Assassin's Hardware Guide

[recordingpro]

Hey Assassin,

Just bought your guides. They are awesome! Is your input device list up to date?

Also, I've tried both XBMC and WMC/MB, but I'm torn between them. Is there any way you can help me settle on one or the other? Or maybe I need to use both. My problem with MB is the lack of subtitle support, but I like the game emulation support. XBMC handles subtitles quite nicely, but doesn't appear to have game emulation support. What gives...can you fix me?

I did notice you had a solution for the subtitle thing in MB. I might give that a try. I really wanted to be able to pick one of your guides and go with it from start to finish, but I can't make up my flippin mind. Fix me...

Oh! and I really like that Aeon skin for XBMC

 

[Crittias]

Guide is great. I'm hoping to see a Haswell refresh on it. Friend of mine is itching to build a media center/light gaming rig, and this guide could serve him well.

 

[4Flat4Life]

This is a link to my free hardware guide which I try to keep as updated as possible. In the near future I hope to post an abbreviated version of this guide here at Anandtech.

Enjoy!

http://assassinhtpcblog.com/?page_id=160

Amazing! answered a lot of questions for me!

 

[Yamada]

Link don't work. Might want to fix it.

 

[SpeedKing]

Is the blog down?

 

[smitbret]

Down here, too

both assassinserver.com and assassinhtpcblog.com

 

[Lerner227]

Link is working for me as of 8/25/14.

 

[waterjug]

90% of links dead

 

[AssassinHTPC]

Apologize about the delay. We've been updating a lot of things lately.

Blog should be back up and running with a new guide on Integrating Next PVR with Kodi and windows 10.

We should be releasing a new hardware guide soon with some key highlights on low priced extenders and all-in one units!

 

[AssassinHTPC]

Also,
If anyone is building any HTPC's soon please IM me so I can give back to the Anandtech community!

 

[AssassinHTPC]

Updated for 2016!

Assassin HTPC Hardware Guide

 

[smitbret]

Assassin, I have been following both your guides for a few years now. They are fantastic. I just did a cursory glance through the new link and noticed PeerBlock as a security recommendation. I had used it several years ago but it seemed to kind of just lose it's viability over time. You didn't mention much about it in depth so I was curious if you could provide a little deeper explanation as to what makes it valuable.

 

[assassin24]

smitbret,
You are correct. It has lost a lot of viability. So much that it is in fact "almost" not really contributing much to security, or your protection.

However with that said, its small, pretty harmless, and even if its 1% effective (which is a pretty true statement now), its better than 0%.

The best protection will always be VPN.

 

[smitbret]

I use a VPN, now, so it would be safe to say I wouldn't benefit from PeerBlock at this point.

 

[assassin24]

Correct!

 

[Charlie98]

Thank you for the update!

With the demise of WMC, I know a few of us are looking for other alternatives, particularly Linux- (or Ubuntu) based. As soon as I get some time, I'll be going back through your tutorial.

 

[VeryCharBroiled]

Apologize about the delay. We've been updating a lot of things lately.

Blog should be back up and running with a new guide on Integrating Next PVR with Kodi and windows 10.

We should be releasing a new hardware guide soon with some key highlights on low priced extenders and all-in one units!

thats cool. i run kodi with nextpvr and a hauppauge colossus that runs my dish box. nothing special its based on an old e8400 build from 2009 thats still trucking though. vista32, HD7750, 4 gigs, ssd, nas storage. been running 24/7 for like 6 years now with the various upgrades. meets my humble needs

 

[piasabird]

I was building a new PC to use for viewing video on some of my web pages like Hulu and Korean sites like
https://www.viki.com/
http://www.tiveee.com/indexMain.html

I decided to use a Themaltake V1 case. It is a small and well layed out ITX Cube case with a 200 mm fan in the front. It is kind of pushing the cuteness factor also. One interesting thing about this case is the front, the back, both sides and the top and bottom panels can all be removed. Also the top and the two sides are exactly the same size and interchangeable. Then they put 2 drive mounts on the right hand side of the case that are removable that can be used for 3.5 or 2.5 SSD drives. If that is not enough room for drives you could go with the MATX version of this case called the V21. It is the same overall design but has more room for drives. Of course many new ITX motherboards come with M.2 SSD drive slots on the bottom. No DVD or optical drive access. Power supply mounted below the motherboard for good cable routing and room above the motherboard for most standard sized CPU coolers. Thermaltake makes another versiou of V1 called the F1 which has a flat front instead of a mesh front.

Here are some links to these cases. You might be better off looking at computer cases on Youtube. I love the unboxing videos and build videos they have.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...4&cm_re=THERMALTAKE_V1-_-11-133-260-_-Product

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...6&cm_re=THERMALTAKE_F1-_-11-133-297-_-Product

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...&cm_re=thermaltake_v21-_-11-133-274-_-Product

I will let you know how this works out.

 

[piasabird]

I also ordered and tested a new USB2 Edimax AC 600 dual band wireless adapter. I bought it because it was small and cheap for an older build. I found it works great. I stream videos with it.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833315132

It comes with the drivers on a mini-cdrom disk. I had to load the drivers onto a USB2 flash drive to put them on my old windows 7 computer. It works great.

I purchased this for $15.99.

I live in a small brick ranch house with a basement and the Router is in the basement.