sam9s HTPC Project! powered by XBMC!!

[sam9s]

I had guessed that already after reading the posts here and on other blogs...

My next step post 1st level evaluation:

1. Build Fusion based HTPC. Should I use MSI or Gigabyte mini-ATX board? MSI has coaxial out which is what I prefer.
2. Micro-ATX cabinet (will I get one that 80-120W power supply). Suggest brand.
3. One 80mm premium quality fan. Suggest brand.
4. One SSD (upto 60GB) for booting up. Suggest brand. This is a nice to have component. Will see how much the entire cost adds up.
5. 4GB RAM. Any particular specification and brand?
6. Multimedia Remote. Suggest brand.
7. Win7. Do we need win7 premium or above?

Thanks in advance.

Ok if you want my suggestion here it goes, and since you have not given any budget limitations I will take the leverage slightly ..

1. I will got for mini ITX board and not Mini ATX. Following is what I suggest.

ZOTAC H55ITX-A-E Mini ITX WiFi Intel Motherboard

Price :: 7000 Approx

2. Intel Core i3 530 CPU

Price :: 5000 Approx

3. Case Antec ISK 300-150 CPU Mini-ITX

Price :: 5000 Approx

4. No need for fan as the case has a high quality 80mm fan

5. SSD :: I would not suggest SSD, first there is actually no need, SSD shines when we have lots of applications installed on an OS and we need all these applications to load super fast. With HTPC all you boot is windows or infact if you want you can even omit windows and go for Live XBMC like OpenELEC. All these options would load almost under the same time as an SSD. Secondly SSD will be pretty expensive. 60GB 5K+, not worth for HTPC.

6. 1TB WD Cavier Green

Price :: 2500

7. RAM 2GB enough. DDR3 Corsair/G.Skill.

Price :: 1000

8. Windows 7 Home premium. or if you want you can opt for XBMC Live. OpenELEC is the best out there. But I would suggest go windows 7 way and load XBMC over it and then configure it accordingly.


The above hardware will do HD audio and play almost all formats. And because its ITX based PC the power consumption would not cross 150W

 

[Vishu_fbd]

Ok if you want my suggestion here it goes, and since you have not given any budget limitations I will take the leverage slightly ..

1. I will got for mini ITX board and not Mini ATX. Following is what I suggest.

ZOTAC H55ITX-A-E Mini ITX WiFi Intel Motherboard

Price :: 7000 Approx

2. Intel Core i3 530 CPU

Price :: 5000 Approx

3. Case Antec ISK 300-150 CPU Mini-ITX

Price :: 5000 Approx

4. No need for fan as the case has a high quality 80mm fan

5. SSD :: I would not suggest SSD, first there is actually no need, SSD shines when we have lots of applications installed on an OS and we need all these applications to load super fast. With HTPC all you boot is windows or infact if you want you can even omit windows and go for Live XBMC like OpenELEC. All these options would load almost under the same time as an SSD. Secondly SSD will be pretty expensive. 60GB 5K+, not worth for HTPC.

6. 1TB WD Cavier Green

Price :: 2500

7. RAM 2GB enough. DDR3 Corsair/G.Skill.

Price :: 1000

8. Windows 7 Home premium. or if you want you can opt for XBMC Live. OpenELEC is the best out there. But I would suggest go windows 7 way and load XBMC over it and then configure it accordingly.


The above hardware will do HD audio and play almost all formats. And because its ITX based PC the power consumption would not cross 150W

Can I not use AMD Fusion series? That gives me coaxial out and the power consumption is under 70W.

AMD spec is more than enough for HTPC, isnt it? I understand bigger is better but then the only work it would be doing is playback (day in and out). Not sure what would be needed to support 3D in future with AMD Fusion.

Also, Can I add wifi and do torrent download on that or even surf the web using htpc connected to my lcd?

Vishu

 

[sam9s]

^^ Frankly I am not a great fan of AMD Fusion, Anyway why do you want to go Coaxial way. HDMI is the way to go. Think in terms of future.
I checked the specifications for this board and I could not find for sure if this board does HD Audio Bit streaming via HDMI. Apart from that looks good, but as I said I have not seen many people opting for Fusion for HTPCs. Most of them like to keep things separate.

Coming to 3D, again not sure how Fusion would behave in that scenario, as I have not seen/read any reviews about the same. In anycase it would be advisable to add a separate GPU for 3D playback, which you might as well add to the zotac board.

Lastly the wifi question. With Wifi on board your PC would act exactly like a wifi laptop and you can do everything that a typical laptop does and yes that also means do torrent downloads and surf web using your big LCD....

 

[Vishu_fbd]

What I meant was the SPDIF out is coxial and there is a dedicated HDMI port to boot

Will the Zotac board accomodate amd fusion chip? Or gigabyte is also good enough for it. Any specific benefits of zotac?

