[eskro]

** Special thanks to Beer40oz's original A6-PACK **

[CASE/PSU] ANTEC ISK 110 VESA / 90W ($80)
[CPU/GPU] AMD A6-3500 FM1 65W / AMD Radeon HD 6530D ($63)
[MOBO] ASRock A75M-ITX FM1 USB3.0 SATA-III HDMI eSATA S/PDIF UEFI ($90)
[RAM] Kingston HyperX Plug and Play 4GB (2x2GB) 240-pin DDR3 1866MHz CL11 1.5V ($47)
[SSD] ADATA Premier Pro SP600 32GB SATA-III 2.5" Read:360MB/s Write:130MB/s ($50)
TOTAL: $330

Pros?
* FULL 3D 1080P Ready!!
* Bitstreams DOLBY TRUE-HD & DTS-HD MASTER!!
* 1 x HDMI output!!
* 4 x SATA-III ports!!
* 1 x Optical (S/PDIF) output!!
* 4 x USB 3.0 ports!!
* 2 x USB 2.0 ports!!

Cons?
* no Built-in WiFi!!
* no Built-in Bluetooth!!
* no Multi Card Reader slot!!

[User 68127]

That build looks really good, definitely has me considering it. If you wanted to add WiFi, what would your options be? Are there internal options or are you limited to a USB dongle?

[eskro]

at this point yes, you'll need a usb wifi adapter...
these 3 have very good reviews!

- BUFFALO WLI-UC-GNHP ($20)
- Medialink MWN-USB150N ($20)
- B-LINK 150Mbps ($9) ships from HK

well, unless you swap case with one that has an expension slot,
example the ANTEC ISK300-150, and then get a WiFi card.
the ISK300-150 doesn't have a FanLess PSU but,
you could always replace it with a PicoPSU Power Kit like this one --> Here

there used to be a motherboard made by ASUS that had built-in WiFi
like we see often with ZOTAC motherboards, it was the ASUS F1A75-I Deluxe FM1.
but its now discontinued...

[Beer40oz]

At the moment I have my A6-PACK with this Wireless Adapter.... the TRENDnet TEW-684UB Dual Band Wireless N900 I must say I am very impressed. No drops and best of all I am playing my 1080P vids and the router is upstairs. I tested the famous birds test and no drops or anything. By the way my network says its connected at 144 Mbps....

I had the TP-LINK TL-WN722N Wireless N150 and that stutter once in a while and that was connected at 65 Mbps.....

Hope this helps.... Cheers! M8's


TRENDnet TEW-684UB FTW!

Of-course streaming from my unRAID server.

BTW! I learned that a usb wireless adapter is connected at 1/3 or 2/3 of its actual speed that they say.

[eskro]

nice to hear it works great Beer!!!

[esalkin]

Noob question.
Is there any reason why this hardware would not work equally well under Linux / Open Elec and save the cost of Window$?

BTW, I've been googling for 2 hours to find a clear and (nearly) current recommendation for hardware.

Thanks!