HTPC for 1080p Streaming and Gaming

First: Cool project. HTPCs are fun.

But 500$ to game at maxsettings @ 1080p for the next 2 years is gonna be tough...

1tb WDD Green is definitely fine but if you have a NAS why not throw a small boot ssd into the HTPC to keep it cool/quiet and use the NAS for all that other stuff like storing movies and games? (as long as load time on games isn't too big of an issue)...

Also could you switch to RAID 5 on the synology? You'd see a vast performance increase...

I'd throw an i3 in for CPU as they seem to run pretty cool and do well in HTPC builds...but it isn't great for gaming, it's a lower powered CPU. i5 3570k for gaming in my opinion...

Thoughts:

Intel i5 3570k (~230$)
Gigabyte UD5h (~200$)
NVidia 650 (~120$)
Samsung 840 120g SSD (~100$)
BluRay Drive LG (~50$)
400W Corsair PSU ($50)

That build would be roughly $750 though...but it would play games pretty well and would be easily upgradable for a long time...

EDIT: I can be stupid...that doesn't include a HTPC case...but I really don't know much of those. Personally I don't actually use an HTPC. I run a big server (6x2tb in RAID) with 4Gb/s link aggregation to run ATV 3s (with gigabit lan) throughout the house for serving up any media...

The server is programmed to auto rip and tag any inserted optical disks (blurays or dvds) and import them into itunes for the ATVs to see.

Pretty simple set up that does a great job simply serving media. As for gaming, if you've got a PS3 & XBox there, isn't that good enough for the TV gaming?

I don't game so maybe I don't understand, just curious.

Gotcha

Suggestion though - what if instead of swapping to a 4 bay NAS, you build a simple server for all your needs...? Should be roughly equal in price but much more versatile / customizable for your needs.

Yeah totally drop the bluray drive if you don't need it. I wouldn't run a HDD as the boot disk for your HTPC if you're also running a NAS since it'll be slower, louder, and hotter than just running a cheap SSD (i know they're not that cheap but they're definitely worth the money)...

If noise is a big concern, Noctua heatsyncs and case fans on their lowest settings should do wonders to keep the heat lower and the noise down. (I think noctua quotes 15dB which is about the noise of a running DVD player.)

From what I know, Netflix and Amazon only support 1080p streaming through certain cable providers/set-top boxes with wider support arriving in the coming months.

If I were re-doing the media setup at my house all over again, I'd do it slightly differently from what I have now and slightly differently from what you're talking about.

I'd create a centralized server with 6-10 terabytes of RAID (for the slight fault tolerance) plus a single 4tb drive as backup of the important family stuff. In the server I'd have a bluray reader and I'd setup the software to automatically rip and tag anything inserted into the drive.

Then I'd chose my central media server program. For me, I'd do itunes again just because everyone in my house uses iphones/ipads and ATVs are relatively cheap (although rather singularly focused).

I'd deploy an ATV3 to every room with a TV and run a "media" 450 5GHz "N" router for the TVs/ATVs and a separate router for all other home devices. That would require a server with 2 or more ethernet jacks (so you don't have to do fancy network trickery stuff).

Then I'd use my consoles for console gaming on the TV and forgo PC gaming on the TV all together.

But again, I don't understand the desire to PC game on the TV since I don't game...so maybe this entire suggestion is useless to you...

But again if it were me, ATVs for media consumption (ripped everything) & netflix, consoles for gaming, server programmed to rip and distribute all media.

Cool! Great to talk to someone who likes to toss ideas around instead of just wanting to be told they're right.

Totally hear you on the Synology stuff - never gotten much of a chance to play around with them but from what I've heard they're pretty great.

You're right about the ATV not being able to play MKV...boooooo apple...but if you're interested in the ATV route, I can walk you through my software setup.

Since MKV is just a container, I have Subler transcoding the Audio and stuffing it into the .m4v container. Takes maybe ~10 minutes on a 2 hour bluray rip and you end up with file tagged and transcoded for itunes/atv.

Plus if you run a separate wireless network (or if you could go wired that's better) for your atvs, you could have 3 or 4 streaming full bluray quality .m4v's without any stuttering or buffering.

Man, this is some really cool info. Where can I get more info on this type of setup?