HTPC build

[PeteSmith]

I'm building a new HTPC for the living room. My budget is £300 but i already have a mATX case and Corsair CX430 PSU. It's going to be running OpenElec, (i may also decide to dual boot Windows, haven't decided yet)

Here is my shopping basket (£308.74):



Questions:
- Any suggestions/comments on the build?
- I need a good remote which works with Openelec/Linux, can anyone recommend one?
- Does anyone have any experience using that tuner with Openelec/Linux? Does it work, if not can you recommend a good DVB-T2 (Digital HD) tuner?

I appreciate any help/suggestions.

Thanks.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Have you consider an AMD A8 7600 and a A88X motherboard:

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/amd-a...mhz-65w-retail
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/asus-...-dvi-hdmi-matx

The AMD IGP is pretty strong for media stuff AFAIK.

Plus since the CPU and motherboard are cheaper,you can go for more RAM:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/HyperX-Serie...words=8GB+DDR3

[MrJim]

I wouldn't go for the Samsung 840 EVO SSD - there's a serious performance bug in the firmware when slows read speeds right down in certain files. No doubt Samsung will patch the firmware eventually though:

http://www.extremetech.com/computing...fix-on-the-way

My preference would be for the Crucial MX100, which is about the same price & performs roughly on a par with the Samsung.

[PeteSmith]

Thanks for the comments.

SSD, i guess real world performance would be similar for both drives, on paper however the benchmarks show the EVO as the clear winner (write speeds). Wasn't aware of the performance bug, so thanks for that.

I will give the AMD chip some further thought, i know they generally perform well in media PC setups. Still not convinced though. Don't so much care about the additional power, but the additional heat and subsequent cooling / noise is a key consideration. I didn't stipulate this in my original post but i do want this PC to be quiet (not silent, but close), as it's sat in my front room.

As for the questions, i went out and got the nanostick tuner at the weekend. It works under Linux (HTS TV-Headend) fine for DVB but as yet haven't been able to lock on to any DVB-T2 (HD) channels, which is why got the thing in the first place. I know it's possible, but obviously needs some more tweaking under the hood.

Still looking for remote suggestions, if anyone has any.

[PeteSmith]

FYI - the PCTV 292E is actually the newer Triple-stick tuner, Linux drivers are available but not yet embedded into Openelec. While the tuner is recognised in TVHeadend it won't pick up the DVB-T2 muxes.

The older PCTV 290E 'Nano-stick' does have full support for DVB-T2 in Openelec and picks up both the HD and SD free to air channels under TVHeadend straight out of the box. This is the preferred Freeview HD tuner for Openelec / Linux.

Finding the older model Nano-stick is tricky, but they are still available.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

The A8 7600 in 45W TDP mode only consumes about 10W more than a Core i3 in CPU benchmarks,and about 15W to 20W more in 3D benchmarks,but in the latter the IGP is significantly faster anyway,meaning it has better performance/watt.