[ptmuldoon]

I'm interesting in placing some quiet front end box(s) around the home, and could use a little advice/tips and any recommended hardware you may know of.

I've read some on the Zbox, FoxConn, and XS35, but am not really sure what some thing is the best alternative. I've built 5, 10 etc PC's in the past, so open to a home build if the overall product will be better in both look and quality. But any home build would really need be a plug and play type, as I'm not handy enough to do any case mods, etc.

So background on what I'd like to achieve.

• Keep each box to about an overall $200 cost.
  
  
  
• The box will likely be shown in a ent. center, so a clean looking box is preferable for the Mrs.
  
  
  
• I have 5 TB server in the basement, and intend to stream the video around the home wireless-n at the moment (hope one day to cat-5 wire the house), so no need for large HD's in the front-ends.
  
  
  
• The machines should be as quiet as possible, and will need to have WLAN on them.
  
  
  
• I do not need 1080p at this time, but it could be useful in the future. Just would prefer stutter free WLAN streaming. I'm also still toying with LAN over coax for possibly better performance.
  
  
  
• Pretty much a standard now, but the machines should have HDMI out for a one wire plug in to a TV.
  
  
  
• I'm open to running any OS on the machines, either Windows7, Ubuntu, or XBMC live. Whichever is thought of as the preferred OS to run XBMC.
  
  
  
• Is wake on USB possible for with XBMC to power them down while not in use and wake via remote button?
  

[htpc guy]

I don't know a whole lot about the zbox or ions but a lot of people here love them. They are cheap and work well for xbmc live. I ended up building my own system (noted in my sig). Its possible to build your own rig for around 200. I would go with a micro atx board that has on board hdmi out. My mobo does 1080p and optical out flawlessly and I have no need for a graphics card. I can even play N64 emulators as well. This surprised me since its on board graphics. You can also get a nice case and a cheap, low powered power supply because you will only be powering your motherboard and hard drive.

As far as OS goes I would suggest Ubuntu. Its free and Dharma supports hardware acceleration if you use an Nvidia chip. My board is AMD, which is cheaper. I haven't really seen much need for hardware acceleration though since my system seems to fly though the menus anyway.

So I guess it just comes down to your free time. I really enjoyed building my own system (which doesn't really take long). The other benefit is that you can expand it in the future. Keep in mind that Dharma will eventually support DVR functions so you may want an expansion slot for a tuner card.

*correct grammar mistakes*

[protonchris]

htpc guy: Which case and psu did you go with?

Chris.

[htpc guy]

I went with this one. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...6811154087 Its dirt cheap, it works well and came with a power supply. My only grief is that it is a bit loud. Not jet engine loud, but if you try to listen for it while watching a movie you can hear it. Its not really a distraction when you are watching a movie though. Fans are cheap so I may replace it one day. The only other issue I have is that it doesn't quite fit in my A/V rack. Its really deep and sticks out over the front edge. I currently have it sitting behind the tv so you can't see it.

I really wish I would have spent a little extra and got this http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...6811204035. I was on a budget so the $39 case kept me within my limits. I will probably buy a new case some day.

[htpc guy]

Also, if you are like me (and many other pc builders) you may have some spare parts laying around. I didn't have to buy any ram because I pulled it out of an old machine. Building a HTPC is a great way to use old parts you have sitting around.

[poofyhairguy]

$200 is a pretty low budget for any solution. The only ION system in this range were the (now unfindable) AR1600 Revos.

But I like a challenge, so I will try. Let me say that for this build I can't possibly 100% recommend it because the budget forces me to dip into brands I don't have experience with. With that said, here is a 1080p XBMC Live system for $200:

This CPU $33:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...6819103698

This mobo $40:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...6813138111

This GPU $20 after rebate:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...6814130541

This RAM $20:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...-_-Product

This case and PSU $60:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...-_-Product

This remote $25:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...-_-Product

For a total of: $198!!! I did it!!!

One thing you will notice is that system does not do wireless. That is because:

1. It is absolutely impossible to fit a decent wireless option in that budget

AND

2. I REFUSE to recommend a in-box wireless card to stream HD content. They are too all over the map for quality.

The ONLY wireless device I have had ANY success with (and therefore will recommend) is this:

http://www.buy.com/prod/netgear-5ghz-wir...63200.html

But that of course blows away your budget. Technically you can put in a cheap 802.11N PCI card, but finding one that isn't crap that works with Linux is not worth the effort.

Just do everything you can to budget the Cat 5e cable in the house ASAP!

[poofyhairguy]

Also, if you are like me (and many other pc builders) you may have some spare parts laying around. I didn't have to buy any ram because I pulled it out of an old machine. Building a HTPC is a great way to use old parts you have sitting around.

