[gregsquire]

Hey everyone, I'm looking for some suggestions for my next HTPC project. I've been using an Acer Aspire REVO R3700 for about 1.5 years now and it's done okay thus far. However I've had some issues with the audio out through HDMI as I can't get 5.1 audio working that route. I've had to use the optical out to get that working. Also it doesn't do too well with 1080p video and it's really bad at video through a browser for some reason. So I'm looking to upgrade to something with more horsepower.

I believe I'm looking for something similar to this build here. My media will be on an external drive or NAS.

My requirements are:
- Cost under $600.
- Support for XBMC (of course)
- Beefy enough processor/video card to support 1080p video and video in a browser without stuttering. I'm guessing an I3 processor would be enough? Or would an I5 be needed?
- Support for 5.1 (maybe even 7.1) audio through HDMI. Using a Sony sound system with built-in BluRay
- Case with IR support. At least a built in window for an IR receiver to be plugged into motherboard, but having it support power on/off would be nice.
- Small to medium form factor - so probably a mini-ITX case.
- Low noise - Case doesn't need to be completely silent, but still fairly quiet.
- Wired and Wireless Internet
- Windows 8 - I have some other reasons why I'd like to use Win 8, such as Netflix and Hulu apps and possibly some light gaming (not heavy 3D FPS stuff).
- SSD for storing OS (Win 8) on. Is 32GB enough? 64GB enough?
- 4 GB RAM sufficient?

Nice but not required
- BluRay drive (as by stereo system has that already), but having a slot for one might still be nice.
- Having enough CPU power to support 3D movies down the road
- Power On/Off via IR
- TV Tuner to do DVR stuff (probably through SickBeard).

Recommendations everyone?

[eskro]

check my htpc guide

[Dougie Fresh]

The sweet spot right now for doing all that you list, including your nice to haves is the i3-3225. Pair that with the Gigabyte GA-H77N-WIFI and you'll get wired and wireless internet. For the CPU cooler, the quiet low-profile Dynatron T459 works very well - best among low profile CPU coolers I've tested. For the case, the Realan E-i7 with the 84W AC adapter has an IR window, slot for a Blu-ray/DVD drive now or in the future and will be very quiet with the aforementioned components. It also looks awesome so no problem having it in the living room. For RAM, 4GB is plenty for what you have listed. All this will support HD audio bitstreaming via HDMI (5.1/7.1). For Windows, a 64GB SSD is the minimum. With today's prices, the best deals are on 120-128GB SSDs. When on sale they are sometimes only $20-30 more than a 60-64GB SSD. You'll also want it to have some buffer to live TV. Gigabyte boards have a nice feature that you can turn off the LED during sleep (so it's doesn't blink) and you can set one of the USB ports to have power when sleeping so you can turn it back on via remote.

Shopping List (you might be able to shop around for better prices):
Intel Core i3-3225 Dual-Core Processor 3.3 GHz $136
Gigabyte GA-H77N-WIFI mini-ITX motherboard $99
Dynatron T459 Low Profile CPU cooler $30
G-Skill DDR3-1600 2x2GB $38
Samsung 840 120GB SSD $99
E-i7 mini-ITX HTPC case with 84W AC adapter $150

Total: $552 plus the cost of Windows 8

Notes:
1. If you live near MicroCenter there are the best deals on the i3-3225 + either the Gigabyte GA-H77N-WIFI or ASRock Z77E-ITX.
2. You can also substitute the i3-3220T for the i3-3225 + Dynatron CPU cooler to save about $38. You will still get everything in your list, it just will have the Intel HD2500 instead of HD4000 GPU. You won't notice a difference in 1080p but other formats or light gaming might be affected.

[eskro]

you can also check out these 2 builds suggestion part of my HTPC guide

☆ Build #4. Intel Core i3-3120M (2x2.50Ghz) / Intel HD 4000 ($388) --> Average CPU Mark: 3345
☆ Build #5. Intel Core i3-3225 (2x3.30Ghz) / Intel HD 4000 ($406) --> Average CPU Mark: 4375

[gregsquire]

Thanks guys. I like the thinking here. Some really good stuff. I think the CPU and motherboard mentioned will work great.

