House was broken into.....

So my house was broken into......anyways, I was given money by my insurance company to buy the stuff that was stolen. One of the items that they stole was my HTPC. I have about 1000 dollars to replace it with a new one.

But the HTPC was built by my friend who is no longer in the country. So I was wondering if you guys can help me pick the parts. Also if it is possible, try to reach the 1000 dollar mark. Because if I don't use it I can't keep it. The insurance company will take back whatever is left.

I mostly just watch HD/Blu Ray movies and tv shows on the HTPC, I don't use it to game or anything. And I don't need any HDD's. I'll just buy those when the prices come down again. My last HTPC had 5 HDD cages in it. I would like this new one to have 5-6 HDD cage as well.

Thank you! Sucking getting broken into.

start by reading this forums stickies

Alright, thank you.

If you want the easiest route, you can go with this custom pc- Wind i5 Mini-PC. If you add blu-ray drive and wireless keyboard/mouse, it'll bring the price to $987.

Something tells me you're going to spend consideably less than the $1000 unless you include hard drives. If someone else is footing the bill, I'd get them now!

I'd love to spend your money!

First off, the case. 5-6 drives in an HTPC-style case is limiting, but it can be done. I have this case, and love it. Right around $70

Next, the motherboard. One of these? Another $130

How about a processor? We bought an AMD board, so a nice AMD processor is in order. This one is well loved.

You'll need to power everything up. Try this Antec power supply for $70

You'll need a drive to install your OS of choice on -- try one of these? up to $480 so far.

Throw in 8gb (way overkill) of RAM for another $50.

A good video card is important, and this is one of the best. You could go bigger, but it wouldn't buy you a better HTPC. We're up to $600

You will need to buy new drives to fill those slots. You can't stay in budget on 2Tb drives, so we'll go over budget and let you decide where to trim. Try these drives. That brings us up to $1200 + shipping.

Not the best that could be done, for sure, but it's a start.

why dont u go for an HTPC + unRAID box?

eskro Wrote:why dont u go for an HTPC + unRAID box?

With $1000 that is what I did! actually a little less.... best ever!

I will look into this unRAID box. Thank you all for the advice.

I read up on this unraid thing. I think it is pretty cool. But I have some questions.

1. How do I put files on the HDD's in the unraid sever?
2. And do you guys turn the server off when you are going to bed? I always turned my HTPC off when I went to bed. I never had a "server" before.
3. will the Unraid Server spin down the drives when not in use? Or will I have to set this up my self?
4. I noticed that in there server builds there doesn't appear to be a graphics card. How do I connect to a monitor to set everything up the first time?