New Low Cost Low Power HTPC Build

sholling

sholling

Audioholic Ninja
A couple of weeks ago I decided to take advantage of a sale and setup a new HTPC to replace my old AMD E-350 powered micro-ATX form factor HTPC. As luck would have it Newegg had Intel’s NUC5PPYH 5”x5” NUC on sale for $155 shipped. I splurged and ordered an 8GB RAM module for $26, a fast $60 240GB SSD, and a full version of Windows 10 Home 64 to round out the build. A HTPC really doesn’t need a whole lot of processing power and the more modern N3700 should give me about 200% more processing power than the adequate (barely) for 1080P E-350 while sipping 67% less electricity and taking up 10% of the space of my old micro-ATX HTPC. Note that all media is stored on a separate server and accessed via hardwired gigabit Ethernet.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00XPVQHDU/?tag=extension-kb-20

Intel NUC5PPYH NUC Specs:
  • Intel Pentium N3700 quad core processor (6w)
  • Intel HD HDMI 1.4b Graphics
  • 7.1 Surround sound over HDMI
  • DDR3L SODIMM, 1.35V, 1333/1600 MHz, 8GB Maximum
  • 802.11ac Wireless & Gigabit Ethernet (I’m using wired Gigabit)
  • Internal Support for 2.5" HDD or SSD
  • 1xUSB 2.0 and 3xUSB 3.0
  • SD Card Slot
  • Consumer Infrared Sensor
  • 65w external power supply


Additional Components:

  • Crucial 8GB Single DDR3 1600 MT/s (PC3-12800) SODIMM
  • PNY’s new and well reviewed CS1311 240GB SSD (550 MB/s seq. read and 520 MB/s seq. write speeds with 90,000 IOPS Random Read and Writes)
  • FLIRC media center USB IR receiver
Windows 10 installed easily from a USB thumb drive and I installed Kodi 1.6 from the official website. I probably could have saved $100 by running Kodi from some flavor of Linux but I know and like Windows 10 and it was worth the money to remain in my comfort zone. In testing, Kodi is running 1080P video with 5.1 audio just fine from network drives and is accessing my FLAC and video library without a hiccup. The only problem so far has been the built-in infrared sensor, and after spending two frustrating hours unsuccessfully trying to get the built-in IR to work I ordered a FLIRC media center USB IR receiver which will allow my Logitech Harmony remote to control Kodi directly.


Getting the FLIRC IR dongle to work with my Logitech Harmony One took about half an hour, mainly due to a lack of good documentation. Between finding a bit of fan created documentation and just thinking things through I finally configured the harmony software by adding a new Media Center PC, the brand must be set to FLIRC, and the model is Kodi. Next I setup a Harmony activity, in this case I called it “Network Audio”, assigned the new media center PC, spent a few minutes to mapping the remote’s keys to Kodi commands, and now I have a tiny media center PC that can be used like a Kodi appliance. I do have my old Logitech K400 Plus wireless media center keyboard (recommended) connected, but once I launch Kodi I can turn off the keyboard and just use my Harmony remote. So far I'm pretty happy with the new setup.
 
sholling

sholling

Audioholic Ninja
Intriguing, so how well does it work for BD rips in 1080P with 5.1 audio? The 2GB of RAM is what makes me wonder.
 
BoredSysAdmin

BoredSysAdmin

Audioholic Slumlord
I like that box. Kangaroo comes with Cherry Trail based Atom CPU which according wiki has some mighty video processing feats:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_HD_and_Iris_Graphics#Capabilities_.28GPU_video_acceleration.29

Tl;dr: that chip should decode with ease not just 1080p but also next gen 4k video in hardware, so no need to worry about power of cpu. also 32gb storage is more than sufficient for OpenElec install.

