Budget HTPC advise.

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Supreme [H]ardness
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I'm more than a bit leery about the underpowered celeron there.
I'd suggest looking at an inexpensive FM2 motherboard and processor personally.
 
I think HD video playback will be fine, you just might notice that there's high CPU usage. May depend on the video container or codec--YMMV. If that's all you're doing (nothing simultaneous), I don't think you'll have a problem, but it also doesn't look like it'll provide a lot of headroom, or be very future-friendly.
 
teh_chem said:
I think HD video playback will be fine, you just might notice that there's high CPU usage. May depend on the video container or codec--YMMV. If that's all you're doing (nothing simultaneous), I don't think you'll have a problem, but it also doesn't look like it'll provide a lot of headroom, or be very future-friendly.
Click to expand...

For 143$... I could care less about it being to future friendly.
 
teh_chem said:
Fair enough! :) Enjoy the build!
Click to expand...

We ended up changing it to a Micro ITX 1155 mobo and a Celeron 1610 for only a few dollars more. This gives us a little more power and also the ability to upgrade as well as a PCI-E slot for dedicated video card if ever needed.
 
If you dont need to stream any DRM stuff why not try OPENELEC? No need to go windows bloat unless you absolutely have to.
 
kn0s said:
If you dont need to stream any DRM stuff why not try OPENELEC? No need to go windows bloat unless you absolutely have to.
Click to expand...

Yeah, we have considered this but there are some other functions he wants that would require windows. If for some reason we cannot get it to run smooth on his setup we will have no choice but to run OPENELEC. Thanks for the replies!
 
Got the setup built and it plays XBMC HD DTS content without issue. I am honestly surprised how fast it is. It is running Win7 as well.
 
This is still a nice option: http://www.amazon.com/ASUS-EB1503-E...L1DQ/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1378846435&sr=8-1

  • Intel Atom D2700 Dual Core 2.13GHz
  • 4GB DDR3
  • 500 GB 5400 rpm Hard Drive
  • DVD-RW drive
  • Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
  • NVIDIA Geforce GT 610M 512MB
  • HDMI + DisplayPort + VGA outputs
  • Gigabit ethernet
  • WiFi 802.11bgn
  • 4x USB 2.0 ports + 2x USB 3.0 ports
  • Integrated IR receiver
  • Includes IR remote (standard IR6 WMC remote)
  • Includes VESA mounting hardware (bolt it to the back of a monitor)
Not bad for $460, and the Nvidia GPU means you can use LAV CUVID or CoreAVC CUDA and play pretty-much anything with hardware accelerated decoding (without dealing with the hell that is DXVA).

USB 3.0 makes it easy enough to attach a TV tuner and/or an external drive if you want to turn it into a DVR as well (though ideally you'd have your media server handle storage and tuners for you)
 
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Unknown-One said:
This is still a nice option: http://www.amazon.com/ASUS-EB1503-E...L1DQ/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1378846435&sr=8-1

  • Intel Atom D2700 Dual Core 2.13GHz
  • 4GB DDR3
  • 500 GB 5400 rpm Hard Drive
  • DVD-RW drive
  • Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
  • NVIDIA Geforce GT 610M 512MB
  • HDMI + DisplayPort + VGA outputs
  • Gigabit ethernet
  • WiFi 802.11bgn
  • 4x USB 2.0 ports + 2x USB 3.0 ports
  • Integrated IR receiver
  • Includes IR remote (standard IR6 WMC remote)
  • Includes VESA mounting hardware (bolt it to the back of a monitor)
Not bad for $460, and the Nvidia GPU means you can use LAV CUVID or CoreAVC CUDA and play pretty-much anything with hardware accelerated decoding (without dealing with the hell that is DXVA).

USB 3.0 makes it easy enough to attach a TV tuner and/or an external drive if you want to turn it into a DVR as well (though ideally you'd have your media server handle storage and tuners for you)
Click to expand...

For that price it seems like I could build something better. I could actually build an i3 setup for that price.

i3 2125 70$ (Frys)
Asrock 1155 Mobo with IR 60$ (Newegg)
Ram 8gb $50 (Newegg)
Antec isk Case $50 (Frys)
Slim Panasonic Bluray drive $57 (amazon)
128gb SSD $115 (couple of places)
Asus 6450 Half height $35 (Newegg)
USB Wireless Dongle $20 ( couple of places)

$457.... Some tax possibly of course

I would need to get some sort of remote but I prefer the 25$ wireless mouse/keyboard combo from logitech. This setup should have no problem running Windows and XBMC. I would have to step up the mobo price to get USB 3.0 but not needed since most of the content (I would get) would be over the network to a media server. With that video card DXVA/DXVA2 should run without issue... but we all know how picky it can be!
 
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