Choosing parts for a HTPC. Help please.

[Hateshinai]

I am trying to build a small HTPC to use via HDMI with my livingroom TV but have next to no idea about what parts to use. I don't have much free space in the TV unit (20cm high, 55cm deep, 55cm wide). I'm going for functional rather than fancy.
I want something that would allow me to watch HD movies without hassle, play emulators (mostly MAME) and ideally let me play Street Fighter 4 and Street Fighter X Tekken with decent settings.

For now I have established that I want a Blu-Ray drive, HDMI out, 60GB SSD for the OS, 2TB HHD for storage. No fancy sound since I will only use the TVs speakers or headphones.
I have 600 euros "free" for parts from my job and I don't mind throwing in another 100-200 from my pocket on top of that.

My first problem is choosing a CPU, ideally something with a decent integrated GPU to keep the size/noise down. I might be adding a dedicated graphic card some time next year if I need to.
So what CPU would you guys suggest? Nothing too powerful please. Just something to take care of the things I listed above. AMD or INTEL? What model?

[gtmtnbiker]

In this thread, I have pictures of my HTPC. I got a lot of my knowledge by reading the HTPC sub-forum over at avsforum.com. Another good area is http://www.thegreenbutton.tv/forums/

I used an i3 which has the Intel HD2000 graphics. It works great, no issues. It also has support for 3D graphics. The problem with HTPC is that HTPC styled cases are not cheap and almost never discounted. My desktop PC, I was able to score a good case for around $25 after rebate. My Silverstone case was $95.

If you're going to do any streaming, you should have a wired connection. Wireless is too unreliable to have stutter-free streaming.

I also spent a lot of money on a nice power supply (Seasonic 400FL) for $130. It's fan-less and it's modular (you plugin only cables that you'll need). You don't need to get that but be sure to get a good brand.

I have 8GB of memory in mine but 4GB will be fine but you'll find that the incremental cost is not that much more.

On top of my HTPC, I have the HP USB Media Center IR Wireless Receiver. This receives commands from my remote and works well with Windows Media Center.

I also recommend MCE Standby Tool. This monitors the HTPC and will put it to sleep when it's not in use. My HTPC is always sleeping unless it wakes up to record.

I have Verizon FIOS Cable so I put a Ceton InfiniTV cable-card tuner so that I can record stuff off cable.

I also have a 120GB SSD and would recommend the same for you because it's not going to be much more than a 60GB SSD. SSD prices have come down a lot in the past month.

The most complicated part of the HTPC is choosing the motherboard since there are a lot of choices. First choose your CPU. Then choose your motherboard which supports the CPU and has the features you want. Make sure you get micro-ATX because that's usually the form used by HTPC cases. Smaller cases will use mini-ITX.

I've used ASUS & Gigabyte motherboards. No issues with either vendor.

[gtmtnbiker]

Regarding the size constraint issue you have, I suggest looking at the dimensions of the case.

My case has a height of 6" which is 15.24cm and a width of 17.3" which is 44cm will fit into your cabinet. Just make sure you look at the dimensions of the case before buying it.

[bj79]

Get an AMD or Intel CPU that is at least dual core and has low power requirements 45watts. the most inexpensive i3 or AMD will work fine. Even an older Athlon x2. If your CPU doesent have integrated CPU then get a low profile passively cooled and hd4,5,or 6 series. you do not need much memory 2gb minimum.

Keep it as quiet and small as possible this means a gpu that is passively cooled and low power components. a micro ATX .motherboard is recommended.

To play back your movies Use Media Browser with Media Player Classic as the player and stream your movies from another PC or server. Or use XBMC or My Movies.

[Hateshinai]

gtmtnbiker, I love what you did to that room.

I have no intention of streaming media from another PC, just play movies off the HDD. I have found several cases that take microATX boards that will suit my needs.

Somebody suggested an Intel G840 CPU as suitable for my needs. What do you guys think about it? Would it be good enough for some gaming?

[gtmtnbiker]

Somebody suggested an Intel G840 CPU as suitable for my needs. What do you guys think about it? Would it be good enough for some gaming?

For gaming, the GPU is most important. What kind of gaming are you looking to do? If you are doing older games, then it should be fine.

I only use my HTPC for video watching so I can't comment on gaming. Assassin from avsforum.com has a blog site with some free guides. Here's one that discusses hardware selection

The G840 is fine as long as you don't want to watch 3D movies.

Personally, I think you should stick with integrated graphics in order to keep the power consumption (and heat) down especially if it's in an enclosed space.

[Hateshinai]

I have no intentions of watching 3d movies. As regards gaming I wil mostly use it to play MAME and 16 bit era games with my kids. I will probably play some older PC games as well. The ability to play SF4 would be ideal but it does not really matter that much.

[Zing]

If you don't care about the "older PC games" part, I'd suggest a Mac Mini. Install Plex, buy a Harmony remote and you are done.

I've been using one as my HTPC for four years now and they work perfectly. Plex is amazing software, and it works natively with the Logitech Harmony remotes, which also work out of the box since Mac Minis have infrared sensors. The Mini has native VNC support if you need to remotely access the desktop. It also has hardware acceleration for video, so you can play 1080p files without any stress.

I also have a torrent and nzb client on the system, so the computer is completely stand-alone. I just upload nzb/torrent files from any other computer and the Mini downloads the files, then Plex detects them automatically, adding them to the library.

I just noticed you said you wanted a blu-ray drive. It's your choice how you get your movies, but I will say that virtually any movie you would ever want is in pretty much any format on usenet, from DVD to full 1080p blu-ray.

[Hateshinai]

I know that having a Blu-Ray drive is not really necessary but I have the collector-hoarder mentality and I prefer to have the movies I really love in a physical format. Especially if they come in a nice box...

[isiolia]

There's also the matter of usenet not exactly being particularly legal

Unless you're really set on it doing everything though, you could just use a stand-alone Blu-ray player. I use my HTPC for a lot, but it's just got an old DVD drive in it that rarely gets used (usually just playing DVDs for Rifftrax if anything). I use my PS3 to play discs, and use the HTPC for streaming or file playback.

I haven't tried much gaming on mine, mostly due to it being older and using minimal moving parts to keep noise down. I've considered doing a bit more with it in that regard when I do upgrade it, but it works just fine for most everything else right now. Athlon X2 4850e and a GeForce GT430. The integrated Radeon HD3200 is mostly fine as well, but only does stereo audio over HDMI and so on. I've used it off and on, along with a couple other discrete cards.

Offhand, the main performance issue for doing video stuff these days is 10-bit encodes, increasingly common for anime fansubs, as no video cards (last I saw) had hardware decoding for them. With those, a decent Intel CPU is probably preferable, at least i3s, perhaps lower end i5 to be safe. If that's not an issue, then the G840 is fine, though personally I'd probably spring for an i3 (at least) anyway.