HTPC build that works reliably

[TLS Guy]

There seems to be interest in HTPC at the moment. I built mine a few months ago. I did my research and I have not been disappointed in any way with this unit. So I'm going to list the parts here. I have had to substitute a disc drive as the one I used has been discontinued.

This is the case from Silverstone. It is an excellent case with adequate room and all holes are accurately drilled and tapped.

This is the power supply from Aurum, which is built to a high standard.

I used this board from Asus that supports the Intel integrated processors. You do not need sound or video cards.

I used this RAM set from Skill.

I installed this Intel i3 Ivy Bridge integrated processor. If you are an extreme gamer you should probably spring for an i5 and possibly an i7.

I installed the processor using Arctic Silver.

For the operating system and software I used this Intel SSD for fast booting.

For storage I used this Western Digital 2 TB hard drive.

For the disc drive I used this Pioneer disc drive. It is no longer available, so I recommend substituting this ASUS drive.

I used the Windows 7 operating system.

For the media player I used Total Media Theater 6 from ArcSoft. If you don't want a ton of trouble do not substitute this software. I tried two others first and they were hopeless. In fact they were worse, as it was real hassle deleting them. Do not get a lesser media player.

Lastly I use this Logitec wireless keyboard. It is not back lit, but I love it. It has excellent range and is reliable.

I also have this IO gear micro keyboard, but I seldom use it. It is back lit, but I find it too small. Range is not as good as the Logitec and it needs resetting too often.

I think anybody who builds this unit will be very happy. I consider it tried and true. I would like to acknowledge the help of Scholling and Bored for critiquing the design along the way.

Here it is in the rack.

There are only two cables from it, the AC cable and the HDMI cable to the pre/pro.

I love this unit and I think it has become my most used peripheral.

 

[Grador]

This is a good solid build that I think strikes a nice line between value and performance for HTPC use. For a little cost savings the SSD could of course be lopped off, but it's nice to have.

This is a great parts list for a beginner to look at.

 

[BoredSysAdmin]

Mark, I'm glad you like it and my some of my thoughts came useful - I was typing most of responses on a cellphone from vaca in Florida last year
Few teeny tiny corrections PSU is from FSP Group - Aurum Gold series means it's 80 PLUS GOLD Certified = aka very efficient - important if you want your htpc to produce less noise be quieter .
Also FSP Group is OEM for MANY, MANY big names in power supplies (If you think Cooler Master makes their own - think again )
and 2nd small one is memory maker is named G.Skill

I also whole hearty approve Asus optical drives - over the years they never gave me any troubles and same goes for their motherboards.

Sorry for thread hijack mark, but :
For myself, I still don't believe in big and powerful htpc boxes (windows based) htpc and bluray playback has never been a priority for me.
My new project will be this little toy - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16883220176&Tpk=asus%20eee%20box
I have seen these a little cheaper and you could find it without windows, ram or storage. Ram is cheap - 4gb is $30-35 and i'm pretty confident it could boot from sd-card which I all I would need to install OpenELEC/XBMC
The key here is the video card - which is very modern Nvidia GT610 - it's well capable to hardware decoding of 1080p video and bitstreaming HD audio

If all goes right it just might be the perfect htpc for playback of local files. The only negative I heard is atom would struggle with Netflix playback, but a) this is not a big deal for me and b) I believe they eventually will fix it

 

[Grador]

If all goes right it just might be the perfect htpc for playback of local files. The only negative I heard is atom would struggle with Netflix playback, but I a) this is not a big deal for me and b) I believe they eventually will fix it

And hopefully when they drop silverlight we can get an XBMC plugin...

 

[TLS Guy]

Mark, I'm glad you like it and my some of my thoughts came useful - I was typing most of responses on a cellphone from vaca in Florida last year
Few teeny tiny corrections PSU is from FSP Group - Aurum Gold series means it's 80 PLUS GOLD Certified = aka very efficient - important if you want your htpc to produce less noise be quieter .
Also FSP Group is OEM for MANY, MANY big names in power supplies (If you think Cooler Master makes their own - think again )
and 2nd small one is memory maker is named G.Skill

I also whole hearty approve Asus optical drives - over the years they never gave me any troubles and same goes for their motherboards.

Sorry for thread hijack mark, but :
For myself, I still don't believe in big and powerful htpc boxes (windows based) htpc and bluray playback has never been a priority for me.
My new project will be this little toy - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16883220176&Tpk=asus%20eee%20box
I have seen these a little cheaper and you could find it without windows, ram or storage. Ram is cheap - 4gb is $30-35 and i'm pretty confident it could boot from sd-card which I all I would need to install OpenELEC/XBMC
The key here is the video card - which is very modern Nvidia GT610 - it's well capable to hardware decoding of 1080p video and bitstreaming HD audio

If all goes right it just might be the perfect htpc for playback of local files. The only negative I heard is atom would struggle with Netflix playback, but a) this is not a big deal for me and b) I believe they eventually will fix it

Yes, I should have mentioned that this unit is very quiet. You can not hear it at all. The board varies fan speed. This unit stays stone cold and you never hear a peep from it. I used the stock fan that came with the Intel processor. There is absolutely no need to buy a different CPU fan.

