HTPC build that works reliably

[DotJun]

I still prefer mediaportal on my Mac mini

 

[saywhat]

havent tried mediaportal but i do use plex on my mac mini with two drobos one original drobo and one drobo 5d via thunderbolt port. That serves plex to all the rokus in the house (3 total) and the one mac mini that serves and plays them in my room.

 

[BoredSysAdmin]

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.

Sorry for late response but I have few notes
a) I have Zero intentions to running Windows on my htpc. Been there, done it, never again.
HTPC for me should be light weight and highly dedicated media client, which enables me to display stored and/or streamed media
OpenElec with XBMC does all that and more

b) Open Elec runs fine on Atom D2700 2.1Ghz
c) I have very specific requires regarding video card - 1) it has to support hardware acceleration with 1080p 2) it must support passthru of HD Audio codecs.
Unfortunately Intel support for 1 is questionable and none-existing for 2
This means this setup needs additional video card

Now, Yes, you still could add a cheap recent video card into this build and with linux for os you might be able to get it for same money, but it will never be as dead silent as my asus

 

[michaeltrottar]

This is a excellent strong develop that I think attacks a awesome range between value as well as for HTPC use. For a little price benefits the SSD could of course be lopped off, but it's awesome to have.