Building Home Theatre PC , feedback and suggestions wanted

[MrCloudDenton]

Hello all, I'm new here just wanted to introduce myself. I'm 29 from New Zealand, I've got a few I.T/PC certifications but by no means an expert in every field and looking to learn a lot from what looks like a great forum.

I'm building a Home Theatre PC from stratch, I'm buying and puting together the components and sorting out the OS and software. And my brother who works at a commercial shelving factory will be using the equipment there to make a case.

I'm from New Zealand so everything needs to be able to be sent here. If any prices seem way to high it will be because of shipping.

$1 US is $1.16 NZ

The following are the components I've semi-decided on (wanting feedback).

It will boot to Xubuntu 14.04 with XBMC installed from the XBMC repository.

Parts:

Motherboard, Biostar A68I-350 DELUXE R2.0 (USB 3.0, AMD A68 Chipset, AMD E350 APU)

$116 NZ

Official Website
http://www.biostar.com.tw/app/en/mb/introduction.php?S_ID=618#dl
Shop
http://www.ebay.com/itm/BIOSTAR-A68I-350-DELUXE-R2-0-AMD-A68-DDR3-USB3-0-SATA3-W-AMD-E-350-Motherboard-/291122920208?pt=Motherboards&hash=item43c8473b10

RAM, Corsair Value Select DDR3

$42.02 NZ

Official Website
http://www.corsair.com/en/vs2gb1333d3
Shop
http://www.ascent.co.nz/productspecification.aspx?ItemID=379845

PSU, PicoPSU

Review
Shop, PSU Internal: $26 NZ
http://www.ebay.com/itm/DC-12V-12-5V-160W-high-power-Pico-PSU-MINI-ITX-ATX-Power-Supply-24pin-DC-ATX-/191108404121?pt=US_Power_Cables_Connectors&hash=item2c7ef2d399
Shop, PSU Brick: $43 NZ
http://www.ebay.com/itm/80W-AC-Adapter-For-PicoPSU-120-Pico-PSU-120-DC-Power-Supply-Charger-Cord-Cable-/121187331856?pt=US_Monitor_Power_Supplies&hash=item1c3753ef10

Wireless, ASUS Nano USB

$17.25 NZ

Official Website
http://www.asus.com/Networking/USBN10_NANO/
Shop
http://www.pbtech.co.nz/index.php?z=p&p=NETAS0110&name=ASUS-USB-N10-Nano-USB-Adapter-Wireless-N150-150Mbp

Flash Drive, Will be installed internally and have Liux OS on it, Adata USB 3.0

$20.10 NZ

Official Website
http://www.adata.com/index.php?action=product_feature&cid=1&piid=214&lan=en
Shop
http://www.elive.co.nz/adata-dashdrive-uv150-16gb-usb.php?ref=pricespy

Power Switch/LED, Generic

$1.05 NZ

http://www.ebay.com/itm/New-PC-Desktop-Case-ATX-Power-on-Reset-Switch-Cable-with-HDD-LED-Light-hv2n-/271323700304?pt=US_Power_Cables_Connectors&hash=item3f2c271c50

Generic USB Header to Port (for from USB port and internal Flash Drive)

$6.58 NZ X 2 = $13.16 NZ

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Single-USB-2-0-A-Female-to-Motherboard-9-Pin-Header-Female-Connector-Cable-12-/301143758962?pt=AU_CablesConnectors&hash=item461d911872

Total (before case) $278.58 NZ

 

[CTurbo]

How small are you wanting it to be? Would something like this not interest you?

PCPartPicker part list: http://nz.pcpartpicker.com/p/2ZWRa
Price breakdown by merchant: http://nz.pcpartpicker.com/p/2ZWRa/by_merchant/
Benchmarks: http://nz.pcpartpicker.com/p/2ZWRa/benchmarks/

CPU: AMD A4-4000 3.0GHz Dual-Core Processor ($63.88 @ Aquila Technology)
Motherboard: ASRock FM2A55M-HD+ Micro ATX FM2+ Motherboard ($79.34 @ PB Technologies)
Memory: Kingston HyperX T1 Series 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($66.18 @ Aquila Technology)
Total: $209.40
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-04-23 17:58 NZST+1200)

 

[MrCloudDenton]

Cheers for that, that site looks really promising, giving it a look now. PBTech is actually in my home city too.

I was hoping to have it really small, even 20cm square, Mini ITX is 17cmx 17cm.

I was going with a motherboard with a E350 APU as it is said to produce a lot less heat and can be used with a very small power supply and no case fan.

Would an A series APU require a case fan?

 

[CTurbo]

Yes that E350 is an ultra low watt(18w) mobile cpu. It's just a little weak. Unfortunately, that site doesn't really cater to what you're trying to do, and options are slim for NZ. That A4 would not require a case fan, but you may not find a miniITX mobo for it for a reasonable price there.

You should also see if you can find an A6-5200 cpu/mobo combo or the new A4 5350 with a AM1 mobo. Any of them would provide much stronger video playback.

Since you are going to have your case constructed for you, you could potentially use an old laptop cpu/mobo/RAM/hdd, and power cable. I've seen it done before. They make perfect little HTPCs.

 

[MrCloudDenton]

The E350 is a CPU and GPU on one chip and does seem to a lot more power than Intel Atom setups when it comes to displaying video and 2D, 3D graphics.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6pNCCk21Cv4 - HD Video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FBgu1KnTD4c - Gaming

I did just find someone who vouches for it admitting it definitely can't do 1080P flash video smoothly, that would be very annoying.

Me and my brother were considering making these HTPC's to sell, seems like a good idea considering where he works (has access to the machinery after hours) and my I.T background and Linux knowledge. So we would definitely use new parts, even though this first one is kind of a beta prototype.

 

[CTurbo]

The E350 is a CPU and GPU on one chip and does seem to a lot more power than Intel Atom setups when it comes to displaying video and 2D, 3D graphics.

All of the cpus I've mentioned here have integrated graphics just like that E350. I agree that they are way better at video playback than the Intel Atoms.

 

[MrCloudDenton]

AMD calls the E350 an APU, it's not simply a CPU and GPU fixed on the same motherboard there both together physically on the same die.

AMD seems to think it's more than a marketing term, "dedicated level GPUs" that use system ram with a much lower latency.

I'm guessing your more knowledgeable than me about this kind of thing, do "APUs" have an advantage over traditional CPU / integrated GPU combinations.?

 

[CTurbo]

APU is nothing more than a fancy term AMD uses to describe their cpu with integrated graphics. They are no different than an Intel i3 4130 except AMD made graphics power a higher priority than processing power.

The only advantage that AMD's A series cpus have is that they can provide a light-medium gaming experience without the need for a discrete video card which cuts down on price, room, heat, and power consumption. Incidentally, they make awesome HTPCs because of this. Their higher priced A10s like the A10-7850 will get outperformed by the traditional cpu/discrete video card combinations in the same combined price range.

 

[MrCloudDenton]

Just looking around at benchmarks etc (and have done in the past) and that seems to be the consensus.

The potential is there though, CPU and GPU sharing the same memory at very low latencies. It's what Playstation 4 does.

 

[MrCloudDenton]

From what I can tell my biggest issue with using an E350 APU (I understand this is just a CPU and integrated GPU, but they are indeed combined and it's easier than saying E350 and Radeon HD 6310 every time). Is HD HTML5 video and HD Netflix which uses Silverlight.