Little bit of an odd HTPC

[it_dont_work]

Hi guys, new house new things....then the money runs out a bit but before that happens!

 

I'm looking at building a new htpc, my old one was based on a p4 dell and the board died and never went back to it.So here's the current plan and it's a little odd since I'm looking to use my old pci dual dvb-t tuner card so I'm kind of locked into a certain age of components (given this is the same card I used with the old p4 2.8ghz box).

 

I've got a sff silverstone htpc case I might use. So currently I'm thinking of using a hp elite 8100 i7-860 since it'll support pci and is cheap as piss and has gigabit ethernet, and some sort of  linux distro or just bog old w7 media center.

 

What Im not sure about is bluray support? never bothered playing them on a pc, anyone got some experience and recon the hardware is enough? should be. So the current plan is cheap, hp box will cost me $90 AUD with 4gb of ram.

 

I've also got to use

-550watt cm psu -can't remember which

-will record to my nas

-120gb sandisk ssd

-lg bluray drive, 5.25

-silverstone ml03.

 

So really question, think it'll support bluray fine? Willing to spend some cash, but not uselessly. Also good linux distros for htpc suggestions

[Dujith]

So far for me at least the Intel NUC's do a perfect job as acting as a HTPC. Just get a i3 variant in a case that supports a normal SSD.

So your 120GB SSD can be used.

 

As far as Bluray goes. I would suggest a cheap standalone Bluray player.

 

[it_dont_work]

7 minutes ago, Dujith said:

So far for me at least the Intel NUC's do a perfect job as acting as a HTPC. Just get a i3 variant in a case that supports a normal SSD.

So your 120GB SSD can be used.

 

As far as Bluray goes. I would suggest a cheap standalone Bluray player.

 

Yea not going to be recording over the air tv with that. Thanks for the suggestion though.

[Dujith]

4 minutes ago, it_dont_work said:

Yea not going to be recording over the air tv with that. Thanks for the suggestion though.

Sorry, missed the PCI bit 

That will lock you out yes. Isnt it an idea to get a USB dvb-t? The FTA versions are cheap.

[it_dont_work]

Just now, Dujith said:

Sorry, missed the PCI bit 

That will lock you out yes. Isnt it an idea to get a USB dvb-t? The FTA versions are cheap.

Maybe, problem is the currently two leadtek dvt2000ds are dam solutions. USB ones were always a little shitty ime (given that was years ago at this stage). Down side is the easiest option I;ve got in pci-e is a few hundred dollars, which hardly seems worth it. 

[Dujith]

The Hauppauge WinTV-HVR-955Q seems to be the best bet these days. From both Windows and Linux (Openelec and such)

Also there are quite some PCI-E to PCI sollutions out there

 

Like this, even ones with external cases are around 

[it_dont_work]

6 hours ago, Dujith said:

PCI-E to PCI

Forgot about those little things.

[it_dont_work]

On 4/23/2017 at 7:25 AM, Dujith said:

 

Thanks for the input bud. I went ahead and grab the box.

 

Build has turned out to be more involved than I thought. Still just simple stuff to fix. Might start a build log.

-They actually sent me an i5 2400 system, meh same thing for this

-Mobo is Bxt...htpc case is atx. time for the rivet gun and angel grinder!

-cpu mount is non standard..zipties

-mobo power in is non standard, soldering iron will fix this...

[Dujith]

2 hours ago, it_dont_work said:

Thanks for the input bud. I went ahead and grab the box.

 

Build has turned out to be more involved than I thought. Still just simple stuff to fix. Might start a build log.

-They actually sent me an i5 2400 system, meh same thing for this

-Mobo is Bxt...htpc case is atx. time for the rivet gun and angel grinder!

-cpu mount is non standard..zipties

-mobo power in is non standard, soldering iron will fix this...

Wouldnt be a linus build if you did not have use an angle grinder.

 

But yeah. Post some pictures so we might figure out what todo with the cooler. Tiewraps are a stop gap sollution at best. And can fail in time.

 

Soldering is always fun. Had to adjust a few psu's myself for old htpc builds.

[it_dont_work]

23 hours ago, Dujith said:

. Tiewraps are a stop gap sollution at best. And can fail in time.

I spent close to a decade as a sound engineer/ audio tech. gaffa tape and zie ties are structural in my world