QOTW: Do you have a PC in your living room?

[deejayburnout]

Have used a PC as the main TV source since Windows MCE came out.

Currently running an older i5 based Dell 980 SFF modified to take an SDD + large SATA drive, ASUS sound card and AMD 6450 video - use it to watch DVb-T live TV, store music/video/pictures/stream media from (plex)/NowTV/Spotify etc. and generally use it as a server/NAS. Small and quiet, hidden in a ventilated cupboard.

interested to see your mods on that Dell 980. got the same one and want to use it for media server and could do with a similar setup.

[kellyharding]

My gaming PC and server are in the living room, nowhere else to put them. I did have a HTPC, but replaced it with a Raspberry Pi running Kodi to cut down noise and power usage.

There is a Xbox 360 and Xbox One as well (and a PS3) though.

[BenAgain]

When I get a place of my own, I probably would want a computer for the TV. Not something too beefy, unless I'm rich. Something that can play videos and do Steam streaming.

[Normanyakuza]

i have an old PC in my living room :v

[ET3D]

All our house's working computers are in the living room. That's one HTPC plus two laptops. My desktop haven't been plugged in for a year, and most of my gaming is done on a tablet.

The HTPC spec is:
Enermax Laguna case
Phenom II X3 710
Passive Radeon 5550
4GB (single channel) RAM
60GB SSD
2TB HD
Windows 7
Hooked to a Hauppauge HD PVR to record things off the cable box.

It provides decent enough gaming performance for kid titles (LEGO titles at 720p, Scribblenauts, ...), but is mainly used for movies for the kids via Media Player.

[llololloy]

Had a HTPC in the living room for over 10 years now, was a big fan of MCE but switched to xbmc/kodi a couple of years ago.
Use it for watching everything media related. LiveTV and recordings, archived mkvs, netflix/prime/youtube/iplayer, BD/DVD discs and some gaming (its currently an intel g620 with 8gb ram, 96gb ssd and an r9 270 in an antec fusion black (the one with the crappy blue lcd))
It gets all the content from the server which has an i7 and 16gb to do the transcoding on plex and 9 dvblink tuners to any other devices at home or at friends.
I probably could swap for a streamer, but then I couldn't game, and I have started dabbling with game emulators like dolphin recently.
And I can browse forums on it, in fact I am typing using the mediapc now. I have a logitech dinovo mini and a harmony 650 to control it.

[AlSomething]

I have a HTPC which records all my T.V as I don't have Sky or alike. It also stores all my movies, box sets and music on it. I can then stream anything around the house to a PC. or Raspberry Pi, with the latter being a great low power, low cost computer ideal for the media play back in the bedrooms.

It runs Windows 7 media centre to record the T.V and set up folders for sharing and I used Kodi (Windows Version) to access the films on all devices. Media centre is very easy to use and is what my parents are used to. They can just about access the film via Kodi, but don't do this often.

I'm about to build another HTPC as I'm moving out, this will use Kodi (Linux) to record T.V and store film etc. As long as I can get Kodi to record T.V without throwing it out of the window like last time. (It was a long time ago)

With the amount of extra plugins Kodi has, such as switching between media centre, or using Netflix I can only see the HTPC getting stronger. This will only happen if Netflix or Amazon support it officially, making it a very strong player, but easy of set up needs to change for any consumer person. This is why media box sets are a cross between easy of use and a HTPC.
Plex could also be a option for me, if it starts to support recording of T.V, but as it stands, it doesn't.

Overall the HTPC is great for acting as NAS and play back device which can be low powered and saves the hassle of running a NAS, although the former does have it advantages. Every person will have a personnel preference though.

[gagaga]

Kodi setup - NUC PCs in kitchen, lounge, mancave, 2x bedrooms and a windows tablet for the Wife to use in the bath. Also have clients on each laptop. Use MySQL and Kodi profiles so each person has their own library and watched media tracking.

Works a treat.

[Jowsey]

Main computer in bedroom with all storage (soon to be switched to a microserver G8) running plex. Chromecast in the living room is hooked up to the TV, just some generic 1080p shop brand job. Also used for Crunchyroll from my phone. May look at getting the recently announced chromecast ethernet adapter but isn't a must have. Does everything I could ask it to

[daddacool]

I'm looking at building something around a SilverStone SST-FTZ01B in the next few months. Currently I have an i3 Gigabyte Brix hooked up to the telly, and use it for a variety of emulators and Steam Home Streaming.

[Chunkers]

I just replaced my HTPC (it an i5 based system) with a new one, its nice and quiet and fairly unobtrusive in its Silverstone case - I have a feeling it wil be my last though.

Since Microsoft MCE has become zombified I have migrated the family to a client / server set up using MediaPortal server and Kodi clients. This has lots of advantages and will ultimately mean that I can get the big ugly boxes out of the living room and spend less money trying to keep the server quiet as it sits in a back room.

I suspect the next iteration of our HTPC will be a very small client box like a chromebox or a NUC running Kodi.

The only thing which might change this is if I decide to have a SteamOS based box and use it for games, I guess a SteamOS based gaming PC which also runs a Kodi client is a possible outcome. Waiting to see if Steamboxes actually take-off first, though.

Cheers Big Ears

Chunks

[gordon861]

To: crossy

Jetway do a mini-itx board with 6x SATA ports - Jetway JNF99-525. I have used these boards to build a couple of servers and use BitTorrentSync to ensure each machine is backed up to the other one. All I did was put the mini-itx card into a small tower case with enough room for the drives and put one in the shed and the other in the loft.
I think I got mine from http://www.mini-itx.com/store/
They also do some nice cases which I wouldn't mind trying out http://www.mini-itx.com/store/~CFI-A6039

[mattc]

Yes.. a Zotac mini ITX box I bought a few years ago. Still going strong, running Windows 7 and using a WD External Drive with 1Tb of storage to play stuff in MediaPortal. If I did it again, I'd be tempted to look at the Orange Pi Plus if I could get Kodi running on it.

[Nikumba]

I did have a HTPC but was replaced by my Xbox 1

[ik9000]

in a word, no.

[shaithis]

HTPC/Gaming rig in the front room with wireless XBox receiver.....couldn't be without it.

Although I haven't tried Steam streaming yet, which may have persuaded me to have a little AM1/i3 setup instead (with HDDs housed elsewhere).