[payders]

Hey guys

After reading through the very informative forums plus beer's posts, I ready to pose some questions.

I want to build a quiet, cool htpc, with win7 + XBMC, and a blu ray player, to play content either locally or some NAS / shared drive. Not for gaming at all but must handle Blu-Ray playback + up to 1080p content.

1 - mITX vs mATX route? Smaller is nicer but then I worry about heating / space. Larger means it could accommodate local storage. Cases I have my eye on are Antec ISK 300-150, Silverstone sst ml03b, Antec ISK 110. The Antec 65 is out of production.
2 - Intel vs AMD. My preference is Intel, namely a core i3-2100T which is 35W with integrated GPU.
3 - Blu ray player - useful or will it gather dust? I read that blu ray playback is tedious to setup in XBMC / requires 3rd party app to play.
4 - PSU - I quite like the look of the PicoPSU, but I'm confused about the power brick portion. What would be good for here in the UK? is 90W enough or 120W a safer bet?

Many thanks in advance.
Cheers.

[bluray]

1 - mITX vs mATX route? Smaller is nicer but then I worry about heating / space. Larger means it could accommodate local storage. Cases I have my eye on are Antec ISK 300-150, Silverstone sst ml03b, Antec ISK 110. The Antec 65 is out of production.

You'll be fine with the Mini-ITX case. I installed BD-ROM, GT430, etc in a tiny Mini-ITX case, and I never have any problem with heat.....

2 - Intel vs AMD. My preference is Intel, namely a core i3-2100T which is 35W with integrated GPU.

If you want the lowest power and heat, Intel i3-2100T is excellent choice.....

3 - Blu ray player - useful or will it gather dust? I read that blu ray playback is tedious to setup in XBMC / requires 3rd party app to play.

I never build a PC without a BD-ROM. It's very useful. My family enjoy poping blu-ray disc from RedBox and Netflix....

4 - PSU - I quite like the look of the PicoPSU, but I'm confused about the power brick portion. What would be good for here in the UK? is 90W enough or 120W a safer bet?

Many thanks in advance.
Cheers.

This Pico should be fine- PicoPSU-120 DC-DC Power Converter, 120 W...

[Beer40oz]

What is a RedBox?

[bluray]

What is a RedBox?

It's a blu-ray rental kiosk at most major local supermarkets and gas stations....you cannot beat $1.50 per new blu-ray disc.....

Redbox kiosk

[RaggSokk3n]

Looks good, i3 is a safer bett in itx due to less heat... If you use torrents today and like it you probably won't have any use for a bd drive.
Good luck!

[payders]

Cheers guys!

Can you recommend any mini ITX cases? Will that processor be fast enough for blu rays + 1080p? I've read about this 24p bug, not sure what that is all about.

Also, do you recommend having local storage? I wonder if I'm pushing it by having too much in a mini-ITX case.

Cheers

[bluray]

Cheers guys!

Can you recommend any mini ITX cases? Will that processor be fast enough for blu rays + 1080p? I've read about this 24p bug, not sure what that is all about.

Intel HD2000 iGPU should be able to handle blu-ray 1080P video and bitstreaming HD audio with ease.....I don't have problem with 24p bug....

Also, do you recommend having local storage? I wonder if I'm pushing it by having too much in a mini-ITX case.

Cheers

Here is a very nice mini-itx case- LIAN LI Silver Aluminum PC-Q09FNA Mini ITX Media Center or this cheaper option- Apex MI-008

If you don't have wired network, USB driver or internal hard drive are the best options....

[payders]

Cheers Bluray.

Do you reckon its a bad idea to have drives locally? If I were to go mATX, I could possibly fit some harddrives locally.

Any mobo suggestions?

[bluray]

Cheers Bluray.

Do you reckon its a bad idea to have drives locally? If I were to go mATX, I could possibly fit some harddrives locally.

Any mobo suggestions?

You should be able to fit SSD and hard drive in Mini-ITX case. The Lian Li I suggested have room for 3.5-Inch HDD x 1 / 2.5-Inch HDD x 2.

