini or micro atx motherboard, which you haven't listed.

Nvidia have just released (or very very soon) the GTX 950, which will take care of all your display needs and at a very reasonable price.
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#4
(2015-08-22, 12:17)noggin Wrote: That's a little bit of overkill for an HTPC, but as you have the bits... Sandy Bridge is OK for everything except 23.976Hz output, as until Haswell there was an issue with Intel GPUs. You can get round this by syncing playback to display, and speeding 23.976Hz content up to 24.000Hz - but then you have to either resample audio (which means no bitstreaming) or drop/dupe audio (which means possible audible artefacts but you can bitstream) Putting in a low cost nVidia will solve this.

Do you need to deinterlace? (Are you watching Live/Recorded TV or DVD/Blu-ray content that was shot interlaced - like concerts, sport etc.)

Hmmm seems like a hassle, I don't watch live road cast everything is downloaded/ripped and streamed from my symbology NAS. I guess it won't hurt to put in a 950 or whatever I can find, hopefully something that's passively cooled. Thanks for the heads up.
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#5
(2015-08-22, 13:52)levi.baker88 Wrote: Silverstone do some very compact HTPC cases. The case size you'll be looking for will either be for a mini or micro atx motherboard, which you haven't listed.

Nvidia have just released (or very very soon) the GTX 950, which will take care of all your display needs and at a very reasonable price.

Yeah the motherboard I'll have to buy since I'm pulling the sandy bridge cpu from an old desktop with a full atx motherboard that's won't be a problem. I'll look into silver stone, any specific case that comes to mind?
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#6
I've used a Wesena ITX case for two HTPC builds and highly recommend it. In my most recent build, I used this Zotac NVIDIA card. It's fanless so silent. Swapped a stock CPU cooler with a Noctua low-profile cooler so it's also nearly silent. The Wesena case requires a pico-PSU. I used a 160W pico unit and had no problems with the GPU card and an SSD.
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Recommend me a case and a couple of questions0