I've used home theater PC's since the latter part of the 90's when I had my first big Mitsubishi HDTV and needed somehow to upscale non HD since at that point, cable providers had no HD availability and such.
I've gone through the Windows Media Center years, and have a lot of things that I had recorded while I had media center, as well as my own rips and other downloads.
I had an Alienware X51 that I had tossed when it went bad, and replaced with a very wonderful tiny form factor HP Pavilion (the little windows version of their streaming box). But that didn't do well with newer versions of windows...
I'm currently using an Intel NUC, the 7th gen i5 model from last year, NUC7i5BNK. I've got just 8 GB of memory in it since this is just a media center PC, I don't surf the web, use any programs, or even stream with this - straight files off my Synology NAS, and my Logitech home security program is all that runs on here. I don't even bother with the Plex and such anymore, I've found my life is much simpler simply having shortcuts to folders on the NAS and going to movies, TV shows, videos, etc...
But this NUC is being a bit of a pain, even after a total nuke and rebuild a month or two ago using more current drivers. It just struggles on some of the 4k content, and I even have issues with sound dropping randomly for a second or so on other 1080 or even SD content.
I usually use MPC-HC or VLC to play back my videos (since they both bitstream and I have an Atmos Sony STR-DN1080 receiver with atmos speakers).
I'm ready to just get something better designed, but since I don't use this for gaming (I have many consoles for that as well as an Oculus PC system) I am having some issues trying to find what would be a good setup.
I reached the point of simply figuring to keep it simple, I'd grab an Alienware Alpha R2. I had held off on one since they were still 6th gen processors and I had hoped they'd refresh. But I see now they're discontinued...
I want something small that I can keep up by the TV like my little NUC is, between my cable box and my XB1X. I even looked at the newer Hades Canyon NUC but that seems to have its own issues with 4k playback.
I don't mind building my own - built my first own PC back around '92, so it's nothing new. I just can't seem to find something that isn't excessive for the cost for my needs. I don't want to spend money to build a gaming system, just something to play back video files.
Anyone have any good suggestions for a small form factor case? I've had trouble finding something that would be small enough to work in my location, but still have enough room for some low profile graphics card.
I won't need it for blu ray or ANY disc playback - I use my XB1X for that as it supports all the 4k HDR and Atmos bitstreaming. So I won't need or want a disc of any sort on it.
And would I be better off with a small graphics card, even if just a low end AMD one? Or will the 8th gen Intel processors do better than the 7th gen has?
I'll ultimately want a board that supports two M2 drives, since I have one smaller 256GB one, and a newer WD 1 TB NVME Drive (WDS100T2X0C). So while I'll need to get all the other components, I won't need any drives.
I'm assuming I'd likely end up needing new RAM. So if I can manage everything else I'd need at $800 or under, I'd be a happy camper.
I could always redo my cabinet, and if I ended up with a case that was at least not any larger than an Xbox 1 S or X, I'd be able to redo things to fit it elsewhere... Just wouldn't be my first choice, although I know it may make my goal more realistic since I know that you pay a premium for small...
If anyone has any good suggestions, I'd greatly appreciate it.
John
I've gone through the Windows Media Center years, and have a lot of things that I had recorded while I had media center, as well as my own rips and other downloads.
I had an Alienware X51 that I had tossed when it went bad, and replaced with a very wonderful tiny form factor HP Pavilion (the little windows version of their streaming box). But that didn't do well with newer versions of windows...
I'm currently using an Intel NUC, the 7th gen i5 model from last year, NUC7i5BNK. I've got just 8 GB of memory in it since this is just a media center PC, I don't surf the web, use any programs, or even stream with this - straight files off my Synology NAS, and my Logitech home security program is all that runs on here. I don't even bother with the Plex and such anymore, I've found my life is much simpler simply having shortcuts to folders on the NAS and going to movies, TV shows, videos, etc...
But this NUC is being a bit of a pain, even after a total nuke and rebuild a month or two ago using more current drivers. It just struggles on some of the 4k content, and I even have issues with sound dropping randomly for a second or so on other 1080 or even SD content.
I usually use MPC-HC or VLC to play back my videos (since they both bitstream and I have an Atmos Sony STR-DN1080 receiver with atmos speakers).
I'm ready to just get something better designed, but since I don't use this for gaming (I have many consoles for that as well as an Oculus PC system) I am having some issues trying to find what would be a good setup.
I reached the point of simply figuring to keep it simple, I'd grab an Alienware Alpha R2. I had held off on one since they were still 6th gen processors and I had hoped they'd refresh. But I see now they're discontinued...
I want something small that I can keep up by the TV like my little NUC is, between my cable box and my XB1X. I even looked at the newer Hades Canyon NUC but that seems to have its own issues with 4k playback.
I don't mind building my own - built my first own PC back around '92, so it's nothing new. I just can't seem to find something that isn't excessive for the cost for my needs. I don't want to spend money to build a gaming system, just something to play back video files.
Anyone have any good suggestions for a small form factor case? I've had trouble finding something that would be small enough to work in my location, but still have enough room for some low profile graphics card.
I won't need it for blu ray or ANY disc playback - I use my XB1X for that as it supports all the 4k HDR and Atmos bitstreaming. So I won't need or want a disc of any sort on it.
And would I be better off with a small graphics card, even if just a low end AMD one? Or will the 8th gen Intel processors do better than the 7th gen has?
I'll ultimately want a board that supports two M2 drives, since I have one smaller 256GB one, and a newer WD 1 TB NVME Drive (WDS100T2X0C). So while I'll need to get all the other components, I won't need any drives.
I'm assuming I'd likely end up needing new RAM. So if I can manage everything else I'd need at $800 or under, I'd be a happy camper.
I could always redo my cabinet, and if I ended up with a case that was at least not any larger than an Xbox 1 S or X, I'd be able to redo things to fit it elsewhere... Just wouldn't be my first choice, although I know it may make my goal more realistic since I know that you pay a premium for small...
If anyone has any good suggestions, I'd greatly appreciate it.
John
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