Looking to improve my media center.

[sourceninja]

I've been using a older mac mini with Plex as a media center hooked to my downstairs TV. The system is attached to some usb 3.0 Drives that store the bulk of my video content. I then stream over wireless N to roku 3 boxes around the house to get my content upstairs in the bedrooms.

Recently the mini stopped being able to reliably play a HD stream and has crashed a few times. The fan is constantly running at 100% and I suspect the heat sinks need to be reseated.

Rather than go to that trouble for an aging mini I figure it's time to build a new media center.

I'm looking to build something small enough to sit next to my TV and powerful enough to handle 1080p mkv files with real time transcoding via plex to devices that can't handle that stream.

I'm looking to run Ubuntu with plex on the media center. I'm wondering if this isn't a good time to look at the AMD APU technology like http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819113333 ?

I'm thinking the system should have about 8G of ram, a fast drive for the OS, and if possible a large 3tb drive for content (although I can keep that on the USB/firewire drive I'm using now). I'm looking for a small case that fits in well with my xbox and tv similar to http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811112361 . Any suggestions?

Maybe something like.

ASRock FM2A75M-ITX R2.0 FM2 AMD A75 (Hudson D3) SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 HDMI Mini ITX AMD Motherboard
$84.99

Crucial Ballistix Sport 16GB (2 x 8GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model BLS2KIT8G3D1609DS1S00
$129.99

AMD A10-6800K Richland 4.1GHz (4.4GHz Turbo) Socket FM2 100W Quad-Core Desktop Processor - Black Edition AMD Radeon HD 8670D
$149.99

Western Digital Scorpio Black WD7500BPKT 750GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 2.5" Internal Notebook Hard Drive
$84.99

LIAN LI Black Aluminum PC-Q12B Mini ITX Media Center / HTPC Case
129.99

Total: 579

 

[mnewsham]

I would say get a small SSD for the OS, then use external storage, cloud storage, or a large internal storage HDD, I wouldn't waste time with a WD black.

something like this
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820211601

Though you can choose whatever flavour of SSD suits you.

 

[escrow4]

Eh, A-data SDD's. If you want an SSD, get either Samsung first or Crucial second and forget the rest. I wouldn't build AMD now simply because A75 and A85 are dead ends. When shiny Kaveri hits in a few months you'll be completely stuck without yanking out the mobo and CPU.

Still that build would do it. I'd personally use a Samsung EVO 500GB/750GB over any HDD in this build. Plenty of room, dead silent, next to no heat.

 

[mfenn]

fFor an HTPC, I think I'd 100W CPU and 16GB of RAM for an OS SSD. I'd make the following changes:

A10-5800K $130
Team DDR3 1600 8GB $53
Samsung 840 EVO 120GB $100

 

[sourceninja]

I'm thinking of going intel with just to make sure I'm ok with linux drivers. The Intel 4600 graphics seems to have good linux support. Also, they run a bit cooler.

I'm also debating my case, trying to decide if I should go a bit bigger so I can keep all my storage internal.

 

[mfenn]

Fglrx does still kind of suck, I agree. Haswell graphics aren't super well supported either unless you're running absolutely bleeding edge stuff. The Ivy Bridge Core i3 3220 is not a bad choice at $115 AP though. Add a Mini-ITX H77 motherboard like the ASRock H77M-ITX for $100 and you are good to go for about the same as the AMD.

 

[sourceninja]

Fglrx does still kind of suck, I agree. Haswell graphics aren't super well supported either unless you're running absolutely bleeding edge stuff. The Ivy Bridge Core i3 3220 is not a bad choice at $115 AP though. Add a Mini-ITX H77 motherboard like the ASRock H77M-ITX for $100 and you are good to go for about the same as the AMD.

I kinda just came to the same conclusion and was coming here to post that. I'm also trying to lock down a case design. Do you think something like that could get by with one of the 120W pico power supplies?

Something like

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811108417

with a i3, a 128G ssd (or smaller), 8G of ram, and using a USB 3.0 enclosure for the media storage.

 

[LoveMachine]

Take a look at the Gigabyte BRIX systems. Small, low power, decent (but not high end) horsepower.

 

[mnewsham]

I kinda just came to the same conclusion and was coming here to post that. I'm also trying to lock down a case design. Do you think something like that could get by with one of the 120W pico power supplies?

Something like

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811108417

with a i3, a 128G ssd (or smaller), 8G of ram, and using a USB 3.0 enclosure for the media storage.

That would work, you would only really hit 90w as your peak. And the majority of the things you will be doing wont be taxing the system to 100%, i can't imagine you will be trying to do hard computing on this thing.

 

[mfenn]

That would work, you would only really hit 90w as your peak. And the majority of the things you will be doing wont be taxing the system to 100%, i can't imagine you will be trying to do hard computing on this thing.

Agree 120W is plenty for an i3 with no GPU (and no crazy HDD array).

 

[sourceninja]

Planning on ordering parts this weekend. I was going to get them a few days ago, but my wife though out the option of building a SFF gaming PC for the living room instead using the TV w/ Steam big picture.

So I"m toying with that. I still think I'm going the media center route however.