Your box looks interesting, however it would not work for me. The sites I stream from require 2 Gig minimum with windows.

I have just ordered one of these to evaluate. Its a Linux box. I will keep you posted.

 

[BoredSysAdmin]

Yes, I should have mentioned that this unit is very quiet. You can not hear it at all. The board varies fan speed. This unit stays stone cold and you never hear a peep from it. I used the stock fan that came with the Intel processor. There is absolutely no need to buy a different CPU fan.

Your box looks interesting, however it would not work for me. The sites I stream from require 2 Gig minimum with windows.

I have just ordered one of these to evaluate. Its a Linux box. I will keep you posted.

This one is 2 gig (both ram and cpu speed) and windows
Amazon.com: ASUS EB1033 EB1033-B001E Desktop: Computers & Accessories

The site you stream from classical music - last time I checked - they are industry standard format/codec which onboard video card should have no issues with playback when properly configured.

I will give updates later on how it works out

 

[Lordhumungus]

This one is 2 gig (both ram and cpu speed) and windows
Amazon.com: ASUS EB1033 EB1033-B001E Desktop: Computers & Accessories

The site you stream from classical music - last time I checked - they are industry standard format/codec which onboard video card should have no issues with playback when properly configured.

I will give updates later on how it works out

The thing with these boxes is they can pretty much do whatever they can do when you buy them and that's it, which doesn't leave a whole lot of flexibility. For example, my HTPC can be easily added to (recently added an internal TV Tuner) or stripped down and sold once it is retired. These type of integrated boxes have the advantage on size, but in my opinion the system you can build for basically equivalent cost is far superior. Also, this is just my personal opinion, but I wouldn't touch an Atom processor with a 50 foot pole. They are horribly outdated, outclassed, and inefficient. I know they are power sipping, but at such low wattage you are talking about the difference of fractions of a dollar a month assuming 100% CPU usage 24-hours a day.

 

[Grador]

The thing with these boxes is they can pretty much do whatever they can do when you buy them and that's it, which doesn't leave a whole lot of flexibility. For example, my HTPC can be easily added to (recently added an internal TV Tuner) or stripped down and sold once it is retired. These type of integrated boxes have the advantage on size, but in my opinion the system you can build for basically equivalent cost is far superior. Also, this is just my personal opinion, but I wouldn't touch an Atom processor with a 50 foot pole. They are horribly outdated, outclassed, and inefficient. I know they are power sipping, but at such low wattage you are talking about the difference of fractions of a dollar a month assuming 100% CPU usage 24-hours a day.

You most certainly cannot build a system for the same price considering you have to buy the OS (unless you go linux). I spent $300 for mine, minus OS that gives you a whopping $200 budget to put the system together. For a while I had quad tuners on mine and was surprised that it was capable of recording 4 HD programs and playing back a fifth simultaneously, they are really quite capable. There may be some things they cannot do, but it has never failed to do anything I've wanted.

 

[Lordhumungus]

You are absolutely right about OS, I have an MSDN account, so that isn't a factor for me. Out of curiosity, can you link me something roughly equivalent to your system? If you take the OS out of the equation, a machine that would do cartwheels around an Atom based integrated box can be easily built for about ~$350. It won't be as small, but I figure roughly the size of a shoebox is a reasonable trade-off.

 

[Grador]

Acer Aspire Revo 3610 Atom ION 330 Review | Paul J Roberts

That's the exact model, it was $330 when i ordered it 3 years ago. You might get close in cost and it may be technically more capable, but it does everything I ask of it and it's certainly the right size.

The only real complaint I have ever had was that it's wifi performance is quite literally the worst I have ever seen, but it's now wired so I couldn't care less anymore.

 

[Lordhumungus]

I put the following together just for a quick comparison.

Apex Mini-ITX Case MI-008, w/ 250W Power Supply - $44.99
Toshiba 2TB 7200RPM - $99.99
GIGABYTE GA-H77N-WIFI - $102.99
Celeron G540 - $44.99
Patriot 4GB DDR3 - $18.99
Asus Blu-ray Drive - $53.99
- Discount Code PREFERRED3 for 3% off order total

Tax: None
Shipping: Free
Total: $354.96

If we wanted to go full-on penny pinch mode, we could save ~$5 on the blu-ray drive, and significant amounts on the motherboard and HDD. For comparison, here is how the Celeron stacks-up against the Atom 525. Something to note as far as OS costs go, there was at one time a loophole where MS would allow you to install upgrade versions of OSes as a full version and it was completely legitimate (was a bit of a backdoor in case the upgrade borked your system and you needed a fresh install). Not sure if they still allow this, but if they do, you could potentially get Windows 7 Home Premium for ~$50.

