2014-01-26, 20:04
Pictures coming later
Hi,
i am working on my HTPC for now arround 8-10 years, so i had already some boards, systems and apps installed.
Now i found my personal best system i ever had for this purpos. Because i like my solution and i got a lot of help on the Software part from this forum i would like to give some input back.
The things that are important for me are:
- silent as much as possible
- relatifly cheap
- fast in reaction /boot
- easy to use
- dual boot
Why all of this:
Silent: Because this PC is located in my living room i want to have it silent. I want to hear musik and movies not noices from HDDs and ventilators
Cheap: in the past i needed to spent a lot of mony, VGA cards, because of missing onboard performance, extra powersuply that can handle the hardware but fits into the case. This time i was looking for something more simple and integrated.
Fast: To compare what i name fast, use a what ever setopbox. Switch it on, it is there, use the remote and flick arround, it is working. In the pased i used Windows, which is far away from booting fast. Applications like DVB viewer or TVcentral are soso. And no, Raspberry is not fast, sometimes not even smooth.
Easy: Remote->Girl -> no questions! That is what i am talking about, no keyboard or mouse
Dual boot: one must have for me was the capability of watching Bluerays, so Windwos is a must have for me.
Lets start:
Case:
DIGN(today: origenae) H5.
Today i would take something much cheaper, but i have this case since several years maybe more than 8, so i keept it of cours.
Drives:
Kensington 60GB SSD: Big enough because i am doing almost everything over the network and a dualboot with Windows and XBMCUbuntu is not a problem. Fast enough because i only read from it and compared with an usual HDD with ~220MB/s and relativly high IO.
Pioneer BD Drive
Board:
Biostar NM70I-1037U
This thing is actually what it is al about. Coming with an I3 based Celeron and HD Graffiks it became the perfect board for me.
-Dualcore 1,8Ghz Intel
-17 Watt of power conumption
-DDR3 RAM
-Intel HD Graphics with HDMI
Ram:
2x1GB DDR3 (cheap one but a dual chanel kit)
IR:
IMON VFR coming with a RM200 remote, almost working by it self. One thing that did work perfectly is powering on the PC when it is completly off. Thats realy good. http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=184409
Thats it.
Where does the TV come from?
A TVHeadend server runing on an extra PC, but i doubt that this would be a problem at all for this Hardware, even my raspberry could handle that at least for SDTV at the same time.
What can it do:
- run XBMCUbuntu with a CPU load which is never critical, either watching TV, HD TV or any file over the network
- having the full control with an IR no keyboard and mouse needed for TV
- Thanks to the SSD the system needs ~30sec to the TV picture from complet shut down. (i just figured out that Standyby is not working yet :-))
- Thanks to an addon i can boot up Windows7 to watch BDs directly from XBMC which reboots the PC tells grub to start the alternativ system which takes ~50sek.
- Watching blueray in fullHD is not a problem there is no lagging everything is working smooth
- When beeing in WIndows, using mouse and keyboard i of course can also use Chrome to surf the web, youtube in fullHD is also not a problem.
- Quiet: Yes, because Biostar did a well job with the CPU Fan control this 40mm fan is never noicy at all, the SSD makes no noice and the 80mm Fan in the PSU is also silent. To make sure that it stays like this for a hupefully long time, i changed the stock 40mm againt an Noctua 40mm Fan. I can not hear a diffenrence yet, because the stock one was also ok.
So i acheaved everything i want.
Price
Board: 68€
(http://www.alternate.de/Biostar/NM70I-1037U_inkl._Intel®_Celeron®_1037U,_Mainboard/html/product/1104567/?)
RAM:22€
(http://www.alternate.de/Mushkin/DIMM_2_G...t/1094186/?)
SSD: ~47€
(http://www.amazon.de/Kingston-SSDNow-int...kensington)
IR: 48€
(http://www.caseking.de/shop/catalog/Soun...17326.html)
Total: 185€ (for this upgrade kit)
BD Drive and Case, you might have already, i see it as optional
Have fun, maybe this gives you some new ideas.
