Search the Community

Hello again, fellow TechTippians! I'm back with my second build in 2 years, and my first build since moving to the USA. As part of my larger Project: Kingdom series of builds (more on that later), I'm building a HTPC & Couch Gaming PC for use in my living room. For context purposes, the rig will be running on a 4K TV (Model: Sharp N6100U), and in the future will be connected to a (as yet to be determined) wired surround speaker system. The machine's main purposes will be; running games in Steam Big Picture mode (1080p at 60fps), and connecting to our Plex Media Server on the local network (4K & 1080p content playback). THE RIG In the current configuration of parts, the full specs include: CPU Intel i3 7100 (3.9 GHz) (Amazon US) Motherboard MSI B150I Gaming Pro AC Mini-ITX (Amazon US) RAM Corsair Vengeance LPX 8Gb (2 X 4Gb) DDR4 2800MHz (Amazon US) GPU ZOTAC GeForce GTX 1050 Ti Mini (Amazon US) Case Silverstone SG13B (Amazon US) Storage Samsung 850 EVO 500GB 2.5-Inch SATA III SSD (Amazon US) PSU EVGA Supernova G1 650W Power Supply (Amazon US) Cooling Noctua L-Type Premium Quiet CPU Cooler NH-L9x65 (Amazon US) THE BUDGET At a maximum, I'm looking at spending no more than $500-600 on all equipment. I already have the case (due to the dimensions of where the machine is going to be placed, this case was my only real option), and already have the SSD on hand. THE NEXT STEPS So I turn this proposed build over to you, LTT forum goers. I'm open to feedback on components choices, suggestions on ways to improve upon the parts I've already got on hand, and any advice on building / maintaining HTPC rigs in general. That's all for now guys - catch you next time!

I'm looking to build my first PC as a sort of game center media hub hybrid, that will match console performance for now if not exceed it, but can be easily upgraded in the future. I don't have a lot of money and am looking at the £300-£450 price point, this is what I have come up with on PC partpicker any changes to recommend that improve performance or upgradeability for my needs at the same price or match performance at a lower price? PCPartPicker part list: https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/list/MNmxkT Price breakdown by merchant: https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/list/MNmxkT/by_merchant/ CPU: AMD A4-7300 3.8GHz Dual-Core Processor (£34.19 @ BT Shop) Thermal Compound: Arctic Silver Arctic Alumina Premium Ceramic Polysynthetic 14g Thermal Paste (£8.14 @ Amazon UK) Motherboard: ASRock A68M-ITX Mini ITX FM2+ Motherboard (£61.75 @ More Computers) Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£55.97 @ Amazon UK) Storage: Seagate FireCuda 1TB 2.5" 5400RPM Hybrid Internal Hard Drive (£59.98 @ Ebuyer) Video Card: XFX Radeon R7 250 2GB Core Edition Video Card (£60.74 @ CCL Computers) Case: Silverstone ML05B HTPC Case (£52.19 @ CCL Computers) Power Supply: be quiet! POWER 2 300W 80+ Bronze Certified SFX Power Supply (£47.92 @ Amazon UK) Optical Drive: LG GS40N DVD/CD Writer (£27.99 @ Amazon UK) Wireless Network Adapter: D-Link DWA-582 PCI-Express x1 802.11a/b/g/n/ac Wi-Fi Adapter (£29.98 @ PC World Business) Total: £438.85 Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-02-17 08:08 GMT+0000

Hey guys, Looking for a bit of advice here as I don't know if this is possible and if so I haven't a chuffing clue of how to do it. Would it be possible to have a raspberry pi on the same network as the NAS and have it move files to certain folders and convert them all to a certain format? Edit - I do have a WD NAS, the pi would be a secondary device just to convert and catalogue files... if possible...

