[Pawn]

I recently discovered XMBC and love it, right now I just plug my laptop into my TV and play all my media off my 2TB external harddrive but... it's quite an annoying set up :p I've been looking into these HTPC things and see people spending quite a bit of money on the parts for them to make them super awesome and I honestly don't want that.... When it comes to choosing and finding parts for computers I really don't know what's compatible with what and what I'm looking for exactly... was wondering if you guys could help me build a cheap HTCP. I'm not looking to spend a fortune as if I had to do that I'd just keep using my laptop.

Basically what I'm looking for is something that can play 1080P video and I can hook up to my TV via HDMI.

I have Windows 7 I can install on it so that is the OS I'd be using with it.
I'd also obviously just be using my external drive for storage as well so all the internal drive would need installed on it is the OS and XBMC.

Oh... I guess wifi for fetching info on the media too. the way my house is it would be impractical to run an ethernet cable up two flights of stairs.

I hope I'm not being unrealistic... I'm just not looking for a machine to do fantastic things, just something to play media

Thanks a bunch,
Pawn

Edit: I guess I should mention I'm in Canada so that's where things would be shipped.
Edit2: Also is it at all possible for a remote of some sort to work with windows and XBMC?

[LoLrenX]

Hi and welcome !

To get a quick idea of prices and setups, you can take a look at eskro's template builds, sorted by prices. Those are solid and efficient, some of them for a tiny budget.

As for the remote, any MCE compliant remote would do the job, and they come as cheap as $20

[katwax]

Hi,

I was looking at the same thing as you. I wanted a htpc for the price of a popcorn hour and decided to go with a barebone.
A barebone only requires memory and a harddisk, not to much building involed
You want to use windows so make sure you put enough memory into it.

So look into:
shuttle XS35GT
ZOTAC ZBOXHD-ID11
acer revo 3800
asus eeebox

I bought the zotac. Decided on this model because I wanted xbmc live, for windows you could go with an other model.

[prae5]

http://paulrae.com/2010/11/08/shuttle-xs...nter-htpc/

[Pawn]

Hi and welcome !

To get a quick idea of prices and setups, you can take a look at eskro's template builds, sorted by prices. Those are solid and efficient, some of them for a tiny budget.

As for the remote, any MCE compliant remote would do the job, and they come as cheap as $20

I was looking at eskro's builds, some of them looked appealing though all his links are to American sites with american prices, when I looked for the same products on the Canadian amazon / newegg either the product isn't there or it's quite a bit more expensive =\

Thanks for the info on the remote though

Hi,

I was looking at the same thing as you. I wanted a htpc for the price of a popcorn hour and decided to go with a barebone.
A barebone only requires memory and a harddisk, not to much building involed
You want to use windows so make sure you put enough memory into it.

So look into:
shuttle XS35GT
ZOTAC ZBOXHD-ID11
acer revo 3800
asus eeebox

I bought the zotac. Decided on this model because I wanted xbmc live, for windows you could go with an other model.

the only one of those I seem to be able to find for sale is the shuttle, the Zotac I can't find any information on, the acer I can only find older models and as for the eeebox, the earlier models with hdmi are nowhere to be found and the Eee Box EB1012 looks to be at least $300 used on amazon...

[ZOTAC PR]

NCIX, a Canadian reseller, carries our HD-ID11 and the HD-ID40/ID-40 Plus (upgrades CPU to D525 and adds a second DIMM slot, PLUS model has 250GB HDD and 2GB ram preinstalled).

I can answer any questions you have regarding our products.

[live4ever]

I use NCIX (in Canada as well) and what's great about them is their price matching.

[eskro]

to compare prices for Canadian MArket, ShopBot.ca is your friend
JUST DONT BUY FROM ONHOP.CA!!!!

[batisgrulla]

Do you want to' play DVD or BR too?