SPCR

Hello all,

I already have the case, Antec Fusion Black (since a few months ago) and a 1tb 3.5'' hard disk.
My ideia is to put it in the living room next to the stereo, running Linux/XBMC to play some HD files/uTorrent and that's it.

I was thinking in a fanless board with cpu/gpu integrated but honestly since I'm a bit out of the hardware loop at the moment I really don't know if this would be the best option. I know that is difficult to have everything but I was thinking in having something quiet / low power consuption / and cheap.

Any help with be greatly appreciated, I'm really open to suggestions.
Thanks all.

I've read somewhere not a long time ago here at SPCR that a fanless solution consisting of a low-powered AMD APU isn't ideal for even small amounts of multitasking, i.e. running high-def videos while doing something in the background. So if I were you I would at least choose an Intel Sandy Bridge Celeron CPU. You could cool it quietly by using the tiny Scythe Kozuti CPU cooler.

I think he meant fanless mobo...not fanless system...

Any of the low end Intel or AMD chips can do this task...it's just some tradeoffs. Do you:
- transcode video? AMD A8 >i3 > Pentium >AMD A6
- use MadVR? AMD or i3-3225.
- consider yourself a videophile for picture quality? AMD > i3 >Pentium
- care about power consumption / heat / noise? Pentium and i3 > A6 > A8 for low intensity tasks and much lowr power for high cpu utilization tasks.

I lean toward an i3-3225 and an H77 mobo.

CA_Steve wrote:- use MadVR? AMD or i3-3225.
- consider yourself a videophile for picture quality? AMD > i3 >Pentium

I know the advice is targeted to budget htpc, but just wondering whats you opinion on Nvidia GPU + Media Player Classic - Home Cinema + MadVR, LAV Splitters, LAV Audio decoder & LAV CUVID decoder.

Abula wrote:I know the advice is targeted to budget htpc, but just wondering whats you opinion on Nvidia GPU + Media Player Classic - Home Cinema + MadVR, LAV Splitters, LAV Audio decoder & LAV CUVID decoder.

I don't know enough to provide an opinion. My original reply is just what's soaked in from reading reviews. Maybe a true HTPC gearhead can chime in.

kuzzia wrote:You could cool it quietly by using the tiny Scythe Kozuti CPU cooler.

Isn't the Kozuti discontinued?

Thanks for the help
I still have lots to read

Cheers