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I'm ready to join the HTPC (home theater pc) revolution - what to get?

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mouser:
Maybe $300-$400?

wraith808:
I've found from my experience that silverstone makes good cases.  An example is this one.  The more you pay, the better the case will be, but that one is a pretty good low-end starter case.

Silverstone also makes good power supplies.  Though I don't use them for desktops, their PSUs tend to be quieter than others, even under full load.  However, because of that quiet, they also tend to heat up more.

Though I usually go with Intel for my builds, for my HTPC I've gone with AMD twice, and Intel once.  AMD processors seem to require less in terms of space, and function better in smaller builds in my experience.

I used a HDD in my first two builds- my last build was my first with SSD, and I can say that it has made it more responsive.

My last one was also the first time I went with onboard video instead of low profile.  I'm definitely going with Low profile again when I build another; I see the difference on web based video, though not on video files strangely enough.  Netflix and Youtube aren't working as well on the onboard video, though playing video files from my NAS works fine.

And I've just been using Windows Media Center for the software (on Windows 7).  I've tried a few different things... from media monkey to a couple of other things (I'd have to look them up).  I haven't tried a dedicated OS solution though, so I can't comment on those.

As far as controlling it, I have always used logitech solutions before... but I just used a low end rosewill remote this time, and it works fine.  I paired that up with an iogear keyboard with built in trackball, and I've been set as far as controlling it.

Hope that helps... let me know if you have any other questions.

Dirhael:
About 6 months back, I set up a HTPC for myself with a Streacom FC8 Evo Fanless Chassis, a MSI Z77IA-E53 mini-ITX motherboard combined with a Intel Core i3-3225 and a Samsung 840 Pro SSD 128GB. As for the PSU, I used an external one also from Streacom. I recently also installed a ASUS PCE-AC66 wifi card to go with my 802.11ac network. This setup is more than powerful enough to run any video I throw at it (including bluray, using this drive combined with SlySoft's AnyDVD HD), boots within in a handful of seconds (running Windows 8​) and is 100% silent (well, except while using the optical drive of course).

As for software, I primarily use XBMC but if you're mainly into music you should probably take a look at Jriver Media Center 18, which I use on pretty much every other computer I own. If you got an iPad it makes for the perfect controller for both software solutions. For XBMC, I use XBMC Commander and for JRMC I use and absolutely love JRemote. Whenever I have to use a mouse+keyboard, I'm using Logitech's lovely K810 bluetooth keyboard (back-lit, rechargeable) and Apple's Magic Trackpad.

The only drawback to this setup is that it'll probably cost you a bit more than you had in mind, depending on what hardware you got laying around. It was also not exactly the easiest chassis to build (you'll need *plently* of thermal paste, and assemble things in the "right" order), but in the end it was well worth it.  

EDIT: Here's a picture of the htpc, with a PS3 controller placed besides it for size comparison.

[attachtimg=1]

wraith808:
what kind of cpu fan are you running on your i3?  Even the lowest profile ones I've seen for LGA 1156 sockets are pretty space hungry, so I was wondering.

Dirhael:
what kind of cpu fan are you running on your i3?  Even the lowest profile ones I've seen for LGA 1156 sockets are pretty space hungry, so I was wondering.
-wraith808 (July 09, 2013, 08:08 PM)
--- End quote ---

I'm not running any kind of fan on the CPU at all, it's all passively cooled. The heat-pipe design should be able to handle any CPU up to 95W, and the i3-3225 is only 55W :) The entire chassis is made of more or less a single block of aluminum, so the entire thing is essentially a massive heat sink.

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