[Greenbone]

Hi Folks,

I'm finally saying goodbye to my Xbox (running Ubuntu and XBMC Atlantis). Tired of no HD and choppy video.

I've done quite a bit of research on building an HTPC. ....first, thinking about what I want the machine to do: XBMC, gaming (PC and console), browsing, some video & picture editing, tied to a dual zone high-end receiver & amps (7.1). I want to future-proof it by allowing for upgrades. I want it to be reasonably quiet and not likely to overheat. I have a gigabit network and want to have my media drives separate from the HTPC - and use unraid or something to unify the storage devices over my network.

I'm not looking for the absolute cheapest way to get there (I admire the rigs for $300 that barely get the electrons over the hump, but not for me). My budget is max $2500 US.


PSU: (went with fanless to keep it quiet)
Silverstone 400W fanless power supply:
http://www.amazon.com/SilverStone-ATX12V...747&sr=8-1
$149.99


CASE: (Must be rack-mountable, liked this case for mid-case placement of 120 mm fans, for more quiet)
LIAN LI Black Aluminum PC-C32B ATX Media Center / HTPC Case
Item #: N82E16811112147
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...6811112147
$159.99

MEMORY: (is this enough? fast enough?)
CORSAIR DOMINATOR 6GB (3 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Triple Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model TR3X6G1600C8D
Item #: N82E16820145224
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...6820145224
$119.99

MAIN HARD DRIVE: (picked solid state for speed, quiet operation)
Intel X25-M SSDSA2MH160G2K5 2.5" 160GB SATA II MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)
Item #: N82E16820167032
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...6820167032
$389.99 ($90 rebate will put this at $300)

MOTHERBOARD: (this is a tomshardwareguide pick. No video on board)
GIGABYTE GA-X58A-UD3R LGA 1366 Intel X58 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard
Item #: N82E16813128423
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...6813128423
$199.99

CPU: (I'm not up on Intel's latest architecture, but thought this looked powerful enough and relatively affordable. Doubting myself on this choice)
Intel Core i7-950 Bloomfield 3.06GHz LGA 1366 130W Quad-Core Processor BX80601950
Item #: N82E16819115211
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...6819115211
$294.99

VIDEO CARD: (this one seemed like a nice fit for the motherboard, and futureproof, and I figured a system for an HTPC hybrid shouldn't skimp on the video)
GIGABYTE GV-N570D5-13I-B GeForce GTX 570 (Fermi) 1280MB 320-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card
Item #: N82E16814125354
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...6814125354
$354.99

2ND HARD DRIVE: (I liked the quiet, high-capacity, low power of this drive)
Western Digital Caviar Green WDBAAY0020HNC-NRSN 2TB SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive
Item #: N82E16822136772
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...6822136772
$129.99

OPTICAL DRIVE: (seems to play / burn most everything, yes?)
LG Black 10X Blu-ray Burner - Bulk SATA WH10LS30 LightScribe Support
Item #: N82E16827136181
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...6827136181
$79.99

Option for Optical drive: (this was another I thought my be workable)
HP Black Blu-ray Burner SATA bd340i LightScribe Support
Item #: N82E16827140051
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...6827140051
$169.99

SOUND CARD: (there is one on board, but maybe this will be better?)
Creative PCI Express Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty Champion Series Sound Card
Item #: N82E16829102021
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...6829102021
$199.99

TV TUNER: (do I need this?)
Hauppauge WinTV-HVR-2250 Media Center Kit Dual TV Tuner 1213 PCI-Express x1 Interface
Item #: N82E16815116036
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...6815116036
$129.99

CPU COOLER: (liquid cooler, for quiet operation and efficient heat dissipation)
CORSAIR CWCH50-1 High Performance CPU Cooler
Item #: N82E16835181010
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...6835181010
$71.99

....it all adds up to about $2300 (+/- a few hundred depending on some of the decisions)

I've not picked a remote solution, though I have Crestron CP2E and remote, but I'm thinking about just getting an ipad and using it, and/or my iphone.

I've not picked an OS, though I'm leaning to Windows 7.

Would really appreciate any advice, critiques, options from the community for the options I've lined up.

Thanks!

[gabbott]

Take a look through this thread...

http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid...ght=budget

Particularly:

http://forum.xbmc.org/showpost.php?p=635...stcount=12

poofyhairguy knows his stuff.

[mr.sparkle]

Totally agree with the server/client model (and we don't try to come up with $300 rigs - we come up with cheap nettops that are paired with our media servers).

You said you want to futureproof the thing. Presumably, you'll want to serve several rooms/TVs at some point.

