Planning HTPC for parents

[A3r0Sp1k3]

I'm planning out a HTPC build for my parents centred around a TV tuner card so they can record their over the air shows, and I just wanted to get people's thoughts.

 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: *Intel - Core i7-7700 3.6GHz Quad-Core Processor  ($405.00 @ Umart) 
Motherboard: *MSI - H110M ECO Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard  ($69.00 @ Shopping Express) 
Memory: *Crucial - 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR4-2133 Memory  ($109.00 @ Shopping Express) 
Storage: *Crucial - MX300 525GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  ($199.00 @ Umart) 
Case: Silverstone - ML04B HTPC Case  ($92.00 @ Umart) 
Optical Drive: Pioneer - BDR-209DBK Blu-Ray/DVD/CD Writer  ($85.00 @ Shopping Express) 
Wireless Network Adapter: *Edimax - EW-7822PIC PCI-Express x1 802.11a/b/g/n/ac/ad Wi-Fi Adapter  ($59.00 @ PCCaseGear) 
Other: Hauppauge Win TV QUAD HD TV Tuner ($199.00)
Total: $1217.00
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
*Lowest price parts chosen from parametric criteria
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-11-17 15:50 AEDT+1100

 

Budget is $500-1500 AUD (less is obviously better)

No peripherals needed (hoping to use the IR receiver included with the tuner card and CEC in Kodi to use existing remotes)

Needs to have WiFi to connect to my Plex server as Ethernet is not a viable option

OS is either going to be Windows with Kodi (using DVBLink or NextPVR to record) or Ubuntu with Kodi (using DVBLink to record)

 

Will a quad core with iGPU be sufficient for recording 4 simultaneous HD (probably h.264 or h.265) streams, or will I need to get a dedicated GPU?

 

Also, theoretically speaking, if I was to add a second tuner, what would I need to upgrade to record 8 simultaneous HD streams?

[A3r0Sp1k3]

1 minute ago, CUDA_Cores said:

What do you need an i7-7700K for? Get a cheaper CPU and buy a better graphics card. Also why do you think you will need to play 4 HD streams at the same time?

The 7700 (non K) came out of a parametric filter, and I would probably look at whether an i3/i5 could do the same if it was possible once I worked out how much power I needed.

 

I'm not against a graphics card, I just wanted to see if it was possible without having to buy one (and the extra heat/power usage that comes with it). Most of the parts here are totally changeable if you can think of a better way of doing it. 

 

And I need to record 4 streams to disk as they're already using all 3 tuners at once in their existing PVR. They'll only get watched one at a time though.

[CyberFern0]

29 minutes ago, A3r0Sp1k3 said:

I'm planning out a HTPC build for my parents centred around a TV tuner card so they can record their over the air shows, and I just wanted to get people's thoughts.

 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: *Intel - Core i7-7700 3.6GHz Quad-Core Processor  ($405.00 @ Umart) 
Motherboard: *MSI - H110M ECO Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard  ($69.00 @ Shopping Express) 
Memory: *Crucial - 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR4-2133 Memory  ($109.00 @ Shopping Express) 
Storage: *Crucial - MX300 525GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  ($199.00 @ Umart) 
Case: Silverstone - ML04B HTPC Case  ($92.00 @ Umart) 
Optical Drive: Pioneer - BDR-209DBK Blu-Ray/DVD/CD Writer  ($85.00 @ Shopping Express) 
Wireless Network Adapter: *Edimax - EW-7822PIC PCI-Express x1 802.11a/b/g/n/ac/ad Wi-Fi Adapter  ($59.00 @ PCCaseGear) 
Other: Hauppauge Win TV QUAD HD TV Tuner ($199.00)
Total: $1217.00
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
*Lowest price parts chosen from parametric criteria
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-11-17 15:50 AEDT+1100

 

Budget is $500-1500 AUD (less is obviously better)

No peripherals needed (hoping to use the IR receiver included with the tuner card and CEC in Kodi to use existing remotes)

Needs to have WiFi to connect to my Plex server as Ethernet is not a viable option

OS is either going to be Windows with Kodi (using DVBLink or NextPVR to record) or Ubuntu with Kodi (using DVBLink to record)

 

Will a quad core with iGPU be sufficient for recording 4 simultaneous HD (probably h.264 or h.265) streams, or will I need to get a dedicated GPU?

 

Also, theoretically speaking, if I was to add a second tuner, what would I need to upgrade to record 8 simultaneous HD streams?

Get atleast a gtx 970.

[BlueChinchillaEatingDorito]

15 minutes ago, A3r0Sp1k3 said:

The 7700 (non K) came out of a parametric filter, and I would probably look at whether an i3/i5 could do the same if it was possible once I worked out how much power I needed.

 

I'm not against a graphics card, I just wanted to see if it was possible without having to buy one (and the extra heat/power usage that comes with it). Most of the parts here are totally changeable if you can think of a better way of doing it. 

 

And I need to record 4 streams to disk as they're already using all 3 tuners at once in their existing PVR. They'll only get watched one at a time though.

A Core i5 should be plenty. An i7 seems way overkill for an HTPC even factoring that use case. 

[Zodiark1593]

28 minutes ago, CyberFern0 said:

Get atleast a gtx 970.

Why would a video card be needed? This is clearly not being built for gaming, and Kaby graphics can handle 4k HEVC video on it's own with ease.

[A3r0Sp1k3]

4 hours ago, Zodiark1593 said:

Why would a video card be needed? This is clearly not being built for gaming, and Kaby graphics can handle 4k HEVC video on it's own with ease.

I did see that when I looked at the specs of the Intel graphics, but I wasn't sure how many concurrent 1080i/50 videos it would be able to process.