2gb is nothing to sneeze at with right software. OpenElec with Kodi is super fast and easy to install and it practically you don't need to get to command line like never (unless you want to do some crazy stuff, like MySQL for Kodi)

btw: There is Kangaroo Plus, which double storage and ram, minus the OS - perfect for me as I don't want stinking windows on htpc. Price is $169 - imo good choice if you intend to use for windows for openelec 2gb/32gb is more than enought
 
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jinjuku

jinjuku

Moderator
Yep, the X5/X7 is a great low cost, low TPD, Integrated CPU/GPU.
 
AcuDefTechGuy

AcuDefTechGuy

Audioholic Jedi
My only concern with these lower powered PCs is the compatibility with the next generation of H265 High Efficiency Video Codec (HEVC).

Has anyone played around with HEVC in these lowered powered PCs?
 
BoredSysAdmin

BoredSysAdmin

Audioholic Slumlord
My only concern with these lower powered PCs is the compatibility with the next generation of H265 High Efficiency Video Codec (HEVC).

Has anyone played around with HEVC in these lowered powered PCs?
According to wikia Kangoro's little atom chip based on Cherry Trail and decode H.265/HEVC at Main Profile Level 5, Max res 4kx2k/30p
 
sholling

sholling

Audioholic Ninja
 
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sholling

sholling

Audioholic Ninja
According to wikia Kangoro's little atom chip based on Cherry Trail and decode H.265/HEVC at Main Profile Level 5, Max res 4kx2k/30p
Tom's Guide found that while it is rated at 4k @ 30fps, that in reality the Kangaroo could only pull off 1080P smoothly.

http://www.tomsguide.com/us/kangaroo-mobile-desktop,review-3204.html
A 1080p YouTube trailer played smoothly in my office, but was a bit laggy with a lesser Wi-Fi signal in my house; an offline MP4 of the trailer looked great in either location.

The Kangaroo can output at up to a 4K resolution via its HDMI port, but when I attached this desktop to an ultra-HD monitor, the system seemed laggy during all tasks and was unable to play a 4K MP4 video. I was also able to power two monitors at once by connecting the Kangaroo to a DisplayLink dock, but the system became laggy after I opened just a few tabs. Kangaroo recommends that you not run at resolutions higher than 1920 x 1080, though the slightly higher resolution of 1920 x 1200 provided good performance in my tests.
 
BoredSysAdmin

BoredSysAdmin

Audioholic Slumlord
Tom's Guide found that while it is rated at 4k @ 30fps, that in reality the Kangaroo could only pull off 1080P smoothly.
http://www.tomsguide.com/us/kangaroo-mobile-desktop,review-3204.html
Hmm given lack of details on this test of his, makes me question many if his results has any bearing. I suspect between drivers, video player used and file codec many things could had went wrong and did NOT used GPU hardware acceleration for playback.

Of course this puny Atom cpu by itself it not capable real time decode 4k video.

I would buy it and proven otherwise, but I don't have any 4k screens to test with.


This may be a helpful read:
http://www.anandtech.com/show/9152/futureproofing-htpcs-for-the-4k-era-hdmi-hdcp-and-hevc


but at the end of the day: I don't really care about 4k in my home. Not yet. Not till I have 120" projected screen and affordable 4k projectors are still "a few" years ago at the least
 
sholling

sholling

Audioholic Ninja
I probably won't go 4k for a couple of years, if ever. My old 52" Samsung LCD still looks great and refuses to die so I don't see a need but everyone in the thread seemed to feel 4k support is necessary. Yes, 4K is a good thing but it's a year or two off for me. I'm still not sure that I'll have a need for a 4K Kodi box when that day comes because I'll either have a new 4K Roku or I'll have 4k Netflix and Amazon apps on the TV. My main goals were faster, stutter-free playback of my music video collection, my BD cartoon collection (I'm just a big kid :D) and seamless integration with my Harmony remote, and I'm getting all of that with the combination of the NUC and the FLIRC.

Since I'm off work for a few weeks and bored out of my mind I'll be doing another build with existing HW (1080P only) and I'll give that OpenElec software a try.
 
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