This "ASRock B75M-ITX" is a very nice mobo for it....

[Palmer]

In my mini itx case I have a dvd drive, hdd, ssd running with a celeron g540 on an asus p8h77-i mobo and the cpu temp is always around 36/mob0 38. I run up to 1080p videos with no extra video card. The system handles everything for my viewing needs. Sorry I don't bother with bluerays so I cant comment on that. Ive only ever used the dvd drive to instal windows 7 and that's it. For me personally I don't see any need to go with anything bigger then an mini-itx for an htpc. In this main system in my living room I download everything media wise onto the hdd, and keep all operating system programs on the ssd.

[Dougie Fresh]

You should be able to fit SSD and hard drive in Mini-ITX case. The Lian Li I suggested have room for 3.5-Inch HDD x 1 / 2.5-Inch HDD x 2.

This "ASRock B75M-ITX" is a very nice mobo for it....

So, I read this and thought "in the PC-Q09?". I can't believe the change they made to that case from the older version. The older version was one slimline ODD and one 2.5" HDD and nothing else. Amazing how they rearranged it and found room for so much more.

So, be sure you don't accidentally get the older model. The new one bluray suggests is far superior.

Lian-Li FTW.

[bluray]

In my mini itx case I have a dvd drive, hdd, ssd running with a celeron g540 on an asus p8h77-i mobo and the cpu temp is always around 36/mob0 38. I run up to 1080p videos with no extra video card.

You should have seen what I stuffed in the little MI-008 case. I stuffed it with AsRock E350M1, Nvidia GT430, LG BD-ROM, SSD, 2 USB 2.0 drives, 2 USB 3.0 drives, etc. It can playback Avatar blu-ray disc nearly 50gb 1080p video and bitstreaming HD audio flawless.....it ate Vudu, Netflix, etc for lunch too.....I rarely turn it off, and it never quit on me either....

You can do a lot with small case these days.......

[Palmer]

In my mini itx case I have a dvd drive, hdd, ssd running with a celeron g540 on an asus p8h77-i mobo and the cpu temp is always around 36/mob0 38. I run up to 1080p videos with no extra video card.

You should have seen what I stuffed in the little MI-008 case. I stuffed it with AsRock E350M1, Nvidia GT430, LG BD-ROM, SSD, 2 USB 2.0 drives, 2 USB 3.0 drives, etc. It can playback Avatar blu-ray disc nearly 50gb 1080p video and bitstreaming HD audio flawless.....it ate Vudu, Netflix, etc for lunch too.....I rarely turn it off, and it never quit on me either....

You can do a lot with small case these days.......

Thats impressive. What are the plugged in USB drives used for and size that you keep plugged in? Im just running the stock cpu cooler also with the G540 which is really quiet.

[RaggSokk3n]

Just finished two ML03B builds, if you're going mATX it's definitely recommended :-)

[bluray]

In my mini itx case I have a dvd drive, hdd, ssd running with a celeron g540 on an asus p8h77-i mobo and the cpu temp is always around 36/mob0 38. I run up to 1080p videos with no extra video card.

You should have seen what I stuffed in the little MI-008 case. I stuffed it with AsRock E350M1, Nvidia GT430, LG BD-ROM, SSD, 2 USB 2.0 drives, 2 USB 3.0 drives, etc. It can playback Avatar blu-ray disc nearly 50gb 1080p video and bitstreaming HD audio flawless.....it ate Vudu, Netflix, etc for lunch too.....I rarely turn it off, and it never quit on me either....

You can do a lot with small case these days.......

Thats impressive. What are the plugged in USB drives used for and size that you keep plugged in? Im just running the stock cpu cooler also with the G540 which is really quiet.

It's 1tb each.....mainly for storing blu-ray ISO's....all my HTPC's and PC's are running on stock CPU coolers too.....

---

Just finished two ML03B builds, if you're going mATX it's definitely recommended :-)

It look very nice for the price, and I almost use it to build i3 computers at work. I end up with Antec Micro-ATX case instead, because it's in our PO system......