Hi all This is following on from my post in Servers and NAS, In short when I make my next build, I plan to convert my current X99 system into a NAS and media centre. I'm quite musically inclined with experience in a few different instruments, but I have never really ventured into the audiophile section. Also my father bought a load of music from a radio station that closed down years back, these seem to be FLAC or WAV files as often a single track fills the HDD (the largest HDD i saw in this box was 68gb) on-top of this I have a decent small vinyl collection which I would like to play on the system, Is it easy to switch from PC to Turntable? also I've seen these turntable to digital converters, are they crap or not? The closest two examples would be a custom speaker set up in a car (JBL), and a old hi-fi turntable system and when I say old its pre 1970's (some Japanese brand I can't remember the name for) and believe it or not when I checked online, that particular Hi-Fi set could be bought with a cylinder player as an additional extra LOL But in short, I discovered how much range some of my favourite music can have on a good system and was wondering what would be a good entry level audiophile system. I'm also particular to brand matching, but I'm only familiar with a few speaker manufactures including; JBL (car only), Rainbow (car only), Pioneer, Harmon Kardio, Bose (which I was kind of put of by the Mazda RX-8 system) and Klipsch which is way outside my price range. Thats not including manufacturers in the music industry like Peevey etc. Note - I'm not too fussed about the set up, as I've helped set up stages indoor and out including finding acoustic sweet spots. Budget is flexible as this will be an ongoing project, It will be going in a lounge set up, I would say up to £500 for a 2.0 system, up to £1200 for a 2.1 or 3.1 system and max £2000 for a 5.2 or 7.1 system, but preferably I wouldn't want to exceed £1000 so future upgrade-ability/addition is preferable I have no DAC other than whats built into my X99 board, so that would need included in the budget. Questions: Should I get a sound card? I know most people say go external dac, but I'm thinking more a way to connect to a Hi-Fi controller rather than a small external DAC. In particular I have always wanted a Creative Labs card. AMP? Sound blaster X7? is this a complete waste of budget or would it be a good head unit? Would I want a higher wattage amp? Software? what software will I need to run FLAC and other high fidelity files? will media player work or do I want something that's more like serato? Optical? right this one I have no clue about, I know how Fibre optics work but would you ever use the optical port on these speaker systems? what connection method's would you recommend ? DMX, Jacks, copper wire etc. Speakers? this I probably need most help with, can you achieve "entry audiophile" level with these home cinema systems, or can I use Cabs and Amp's that musicians use or will these not have the right range? because I can get my hands on some Vox cabs. How do you tell apart audiophile speakers from regular bookshelf/desktop speakers? (it is resistance, or range, or anything else that can help me identify them) what wattage should I be looking for a medium sized room (something that's below the VR recommended size but would still be playable without breaking anything) I'm not really going for loud, I want clear audio. Also, would you even recommend an "audiophile" set up for a home lounge?

Hey guys, Im building a computer mainly as a media centre (for movies and pretty much Netflix). I need help picking a mini case and a motherboard. I have picked the following components for my computer. Hard drive: Wd Blue 2 TB - $95 http://www.ncix.com/detail/western-digital-blue-2tb-sata-bb-118678.htm Ram Kingston HyperX Fury Memory Black 8GB 2X4GB - $43 http://www.ncix.com/detail/kingston-hyperx-fury-memory-black-5e-95972.htm Evga 400W Powersupply - $51 http://www.ncix.com/detail/evga-400w-active-pfc-12v-37-100604.htm Processor AMD Dual Core APU - $50 http://www.ncix.com/detail/amd-a4-7300-dual-core-31-101405.htm I’m quite new to building computers so all advice will be helpful. Thanks

The Review The Logitech K400R is a handy keyboard for any HTPC/media centre owner. The Logitech K400R keyboard has multiple media keys including previous track, play/pause, next track, mute, volume up and volume down buttons which are handy when you are using Microsoft's Media Centre software or Windows Media Player. Other function keys can be used to put the computer into sleep mode, lock the PC, go to the home page on your favourite browser, open Windows Media Player, search, switch applications, open the settings panel and more. The slimline and light keyboard is also a very portable keyboard, you can even safely store the USB Receiver in the battery compartment so it doesn't get lost. This was helpful when the school I go to wanted to run a PowerPoint in an assembly and the presenter remote's batteries were flat, with the keyboard I was able to sit at the opposite side of the huge assembly hall (I do not know how big it is) with the keyboard and control the presentation from there, I experienced no signal problems even though I was sitting at the opposite side of the hall. Features Multi-touch touchpad which is great when working on a PC with Windows 8 as its operating system 10 meter range which allows you to control a PC from a 10 meter distance (like I mentioned above) I hope this was helpful. Thanks for reading.

