Building my 3rd HTPC – Looking for advice

This topic has 17 replies, 3 voices, and was last updated 13 years, 4 months ago by JonDeutsch.

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August 17, 2011 at 3:07 am #31016
RehabMan
Just to chime in here as well… No glitches or choppiness here either with the i3-2100T/DH67BLB3. Also running 1080p.

In addition I have two other HTPCs using G620T (Sandy Bridge Pentium — an arguably less powerful chip than the i3-2100T) and no problems there either. I don’t use those machines as often, but when I do I have no problems…
August 17, 2011 at 9:19 am #31024
gregzeng
Sorry … just noticed that I revived an old post. Technology & prices have changed rapidly. Google searchers like myself might benefit by my experiences.

[quote=JonDeutsch]

OK, based on this conversation, I’ve updated my shopping list:
My hesitations include:
- Going i3 vs. i5, but the lower wattage allows for items like the NT01-E to work (it requires 65W or less CPU).
- Having only 64GB as a boot drive (presuming SATA III would be better than SATA II for SSD?)
- 5200 RPM Green drive. But at 6gb/sec throughput, does that at all mitigate “INTELLIPOWER”?
- Fanless PSU – would that create airflow issues with the Silverstone case?
Any thoughts/opinions appreciated. Thx.

[/quote]

[quote=JonDeutsch]

OK, based on this conversation, I’ve updated my shopping list:
My hesitations include:
- Going i3 vs. i5, but the lower wattage allows for items like the NT01-E to work (it requires 65W or less CPU).
- Having only 64GB as a boot drive (presuming SATA III would be better than SATA II for SSD?)
- 5200 RPM Green drive. But at 6gb/sec throughput, does that at all mitigate “INTELLIPOWER”?
- Fanless PSU – would that create airflow issues with the Silverstone case?
Any thoughts/opinions appreciated. Thx.

[/quote]

An alternative that might be better than the comments so far?

Just bought myself for $1k (AUD): a new HP Pavilion DV7 Entertainment notebook: Bluray R-W, 8GB memory, 2×750 GB HDD, USB3 x2, VGA, HDMI, USB2, WLAN-n, Bluetooth, multi flash card slot, …. .

ONLY PROBLEM for a HTPC: power supply is upto 120 watts, due to Intel I7 quad core CPU (8 threads, etc). Bought a third party infra-red USB remote control, but yet to try the HP TV remote control on their USB-linked TV receiver.

Unnecessary to your HTPC requirements? – 17 inch LED-LCD screen, inbuilt uninterruptable power supply (UPS), keyboard, touchpad, and far too powerful CPU. You can add-on unlimited HDD space by USB3-HDDs. Swap one of the internal 750 HDDs for a SDD (void the HP warranty), and you have an equivalent setup to what you now?

My old notebooks & netbooks: can run USB external Bluray drives, HDDs, RAID-0 SDDs OR HDDs, remote controls, 5:1 audio transcoders, etc. They might have underpowered GPU, CPU (one is a I3M, with HDMI) – but are very low cost to own, buy & run.

Yet to try the Linux versions of HTPC; may be suitable for low-powered netbooks or notebooks.
August 22, 2011 at 2:01 pm #31038
JonDeutsch
Hi Greg,

Thanks for the idea. Actually, it’s quite interesting to think of a laptop as an HTPC. After all, it is small. My concern with a laptop would be the fan noise. Esp under load, there’s not a whole lot you can do if the fan gets loud (like fans on my current laptops tend to get).

Also, it would mean external tuner cards (which isn’t the end of the world), but still…
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