Help with HTPC

xcrunner25 · Nov 13, 2013

Hello everyone I'm new at this htpc building idea. I got the idea after seeing a friends last week and I thought I could build one. However with all the different parts I'm really confused. I was hoping for some help. I was going to list some of the parts and get some feedback from everyone about if that's too much for a htpc that will be used mainly for movies. I was going to try and add maybe some old SNES games later on in life. I do have a 7.1 Yamaha receiver and I plan on hooking it HDMI to my TV.

So here:
Case:
nMEDIAPC Black Aluminum / Acrylic / Steel HTPC 6000B ATX Media Center / HTPC Case

Processor:
Intel Core i5-3450 Ivy Bridge 3.1GHz (3.5GHz Turbo) LGA 1155 77W Quad-Core Desktop Processor Intel HD Graphics 2500 BX80637I53450

Motherboard:
GIGABYTE GA-Z87N-WIFI LGA 1150 Intel Z87 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 Mini ITX Intel Motherboard
Item #: N82E16813128615

Ram:
G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL9D-4GBRL

Power Supply:
Unsure what to get because I will be hopefully ont day hooking 6 4tb internal hard drives to the device

Graphic Card:
Unsure if I need one and not sure if which one to but if I do

Blu-Ray Burner:
SUS Black Blu-ray Burner SATA BW-16D1HT
Item #: N82E16827135306

Thanks for the help if you need anything else let me know.

nukemaster · Nov 13, 2013

For media playback, you do not need an extra video card, onboard should be ok.

Your case is very large for the size(but has space for the drives you want.) of board you are using, but those itx boards tend to be power friendly.

I do recommend 8gigabytes of memory if you can. It is not NEEDED, but if you happen to start using that system for other things the extra memory may come in handy.

A quality 350-450 watt power supply should run your system with power to spare.

ssddx · Nov 13, 2013

for standard htpc media duties like streaming and playing movies from the hard drive you do not need a video card. integrated can work.

snes emulators are ran by the cpu. the trouble is that many are single thread only so require a very and powerful cpu over one that is multi-core. even chips like the i7-920 (what i use.. albiet an older gen of the i7) have trouble running some emulators above 40fps. chips with stronger cores will run those better.

nukemaster · Nov 13, 2013

What are you emulating?

ssddx · Nov 13, 2013

well for old things such as snes... .just about any processor will work.

if he plans on anything like ps2 though it could be a different story.

nukemaster · Nov 13, 2013

ps2 and even N64 can be interesting depending on the game. I do not think they EVER perfected N64 emulators.

ssddx · Nov 13, 2013

the ps2 emulator isnt even perfect. its a bit laggy and only some games work. better than nothing though i suppose.

in any case the op just mentioned snes but i just threw it out there that in case they wanted more... perhaps it would be good to upgrade just a tad.

nukemaster · Nov 13, 2013

I remember beating all the DKC games on zsnes on a pentium 75mhz(no transparency, that KILLED performance and did not even exist at the time.).

It is just so much more easy than connecting the snes to a modern tv since the emulators also offer some filtering to make things look better. Snes controller to USB adapters are also easy to get.

ssddx · Nov 13, 2013

hmmm.... i could definitely go for some snes games maybe i'll have to get a rom. lots of classics.

shame that the ps2 emulator is such a hog and doesnt always work right. i find it easier to just have a ps2 (since all the good titles seem not to work with the emulator!).

xcrunner25 · Nov 14, 2013

nukemaster :

I dont have any games yet, nor do I know how to put these in the htpc. The only games I would be interested in are nes, sega, and snes. Im talking: F-Zero, Mike Tysons Punch-Out, Super Tecmo Bowl, Tecmo Bowl, Double Dragon, Sonic the Hedgehog, and etc.

Is the i5 processor to much, if so should I go down to the i3?

Sorry it takes me so long to respond I run a restaurant and Im at work alot.and late.
Joel

ssddx · Nov 14, 2013

if all you care about is nes, snes and sega....you dont really need a super powerfull cpu. having a better cpu would help you for some tasks since at times an i3 can act a bit slow but its useable. your choice.

if you did step down i would go with a new haswell chip for the new intel hd 4000+ integrated video. it would give you some more performance over ivy bridge at least. or you can go with an i5 haswell too if you want. since you will probably be using integrated this might be a good upgrade.

you arent going to be able to play games very well on integrated (emulators are driven by cpu so are exempt here) but it can handle video feeds just fine.

---------

short version:

what you have above would work fine.

i'd suggest looking into haswell since you dont need a video card.

but its not required. it would just give you a boost of performance which might make everything a bit more futureproof.

i3 is likely fine but go i5 if you think you might want to throw a gpu in and play games or if you intend to do anything serious.

Wolfshadw · Nov 14, 2013

While I agree with most of the comments by ssddx and nukemaster, I really don't like the idea of a Mini-ITX motherboard, when your case can easily handle a larger board. Your HTPC can be so much more, but if you don't have the available expansion slots, you're out of luck.

I never got around to installing an emulator on my HTPC, but it does handle live TV (Ceton InfiniTV4) as well as DVD/Blu-Ray movies.

-Wolf sends

nukemaster · Nov 14, 2013

Yeah, the 6 drives slightly kill of the idea of a small case to go with the small board. A good compromise may also be MATX. It can cost less than both itx(itx boards are a small portion of the market and sometimes over priced) and atx(sometimes not needing the extra expansion slots can save you a bit) in many cases. This is not to say they do not have expensive matx boards either.

I spent years of building only ATX systems(just fully loaded with hard drives), but have moved over to some smaller systems because hardware has become better and hard drives have become bigger.

If my cable provider had cable card support, I would be right with you on that cable card tuner. I still have to use a capture card + Cable box(but it does get the job done).

@ xcrunner25. With that much storage on the system you may also be able to get it to act as a NAS to store files for your other systems as well. I do not even have a hard drive in my main system any more, just 2 ssds for programs/games and all my files(documents/pictures/desktop/videos/ect) are on another system.

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