I'd like to build/buy a HTPC, can someone guide me as a way of doing it cheaply?

[gonvres]

Basically just looking for a system to do a few things

 

1) Stream online video to, so it needs to be fully capable of running youtube, netflix at full HD.

 

2) Playing video files.

 

I want it to run through a 1080P TV smoothly. 

 

I don't actually care about form factor, a tower PC is fine, I really just want to spend as little as possible. I've looked at some used systems, things like ex government Core 2 Duo systems can be had very cheaply but I question their capacity to even run some forms of video smoothly. Id rather do it right once than a half assed job.

 

Any tips would be appreciated. 

[xtasemusic]

First of all , buy some stuff used. BEST THING I DID. I got a 280x for about 100$ CAD and a 550w PSU rated 80+ gold for around 40$. I wouldnt buy old Core 2 Duo systems personally. Since your requirements are pretty basic tho , I would find/build an little APU system with an SSD. yes its an HTPC... But why not let it be a speedy little rat ?

[Joshndroid]

Basically just looking for a system to do a few things

 

1) Stream online video to, so it needs to be fully capable of running youtube, netflix at full HD.

 

2) Playing video files.

 

I want it to run through a 1080P TV smoothly. 

 

I don't actually care about form factor, a tower PC is fine, I really just want to spend as little as possible. I've looked at some used systems, things like ex government Core 2 Duo systems can be had very cheaply but I question their capacity to even run some forms of video smoothly. Id rather do it right once than a half assed job.

 

Any tips would be appreciated. 

 

you may be able to pick up a used system for the kind of money your willing to spend. I would not go for those core 2 systems, they realy struggle. The government ones now have a core i5 so if you could pick up a reasonable one of those for a good price you would be set.

 

If you want to go new, you can go something haswell in the pentium family with a cheap as chips motherboard with an old hdd you have at home coupled with a cheap case that comes with a powersupply. couple hundred dollars and you could have a system.  Just looking at msy (if your aussie) can pick up a cheap new case with psu for $40 matx, $69 for a matx motherboard, $80 for a pentium dual core haswell, $31 for 4gb ram total being $220 if you have a spare old HDD for your os

[exhaustedbrit]

If you are building a HTPC you generally want the system to be as quiet as possible.

 

For this I honestly recommend one of the new lower voltage pentiums, they are more than capable of comfortably playing high bitrate 4K content with the integrated graphics chip.

 

Intel will release the skylake Pentium G4400T in the western markets in a few days which has a low TDP of 35W. The integrated HD 510 is capable of outputting 4096x2304 at 60Hz, it also has DX12 and OpenGL 4.4 support and you will be able to make use of new shader level decoders which allow you to play H265 codecs. Coupled with a basic Socket 1151 ITX board and 4GB of DDR4, this machine will be above and beyond what's necessary for a HTPC and will even make for some decent light gaming (CS:GO and Leauge).

[gonvres]

you may be able to pick up a used system for the kind of money your willing to spend. I would not go for those core 2 systems, they realy struggle. The government ones now have a core i5 so if you could pick up a reasonable one of those for a good price you would be set.

 

If you want to go new, you can go something haswell in the pentium family with a cheap as chips motherboard with an old hdd you have at home coupled with a cheap case that comes with a powersupply. couple hundred dollars and you could have a system.  Just looking at msy (if your aussie) can pick up a cheap new case with psu for $40 matx, $69 for a matx motherboard, $80 for a pentium dual core haswell, $31 for 4gb ram total being $220 if you have a spare old HDD for your os

 

Cheers. I think this may be the best way to go, as like you said, those old Core 2 ex government systems really do struggle with even video playback. That and the frustration of waiting for it to boot.

 

I was curious with the cheap Pentium's, I've never used one, I just buy i5's by default but their specs don't look all that bad really. 

 

Are there any decent case/psu's for slightly more that have a bit of decent quality? For instance would a Thermaltake case + PSU be any worse than those generic Shaw branded rubbish which you're talking about? 

[gonvres]

If you are building a HTPC you generally want the system to be as quiet as possible.

 

For this I honestly recommend one of the new lower voltage pentiums, they are more than capable of comfortably playing high bitrate 4K content with the integrated graphics chip.

