HTPC - mod existing or build from scratch

scanlant

Hi all, I have a lounge area (read: mancave) and I want to put a HTPC within the setup. The options I have are either to mod an existing computer or build from scratch, although I've never built my own computer before. I'm just looking at pricing at the moment and I'm not in a major rush to get sorted.

Option 1: Second hand Dell Optiplex 780 (core 2 duo E8400 3GHz/4GB RAM/250GB HDD/Win7Pro) with aftermarket video card like the Asus GeForce 210, costing about €210 in total.

Option 2: Custom built HTPC with €300 budget

1. What is your budget? €300.

2. What will be the main purpose of the computer? HTPC, no gaming.

3. Do you need a copy of Windows? Yes.

4. Can you use any parts from an old computer? No.

5. Do you need a monitor? No, using the TV.

6. Do you need any of these peripherals? Wireless keyboard and mouse.

7. Are you willing to try overclocking? No.

8. How can you pay? Paypal or credit card.

9. When are you purchasing? It's not an urgent build, hopefully February.

10. If you need help building it, where are you based? Hopefully shouldn't need it, but Wicklow.

Any suggestions appreciated. Thanks.

Lu Tze

scanlant wrote: »

Hi all, I have a lounge area (read: mancave) and I want to put a HTPC within the setup. The options I have are either to mod an existing computer or build from scratch, although I've never built my own computer before. I'm just looking at pricing at the moment and I'm not in a major rush to get sorted.

Option 1: Second hand Dell Optiplex 780 (core 2 duo E8400 3GHz/4GB RAM/250GB HDD/Win7Pro) with aftermarket video card like the Asus GeForce 210, costing about €210 in total.

Option 2: Custom built HTPC with €300 budget

1. What is your budget? €300.

2. What will be the main purpose of the computer? HTPC, no gaming.

3. Do you need a copy of Windows? Yes.

4. Can you use any parts from an old computer? No.

5. Do you need a monitor? No, using the TV.

6. Do you need any of these peripherals? Wireless keyboard and mouse.

7. Are you willing to try overclocking? No.

8. How can you pay? Paypal or credit card.

9. When are you purchasing? It's not an urgent build, hopefully February.

10. If you need help building it, where are you based? Hopefully shouldn't need it, but Wicklow.

Any suggestions appreciated. Thanks.

Do you have the dell already?

TerrorFirmer

Option 1 is fine, but you should be able to get a machine of that spec on Adverts or Ebay for about €70 however.

Option 2 is also completely viable, a small mitx case, mitx mobo/cpu, 4gb ram, and SSD. You should also consider an NUC? Ideal for HTPC really.

scanlant

No, Lu Tze, I don't.
I'm just looking at the moment.

Lu Tze

scanlant wrote: »

No, Lu Tze, I don't.
I'm just looking at the moment.

Yeah, as terror said you should be able to pick one up cheaper. I recently sold a small form factor pc, for just over 300. It was much higher spec (i5 quad, 16gb ram, WiFi card in a very small case) than the dell for not much more! So definitely shop around if you are picking something up second hand.

scanlant

Thanks for the advice TerrorFirmer, much appreciated. I'll keep an eye out on adverts (I see you have an i5 build that might suit) and eBay.

I saw that advert at the time Lu Tze, I should have snapped that out of your hands.

TerrorFirmer

Nah, that i5 machine is fine spec wise but way too big and bulky for a HTPC!

I'd say a NUC is ideal, or else something like this.

scanlant

That looked a bit bulky alright, my own fault for looking at it on a smartphone.

That computer is an ultra small model though, I don't know if that can accept aftermarket GPUs with HDMI out.

TerrorFirmer

Sorry, that Dell has DisplayPort, not HDMI actually. And USFF won't take cards, but most SFF will. Again though, I need a NUC is the logical choice - tiny, takes up no space, will have HDMI out.

scanlant

I looked at the NUC range last year, I'll take another look at it. Thanks.

Johnboy1951

What is a HTPC these days? ..... or rather what does each of us expect it to do?
That has a huge bearing on what the hardware requirement is.

For instance I would want my HTPC to have multiple tuners for LiveTV reception from Satellite and Saorview.

Others will want it to be capable of torrenting and maybe transcoding.

Does it require storage and how much? If not will the media be stored on a NAS/Server on the LAN?

Will it require a BluRay optical player?

Do you actually need Windows or would an alternative (maybe more suitable) operating system be acceptable?

Will it be placed at the TV? If so then it needs to be ultra quiet ..... not easily achieved except with specialised hardware

IMO, "HTPC" does not provide sufficient information about the expected use of the PC to enable anyone to specify it.

Serephucus

I tend to go beefy server + crappy client here.

You spend your money one one good server with a bunch of SATA ports, lots of CPU horsepower, and a good chunk of RAM. After that you can add as many clients are you want for chips (Pi 2s make pretty good XBMC/Plex clients, from what I've read).

Johnboy1951

Serephucus wrote: »

I tend to go beefy server + crappy client here.

You spend your money one one good server with a bunch of SATA ports, lots of CPU horsepower, and a good chunk of RAM. After that you can add as many clients are you want for chips (Pi 2s make pretty good XBMC/Plex clients, from what I've read).

An old P4 dual core does fine for my backend with 4 tuners for LiveTV and storage for recordings and other media files.

No problem providing LiveTV or other media to multiple client devices ...... for which I use
R-Pi
R-Pi 2
NUC
Laptops
Desktop PC
Tablet
and some visitors their phones.

slave1

All depends, I had to move to a i5 CPU as my quad just wasn't cutting 4k output, also need lots of PCI space for tuner cards etc