New to HTPC's - Is this a good start?

[BlueWeasel]

I'm new to HTPC's. We currently use a Roku 3 to stream everything and we love it. Cut the cord recently and couldn't be happier.

There is someone on another forum selling a HTPC for $140 with the following specs:

• Gigabyte GA-H61N-USB3 MB
• i3-3225 3.3 GHz (Ivy Bridge)
• 8GB DDR3
• 64GB SSD boot drive
• Silverstone GD05 case
• No OS (would probably put Win10 on it with Kodi)

Was thinking about getting it and adding a large drive for media storage. Primary uses would be for streaming, Kodi, etc. I'm not about to start ripping DVDs or BRs to this thing. Was kinda thinking it would be serve both as a HTPC and NAS.

I know the CPU is fairly old but I don't think I need anything faster. Is this a decent setup for a first time, fairly simple HTPC?

 

[XavierMace]

By the sound of it your Roku is handling all your media functionality just fine, all you're looking to do is add a NAS. If that's all you're looking for, you'd probably be better off just getting a retail NAS unit.

 

[Lewy]

The I3-3225 is fine and pretty fast too, the case is great and so it the 8gb of ram. The motherboard is good with a decent audio chip but only two iinternal sata connections and one external one I use mine on a living room w7 system (asrock z77-itx) with WMC and Kodi tied into a Silicone Dust HDhomerun attached to Verizon cable and an stx sound card.
It's more than fast enough and you can add an external HD for storage (Avoid failure prone Seagate externals) A good starter that comes with a great case for future builds, W10 and Kodi is a good choice as the new Kodi (V17.2 I think) is getting to be powerful and fun. I still use W7 for WMC on my three HTPC's.because of DRM rights etc.but I like W10 otherwise. I'd make them an offer but consider shipping costs in it?

 

[Lewy]

You could build your own, I do have an Asrock n3700-itx in my bedroom an it works well but: this looks better:

http://www.nerd-monkey.com/test-7-asrock_j4205_itx_test_apollo_lake_with_hdmi_2.0_and_10_bit_hevc



$100 on Newegg. 20-30% faster than my n3700??



Looks great for a silent 4k capable HTPC on the cheap

 

[nitsuj3580]

I've been using the same i3 chip for the past 5 years as my HTPC for our main TV in the house. I am in the process of re-purposing it to a NAS since I went from using WMC with two HDHomerun Primes to PlayStation Vue (wish their was a Vue app for Windows but doesn't look like it's happening) for TV watching. I'm just trying to decide what OS to use. I think it's between Windows with DrivePool or UnRaid.

 

[Thebobo]

You could build your own, I do have an Asrock n3700-itx in my bedroom an it works well but: this looks better:

http://www.nerd-monkey.com/test-7-asrock_j4205_itx_test_apollo_lake_with_hdmi_2.0_and_10_bit_hevc



$100 on Newegg. 20-30% faster than my n3700??



Looks great for a silent 4k capable HTPC on the cheap

Nice write up looks tempting.