The E-i7 mini-ITX case looks really nice, but it's a bit pricey. I'm thinking of going this route for a case and IR.
MI-008 Tower Black P4 Chassis with 250W Itx Psu+sata Power Supply $40
(Here's the case on NewEgg w/ better pics)
Antec VERIS Basic Multimedia Station $32
(Amazon link that has some good reviews)

I believe the VERIS multimedia station would fit in the 3.5" bay and handle IR (including power on/off). And there's a 5.25" bay for a future BluRay. Would this combo work?

So here's my build so far
Intel Core i3-3225 Dual-Core Processor 3.3 GHz $136
Gigabyte GA-H77N-WIFI mini-ITX motherboard $99
Dynatron T459 Low Profile CPU cooler $30
Kingston DDR3-1600 2x2GB $43
Kingston 120GB SSD $90
MI-008 Tower Mini-ITX case 250W Power Supply $40
Antec VERIS Basic Multimedia Station $32
Windows 8 OEM $90

Grand Total $560 (including cost of Windows 8)

What do you all think? Any hidden "gotchas" or downsides that anyone can see? Am I missing something

[Dougie Fresh]

One of the nice things about the MI-008 is you can snap in 120mm case fan in the side. I'd get a quiet, low RPM 120mm fan to add which will keep things nice and cool.

See: http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=111746&page=3

[Ned Scott]

Antec VERIS Basic Multimedia Station

I bought one of those way back in the day before I knew better. You can get a USB IR receiver (which is what the VERIS BMS is) + remote for cheaper, and with a MUCH better remote. Make a small hole somewhere, like a plastic plate cover for an unused drive, and use mounting tape for the IR sensor, and it's internal. You can even use the USB headers on the motherboard for an internal USB port.

EDIT: The remote isn't horrible, but not great. IIRC, the IR sensor had a funky line-of-sight, and it had a BRITE AS FRAK LED on it.

[eskro]

i'd stay away from this Antec VERIS Basic Multimedia Station.
the iMON software is a total junk to go through and very frustrating.
the remote is also good for garbage. i have one, and boy it sucks!!

you dont need a cpu cooler. you can keep the stock one.

like Dougie said, many here have placed a 120mm Fan on the side of the APEX,
a long time user here named Bluray did it too on his build ---> http://goo.gl/nHfDo
its recommended to do so since the PSU sits right on top of the CPU....
this model here is very quiet http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...6835226042

Windows + XBMC fits perfectly on a 32GB SSD,
thats what i have and its perfect,
like suggested in my HTPC guide, go for this one at $45 --> http://goo.gl/gWWdG

as for IR and remote, here's a couple of suggestions
you could read on in my HTPC guide --> http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=117372
personally, at this point, i really like the Flirc.TV dongle since it makes everything easy to config!
buy a seperate remote like this one here --> http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid...pid1362942
and enjoy life after that!!

If you have an android smart phone, you could even try --> YATSE xbmc remote control
http://yatse.leetzone.org/redmine/projec...bgFmIbFjIU

and if your on iOS, check --> XBMC
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/xbmc-con...07301?mt=8

[gregsquire]

Antec VERIS Basic Multimedia Station

I bought one of those way back in the day before I knew better. You can get a USB IR receiver (which is what the VERIS BMS is) + remote for cheaper, and with a MUCH better remote. Make a small hole somewhere, like a plastic plate cover for an unused drive, and use mounting tape for the IR sensor, and it's internal. You can even use the USB headers on the motherboard for an internal USB port.

EDIT: The remote isn't horrible, but not great. IIRC, the IR sensor had a funky line-of-sight, and it had a BRITE AS FRAK LED on it.

Yeah I don't really like the look of their remote either, and I have heard that the light is really bright (but it could be painted over). I have a basic Windows MCE remote with external IR sensor for my Revo right now. It works well with XBMC, however there's no way to power on/off with this setup. That's what attracted me to the VERIS BMS, as it supposedly will do that. I'd be fine with a USB IR solution if it could do a sleep/wake up equivalent, but I don't think any of them do that. Is that true? It would be nice if one out there did that. Or even a software solution.