Amen. My bedroom HTPC is a quad core monster just because I had the parts lying around from my main hobby of hackintoshing.

[froggit]

For the ideal HTPC, I would recommend 2 things:
1. ION GPU
2. silence (fanless passive cooling)

Personally, a noisy HTPC fan drives me nuts, so a passively cooled HTPC is a must.

Also, the ION GPU hardware makes it possible to have a low power consumption HTPC using the energy-efficient Intel Atom CPU (20 to 30 Watts for complete HTPC system).

The current HTPC box-du-jour that ticks all the boxes for this, and most of yours too, is the Shuttle XS35GT, to which you add a 2GB RAM stick and a low-cost 32GB SSD. This combined with your NAS, and a good quality AV Receiver and 5.1 speakers etc will give a near-perfect setup. Throw in a Harmony remote and it gets even better.

These links might interest you related to this subject:
http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=74974
http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=82429
http://breden.org.uk/2010/09/22/shuttle-...nter-htpc/
http://breden.org.uk/2010/09/30/shuttle-...ta-2-live/

Hope it helps.

[poofyhairguy]

Give me a $300 budget and I say get one of these:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...-_-Product

Add this:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...-_-Product

And some RAM and enjoy the best XBMC appliance you can buy....

[Bryson]

Poofyguy,

if I can get a revo 3610 for $250 off craigslist would that be a better buy than the zotac?

What are your thoughts on the shuttle XS35GT? People spend hundreds of dollars to silence their PCs and here you get it all in one little box. Aside from having to add the lan drivers manually everything else is kosher? I guess it would come down to does the passive cooling work efficiently enough and how loud the zotac and revo are in comparison. Didn't I read that the shuttle can only do 2.1 or something?

And lastly, can an i3-530 decode 1080P on it's own without the addition of a GPU card? Heat, noise and form factor are leading me towards an ion box but I know that Flomaster once said he regretted going ion because he could have built an i3 system for just as much. I'd love to hear his thoughts on this.

[froggit]

Give me a $300 budget and I say get one of these:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...-_-Product

Add this:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...-_-Product

And some RAM and enjoy the best XBMC appliance you can buy....

What about the fan noise? Never owned this box so that's why I ask, as OP said 'The machines should be as quiet as possible'. The Shuttle XS35GT is silent so they don't come any more quiet than silent which is why I mentioned it.

The XS35GT is $20 more than the Zotac ZBOX HD-ND02-U.

Also, for OP, I have the OCZ Onyz 32GB SSD that poofyhairguy mentioned in my XS35GT, and I can say that I have been very happy indeed with it: fast and snappy when navigating media lists etc. However, OCZ also sell the original Vertex SSD and these have about double the read/write speed as the Onyx for only about $10 more. Whether you would notice much difference over the Onyx I don't know, but certainly the specs are better in terms of performance (double the channels). See: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...-_-Product

[poofyhairguy]

What about the fan noise? Never owned this box so that's why I ask, as OP said 'The machines should be as quiet as possible'. The Shuttle XS35GT is silent so they don't come any more quiet than silent which is why I mentioned it.

Good call. Here is a link OP:

http://www.amazon.com/Shuttle-dual-core-...B0042DT89U

Also, for OP, I have the OCZ Onyz 32GB SSD that poofyhairguy mentioned in my XS35GT, and I can say that I have been very happy indeed with it: fast and snappy when navigating media lists etc. However, OCZ also sell the original Vertex SSD and these have about double the read/write speed as the Onyx for only about $10 more. Whether you would notice much difference over the Onyx I don't know, but certainly the specs are better in terms of performance (double the channels). See: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...-_-Product

Yeah, I also use that exact drive in both my HTPCs and Netbooks...

[froggit]

Yeah, I also use that exact drive in both my HTPCs and Netbooks...

Yes, it looks a better buy right now than the Onyx - twice the r/w speed for almost the same $$$.

[htpc guy]

I have to say that I love my motherboard/processor. I thought I would need an additional graphics card but decided to give it a try with onboard video before springing for a graphics card. I'm glad I did because the onboard video is flawless at 1080p. No dropped frames and a great picture. Needless to say, I never got a graphics card because the onboard stuff is plenty powerful enough.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...785GM-US2H

[ptmuldoon]

Hey guys. Thanks for the all great feedback.

I'm thinking I may just go with a FoxConn 330 for around $200. I've got various spare drives and memory laying around. Though I may need to buy some ram to boost it some.

I really love building them too, bur for the first box, probably best a pre-made solution to get up and running faster for the Mrs.