[Greenbone]

...ahh, perfect. Thanks, and sorry I missed that from the get-go.

[Greenbone]

Totally agree with the server/client model (and we don't try to come up with $300 rigs - we come up with cheap nettops that are paired with our media servers).

You said you want to futureproof the thing. Presumably, you'll want to serve several rooms/TVs at some point.

...yes, currently A/V receiver is dual zone. I send audio to a 2nd room, may do video in future.

RE: nettops, understood. I'm hoping to squeeze it all in one case and rackmount it. ...and I'm a believer in storing my digital media on NAS.

[poofyhairguy]

WAY too many hot things for that small of a case. That is a gaming monster you have put together that would need a full size case for heat management. Also that GPU will blow that power supply to bits. You need a 600+W supply for GPUS like that.

And as was said in the other thread, it is better every day of the week to have a dedicated media server. As it is you are putting $2000+ into a setup with only 2TB of space- I literally fill that in a month. Its nothing.

What I would do is drop the monster GPU and replace with a GT450 (the best GPU you can get without going nuts on heat/power consumption), replace the i7 with an i3, ditch the sound card completely (sound comes with video cards now via HDMI), and drop down to this mobo (which supports pretty much everything that matters that the huge mobo you linked supports):

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...6813128429

That gives you a HTPC that will do anything you have listed you want to do with less noise, heat, power and money. In fact if you work it right (I will help) you could use this much sexier case instead:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...6811112186

The trick to that case is getting this GPU:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...6814261078

Then take all the money saved and put it towards a media server.

[dan1son]

Couple things to note... There's no such thing as future proof in computer hardware. The requirements for a good HTPC are MUCH different than the requirements for a good gaming rig.

For gaming you should attempt to get about 2-3 years of future use out of it without upgrades, in gaming the GPU is the most important piece (although CPU matters a good deal). An nvidia 470 will run any current game at full quality at 1920x1080 at a nice framerate, and will likely run any game out within the next 2 years on medium quality. The 570 gains you about 20% for over twice the price. In 2-3 years if you're not satisfied with the lower card buy another $150 card, it'll be much faster than a current 570 at that time and for the same price overall. As already mentioned, that PSU will not suffice for a high end gaming GPU.

CPU benefits are similar. You can go top of the line for twice the price and gain 20%, or buy one now and another in 2-3 years with a much greater increase in speed.

Motherboards are similar as well... you don't gain much paying twice as much, if anything in your case. You'll likely need a new MB when you upgrade your CPU in the future anyway, I'd drop down a level or two and just get something with the slots and ports you need.

Sound card will only matter for gaming, and it's minimal. The on board is probably more than adequate.

Tuner card, PSU, case, optical drives, hard drives will last through several upgrades.


HTPC needs very little to be honest. You just need something capable of decoding 1080p in the GPU and outputting HDCP and DTS-MA/DD HD over HDMI. A simple ION box can do that just fine and use about 1/10th the power of your gaming rig when on. If you want to get fancy you can buy an HTPC case, MB/CPU/RAM, small HD, and GT210 for around $300 and have something more capable than a simple ION box.


Basically what I'm trying to say is buy two machines, spend less than $2500 on both, and be happy for a couple years. If you're serious into gaming you'll be upgrading in a couple years no matter how much you spend now, and quite honestly the mid-high end cards and CPUs of today are quite capable for less than half the price of the highest end ones.

[poofyhairguy]

Actually I take back part of what I recommended in the last post. You didn't pick out a fanless PSU just to add a loud GPU.

Here is the most powerful fanless GPU on the planet. Anything more powerful will sound like a vacuum cleaner in comparison, and therefore doesn't belong in a HTPC:

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

Stick to your original case with that GPU and you are fine.

[darkscout]

Honest critique? You have too much money to spend.

I can play 1080p just fine (Transformers 2 BR rip, 19MB/s) with 1GB of RAM on a Celeron 1.8 gHz CPU. I let my GPU do the work.

[misterpink]

Honest critique? You have too much money to spend.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^


And as others have said, you can build a top of the line htpc for well under 1000 (poof is leading you in the right direction), and add at least 20TB or more of NAS for the other 1500.

[PatrickVogeli]

not that I know much about this stuff.. but if you are spending 2500$ wouldn't it be better to buy a cheap nettop, add a SSD and remote and use that only for XBMC and build a gaming rig separately?

For your media, a cheap NAS or an external 2TB should do it for now..

[Beer40oz]

Wow ! built 6 HTPC's .... I would love a NAS server....