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HTPC on a budget

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Zephos

Zephos

Member
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Joined
Feb 2, 2013
Hey, looking to make a $300ish HTPC. Think I've got it narrowed down but figured a few extra opinions couldn't hurt considering I've never done an HTPC. I'm salvaging an HDD and PSU, but the more money can be shaved off the better.

Silverstone ML03B HTPC m-ATX Case...$59.99

Gigabyte GA-H81M-HD3 LGA 1150 m-ATX Motherboard...$60.99

Intel i3-4130 LGA1150 CPU...$119.99

Team Elite DDR3 1333 4GB ...$37.99

Asus DVD-RW 24X 5.25"...$19.99

EDImax USB Wifi Adapter...$9.99

Total + S&H ...$328.49


It's mostly just going to stream, a little bit of DVD play. Also, the case has USB 3.0 on the front panel, but the mobo doesn't have those ports. What can be done?

Also, I'm thinking Linux. What's the most user-friendly distro so my parents can use it, prefferably one that works nicely with xbmc and has no problems with Netflix, HBO GO, etc.

Thanks in advance :D
 
Can't believe I forgot AMD has integrated graphics XD considering I have a phenom.

A4-5300...$59.99

MSI FM2-A75MA-E35 FM2...$59.79

Think that'd get the job done? Also solves the usb header issue
 
With any CPU that has a IGD, search specifically for reviews dealing with HTPC setups. Some IGD are better then other when its comes to different HD streams. Also, if you plan on streaming high bitrate HD streams (normally anything dealing with a 1080p video), it would be best to go wired instead of WiFi. 720p should be ok over WiFi, but 1080p even with a good signal in my home (just a couple of feet away) starts to stutter because the WiFi just can't keep up (it is a Blu-ray stream, so 30-40Mbps).
 
Well my bandwidth often can't handle 1080p anyway, but it's just not practical to go wired. Trust me I'd love to, but it just isn't gonna happen.

I think I've got the hardware narrowed down to the first post, but switching to AMD. After a bit of research and reading through forum posts, it looks like the A6-5400k will do just fine. It's not gonna be doing anything crazy.

Now, I'd just like to know which OS I should run. We have an OEM copy of XP Media Center lying around somewhere, or win7 is an (expensive) option. I'd prefer an easy-to-use distro of Linux, because no one here has really used it. I've read that xbmcubuntu(Lubuntu then install xbmc frodo Gotham) or openelec would be best, but what do you guys think?
 
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If it were me, I'd get a mini-ITX A88X chipset board and toss a A10-7850K in it. The boards are fairly inexpensive and also many of them come with built in Wi-Fi too. Would also allow using a smaller case.
 
The size isn't much of an issue, the Silverstone is pretty much the right form factor. If the ITX is cheaper/smoother, then I would, but otherwise this is probably enough
 
As far as the front USB ports, you can use a USB 3.0 --> USB 2.0 adapter to get them to work. I don't think one came with my ML04, only with my LC10-E.

With your comment about Linux, Netflix/Amazon Prime etc are not officially supported. There are work arounds though, and it's not too bad.

With XBMC, the official supported distro is Ubuntu (and it's variants), but Debian recently put XBMC in it's repository. Arch, Gentoo, Mandriva (including Mageia), and Foresight have repos now. 3rd party repos include OpenSUSE and and CentOS. XBMCbuntu (which is what I use) is a prepackaged distro that contains XBMC on top of a minimal Ubuntu distro.
 
for the distro, have a look at zorin, has a changer to make it look more win7y, makes people more comfy with the change and is ubuntu based, remove chrome and install firefox and they will settle into it a little quicker.

with older folks set the update manager to never update and they will be happy clams.
 
Zorin looks really interesting. Is it a distro itself, or do I apply it to a pre-installation of say ubuntu?
 
zorin is a complete distro, and it is a super heavyweight ment as a windblows replacment.
 
Hmm well how do I get Netflix and that stuff to stream? I have near to zero linux experience
 
I was gonna get an A6-5400k, solid apu plus that board
 
Oh, just a tip, anything I get at this point would be FM2+. Just in case you decide to upgrade the APU later.

6400K is about 10% faster in everything just because it is Richland instead of Trinity. Better GPU portion as well. Just my $0.02.
 
Hmm so something like a Gigabyte GA-F2A75M-HD2? Isnt that an older chipset though? (Cant remember amd chipsets)
 
Zephos said:
Hmm so something like a Gigabyte GA-F2A75M-HD2? Isnt that an older chipset though? (Cant remember amd chipsets)
Click to expand...

Only one new chipset for FM2+ and that's the A88 stuff. The mid- and low-range equipment is still A55 and A75 IIRC.

That looks like a good board to me, go for it!
 
I'm not sure it's really worth it. This is basically replacing the 2004 Dell in the basement, so I don't expect any upgrades for the next...uh decade.
 
Zephos said:
I'm not sure it's really worth it. This is basically replacing the 2004 Dell in the basement, so I don't expect any upgrades for the next...uh decade.
Click to expand...

Oh geez, that's gotta be a P3 that its replacing :rolleyes:
 
Zephos said:
Hmm well how do I get Netflix and that stuff to stream? I have near to zero linux experience
Click to expand...

The newest thing right now is Pipelight which allows Silverlight (Microsoft's API similar to flash that's used for Netflix) to run in Wine so you can view Netflix. You can use this for Amazon video too.
 
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