[madmiddle]

Gents,

I’m after HTPC for around the £200 mark, for me to hook up to the 40” Full HD LCD I have in the lounge. After trawling through this section of the forums I thought I would have enough information for me to make a choice as to which way I would go with building a HTPC.

But having read many articles over the last couple of months I am even more confused than I started, as many people have different views on what is required of a HTPC.

I first looked at the Apple TV2 and would have gone with that, but the lack of 1080p has put me off.

The Zotac/Shuttle boxes I’m not too sure about now as there are conflicting views as to whether they play full HD without stutter/problems (correct me if I’m wrong that’s just how I read it).

The ITX or uATX cases that I have seen up to now look very small and a few of them look quite nice.

Firstly this is what I’m likely to use it for:
Playing the usual .avi & .mkv files with DD/DTS tracks
.mp3’s format for all my music
HD 1080p playback would be nice as well
Not interested in 3D playback
I must use Iplayer for catch up.

Before I do take the plunge could I ask some questions:

Are the Mini-PC’s happy to play full HD content through XBMC without any trouble?

If yes could I use the Shuttle XS35 / XS35GT ? is there a Zotac model that everybody is using now ?
I live in the UK and from what I have found I seem to be limited to Shuttle and Zotac.

If not am I just better off building a uATX/ITX form PC ?

If I buy a 30Gb SSD for the build is the whole of the hard drive available ? (if I was to buy a 500Gb spin drive then 10Gb would be missing)

Thank you in advance

Andy

[jmichael99]

Gents,

I’m after HTPC for around the £200 mark, for me to hook up to the 40” Full HD LCD I have in the lounge. After trawling through this section of the forums I thought I would have enough information for me to make a choice as to which way I would go with building a HTPC.

But having read many articles over the last couple of months I am even more confused than I started, as many people have different views on what is required of a HTPC.

I first looked at the Apple TV2 and would have gone with that, but the lack of 1080p has put me off.

The Zotac/Shuttle boxes I’m not too sure about now as there are conflicting views as to whether they play full HD without stutter/problems (correct me if I’m wrong that’s just how I read it).

The ITX or uATX cases that I have seen up to now look very small and a few of them look quite nice.

Firstly this is what I’m likely to use it for:
Playing the usual .avi & .mkv files with DD/DTS tracks
.mp3’s format for all my music
HD 1080p playback would be nice as well
Not interested in 3D playback
I must use Iplayer for catch up.

Before I do take the plunge could I ask some questions:

Are the Mini-PC’s happy to play full HD content through XBMC without any trouble?

If yes could I use the Shuttle XS35 / XS35GT ? is there a Zotac model that everybody is using now ?
I live in the UK and from what I have found I seem to be limited to Shuttle and Zotac.

If not am I just better off building a uATX/ITX form PC ?

If I buy a 30Gb SSD for the build is the whole of the hard drive available ? (if I was to buy a 500Gb spin drive then 10Gb would be missing)

Thank you in advance

Andy

I have a shuttle XS35GT and it would not handle HD..i wish i would have never bought it... it has been demoted to a encoding box..a slow encoding box... you can build a nice i3 system for around $400 or a AMD system for 300-350... i went with the i3 system as I drink the blue cool-aid..and its amazing..

[madmiddle]

Cheers jmichael99 I'll avoid that then !!

Gents i have decided to go down the build you own route and selected a few things to start with. has anyone had experience of the following ?


Item Make Model From Price
Motherboard Gigabyte GA-E350N-USB3 Ebuyer £126.79
Memory Cosair DDR3 1333MHz XMS3*(2x2Gb) Ebuyer £37.25
Hard Drive OZ Tech OCZ 60GB Vertex 2E SSD Ebuyer £89.48
Case X-Case Xcase Atomic Itx Cube Case X-Case £33.59

Total £287.11

[nemek]

Those gigabyte board is pricey. If you really need usb3 u may consider MSI E350IA-E45 but if not even cheaper asrock E350M1

[madmiddle]

Those other 2 motherboards I don't think I can hold of been searching Scan & ebuyer

[madmiddle]

I already have a nice Silverstone case I am going to put this lot into it:


Qty Product Description
1 x Corsair 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 1333MHz XMS3 Memory Kit CL9 unbuffered
1 x Corsair 32GB Nova SSD 2.5" 195MB/s Read, 70MB/s Write, Inc 2.5" To 3.5" Bracket
1 x Black 500W PSU - With 12cm Blue LED Fan 20+4pin 1x SATA 1x PCI-E
1 x AMD Athlon II X3 450 3.2GHz Socket AM3 95w 1.5MB L2 Cache Retail Boxed Processor
1 x Gigabyte GA-MA78LMT-US2H 760G Socket AM3 DVI VGA HDMI Out 8 Channel Audio mATX Motherboard

[madmiddle]

After continuously reading and re-reading the advice in other threads I have now taken the plunge on this lot:

Corsair 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 1333MHz XMS3 Memory Kit CL9 unbuffered
Black 500W PSU - With 12cm Blue LED Fan 20+4pin 1x SATA 1x PCI-E
AMD Athlon II X3 445 3.1 GHz - Socket AM3 1.5 MB cache Retail Boxed Processor
Asus M4A88T-M 880G Socket AM3 Onboard Graphics 8 Channel Audio mATX Motherboard
Kingston 64GB SSDNOW V100 - SATA-II 2.5" - Read 250MB/s Write 145MB/s

I brought everything from Ebuyer in the UK

This should be OK for a HTPC with a bit a blu-ripping as well ??

[poofyhairguy]

Why the switch from gigabyte to Asus? What PSU exactly?

[madmiddle]

I know that the CPU can be unlocked to be a quad core using that motherboard. I read a couple of reviews for it on the Ebuyer website and I think that is what changed my mind. I don't really have a preference as I've had some successful builds with both gigabyte and Asus.

The power supply was a recommendation from a mate who said it was very quiet.

Motherboard

Power supply