Hello there, I have been given a Russound SMC-40 http://www.protectionelectronics.com/images/Russound_SMC_Brochure.pdf by a friend in working condition. I disassembled it, removing one of the 500gb HDD's for my main system, then wiped the other one and installed windows 7 on it. Everything progressed without any hitches and had the system booted once. I then turned it off and looked for drivers for it which were quite hard to find. I then plugged it into the power, turned on the PSU, the system powered on and abruptly turned off without me pressing any buttons, it then would not power on again and just repeats this. I have checked each of the RAM chips and each one gives the same result. I would greatly appreciate anybody's help in troubleshooting. -Working Hypothesis- PSU is faulty Touchscreen power button is faulty- although lights up when pressed intermittently.

Hi guys, I'm new to this so if you could bare with me it would be appreciated! I'm planning to do a HTPC build on a tight budget. I'm not intending to play any games on it, have all my films ripped to external HDD and wanted to build a media centre build which I can leave attached to my tv rather than having to swap HDMI inputs from my Macbook, my main rig and Xbox and blu-ray player. I'm also keen to use the new AM1 platform largely due to its low price and 25w TDP meaning I can leave it on without the guilt. My proposed parts list consists of: Processor : Athlon 5350 2.05ghzI figured due to the low price difference of these chips I might as well aim for the top. Motherboard : ASROCK AM1H-ITXI want this motherboard for a number of reasons.First, I wanted the m-itx form-factor in order to make sure there was room for a 120mm fan inside the case. I was also drawn to this board due to its superior connectivity, with mini-pcie which would allow me to keep my wireless on the board, and also the extra controllers allocated to USB3 (not really vital for me) but more importantly the Sata options, which allows me to reuse this board for a server purpose in the future. The power supply option was probably the biggest selling point for this board as I wanted to keep the system as quiet as possible, and the lack of an ATX power supply will certainly help! It also still gives the option for an ATX power supply so that's still a possibility in the future. Also important was the audio capabilities, with the optical audio-out being important in my media cabinet. The same goes for the video out options with HDMI being an obvious necessity. PSU : 19v DC Power Supply [Not Yet Found] Case : Novatech Media CaseI chose this case because it was relatively cheap, enabled a full size optical drive and would look good under my tv, quite important right? Optical Drive : LiteOn BluRay/DVD ReaderI wanted Bluray on this machine so that I could sell my Bluray player which is slow and clunky and free up space. OS Drive : 60gb SDDJust need a cheap SSD for the OS which is still up in the air. Media Drive : 2tb WD GreenWanted a low-power, relatively quite large drive from a brand I trust. Connectivity : Intel Mini-PCIE Wireless CardMight as well use the mini-pcie slot as it wont accept m-sata for wireless and bluetooth. Just need to decide on antenna's. Peripheral : Logitech K400 Media KeyboardLooks relatively nice and good value from a brand I like. The touchpad is a nice addition. Price list:APU: £40 Motherboard: £57 PSU: Case: £50 Optical Drive: £26 OS Drive: £41 Media Drive: £63 Connectivity: £20 Peripheral: £30 Total: £327 Okay, so not so much of a budget build but it should prove worth it? If you've stayed this far, thanks! Only things left to decide are the OS, which I'm leaning towards windows 7/8 as I can get it cheap through being a student, coupled with a media frontend such as XBMC or Plex. Any suggestions on this would be gratefully received! Also, if anyone has got any advice on TV tuners here in the UK then help would be great! Thanks for reading!