[SOLVED] New HTPC recommendation

baj1

Distinguished
Oct 30, 2010
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0
18,510
Hello,

I’m looking for recommendations for a new Home Theater PC. We currently have an HP P7-1080T i5 2.5GHz doing the job:
https://support.hp.com/us-en/document/c02836912

It has worked very well for the last 9 years, but is starting to act up. I suspect as a result of being powered-on 24x7 that entire time.

In looking at existing Desktop Tower options, the biggest problem I’m having is finding something reasonably priced that has 4x internal drive bays. In our P7-1080T I have a Blueray optical drive, and SSD OS drive and 3x 3.5 SATA HDDs for media. The SSD is secured with a zip tie, not too worried about as the box is in our entertainment center and doesn't really move around at all.

It doesn’t need to be a crazy high performance system as the i5 was getting it done, although I was leaning towards an i7 CPU.

Here’s the “form” info from the sticky:

Approximate Purchase Date: next month

Budget Range: $500-$1000

System Usage from Most to Least Important:
Home Theater PC
-Recording from tuners
-Running Comskip in the background
-Acting as a NextPVR server to NMT and Kodi Clients
-DVD/Blueray player

Are you buying a monitor: No

Parts to Upgrade: everything but mag/optical drives

Do you need to buy OS: Yes – Windoze 10

Preferred Website(s) for Parts: no preference

Location: City, State/Region, Country: Minneapolis, MN, USA

Parts Preferences, by brand or type: I prefer Intel CPU but not required. I was looking at i7’s. I have had good luck with HP desktops and laptops, but am open to recommendations.

Overclocking: No

SLI or Crossfire: No

Your Monitor Resolution: 65” TV, HDMI, 1920x1080 for now, going to 4K eventually, but could upgrade video card at that time.

Additional Comments: Need three to four (3 to 4) internal drive bays and 4 SATA connections (5 if optical drive is SATA). I would like a quiet PC.

Software: Windohs 10, NextPVR. Comskip

Why Are You Upgrading: My current HTPC is 9 years old and is acting up - slow response and needing more frequent reboots. Probably time for a software wipe and rebuild, plus Windohs 7 support is ending and if I have to reinstall everything from scratch anyway….

Include a list of any parts you have already selected with descriptively labeled links for parts: Existing Blueray optical drive, 3.5” SATA Harddrives = 4TB, 5TB and 8TB, USB Wireless keyboard and touchpad, 65” TV
 
Solution
This will do the job well...
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OXdCQwDVUZA

The SSD is for your Windows boot drive.

PCPartPicker Part List

Type|Item|Price
:----|:----|:----
CPU | AMD Ryzen 5 2600 3.4 GHz 6-Core Processor | $114.99 @ Amazon
Motherboard | MSI B450M PRO-VDH MAX Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard | $83.98 @ Newegg
Memory | G.Skill Ripjaws V 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3600 Memory | $79.99 @ Newegg
Storage | Silicon Power A80 256 GB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive | $41.99 @ Newegg
Video Card | Asus Radeon RX 570 4 GB ROG STRIX Video Card | $119.99 @ Amazon
Case | Silverstone GD06B HTPC Case |...
This will do the job well...
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OXdCQwDVUZA

The SSD is for your Windows boot drive.

PCPartPicker Part List

Type|Item|Price
:----|:----|:----
CPU | AMD Ryzen 5 2600 3.4 GHz 6-Core Processor | $114.99 @ Amazon
Motherboard | MSI B450M PRO-VDH MAX Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard | $83.98 @ Newegg
Memory | G.Skill Ripjaws V 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3600 Memory | $79.99 @ Newegg
Storage | Silicon Power A80 256 GB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive | $41.99 @ Newegg
Video Card | Asus Radeon RX 570 4 GB ROG STRIX Video Card | $119.99 @ Amazon
Case | Silverstone GD06B HTPC Case | $159.97 @ Amazon
Power Supply | Corsair CXM (2015) 450 W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-modular ATX Power Supply | $58.54 @ Amazon
Operating System | Microsoft Windows 10 Home OEM 64-bit | $109.99 @ Newegg
| Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts |
| Total | $769.44
| Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-01-14 01:15 EST-0500 |
 
Solution

baj1

Distinguished
Oct 30, 2010
4
0
18,510
Prebuild PC wont give you good value for money.
I can believe that, especially on a component-for-component spec compare or if resale is a consideration. But I bought my P7-1080T for $400 and it did everything I needed it to do for less than $50/yr. That's a win in my book. It will be interesting to see how the same software works on new hardware though.
 
I can believe that, especially on a component-for-component spec compare or if resale is a consideration. But I bought my P7-1080T for $400 and it did everything I needed it to do for less than $50/yr. That's a win in my book. It will be interesting to see how the same software works on new hardware though.
Softwares have become more demanding since then. Also, that GPU can handle 4k viewing easily.
Also, if you manage to get a Windows license cheap or activate it later on, you can save around $100 there. Should not affect performance...
https://www.howtogeek.com/244678/you-dont-need-a-product-key-to-install-and-use-windows-10/

Heres a cheaper version that should work equally well...

PCPartPicker Part List

Type|Item|Price
:----|:----|:----
CPU | AMD Ryzen 5 3400G 3.7 GHz Quad-Core Processor | $144.99 @ Amazon
Motherboard | MSI B450M PRO-VDH MAX Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard | $83.98 @ Newegg
Memory | G.Skill Ripjaws V 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3600 Memory | $79.99 @ Newegg
Storage | Silicon Power A80 256 GB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive | $43.99 @ Newegg
Case | Silverstone GD06B HTPC Case | $159.97 @ Amazon
Power Supply | Corsair CXM (2015) 450 W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-modular ATX Power Supply | $58.54 @ Amazon
| Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts |
| Total | $571.46
| Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-01-14 04:52 EST-0500 |
 
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