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Thread: Low cost HTPC build

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    Low cost HTPC build

    I'm looking for ideas for mobo and CPU for a low cost, and I stress, low-cost, HTPC.

    I'm looking for minimalist right now, but to expand later.

    It MUST be micro-ATX or mini-ITX based, as case is sorted. Beyond that, the criteria are :-

    - does the job
    - keep cost down.

    Looking for ideas for mobo, cgu, gpu. I have an SSD and can scare up a basic HD, for now. But having zero experience of HTPC projects, am looking for nudges in tbe right direction.

    Oh yeah, did I say .... low cost.

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    Re: Low cost HTPC build

    I think we need to ask you what it will need to be able to run to get an idea of what performance you need.

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    Re: Low cost HTPC build

    Lowest cost would be a socket AM1 machine, but performance isn't going to be that hot.

    I would probably go for a socket FM2+ motherboard. Plenty of uATX FM2+ boards around, and the dual core FM2 chips start around the £20 mark but leave you with an upward path to something rather powerful if you ever need to upgrade.

    £22.08 APU http://www.scan.co.uk/products/amd-a...mhz-65w-retail
    £35.50 mobo http://www.scan.co.uk/products/asroc...d-dl-hdmi-micr

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    Re: Low cost HTPC build

    Do you need a HTPC or do you just want a media player?

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    Re: Low cost HTPC build

    Hiya Saracen

    Put something like an HTPC together for mum a while ago.
    So, I find I can game on something like a 3-4 year old AMD APU.

    Are you totally sure you want the GPU included in the case? If so could you let us know your gaming requirements?
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    Re: Low cost HTPC build

    Functions will be basic home file server, music server, video server, etc. Maximum one or at most, occassionally, two users.

    Also, TV tuner card for terrestrial TV, possibly freesat too. No need for internet streaming, or for that matter, much need for a net connection at all.

    No gaming requirements. I don't do much gaming these days, largely due to modern DRM (like Steam, to which I object on principle). So, what gaming I do do is on another machine that won't have any way to link to this machine.

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    Re: Low cost HTPC build

    Am1 seems the way to go. I use mine for the same tasks and haven't felt the need for anything more powerful. Cheap, cheerful and efficient.
    Main PC: Asus Rampage IV Extreme / 3960X@4.5GHz / Antec H1200 Pro / 32GB DDR3-1866 Quad Channel / Sapphire Fury X / Areca 1680 / 850W EVGA SuperNOVA Gold 2 / Corsair 600T / 2x Dell 3007 / 4 x 250GB SSD + 2 x 80GB SSD / 4 x 1TB HDD (RAID 10) / Windows 10 Pro, Yosemite & Ubuntu
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    Re: Low cost HTPC build

    Quote Originally Posted by shaithis View Post
    Am1 seems the way to go. I use mine for the same tasks and haven't felt the need for anything more powerful. Cheap, cheerful and efficient.
    AM1 does sound powerful enough, though for my server I couldn't live with the lack of SATA ports. Getting one of the rare boards with more than 2 ports or a PCIe to sata card pushed it up into FM2+ pricing, so that is what I got.

    But then I wanted to start with 2 drives in a raid 1 set, leaving no ports for a DVD drive. If that isn't important to you then the little AM1 boards look great.

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    Re: Low cost HTPC build

    Have you considered second hand stuff? I have 3 or 4 old low power AM3/775 based CPUs that I could basically give away. I probably have a few sticks of RAM too but no motherboards.

    Off the top of my head I think I have:
    (775) E1200
    (AM3) Athlon II X250
    (AM3) Athlon II 250U

    I have been running Mini PCs with low end AMD E-Series or Intel Atom as front end media centres for years. They all got their media from a back end HP Microserver based NAS so had little on-board storage. Recently, I set up a Raspberry Pi with a Kodi (new name for XBMC) based distro on my second TV. So far, it's the cheapest, quickest booting, smallest, best performing, most efficient, easy to set up way to stream media to a television (except perhaps a Chromecast if you already have a Plex server.... but thats not the kind of thing you would go for I suspect). Its so good I have ordered another one to replace the media PC in my lounge which should help me save a bit of space under my TV.

    I have also actually just set up a terrestrial TV back end using an old S775 motherboard and a Blackgold BGT3630 that I had kicking about. I started updating the thread again yesterday. This throws channels into the network and works pretty seamlessly with the new version of Kodi. Blessing for me as there was previously no easy way for me to get television signal in this room so I was limited to what I had on my NAS!

    If either you, or other household members, are opposed to having loads of remote controls or keyboards to drive all the different hardware and want to try and simplify things, another product I would recommend looking at is the FLIRC. It will work just fine with your existing TV remote, but along with a 'One for All' or 'Logitec Harmony', you can really simplify the day to day operation.... once you get over the initial set-up struggle of course!
    Last edited by Biscuit; 10-03-2015 at 03:52 PM.

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    Re: Low cost HTPC build

    Quote Originally Posted by DanceswithUnix View Post
    AM1 does sound powerful enough, though for my server I couldn't live with the lack of SATA ports. Getting one of the rare boards with more than 2 ports or a PCIe to sata card pushed it up into FM2+ pricing, so that is what I got.

