LiquidFX 144 Posted July 18, 2014 Posted July 18, 2014 My girlfriends parents love the setup we have and the fact that all of our movies are able to watch at a push of a button and from mobile devices, so they have asked if I will build them a unit. Now I just have to decide what to start them off with. They will be watching movies on several devices so it will need to able to handle it with ease. They dont have a large collection of movies so a SSD for the OS and 3 TB for storage is what I was going to throw in for now. So what kind of internals would you put inside?
fantaxp7 191 Posted July 18, 2014 Posted July 18, 2014 Hmm well if you want to save a bit then a decent AMD build could work as a server-HTPC all-in-one.
LiquidFX 144 Posted July 18, 2014 Author Posted July 18, 2014 They didnt give a budget target so I just told them that I would keep it under 1k
z31fanatic 6 Posted July 18, 2014 Posted July 18, 2014 $1k is a lot. I don't think you should spend that much for an HTPC. Haswell i5 quad core, and a video card like an nVidia GT650.
fantaxp7 191 Posted July 18, 2014 Posted July 18, 2014 $1k is a lot. I don't think you should spend that much for an HTPC. Haswell i5 quad core, and a video card like an nVidia GT650. The i5 should be good enough unless his girlfriends parents need a separate card for gaming or something.
Cheesegeezer 3104 Posted July 18, 2014 Posted July 18, 2014 Personally I would stick with ATI for GFX card in HTPC, the DirectSound from them is very solid and no problems with all the HD Audio formats..... It seems that Nvidia is only really getting into this now........ Queue NVidia Fanboys attacking me on how great the HD Audio is........ Things to think about here AMD have high TDP which means they eat a lot more electricity for what you get with Intel. So a CPU outputting roughly the same 3.4GHZ - AMD would be 125W and you could get an intel that only requires 65W. So even tho the Intels are a little more expensive for the outlay, you will save much more on electricity in the long run. 8Gb of 1333Mhz ram with be fine. Just check that the memory you get is listed on the Manufacturers Motherboard Approved Memory list. Asus Motherboard if you go with 3rd or 4th gen intel cpu i would recommend a Z87 motherboard. Also go for a "Green" or Energy efficient PSU around 500W would be good. Corsair I swear by, but there are other good brands out there. ATI GFX card a HD6570 or something like that would be perfect, it's cheap and cheerful and will handle any video thrown at it while producing some pretty impressive colors. Anyways that's my 2 cents. Hope it helps
fantaxp7 191 Posted July 18, 2014 Posted July 18, 2014 (edited) Intel's integrated graphics can handle all popular video codecs no problem, and all HD audio. I always suggested trying out integrated graphics on a cpu before trying an external video card. Edited July 18, 2014 by fantaxp7
gthrift 64 Posted July 18, 2014 Posted July 18, 2014 I agree about skipping on the dedicated video card. Go with an i5 & 8gb of ram. That should be plenty for the server and MBT or MBC on the computer and then would give enough overhead for a stream or two to a Roku or other client. 64gb SSD for the OS and I'd go 4tb for the storage drive. I've been seeing some pretty good deals on them lately.
z31fanatic 6 Posted July 18, 2014 Posted July 18, 2014 The i5 should be good enough unless his girlfriends parents need a separate card for gaming or something. Duh, totally forgot that a Haswell i5 will come with most likely Intel HD4600 graphics which is more than enough for HTPC use. Good advice.
Lee 212 Posted July 18, 2014 Posted July 18, 2014 I've got an haswell i5 4670 with 16gb ram and it's awesome. Eats several streams for breakfast and bitstreams flawlessly to my amp, I did have some sleep wake issues initially but new bios fixed those.... Sent by lumia 1020 & Tapatalk
techywarrior 689 Posted July 18, 2014 Posted July 18, 2014 I use an i5 NUC with 4gb of memory. Most of the time I am direct playing but it can handle transcoding 2 streams at the same time. This should even improve once ffmpeg can use Quicksync. I haven't noticed memory usage ever really go up so 4gb seems to be enough. And the nice thing is that it's tiny, uses like no power, and has built in IR receiver. (I have the model with the 2.5" drive for data on top of the SSD for OS (if you want) but I there is a height limit on the 2.5" drive)
The Baron 64 Posted July 20, 2014 Posted July 20, 2014 I'ved read that the integrated Intel HD4600 GPU is very effective at delivering HD content. I do like the idea of doing without a decidated card. In saying that, I do have a dedicated Geforce 610, fanless, GPU which only pulls 30 watts. So if you do want a card in the system, you can get a card that won't kill your electricity bills or make a racket, either.