Read this: AMD Fusion E-350 HTPC | BiggzDESIGN

Thanks for all your support Sam

 

[Vishu_fbd]

^^ Frankly I am not a great fan of AMD Fusion, Anyway why do you want to go Coaxial way. HDMI is the way to go. Think in terms of future.
I checked the specifications for this board and I could not find for sure if this board does HD Audio Bit streaming via HDMI. Apart from that looks good, but as I said I have not seen many people opting for Fusion for HTPCs. Most of them like to keep things separate.

Coming to 3D, again not sure how Fusion would behave in that scenario, as I have not seen/read any reviews about the same. In anycase it would be advisable to add a separate GPU for 3D playback, which you might as well add to the zotac board.

Lastly the wifi question. With Wifi on board your PC would act exactly like a wifi laptop and you can do everything that a typical laptop does and yes that also means do torrent downloads and surf web using your big LCD....

I am not sure why people want to buy separate components when the core purpose is solved by the fusion configuration. Even the i3-2100 config is not shown to have any advantages and also a shade power hungry.

Check this URL: Audio wise you are covered as well, all common formats are supported and even bitstreaming both TrueHD and DTS-HD MA are supported over HDMI.
MSI E350IA-E45 - AMD APU Fusion review

 

[sam9s]

I am not sure why people want to buy separate components when the core purpose is solved by the fusion configuration. Even the i3-2100 config is not shown to have any advantages and also a shade power hungry.

Check this URL: Audio wise you are covered as well, all common formats are supported and even bitstreaming both TrueHD and DTS-HD MA are supported over HDMI.
MSI E350IA-E45 - AMD APU Fusion review

Yes that is true, Fusion purpose IS to collate the entire config, and I do not have a definate ans to "why I havent seen people opting Fusion platform for HTPC" The MSI E350 article that you shared, does lists HD audio passthrough, but couldnt find the same on their Official Site neither on Gigabyte or ASUS boards ....So I would not bet my purchase on it. If you can find a working review by user in any of the A/V fourms (I will try the same) then its more a safe bet.

If you go ZOTAC board you cannot incorporate fusion chip, its embedded on to the board. You have to buy a separate CPU in that case.

In all permutations if you are so enticed by fusion concept, you might as well go for it. I admin I cannot (yet) find any obvious drawback......other than the fact that very less people opt for it, but if I do find any concrete article I will share, mean time you can start collecting your stuff .....

 

[Vishu_fbd]

Yes that is true, Fusion purpose IS to collate the entire config, and I do not have a definate ans to "why I havent seen people opting Fusion platform for HTPC" The MSI E350 article that you shared, does lists HD audio passthrough, but couldnt find the same on their Official Site neither on Gigabyte or ASUS boards ....So I would not bet my purchase on it. If you can find a working review by user in any of the A/V fourms (I will try the same) then its more a safe bet.

If you go ZOTAC board you cannot incorporate fusion chip, its embedded on to the board. You have to buy a separate CPU in that case.

In all permutations if you are so enticed by fusion concept, you might as well go for it. I admin I cannot (yet) find any obvious drawback......other than the fact that very less people opt for it, but if I do find any concrete article I will share, mean time you can start collecting your stuff .....

SMC has Fusion Combo readily available.

One question I have for you, the antec mini-itx case you mentioned has 2.5 inch space for HDD where are caviar green is 3.5 inch drive. This one wont be compatible. Isnt it?

 

[sam9s]

^^ Yes I somehow failed to fore see that ...... you got to opt for a 2.5 HDD, which would land a bit expensive, but I guess the result is a far slim HTPC.

 

[manniraj]

Hi Sam,

I was going thru the AMD site and stumbled upon this "http://www.amd.com/us/products/technologies/amd-hd3d/Pages/how-to.aspx". It supports 3D movies/games. In the list 5450 is also listed as one of the compatible gpu for HD3D which AMD calls it. Need to check whether is it really supports all the 3D formats and also it supports DTS-HD and Dolby Tru-HD.

 

[reignofchaos]

HD Audio passthrough works on fusion and so does 3d - both SBS and anaglyphic.

Any UVD3 compatible graphics chip supports MVC decoding in hardware.

 

[Vishu_fbd]

Hey which Mobo are you using for your Fusion? Is it MSI or something else?

 

[reignofchaos]

Its the MSI E350N-IA45 board.

 

[sam9s]

^^ So this confirms that MSI does HD Audio. @Vishu if you have decided to go for Fusion you can then safely opt for MSI board.
Let me also add ..... Core i3 might be only couple of notches faster CPU, but Intel HD 2000/3000 is roughly 50% of AMD Fusion APU.

 

[Vishu_fbd]

Sam I did not get your last line??? "Core i3 might be only couple of notches faster CPU, but Intel HD 2000/3000 is roughly 50% of AMD Fusion APU."

