Login at Kodi Home

**Dougie Fresh** · (This post was last modified: 2012-07-17, 21:51 by Dougie Fresh.)

My bedroom HTPC is a G620, ASUS P8H61-I, 4GB, 128GB SSD, Gelid Slim Silence i-Plus cooler in the E-i5 mini-itx case. I can here it within 3 feet if it's warm in the room and I cannot hear it 10ft away at the bed. At one point, I had all of this in the MI-008 clone, the Rosewill RS-MI-01 BK and it was the same. The PSU fan didn't make any noise that I could hear. You can mount a Scythe 120mm fan in the side of the case (it just snaps in) which I ran at low speed and that helped keep temps down and the CPU fan from running high.

mprez333 · 2012-07-17, 21:55

That definitely works, Malibu, but I would still need some form of HDD. Either SSD or HDD. Thanks for linking that.

I'm wondering, if cutting the cost might be more feasible by going up in form factor to Micro ATX to reduce the mobo cost and using Linux or Ubuntu on some smaller and more inexpensive storage device. Would that hurt performance?

malibu327 · 2012-07-17, 22:10

I have a hdd I can use right now so I will save me a little money initially. I understand this hdd will make a little noise.

http://amzn.com/w/RRI2PG7SOL26
This is another build I've been working on but I'm reading mixed reviews here about it.

Thank you Dougie for the reply back. Have you found a remote that will crank this thing up and power it down or suspend it?

mprez333 · 2012-07-18, 06:00

So here's the conclusion I've arrived at.

I'm either going with two ATV1s running Crystalbuntu in the next month or so and riding them for about a year before potentially considering an upgrade.

OR

I'm waiting until later in the year to potentially go with a build closer to what I listed previously in the thread.

Waiting would certainly be no fun, but is doable. The questions I have are: How long would the ATV1 setup work for me and how important is future-proofing in the HTPC game?

My main HTPC is plenty future proof and it runs on the 50" 1080p Panasonic with the surround sound, etc. The machines I am looking to build for my other two TVs will (for the time being) be running purely through the TVs and at 720p. No surround sound, no higher resolution than 720p. So is it worth it to build a setup like the G630T? Or will the ATV1 meet my needs for a year or so until upgrading becomes more worthwhile?

bluray · 2012-07-18, 23:07

(2012-07-17, 18:35)mprez333 Wrote:
Quote:Newegg.com only charges taxes in California, New Jersey and Tennessee.

And I live in Tennessee. Lucky me, right? Amazon is potentially building a distribution center in Chattanooga, TN in the near future, which would mean I would get taxed there as well.

No....not Amazon. They have a big distribution center near me, but they don't tax me.......

mprez333 · 2012-07-18, 23:10

(2012-07-18, 23:07)bluray Wrote:
(2012-07-17, 18:35)mprez333 Wrote:
Quote:Newegg.com only charges taxes in California, New Jersey and Tennessee.

And I live in Tennessee. Lucky me, right? Amazon is potentially building a distribution center in Chattanooga, TN in the near future, which would mean I would get taxed there as well.
No....not Amazon. They have a big distribution center near me, but they don't tax me.......

I thought I had heard otherwise on the local news, but I definitely hope you're right. Sales tax in TN is insane and its nice to be able to get components from Amazon for a good price without the tax.

bluray · 2012-07-18, 23:17

(2012-07-17, 19:49)Dougie Fresh Wrote: IIRC, there is an issue with the height of the stock Intel cooler in the MI-008 (Google "MI-008 intel stock cooler" or read the reviews). It's right up against the bottom of the power supply. You might want to consider either a G630T for $10 more: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...6819116407 or get a low profile aftermarket heatsink.

One of these "CPU Cooler Slim Silence i-Plus or Dynatron K129" low profile CPU cooler should fit in there......

fvtalon · 2012-07-19, 07:31

I'm looking to do (mostly) the same thing and ditch cable for xbmc. My plan is to more ease into it though. I've got XBMC up and running on some laptops and ATV2 for now which is working but I want to switch to some proper HTPCs so I've been agonizing over the builds too.

If you're going to do a scratch build why not do it in stages? If you have an old HDD you could use that instead of an SSD. Be a little slower but save $60 there, upgrade later. Same on the fans, with the AMD builds they say the stock cooler fans are noisy but you could live with it for a while and save $25, swap the new cooler in later. Same for the picoPSU. Ram could be a single 2gb stick vs 2x2 or maybe 2x1gb but then you waste them later on. Or if you can get OpenElec running you shouldn't even need an SSD/HDD right? Just a $13 stick that you might already have.

As far as that goes though too almost any old PC will run XBMC depending on your content. I've got a laptop (winXP) with a 1.86GHz pentium single core w/ 2gb ram and it does alright up to 720p. I rip everything to 720p or less because of the ATV2. You could always buy an old PC on craigslist for now.

Might not be pretty or real quick with an old PC or half-way build but considering you're savings $100/mo that should add up quick. The other thing for myself and my wife is I'm going to go over our cable package and see what I can cut out to get the cost down in the meantime. I find I watch very little cable tv now so I can get rid of 'my' channels easy enough while I pick away at her resistance.

malibu327 · 2012-07-19, 15:44

I still have Directv but I havent turned it on since football season ended. If I could find a way to watch all of my games online, I would cancel it and not look back.
I would actually pay for some service to watch it online.

mprez333 · 2012-07-19, 16:46

(2012-07-19, 15:44)malibu327 Wrote: I still have Directv but I havent turned it on since football season ended. If I could find a way to watch all of my games online, I would cancel it and not look back.
I would actually pay for some service to watch it online.

I love football as well, so I'll be relying on: ESPN3, OTA antenna to get games that come on the major networks, and social gatherings with friends to sort out the rest.

Between ESPN3 and OTA, I should be able to cover almost all of my football needs. When college basketball season rolls around, the same should apply, though I'll have to probably go check out a few games here and there with friends or just miss them. Nothing wrong with spending some times with the guys though.