cpttango30 4 Posted July 21, 2014 Posted July 21, 2014 I have an AMD A8 in my htpc with 16 GB of ram and 9tb for media and a 500gb for os, I also run a gfx750. This set up handles streaming to my roku and an android tablet at the same time.....
swhitmore 781 Posted July 21, 2014 Posted July 21, 2014 I'ved read that the integrated Intel HD4600 GPU is very effective at delivering HD content. I do like the idea of doing without a decidated card. In saying that, I do have a dedicated Geforce 610, fanless, GPU which only pulls 30 watts. So if you do want a card in the system, you can get a card that won't kill your electricity bills or make a racket, either. Definitely no need for a dedicated gfx card these days, unless you plan on gaming.
cpttango30 4 Posted July 21, 2014 Posted July 21, 2014 No need but does take some load off the cpu...
techywarrior 689 Posted July 21, 2014 Posted July 21, 2014 No need but does take some load off the cpu... Depending on the GPU and CPU it can actually increase power consumption (iGPU on the Haswell chips use pretty low power). Also, ffmpeg doesn't do GPU acceleration. Depending on the exact use for the machine it may be a waste to actually have a dedicated GPU.
LiquidFX 144 Posted July 22, 2014 Author Posted July 22, 2014 They will not be using it for any gaming
swhitmore 781 Posted July 22, 2014 Posted July 22, 2014 They will not be using it for any gaming Yeah you definitely won't need a gfx card. Save them the cash. You should be able to do the whole thing for around $500-$600 (not inc. software). What case are you getting? I find that's the hardest decision these days.
LiquidFX 144 Posted July 22, 2014 Author Posted July 22, 2014 Well I have the HTPC 2000B and they like it so maybe go with it, they really haven't looked around for a case yet.
WarrenH 16 Posted July 22, 2014 Posted July 22, 2014 Intel i5 midrange, 8GB Ram, no seperate VGA card required, small SSD for O/S plus another large drive for media - make sure it's at least 7200 rpm, you really only need up to 250W power supply, refer my specs - I only have 120W power with intel HD3000 graphics and I serve to 3 other systems through the house without any issue 1
Lee 212 Posted July 22, 2014 Posted July 22, 2014 I'd go mITX maybe with a Pico PSU and you could go MUCH smaller with the case.. I built one in an old dvd player! Sent by lumia 1020 & Tapatalk 1
LiquidFX 144 Posted July 22, 2014 Author Posted July 22, 2014 Thanks for all the input, been looking around on PCpartspicker.com and getting a few ideas to run by them when I see them next. Next thing will be what theme to use for an 8 yr old. A more kid based theme would be one thing we need for the younger crowd.
z31fanatic 6 Posted July 23, 2014 Posted July 23, 2014 If you want to keep it simple for them, then an i5 Haswell NUC would be the ticket to go. You install Win 7 or 8 on a 120GB SSD and give it 8GB RAM.
techywarrior 689 Posted July 23, 2014 Posted July 23, 2014 If you want to keep it simple for them, then an i5 Haswell NUC would be the ticket to go. You install Win 7 or 8 on a 120GB SSD and give it 8GB RAM. lol, I mentioned that a while ago. It didn't seem that there was interest by the OP in it. I have the "H" variant that can support a 2.5" HD as well and stuck in a 1TB drive for storage. It works great.
Lee 212 Posted July 23, 2014 Posted July 23, 2014 @@techywarrior with an msata too? Sent by lumia 1020 & Tapatalk
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