Also spend some time reading this.. this is an eye opener.. Every Watt Counts: AMD E-350 vs. Intel Core i3-2100T - X-bit labs

Now the options that emerge are:
1. AMD Fusion - Ticks most of the box
2. Intel i3-2100T + Zotac board - Comes across as versatile cofig. But I have not heard anyone keeping i3-2100T in nehru place, is there one?
Add ATI 5450 and you get 3D playback ATI Radeon HD 5450: Eyefinity And HTPCs For Everyone? : A Radeon For The Rest Of Us?

Common Stuff:
1. 2 GB Corsair DDR3 RAM
2. 1TB WD Caviar Green
3. miniATX Case - The last open item is the miniATX Case since miniITX case might not work if ATI 5450 needs to be added. Do confirm. Also something that can be procured under 5K and uses not more than 300W supply. Ideal casing would be 150W unit if such config is available.

Sam you mentioned Antec case but that has space only for 2.5 inch HDD can you suggest alternate one that allows 3.5" HDD. I prefer one that house 3.5".

Can this one support AMD Fusion? http://cgi.ebay.in/Cooler-Master-CS...3?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_203&hash=item2564c878f1

I am still inclined towards AMD fusion coz it does everything HTPC needs to do and efficiently. Plus it is lot cheaper as well. But I will evaluate one last time once I get i3-2100T details.

Also, where can I get ALL of the items in Nehru Place? Is there anything that needs to be procured online ONLY?

Thanks,
Vishu

 

[sam9s]

Sam I did not get your last line??? "Core i3 might be only couple of notches faster CPU, but Intel HD 2000/3000 is roughly 50% of AMD Fusion APU."

What I meant was, that processing wise i3 CPU might not be significantly faster than AMD Fusion, but GPU wise i3's inbuilt HD GPU is much faster than AMD APU.

Now the options that emerge are:
1. AMD Fusion - Ticks most of the box
2. Intel i3-2100T + Zotac board - Comes across as versatile cofig. But I have not heard anyone keeping i3-2100T in nehru place, is there one?
Add ATI 5450 and you get 3D playback ATI Radeon HD 5450: Eyefinity And HTPCs For Everyone? : A Radeon For The Rest Of Us?

i3 2100 is easily and readily available in NP. And I would not suggest ATI 5450 as the GPU. 5XXX series do not support 3D HDMI 1.4a, and ATI is not known for it A/V capabilities, there are some rare video driver issues with ATI (personal experience). Go for nVidia in this case, GT4xxx series preferably GT440. Perfect for A/V and bitstreams HD audio as well. 3D is a peace of cake with GT440. (Personal experience again)

3. miniATX Case - The last open item is the miniATX Case since miniITX case might not work if ATI 5450 needs to be added. Do confirm. Also something that can be procured under 5K and uses not more than 300W supply. Ideal casing would be 150W unit if such config is available.
Sam you mentioned Antec case but that has space only for 2.5 inch HDD can you suggest alternate one that allows 3.5" HDD. I prefer one that house 3.5".

ITX cabinet can accommodate an HTPC GPU like GT440, no issues what it can not is a 3.5" HDD, so if you go ITX way (fusion is also ITX) you need to get a 2.5" HDD.

Mini ATX is no big deal.... loads of options ......
http://www.coolermaster.in/category.php?category_id=20
Mini Atx Cabinet-Mini Atx Cabinet Manufacturers, Suppliers and Exporters on Alibaba.com
micro ATX cabinets | eBay

Can this one support AMD Fusion? Cooler Master CS-M MINI ITX Mini UMPC Computer Cabinet | eBay

Yes this should support mini ITX, including Fusion. And there is no fixed place in NP where you will get all, you have to spend the whole day and inquire in all possible outlets to check if your product is available. What ever is not available you order online.

 

[Vishu_fbd]

Dear friend its not 2100 but 2100T that is needed... they r different with 2100T made for HTPC

 

[sam9s]

^^ aaareeee 2100T is a downclocked version of 2100, there is no such thing as "made for HTPC" . 2100 is better in terms of clock speed, cache and HD Graphics (GPU) frequency. But down side is 2100 has a higher TDP. 65W as compared to 35W for 2100T. So if you are too power conscious then opt 2100T else 2100. Personally 30W extra does not much mean to me, so I would opt for 2100, you might differ ........

 

[ShakenSoul]

ATI 5450 does support HD Audio. I have 5450 and it can bitstream both DTS MA and True HD.
For cabinet if you are not too much concerned abt looks, CM Elite 360 is a decent option which can accomodate a regular smps.

 

[sam9s]

^^ My bad what I meant was HD5xxx series does not support 3D, HDMI 1.4a. HD audio is supported, But I will still not recommend ATI for A/V as I already mentioned it has rare driver issues. That is why I opted for nVidia despite of using the phenomenal 5850 on my regular PC.

 

[manniraj]

I received my LG super slim CT21N blu-ray drive. But its so slim that it is not fitting in my silverstone GD04-B case. I found one in itdepot "Theitdepot - SilverStone An Incredtible 3-in-1 Small Multimedia Storage Solutions - Black (SST-TS03B)
How do you people think I should install this slim drive in my case. Help will be much appreciated