- Joined
- Dec 13, 2005
Alright so I am a bit irked right now because I spent probably over an hour now typing this out only to get logged off and now have to type it again, only now my buzz is wearing off and not about to spend another $10 on a bottle of hotel beer. Sorry had to get that out of my system it's been a long week lol.
So anyway, yes. Been poking around the Cyber Deals section most of the afternoon and have "The Itch". One of my Fire TVs has been acting up and I was never *fully* a fan of them anyways, most of the small streaming boxes have always felt too restricted. So I've been on the edge of piecing together a good and proper HTPC and jumping back to Team Red for another build.
Now, keep in mind this build is still competing with the typical Android STBs/Hulus/Apple TVs of the world. So top three priorities are 1) Price 2) Noise and 3) Size. I plan on running 4k Netflix at some point as well. If it's got enough kick it may even replace a Steam Link, clean up some space behind the TV.
For the OS I'm thinking Linux - probably something like Mint that launches Kodi on startup if possible. Mainly cause you can't get cheaper than free, but also it'll give a nice Home Theater UI while maintaining a full functional backend if desired down the line.
For H/W I thought long and hard about this, as in since the start of beer #2, so maybe an hour and a half ago. Feel free to call me a moron on any of this. Critiques are welcome.
1) CPU - AMD Ryzen 3 2200G - $100 - Is it worth the extra $50 to jump to a 2400G or 2600? Supposedly it received 4K Netflix and HDR drivers back around May, for Windows I'm guessing. Anyone have luck with *nix?
2) Motherboard - ASRock Fatal1ty AB350 Gaming-ITX/ac - $90 - It's tiny and has built in WiFi. Both are semi-needed
3) Storage - <strike>480GB ADATA Ultimate SU650 - On sale for $60, may switch if I order after the sale is over.</strike>. Slight change, may change toa 240gb Kingston SA1000. Same price on Amazon, but faster (NVMe) and saves drive bays if i do add more bulk storage later on.
4) RAM - Patriot PV48G300C6K - $70 - It's 8GB of 3000MHz ram for cheaper and on the QVL list. Don't plan on OCing it really so headroom doesn't matter as much.
5) Case & PSU - Fractal Design Node 202 Black with Integra SFX 450w PSU - $140
6) Cooling - ??? Didn't get far with this yet. I've got a 6:45am flight so tight on time and OK with temporarily running stock cooling.
Total - $460
Any input? I did play around with mATX ideas, especially as I already have a spare ATX PSU on the shelf (a little EVGA 450BT) but didn't find a case with a good price to size ratio - plus I saw the Node 202 and thought I just got to get me one. I also have a little R7 240 NIB from when I thought my 980 went 6 feet under if the newer Ryzen integrated GPU linux drivers aren't fully mature yet.
Update: ordered, went with the 2400G as it seems users have better luck under Linux with it over the 2200G. Also grabbed the Kingston drive and a Noctua NH-L9a AM4 too. Will post/review as parts come in
So anyway, yes. Been poking around the Cyber Deals section most of the afternoon and have "The Itch". One of my Fire TVs has been acting up and I was never *fully* a fan of them anyways, most of the small streaming boxes have always felt too restricted. So I've been on the edge of piecing together a good and proper HTPC and jumping back to Team Red for another build.
Now, keep in mind this build is still competing with the typical Android STBs/Hulus/Apple TVs of the world. So top three priorities are 1) Price 2) Noise and 3) Size. I plan on running 4k Netflix at some point as well. If it's got enough kick it may even replace a Steam Link, clean up some space behind the TV.
For the OS I'm thinking Linux - probably something like Mint that launches Kodi on startup if possible. Mainly cause you can't get cheaper than free, but also it'll give a nice Home Theater UI while maintaining a full functional backend if desired down the line.
For H/W I thought long and hard about this, as in since the start of beer #2, so maybe an hour and a half ago. Feel free to call me a moron on any of this. Critiques are welcome.
1) CPU - AMD Ryzen 3 2200G - $100 - Is it worth the extra $50 to jump to a 2400G or 2600? Supposedly it received 4K Netflix and HDR drivers back around May, for Windows I'm guessing. Anyone have luck with *nix?
2) Motherboard - ASRock Fatal1ty AB350 Gaming-ITX/ac - $90 - It's tiny and has built in WiFi. Both are semi-needed
3) Storage - <strike>480GB ADATA Ultimate SU650 - On sale for $60, may switch if I order after the sale is over.</strike>. Slight change, may change toa 240gb Kingston SA1000. Same price on Amazon, but faster (NVMe) and saves drive bays if i do add more bulk storage later on.
4) RAM - Patriot PV48G300C6K - $70 - It's 8GB of 3000MHz ram for cheaper and on the QVL list. Don't plan on OCing it really so headroom doesn't matter as much.
5) Case & PSU - Fractal Design Node 202 Black with Integra SFX 450w PSU - $140
6) Cooling - ??? Didn't get far with this yet. I've got a 6:45am flight so tight on time and OK with temporarily running stock cooling.
Total - $460
Any input? I did play around with mATX ideas, especially as I already have a spare ATX PSU on the shelf (a little EVGA 450BT) but didn't find a case with a good price to size ratio - plus I saw the Node 202 and thought I just got to get me one. I also have a little R7 240 NIB from when I thought my 980 went 6 feet under if the newer Ryzen integrated GPU linux drivers aren't fully mature yet.
Update: ordered, went with the 2400G as it seems users have better luck under Linux with it over the 2200G. Also grabbed the Kingston drive and a Noctua NH-L9a AM4 too. Will post/review as parts come in
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