Htpc

Hardware Build a PC
1

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So I'm going to be building a Home Theatre PC, and I'd like some feedback/ideas. 

Budget is <$500. I want to be able to use the PC for living room gaming as well (going to purchase an Xbox controller and play some games if I want).

Tentative Parts List:
http://pcpartpicker.com/p/d3rZHx
 
I already have the processor, motherboard, GPU, and power supply (basically just collecting dust so I figured I'd put them to use). I already have the 1TB external hard drive as well. This brings the total price down to $260 on Newegg. It would be nice to purchase a receiver unit or some nice speakers to round things out, or perhaps some blu-rays to get started, so maybe there's some way to lower the price.


Here are my main questions: Should I give up on using the X-Fire setup and get a mATX case instead? I hope to be able to do light gaming on the HTPC and also maybe stream from my gaming PC (connected via ethernet), do I need any special software for this or a gigabit switch (I don't know how this is done...Remote desktop?)? Has anyone built an HTPC and have any tips? Is Blu-Ray worth it or should I just get an additional 1TB HDD instead and download HD content online? 

Any ideas or comments are welcome! 

 

2

stream your games to the thing and it would nice and thier is min lat now days i use it wirelessly (n) on a i3 laptop while streaming form my 9590 and 290x

3

Min lat? Minimum latency? I don't like using WiFi if I can possibly avoid it. Maybe when 802.11ac is mainstream.

4

The A10 should still do pretty decently with that 1866 RAM.  Give it a try, perhaps?

Try Steam's in-home streaming stuff.

5

Except for the diablotek psu.

6

The biggest thing about the SilverStone Cases, is the Dvd drive door.  The door on my Gdo8 are plastic, and after having that case for a year the doors are not the same color as the metal face of the case.  Also when gaming on an HTPC, you need to be careful about graphic card height and power plug in.  Most of the cards will fit within a HTPC case until you plug power into them and if the power plugs into the top of the card then the top of the case may not fit.  Second of course is the heat,  its amazing how much Hotter a HTPC case will get over a normal PC case.  Cable management is priority and always sucks, but air flow in a HTPC case isn't optimized for gaming graphics cards.  Also the fans that come with most of the cases sound like jet planes taking off so you may want to keep in mind you will be replacing the fans for better air flow into the case and for better sound quality.  

Blue ray is the way to go, as far as optical drive, however you have to buy a stand alone blueray software.  Windows 7 does not support blueray, I don't know about windows 8 or windows 10.  

Also load the thing up with hard drives and look up some youtube videos about XBMC or KODI and getting videos from it.  

7

Run Ubuntu on that sucker with Kodi/XBMC for video streaming and steam for steam-in-home streaming

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Thanks so much for the feedback!


My only concern with running Linux is compatibility with Blu-Ray ripping/burning, and some games. I know I can get netflix/etc. to work, but what if I want to run windows remote deskop/etc.?

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You mean a VNC client? Teamviewer works well too. Bluray ripping and burning is just fine in Linux you just have to install the bluray lib. I believe it is called libblurray.

 As for games, Realize that by calling it an HTPC you are calling it a Home Theater Personal Computer. Which usually implies movies and TV shows not Games and Blurray ripping. If you are really concerned about BD support, slap that drive into your main rig and rip from there. After all, store your media on the main rig and run a Plex or XBMC/Kodi Media server on it. For gaming, install Steam on Linux and use Steam-in-home streaming.