    But then I wanted to start with 2 drives in a raid 1 set, leaving no ports for a DVD drive. If that isn't important to you then the little AM1 boards look great.
    Admittedly, SATA ports are scarce, you can add 2 VERY cheaply via a SATA card from China (eBay). I don't find DVD a problem these days, have one (in fact a HD-DVD/BD-RW/DVDRW combo drive) in the HTPC/gaming rig and I don't think I have ever used it......didn't even bother adding one to the AM1 system.

    Of course though, this is for Saracen, so the HTPC will probably be ring-fenced with armed guards and C2-level security in place, meaning he will probably need an optical drive
    Main PC: Asus Rampage IV Extreme / 3960X@4.5GHz / Antec H1200 Pro / 32GB DDR3-1866 Quad Channel / Sapphire Fury X / Areca 1680 / 850W EVGA SuperNOVA Gold 2 / Corsair 600T / 2x Dell 3007 / 4 x 250GB SSD + 2 x 80GB SSD / 4 x 1TB HDD (RAID 10) / Windows 10 Pro, Yosemite & Ubuntu
    HTPC: AsRock Z77 Pro 4 / 3770K@4.2GHz / 24GB / GTX 1080 / SST-LC20 / Antec TP-550 / Hisense 65k5510 4K TV / HTC Vive / 2 x 240GB SSD + 12TB HDD Space / Race Seat / Logitech G29 / Win 10 Pro
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    Re: Low cost HTPC build

    Quote Originally Posted by shaithis View Post
    Admittedly, SATA ports are scarce, you can add 2 VERY cheaply via a SATA card from China (eBay). I don't find DVD a problem these days, have one (in fact a HD-DVD/BD-RW/DVDRW combo drive) in the HTPC/gaming rig and I don't think I have ever used it......didn't even bother adding one to the AM1 system.

    Of course though, this is for Saracen, so the HTPC will probably be ring-fenced with armed guards and C2-level security in place, meaning he will probably need an optical drive
    I also ditched optical drives. For those rare times I need it, I just get my 'floating' USB one and blow the dust off it

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    Re: Low cost HTPC build

    Quote Originally Posted by shaithis View Post
    Admittedly, SATA ports are scarce, you can add 2 VERY cheaply via a SATA card from China (eBay). I don't find DVD a problem these days, have one (in fact a HD-DVD/BD-RW/DVDRW combo drive) in the HTPC/gaming rig and I don't think I have ever used it......didn't even bother adding one to the AM1 system.

    Of course though, this is for Saracen, so the HTPC will probably be ring-fenced with armed guards and C2-level security in place, meaning he will probably need an optical drive
    "Cheap SATA card" didn't sit well with the idea of it driving my server raid array Generally I was fairly horrified with the choice of SATA cards out there. Then looking at the FM2+ boards, I could have 4 RAM sockets rather than 2 as well as lots of sata ports. I went for:

    http://www.scan.co.uk/products/asus-...-dvi-hdmi-matx

    and am still delighted with the choice. It is up to three Minecraft servers now, so the VM running that requires quite a lot of RAM so the spare two RAM slots are filled giving the box 16GB.

    I'm sure Saracen would be fine with DVD, possibly not blueray though given the Java sandbox escapes that were talked about recently

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    Re: Low cost HTPC build

    I would much prefer a Bluray, but a recorder. Why? Because I'd use it for archiving, and for updating/renewing my existing DVD archive .... by which I mean, DVD-R with data, not pre-recorded discs. It's really an adjunct to the HTPC function, rather than directly part of it. That said, that could go on another machine, I guess.

    Armed guards might also be a tad OTT. Just a tad.

    A 775 board isn't that bad an idea, but the case is already settled an it's micro-ATX or Mini-ITX.

    I don't see any need for huge amounts of RAM, but would want to support at least 3 or 4 drives especially if I use SSD boot.

    Keep the ideas coming, though, guys. It's all helping me focus.

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    Re: Low cost HTPC build

    Quote Originally Posted by Saracen View Post
    A 775 board isn't that bad an idea, but the case is already settled an it's micro-ATX or Mini-ITX.
    My 775 motherboard is the Zotac 9300 ITX. I have just pin modded a £20 socket 771 Xeon E5440 (80w TDP Quadcore @ 2.86Ghz ) to work in it and so far, its working pretty well. Having some issues with Nvidia drivers, so I might have to dig out a windows 7 license instead of 8.1 which is what its currently on. Difficult to beat that kind of value!

    Tonnes and tonnes of old 775 boards (both ITX and mATX) available on ebay.

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    Re: Low cost HTPC build

    Saracen, you've got me intrigued, what HTPC case are you going to use? I have to know....

    Like others have mentioned, AM1 or even a Pentium/H61 combo with a HD5450? Or a similar Haswell brethren.

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    Re: Low cost HTPC build

    To be honest I just use a laptop as a HTPC, it's got HDMI out (would have preferred a better one!) and it's not been doing much else recently. Core architecture before sandy bridge, a sporty 4gb ram and enough versatility not to have to be under a TV forever.

    You may find one second hand cheap enough to be a viable alternative to a case based build - they are generally a teeny bit smaller

    just my 2c, will follow this carefully as could do the same and no TV license at the mo
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