Edit: Forgot to mention the goal of the build I put together was at minimum to match every feature of the Asus linked earlier and in pretty much every case exceed it. Hence the extra spend on Motherboard with Wifi built-in and Blu-ray drive.

 

[Grador]

That does compare quite favorably price wise. On a fairer comparison (lopping off optical, cutting ram, smaller hdd) you could almost get the OS on for the same price which is quite impressive. I will say that today there are less reasons to go for an atom system, but my main point was not to be afraid of them, they are actually very capable. There is one other advantage you can get with them that may make it worth it: fanless. My system is not fanless and is far far to loud, but my father has an ion2 based system that is completely fanless, and far nicer looking than any small system you'll ever build. It is on the other hand NOT inexpensive Shuttle XPC | PC Made Modern

 

[hizzaah]

I put the following together just for a quick comparison.

Apex Mini-ITX Case MI-008, w/ 250W Power Supply - $44.99
Toshiba 2TB 7200RPM - $99.99
GIGABYTE GA-H77N-WIFI - $102.99
Celeron G540 - $44.99
Patriot 4GB DDR3 - $18.99
Asus Blu-ray Drive - $53.99
- Discount Code PREFERRED3 for 3% off order total

Tax: None
Shipping: Free
Total: $354.96

If we wanted to go full-on penny pinch mode, we could save ~$5 on the blu-ray drive, and significant amounts on the motherboard and HDD. For comparison, here is how the Celeron stacks-up against the Atom 525. Something to note as far as OS costs go, there was at one time a loophole where MS would allow you to install upgrade versions of OSes as a full version and it was completely legitimate (was a bit of a backdoor in case the upgrade borked your system and you needed a fresh install). Not sure if they still allow this, but if they do, you could potentially get Windows 7 Home Premium for ~$50.

Edit: Forgot to mention the goal of the build I put together was at minimum to match every feature of the Asus linked earlier and in pretty much every case exceed it. Hence the extra spend on Motherboard with Wifi built-in and Blu-ray drive.

The loophole still works. I've used it a handful of times. I get Win7 Ultimate upgrade disc's for $10 on campus and use them to do fresh install with a registry edit.

 

[Lordhumungus]

I've personally never been a proponent of completely fanless systems because they usually perform worse over time due to dust build up and thermal paste/grease breakdown. Plus, I'm of the opinion that a properly built PC can be nearly silent with plenty of active cooling. I would have to guess that I breathe louder than my HTPC. It's definitely a nice change of pace compared to some of the other systems I've owned though. About 5 years ago I had a PC with 2x Panaflo Ultra High-Speed fans that sounded like something between a hovercraft and low orbit spacecraft. I think they were something like 55+ dBA, each putting out ~120CFM of air.

 

[Lordhumungus]

The registry edits are the flags to tell it another OS was already there so it will register correctly as a full version right?

 

[Grador]

Yeah, you can built a very quiet computer, and I normally wouldn't go for fanless either but this thing all told takes about 30 watts max going fullbore. None to worried about heat related issues and I tend to blow out all my computers monthly. The fanless system has less dust issues than any of the other systems I look after.

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

I use Intel Motherboard & Intel CPU for better timbre matching.

The one thing I've learned about HTPC is having enough PSU power if you are planing on expanding the HDD & adding high power graphics cards.

 

[BoredSysAdmin]

Lordhumungus, I can your point. Yes you could make better performing pc with celeron/pentium over atom easily. You can maybe make it near silent. What you can't do is to make it fit a tiny box...
Btw: Speaking of "50 foot pole" - I wont touch is Apex Cases and their power supplies for any of my builds. Nice case/psu like TLS bought cost a pretty penny out of htpc budget....

Going back to original point of this post - Reliable Htpc - it's reliable because of high quality component which are typically priced at a premium

In my PERSONAL opinion, HTPC is not about being the ultimate most awesome media computer - all I want it to do is to have nice 10ft interface, playback of 1080p video and support hd audio bitstream. Playback of ISO containers is big plus.
That's it. No need to tons of storage. No need for TV tuners. No need to play games. Just a media client. Atom/Nvidia combo does the job nicely. I had Atom 330/ion1 system and other than hdmi (and other hardware) issues - most related to poor mobo from Zotac - then it was working - it was working plenty of fast for me with software boxee.

 

[Grador]

It really is amazing how much quicker the LOWEST end systems are today than they were 3 years ago. When I purchased my ION system there was very little contest on price, regardless of size and reliability. A celeron wouldn't play back 1080 h.264 so you had to jump up to a core 2 or pay premium for an i3 (brand new, no cheap motherboards). Your motherboard was pretty much guaranteed to not have HDMI so you're stuck buying a video card. Yes, there was no problem getting an inexpensive card with HDMI, but that's still adding another $50 minimum to the overall cost.

I haven't looked at component pricing in a while, I am honestly amazed at what you can put together for $300.

 

[hizzaah]

Why not a Raspberry Pi? No disc drive, but it's capable of bluray quality playback.. Have to boot from an SD, but you can also use an external HD after boot.