Also one annoyance that I have with my MCE remote is when I hit that big Windows button in the middle and the PC loads up Windows Media Center (which I don't use). If this button could be mapped to XBMC that would be great, but I don't know how to do that.

I ran across the FLIRC sensor and it looks promising as you wouldn't need to mod the case and it's not a bulky sensor like most. Also you can use any remote, but looking at the video it appears it only supports about 6 buttons on the remote. So maybe not the best solution either.

It seems strange to me that with how popular HTPC's have become, that the IR issues with cases and the motherboards haven't become more "sorted out" by now.

[eskro]

your wrong about FLIRC.TV
you can actually program it fully for XBMC use!
not just 6 buttons but a full keyboard!!


and to make the Windows green button launch XBMC, with FLIRC, its super easy!
just create a shortcut of XBMC.EXE
right click on the created shortcut and select properties from the context menu that appeared
and then give it a shortcut key like shown in this video here --> http://lifehacker.com/5783366/how-to-cre...in-windows

then using FLIRC software, map the exact same keyboard key to a button on your remote.

[gregsquire]

i'd stay away from this Antec VERIS Basic Multimedia Station.
the iMON software is a total junk to go through and very frustrating.
the remote is also good for garbage. i have one, and boy it sucks!!

you dont need a cpu cooler. you can keep the stock one.
...

Eskro, Good to know about the Antec VERIS BMS. Sounds like it should be avoided. Thanks for that.

Also good suggestion on the fans. I'll do just a quiet case fan instead.

I did a couple of tests with my current MCE remote and my REVO and it appears that the power button does put it in sleep mode (and wake it too). I guess I've avoided doing that as it still takes a long time to do that on a REVO. It probably would be fairly quick with this build however. So I think I'm going to stick with just using my current MCE remote.

your wrong about FLIRC.TV
you can actually program it fully for XBMC use!
not just 6 buttons but a full keyboard!!
...

Good to know that the FLIRC can handle more than 6 buttons. I like the form factor of the FLIRC and am leaning towards that. However how can FLIRC work with the power button (sleep button), volume up/down and mute buttons? Sure it could map it to a keystroke, but is there a standard keystroke for these Windows functions? Some sort of ALT-CTRL or ALT-SHIFT combination?

Worst case scenario, I could crack open my external USB IR receiver device and somehow mount it internally, but that might not be easy to do. I guess I could also try and find an MCE internal IR reciever that might work too. But either of these options would involve drilling a hole in the case.

Thanks again everyone for the suggestions thus far.

[eskro]

you can definitely program FLIRC to do volume up/down and mute buttons.



see there's many commands you can program.

screenshot bottom left you see a XBMC GUI. has all u need!

[gregsquire]

you can definitely program FLIRC to do volume up/down and mute buttons.

Okay I think I'm sold on FLIRC now. I think that's what I'm going to do.

So here's my build thus far now
MI-008 Tower Mini-ITX case 250W Power Supply $40
SilenX 120mm Quiet Case Fan $12
Intel Core i3-3225 Dual-Core Processor 3.3 GHz $136
Gigabyte GA-H77N-WIFI mini-ITX motherboard $99
Kingston DDR3-1600 2x2GB $43
Kingston 120GB SSD $90
FLIRC USB IR Receiver $23
Windows 8 OEM $90

Grand Total $533 (including cost of Windows 8)

I could save a little if I brought down the size of the SSD, but I was planning on some other apps besides XBMC (some games maybe) so I might keep it at 120GB. Also I could go with a smaller case, however I like the expand-ability that the MI-008 will give me. I think I'm really close to having my ideal build.

Any other suggestions or issues that anyone sees?

[BORIStheBLADE]

Another one for Flirc!

[eskro]

tone down the SSD, too much...

for gamers, i even recommend a 64GB SSD...

http://www.amazon.com/SanDisk-Solid-Stat...P-064G-G25

or

http://www.amazon.com/ADATA-Premier-2-5-...0S3-64GM-C