 

Intel will release the skylake Pentium G4400T in the western markets in a few days which has a low TDP of 35W. The integrated HD 510 is capable of outputting 4096x2304 at 60Hz, it also has DX12 and OpenGL 4.4 support and you will be able to make use of new shader level decoders which allow you to play H265 codecs. Coupled with a basic Socket 1151 ITX board and 4GB of DDR4, this machine will be above and beyond what's necessary for a HTPC and will even make for some decent light gaming (CS:GO and Leauge).

 

What in your view is the minimum chip that I could get away with? I'm assuming chips like the Celeron G1850 and the like are utter rubbish even for this purpose. While a G3260 should be reasonably competent? 

 

We're yet to see the G4400T, but realistically cheap as possible is the core aim in these instances. 

[JohnnyCorporalTech]

BTW, How many clients are most likely going to use the system at once?

[gonvres]

BTW, How many clients are most likely going to use the system at once?

 

Its just going to run via HDMI into one TV.

[exhaustedbrit]

What in your view is the minimum chip that I could get away with? I'm assuming chips like the Celeron G1850 and the like are utter rubbish even for this purpose. While a G3260 should be reasonably competent? 

 

We're yet to see the G4400T, but realistically cheap as possible is the core aim in these instances. 

 

I have used a Celeron G1620 for this purpose and it works absolutely fine. Heck I even used a G1840 in my main rig whilst I saved up for a i5-4690K. It was a Celeron G1840 paired with an R9 290. You'd be surprised what they're capable of, for the money they are very good bang for buck.

[JohnnyCorporalTech]

Its just going to run via HDMI into one TV.

 

Well then a Pentium/Celeron will most likely fit your bill. Anything higher will only give you a slight improvement in performance, and really only help if you have multiple clients, or if you need your HTPC to transcode the files so that it is viewable on a mobile device. 

[gonvres]

Well then a Pentium/Celeron will most likely fit your bill. Anything higher will only give you a slight improvement in performance, and really only help if you have multiple clients, or if you need your HTPC to transcode the files so that it is viewable on a mobile device. 

 

Yeah absolutely. I did consider some type of stream box from my desktop rig, but as far as I can tell they're fairly rubbish at mirroring the desktop monitor. Its a bit of an overkill for one screen, but when you see how expensive things like Apple TV boxes are and how limited their functionality is it does make sense.

 

 

I have used a Celeron G1620 for this purpose and it works absolutely fine. Heck I even used a G1840 in my main rig whilst I saved up for a i5-4690K. It was a Celeron G1840 paired with an R9 290. You'd be surprised what they're capable of, for the money they are very good bang for buck.

 

With a dedicated GPU, absolutely. I do think chips of that class would struggle with high definition flash based web content as that can be fairly CPU intensive. I've seen moderately new systems struggle in that area. The good thing is if I build it in a proper case with a even semi decent power supply then I can add  a cheap GPU very easily.

[gonvres]

Does anyone have a recommendation of a good case/bundled PSU for this purpose? I'll be using a SSD. 

[techguru]

nothing wrong with core2duo/core2quad cpu's for a htpc

both of my htpc's are core2quad's

I picked up for 300$ at the time

then just threw in a hdmi videocard and was good to go

[Stagea]

Intel will release the skylake Pentium G4400T in the western markets in a few days which has a low TDP of 35W. The integrated HD 510 is capable of outputting 4096x2304 at 60Hz, it also has DX12 and OpenGL 4.4 support and you will be able to make use of new shader level decoders which allow you to play H265 codecs. Coupled with a basic Socket 1151 ITX board and 4GB of DDR4, this machine will be above and beyond what's necessary for a HTPC and will even make for some decent light gaming (CS:GO and Leauge).

 

It's truly a tempting solution, but it lacks HDMI 2.0 (output adapters are supposed to be coming). A dedicated Nvidia GPU (like the GTX 950) may be needed for HDMI 2.0 output.

 

I hope they launch 35W Carrizo-equipped motherboards as an HTPC solution. The integrated HDMI 2.0 and HEVC hardware decode would likely sell.

[techguru]

It's truly a tempting solution, but it lacks HDMI 2.0 (output adapters are supposed to be coming). A dedicated Nvidia GPU (like the GTX 950) may be needed for HDMI 2.0 output.

