First htpc - review please

[Seahawk2000]

Approximate Purchase Date: This month
Budget Range: <$400 USD After Shipping
System Usage from Most to Least Important: Watch movies via Hulu, Netflix, and home server with ripped DVD/Blu-rays
Are you buying a monitor: No

Parts to Purchase:
Case and PSU: hec Black 0.7mm Thickness SECC Steel 7K09BBA30FNRX Micro ATX Media Center 300W Power Supply / HTPC Case ($59.99)
Replacement Fan: Nexus SP802512L-03 80mm Case Fan ($8.99)
Internal BD/DVD: ASUS Black 12X BD-ROM 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-ROM SATA Internal Blu-ray Drive Model BC-12B1ST/BLK/B/AS - OEM ($54.99)
Motherboard: ASRock A75M FM1 AMD A75 (Hudson D3) HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 Micro ATX AMD Motherboard with UEFI BIOS ($56.99)
Memory: G.SKILL NS 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666) Desktop Memory Model F3-10666CL9D-4GBNS ($19.99)
Processor: AMD A4-3300 Llano 2.5GHz Socket FM1 65W Dual-Core Desktop APU (CPU + GPU) with DirectX 11 Graphic AMD Radeon HD 6410D AD3300OJHXBOX ($49.99)
Hard Drive: Kingston SSDNow V+200 KR-S3020-3H 2.5" 120GB SATA III Internal 7mm Solid State Drive (SSD) (Stand-alone Drive) ($84.99)

I found 2 options for the remote control - one that uses the onboard CIR headers on the mobo and one that is more universal. Any thoughts appreciated.

Universal Option: Antec 30124 VERIS Basic Multimedia Station ($27.82)
ASRock Specific: ASRock Smart Remote Controller - SMART REMOTE ($25.99)

Do you need to buy OS: No
Preferred Website(s) for Parts: newegg.com, amazon.com
Location: North Carolina, USA
Parts Preferences: Favor higher cost if it means significantly improved reliability
Overclocking: No
Your Monitor Resolution: This will run on a 55 inch HDTV - 1080p

Additional Comments: Must be very quiet and quick booting. Must support full 1080 HD and Dolby 5.1/7.1. Will only be running the OS, anti-virus, firewall, and Windows Media Center on this box. Need advice on best possible remote control solution for full remote control via Logitech (posted 2 options above).

And Most Importantly, Why Are You Upgrading: Have been using Xbox 360 to date - need more control and functionality for improved user experience. Need to maintain remote control capabilities for WAF.

 

[Seahawk2000]

Anyone have any thoughts here? Good system, bad system, or general recommendations/thoughts on whether it will perform?

 

[zolton33]

Not sure why you would want an ssd in a htpc it will help to load windows faster for you and some programs. But i do not see how it would benefit you that much better over a regular hdd with a htpc. And most psus that come with cases are not very good. So not some thing i would trust and rely on. I personally would drop to a hdd and use the extra cash for a better quality psu and case.

 

[Seahawk2000]

Thank you. This is going to be hidden in the furniture holding the Tv. So the case was not a big deal for looks - so long as it was under 4.75" in height and had an external 5.25 and 3.5 bay (for DVD and remote module).

I like the psu suggestion - do I need a full 300w for this or can I get by with less?

Given the family will be powering this on and off (via remote hopefully) I was thinking the ssd would really help on boot. Or do remotes of this nature put the htpc into a hibernate mode and not a full power cycle so it will not actually be rebooting?

 

[Wolfshadw]

1) The case you have listed does not have a standard ATX power supply. Replacing it isn't an easy option.
2) The size limitation and external bay requirements really limits what cases are available.
3) The case you have listed only has 1 internal 3.5" drive bay. A single 120GB SSD is not going to hold a lot of ripped DVDs/Blu-Rays.

Personally, I don't see anything wrong with your build other than swapping the SSD for a larger mechanical drive. I wouldn't worry about the power supply as you're not going to be pushing it too hard.

Your remote control situation is a bit muddy. You mention in your original post that you want full remote control via Logitech. Is this to mean you already have a Logitech Remote control? If so, which one? Could be the only thing you really need is an IR Receiver.

-Wolf sends

 

[Seahawk2000]

Thanks. All ripped movies are on a nas - so I only need storage for the os and a few apps.

I am hoping to use the harmony one remote to control everything - as I already have one. I am fine with either remote solution - as long as it behaves like a standard remote would when programmed correctly (on/off, jump into app directly such as wmc or ie).

If the remotes actually power off the unit - wouldn't a ssd power on and boot much faster than a mechanical drive? Or do these remotes just put the box into hibernate mode or standby where a full boot is not going occur?

 

[Wolfshadw]

I'm not sure about powering on a PC from remote control. I know you can power it down completely (as I can do that with my MCE Remote). According to the guy in this thread, who actually recommends the Antec VERIS Basic, you can control the power using the Harmony Remote Controls. If the system completely shuts down, then yes, an SSD would allow for faster boot times.

-Wolf sends

 

[Seahawk2000]

I figured I would write back with the results. I built the system above as it is outlined and opted for the HP OEM IR Remote.

The system build was fairly straight forward; however, I did encounter an issue out of the gate where the mobo would not display video via HDMI or D-Sub. The system posted properly - but no video.

I had an old video card laying around and put that in. Viola - I had video. I upgraded the mobo bios - still no mobo video (note the old video card was still in at this point). I went ahead and installed Windows 8 anyway - just for the experience - figuring I would have to RMA the mobo.

As one last test - I removed my old video card - rebooted - and the onboard video started working properly via D-sub. I am not sure if the bios upgrade fixed it or Win 8 since I did not try removing the old video card until Win 8 was already installed.

This same behavior occured when I went to plug the htpc into my HDTV using HDMI vs the D-sub I used during installation. Again - on the first boot with HDMI - no video. So I did a hard restart and video worked without an issue.

Outside of that - the sytem works great. I can boot from completely off into Win 8 (auto-login) in under 5 seconds. It actually boots faster than my TV initializes - so the behavior is perfect - by the time the TV is on - the screen is already there.

I am still playing with the remote - but it does power off and power on the system. The default arrows navigate Win 8 metro without any issue and can enter the apps using the OK button. However, once in the apps - it seems to do nothing. It works perfect with Media Center (since that is what it was designed to do).

One item of note is with regard to disk space - in order to use the default Win 8 Music and Photo apps and access media (music, photos, etc) on central storage servers the system cache/offline settings have to be configured. This takes up a good deal of space on the local HD of the HTPC. I may buy another SSD for this to just house the cache as I already filled the system default limit and have less than half the media indexed. Or I could wait for a better app to come out.

Thanks again for the responses.