[Xiphan]

Hey everyone,

I am looking for some advice on how powerful I should make my HTPC? I had planned on just building an Athlon 200GE system to handle 1080p playback but then I discovered the Retro player addon and now I am wondering if this processor will be powerful enough to handle some of the more advanced emulation cores?

I also need the system to be able to handle a six drive software RAID, which is another reason why I am building an HTPC instead of just getting a media box.

Thanks in advance for any and all advice.

[Klojum]

to handle 1080p playback

Video resolution is one thing, video formats are another. All Raspberry Pi's can do 1080p h.264 video, only the latest RPi4B can do HEVC video properly. AMD Ryzen and the like should be able to handle all current videos types, although AV1 is still the new contender that might need additional software decoding support.

I also need the system to be able to handle a six drive software RAID,

And which OS are you planning to use?

Why not keep the new PC as a full-blown server which you can put somewhere in a closet (no noise of 6 drives spinning next to your TV!), and have a 'simpler' Android box for all Kodi and emulation stuff?

[Xiphan]

Video resolution is one thing, video formats are another. All Raspberry Pi's can do 1080p h.264 video, only the latest RPi4B can do HEVC video properly. AMD Ryzen and the like should be able to handle all current videos types, although AV1 is still the new contender that might need additional software decoding support.

I'm only using 1080p H.264 content for now, but I would like to future proof the system for H.265/HEVC content as well.

And which OS are you planning to use?

Ubuntu

Why not keep the new PC as a full-blown server which you can put somewhere in a closet (no noise of 6 drives spinning next to your TV!), and have a 'simpler' Android box for all Kodi and emulation stuff? 

I'm just rebuilding my previous system which broke. It was based on an A6-6400k cooled by a Zalman CNPS2X, housed in a Silverstone Grandia GD07 chassis, powered by a beQuiet! PSU, and despite having 6 drives it was practically inaudible. I also think it would be a shame to hide such a beautiful chassis away.

[poofyhairguy]

If I was building an x86 PC just for media playback in Ubuntu I would stick to something with an Intel GPU. As you can see from this wiki page:

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Har...celeration

Intel has some of the best support. Intel is also at the center of the development towards real HDR support in Linux.

If it has to be AMD stick to Raven Ridge.