Hi,
i am working on my HTPC for now arround 8-10 years, so i had already some boards, systems and apps installed.
Now i found my personal best system i ever had for this purpos. Because i like my solution and i got a lot of help on the Software part from this forum i would like to give some input back.
The things that are important for me are:
- silent as much as possible
- relatifly cheap
- fast in reaction /boot
- easy to use
- dual boot
Why all of this:
Silent: Because this PC is located in my living room i want to have it silent. I want to hear musik and movies not noices from HDDs and ventilators
Cheap: in the past i needed to spent a lot of mony, VGA cards, because of missing onboard performance, extra powersuply that can handle the hardware but fits into the case. This time i was looking for something more simple and integrated.
Fast: To compare what i name fast, use a what ever setopbox. Switch it on, it is there, use the remote and flick arround, it is working. In the pased i used Windows, which is far away from booting fast. Applications like DVB viewer or TVcentral are soso. And no, Raspberry is not fast, sometimes not even smooth.
Easy: Remote->Girl -> no questions! That is what i am talking about, no keyboard or mouse
Dual boot: one must have for me was the capability of watching Bluerays, so Windwos is a must have for me.
Lets start:
watch gallery
Case:
DIGN(today: origenae) H5.
Today i would take something much cheaper, but i have this case since several years maybe more than 8, so i keept it of cours.
Drives:
Kensington 60GB SSD: Big enough because i am doing almost everything over the network and a dualboot with Windows and XBMCUbuntu is not a problem. Fast enough because i only read from it and compared with an usual HDD with ~220MB/s and relativly high IO.
Pioneer BD Drive
Board:
Biostar NM70I-1037U
This thing is actually what it is al about. Coming with an I3 based Celeron and HD Graffiks it became the perfect board for me.
-Dualcore 1,8Ghz Intel
-17 Watt of power conumption
-DDR3 RAM
-Intel HD Graphics with HDMI
Ram:
2x1GB DDR3 (cheap one but a dual chanel kit)
IR:
IMON VFR coming with a RM200 remote, almost working by it self. One thing that did work perfectly is powering on the PC when it is completly off. Thats realy good. http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=184409
Thats it.
Where does the TV come from?
A TVHeadend server runing on an extra PC, but i doubt that this would be a problem at all for this Hardware, even my raspberry could handle that at least for SDTV at the same time.
What can it do:
- run XBMCUbuntu with a CPU load which is never critical, either watching TV, HD TV or any file over the network
- having the full control with an IR no keyboard and mouse needed for TV
- Thanks to the SSD the system needs ~30sec to the TV picture from complet shut down. (i just figured out that Standyby is not working yet :-))
- Thanks to an addon i can boot up Windows7 to watch BDs directly from XBMC which reboots the PC tells grub to start the alternativ system which takes ~50sek.
- Watching blueray in fullHD is not a problem there is no lagging everything is working smooth
- When beeing in WIndows, using mouse and keyboard i of course can also use Chrome to surf the web, youtube in fullHD is also not a problem.
- Quiet: Yes, because Biostar did a well job with the CPU Fan control this 40mm fan is never noicy at all, the SSD makes no noice and the 80mm Fan in the PSU is also silent. To make sure that it stays like this for a hupefully long time, i changed the stock 40mm againt an Noctua 40mm Fan. I can not hear a diffenrence yet, because the stock one was also ok.
So i acheaved everything i want.
Price
Board: 68€
(http://www.alternate.de/Biostar/NM70I-1037U_inkl._Intel®_Celeron®_1037U,_Mainboard/html/product/1104567/?)
RAM:22€
(http://www.alternate.de/Mushkin/DIMM_2_G...t/1094186/?)
SSD: ~47€
(http://www.amazon.de/Kingston-SSDNow-int...kensington)
IR: 48€
(http://www.caseking.de/shop/catalog/Soun...17326.html)
Total: 185€ (for this upgrade kit)
BD Drive and Case, you might have already, i see it as optional
Have fun, maybe this gives you some new ideas.
