Q2900 HTPC Build Suggestions

[shawn22]

Hey there. I'm planning on building my first HTPC, primarily for running Plex through a Chromecast. My planned build is:

Mobo/CPU: ASRock Q2900-ITX (with embedded Intel J2900) http://www.asrock.com/mb/Intel/Q2900-ITX/
Ram: 2x Kingston KVR13S9S6/2 http://www.kingston.com/datasheets/kvr13s9s6_2.pdf
Case: Silverstone Milo ML05B http://www.silverstonetek.com/product.php?pid=411
PSU: PicoPSU-120 with 60W Adapter http://www.mini-box.com/picoPSU-120-power-kit
HDD: WD 2.5" 1TB Blue http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/ ... CatId=1277

It's been a number of years since I've built my own system and I feel a bit out of touch with what sort of hardware is out there. I really like that with this hardware I will be able to create a low power system and it could be nearly silent with the HDD being the only moving piece as there won't be any fans.

A few questions I have:
- Has anyone had any experience running a Q2900 with Plex? From the research I've done it seems like it should be sufficient, but I'd love to get some confirmation
- Is the PicoPSU-120 necessary? Can/should I opt for a smaller PicoPSU-80?
- I was thinking about potentially mounting the PicoPSU's AC/DC adapter inside the case, in the gap left behind by the lack of SFX power supply, anyone have any experience doing this?

I more than welcome any other feedback or suggestions.

Thank you!

[Stevo_]

You should be fine on power and can go pretty low 80W DC-DC plus 60W AC-DC brick should do fine. I have a q2900 build ( viewtopic.php?f=14&t=68022 ) uses a 150W HD-Plex PSU with a 30W brick and never had an issue. 150W is way overkill but it was laying around. Running Linux Mint and playing an HD video thru VLC system hits about 10-12W subtracting out the brick. No experience with Plex but any apps I've tried so far seems to run plenty fast, the only thing I've noticed is that a video will occasionally hang momentarily when played off same SSD as OS(but not audio) but no issue when run from another drive or even from the micro SD drive.

You can get these PSU cover plates and mount the brick internally to that I would think
http://www.ecosmartpc.com/accessories.html

[shawn22]

It's good to hear that the Q2900 is getting the job done! Thanks

That's a strange problem with the drive, I'm only planning on putting in 1 drive and it will be a 5400RPM HDD. Hopefully I don't have any issues with this, I'll keep my eyes open

[Stevo_]

It could have been a VLC or system library module, I get Mint updates near daily and there has been a VLC update or two since then. Tonight I re-tried the video that I remembered seeing it happen on, but there was nothing like that happened this time, it was very repeatable in a couple of places previously.