HTPC - build or buy Atom/Ion

[edgars70]

Hi,

I have some spare bits lying around and was considering building a htpc for watching movies, playing music and browsing the web on my tv. I have a cpu, mboard and ram and so need a low profile cooler, new hd, a psu and a htpc case. Having looked at the cost of htpc cases I having the following question.

Is it worth building your own htpc or should I buy a atom/ion machine (e.g Acer Revo)?

Thanks

[Anteries]

Oh hi, good luck I've been thinking the same thing and here is some info you may find useful. Firstly there is now an atom330 motherboard combo which is dual core. Also Intel are bringing out a beefed up version with better graphics at some point. I think they generally run about 22 Watts. A low-power AMD system probably around 50 Watts but the setup is a real powerhouse. I think you should probably build both. You could use the atom for your bedside clock home entertainment system.

[Will404]

bedside clock home entertainment system.

I need one of thouse

@Anteries, what are you going to be playing with it - are you playing 1080p content, in which case the atom CPU may struggle to keep decent frame rates and ion or AMD would be a better bet.

But if you are only playing DVD's and similar then I expect the atom would be fine.

[edgars70]

Oh hi, good luck I've been thinking the same thing and here is some info you may find useful. Firstly there is now an atom330 motherboard combo which is dual core. Also Intel are bringing out a beefed up version with better graphics at some point. I think they generally run about 22 Watts. A low-power AMD system probably around 50 Watts but the setup is a real powerhouse. I think you should probably build both. You could use the atom for your bedside clock home entertainment system.

I didn't even know people were building their own bedside clock home entertainment systems. If I had one, then getting out of bed would be even harder still!

I'm not too concerned about power usage. I wanted to use my old bits, but I was concerned about paying 100+ quid for a htpc case plus the other bits (hdd, psu, etc) when I could buy an Acer Aspire revo for 250-ish. Just wondered what people's thoughts were.