 

I hope they launch 35W Carrizo-equipped motherboards as an HTPC solution. The integrated HDMI 2.0 and HEVC hardware decode would likely sell.

you don't need 2.0 for media

1.4 hdmi works fine for 4k media at 30hz

 

also...4k isn't needed for media

there is basically no real 4k media

even netflix 4k media isn't really 4k..and not a good enough bitrate either for 4k

[Stagea]

you don't need 2.0 for media

1.4 hdmi works fine for 4k media at 30hz

 

also...4k isn't needed for media

there is basically no real 4k media

even netflix 4k media isn't really 4k..and not a good enough bitrate either for 4k

 

UHD Bluray is coming, so that might matter.

 

Netflix 4K is UHD; they actually shoot and manipulate in 6K or 5K (depending on the show) and archive in the same resolution. They scale and master it in UHD for distribution.

 

Amazon 4K is also UHD. Low bitrate UHD does not mean that it's not UHD, as UHD is a resolution (not an image quality standard).

[d33g33]

Raspberry Pi 2...

[techguru]

UHD Bluray is coming, so that might matter.

 

Netflix 4K is UHD; they actually shoot and manipulate in 6K or 5K (depending on the show) and archive in the same resolution. They scale and master it in UHD for distribution.

 

Amazon 4K is also UHD. Low bitrate UHD does not mean that it's not UHD, as UHD is a resolution (not an image quality standard).

then you might as well say a upconvered video is 4k as well

which its not

 

4k has a standard and there is no real 4k content

[Stagea]

then you might as well say a upconvered video is 4k as well

which its not

 

4k has a standard and there is no real 4k content

 

Upscaled video is upconverted to the target image size. If one upconverts to 4k, it becomes a 4k stream in terms of pixel count (though it may not carry the same quality/detail as a native 4k video). 

 

There are 4k standards for image size, frame rate, bit depth, dynamic range, codec, multiplexing, transmission (mode/bandwidth/frequency), and maximum bitrate. I have not heard of a video quality standard, however. Please educate us about this, if you are aware of such a standard.

[techguru]

Upscaled video is upconverted to the target image size. If one upconverts to 4k, it becomes a 4k stream in terms of pixel count (though it may not carry the same quality/detail as a native 4k video). 

 

There are 4k standards for image size, frame rate, bit depth, dynamic range, codec, multiplexing, transmission (mode/bandwidth/frequency), and maximum bitrate. I have not heard of a video quality standard, however. Please educate us about this, if you are aware of such a standard.

Upscaled video is upconverted to the target image size. If one upconverts to 4k, it becomes a 4k stream in terms of pixel count (though it may not carry the same quality/detail as a native 4k video). <---exactly...a certain level of quality...which there isn't any yet

[Stagea]

Upscaled video is upconverted to the target image size. If one upconverts to 4k, it becomes a 4k stream in terms of pixel count (though it may not carry the same quality/detail as a native 4k video). <---exactly...a certain level of quality...which there isn't any yet

 

Their in-house productions are shot at above 4K, so they do have excellent quality sources. In the process of making the data fit into lower bitrate streams for UHD distribution, some details get dropped (particularly in complex scenes).

 

For scenes with little change/movement (say, watching a reporter read his script in the newsroom), internet-streamed UHD will display lots of image detail (comparable to a high bitrate stream). It is when there's lots of motion or scenery changes that the low bitrate streamed variant will show its shortcomings (the images normally get softer due to digital noise reduction hiding artifacts).

[gonvres]

I don't really think I'll be doing 4K in the near future anyway, as the set is only 1080P and the internet here is by no means 4k capable. 

 

I think I'll just build a new rig using entry level components, that way its new, has a warranty on the parts etc. 

[ColonelPanic]

Pretty sure my Raspberry Pi will play Youtube at full HD, I had it as a media centre for a while. 90% sure there's a netflix addon for OSMC too, and the usual file storage/network sharing capabilities. A good tip when running a Pi, is to get a good quality UHD class MicroSD, the performance increase over class 4/6 is immeasurable.

[Cwis3man]

Used for sure - if you're looking for small get a NUC or a Compute Stick