Small quiet HTPC for Music and Movies
Posted: Wed Oct 10, 2012 8:41 am
UGH! How did I know that reading this forum would make me want to build other projects as well!
As some of you may have seen I am going to be building my new main machine using parts outlined here: viewtopic.php?f=23&t=65144 (I hope to build it this weekend). This will serve as my main media machine from now on and will be located in my basement/man cave/home theatre setup (you know how it is )
HOWEVER, this has got me thinking about updating this years-old mini ITX build that I have upstairs. Currently its hooked up to a DIY USB touchscreen (screen is in the cabinet with the stereo equipment and the tower itself is sitting partially hidden on top of it because there is no more space in the cabinet and for heat concerns). BUT of course after reading all you guys with your fancy projects and seeing the word "quiet" repeated 100 times, the fan noise, of course, has started to get to me as it is clearly audible above ambient noise levels. It is also running an Athlon XP 2200+, Windows XP, 512MB RAM and no GPU doesn't really help me to address my real needs going forward which include:
Something to stream Netflix on an adjacent TV (for which I am currently using a web enabled blu-ray player which is terrible at this, both for the lousy interface as well as the inability to keep a connection), as well as stream music and videos that I will have on my main HTPC (via Wireless-N). It will never have to play music and movies at the same time, not that I imagine that would make a big difference.
This is what I had in mind for this little guy:
Mini-Box M350
90W PicoPSU
ASUS P8H77-I mITX (edit: would I be losing anything by going with a cheaper board like the ECS H61H2-I3)
Pentium G620 (As I understand it this has integrated graphics enabled: is this enough for the video streaming? I am not "one of those" who has everything in 1080p, but I hate stuttering video just as much as the next guy)
64GB SSD (Kingston SSDNow I have from a few years back, doesn't need to be big as nothing will be stored locally aside from W7)
4 GB RAM of some kind, likely 2x2GB and low profile
Stock cooler will do?
I am wondering if using an AMD APU setup (say the A4-3400) will be better for these purposes? From what I can see the motherboard is about the same price but the processor comes in a few bucks cheaper, so cost wise no real advantage to me...
Thanks for you input guys...step by step I hope to kill all my PC noise and boost my power efficiency--one computer at a time
As some of you may have seen I am going to be building my new main machine using parts outlined here: viewtopic.php?f=23&t=65144 (I hope to build it this weekend). This will serve as my main media machine from now on and will be located in my basement/man cave/home theatre setup (you know how it is )
HOWEVER, this has got me thinking about updating this years-old mini ITX build that I have upstairs. Currently its hooked up to a DIY USB touchscreen (screen is in the cabinet with the stereo equipment and the tower itself is sitting partially hidden on top of it because there is no more space in the cabinet and for heat concerns). BUT of course after reading all you guys with your fancy projects and seeing the word "quiet" repeated 100 times, the fan noise, of course, has started to get to me as it is clearly audible above ambient noise levels. It is also running an Athlon XP 2200+, Windows XP, 512MB RAM and no GPU doesn't really help me to address my real needs going forward which include:
Something to stream Netflix on an adjacent TV (for which I am currently using a web enabled blu-ray player which is terrible at this, both for the lousy interface as well as the inability to keep a connection), as well as stream music and videos that I will have on my main HTPC (via Wireless-N). It will never have to play music and movies at the same time, not that I imagine that would make a big difference.
This is what I had in mind for this little guy:
Mini-Box M350
90W PicoPSU
ASUS P8H77-I mITX (edit: would I be losing anything by going with a cheaper board like the ECS H61H2-I3)
Pentium G620 (As I understand it this has integrated graphics enabled: is this enough for the video streaming? I am not "one of those" who has everything in 1080p, but I hate stuttering video just as much as the next guy)
64GB SSD (Kingston SSDNow I have from a few years back, doesn't need to be big as nothing will be stored locally aside from W7)
4 GB RAM of some kind, likely 2x2GB and low profile
Stock cooler will do?
I am wondering if using an AMD APU setup (say the A4-3400) will be better for these purposes? From what I can see the motherboard is about the same price but the processor comes in a few bucks cheaper, so cost wise no real advantage to me...
Thanks for you input guys...step by step I hope to kill all my PC noise and boost my power efficiency--one computer at a time