The 2013 HTPC Build

I’m looking at building a similar project to this one, however, I’m looking to cut some costs. Would 4GB of RAM be enough instead of 8GB? I don’t plan on running games.

Does your HTPC support 3D Blue Ray (running from an ISO file)? Is the Pico-PSU powerful enough for this?

Do you run Windows on Linux on this box?

Thanks!

NAS for media storage.
RaspberryPi for streaming off the NAS.
Plug the Pi in the back of the NAS and it boots whenever the NAS powers on.

Add the Yatse Android app for remote control, call notifications, texts on screen and play pausing during calls, and you have a slick media center that is minimal on hardware and noise, but maxed on storage and functionality.

(And if you’re reading CodingHorror, you’re likely not one of the “I can’t set my stuff up!” peeps.)

I am starting to research to build my own HTPC. I want to run Windows 8.1 and XBMC, but I can’t imagine this little box runs it perfectly. Can you confirm it does, with no lag, hesitation, everything running super fast?

I am looking at the Silverstone SG05, but if I could squeeze real power into a box this size, that would be fantastic.

Leaving some notes here for the next build, as I move from Haswell to Skylake:

Looks like what I want is the Core i3-6100T:

  • Same 35w TDP
  • Much better integrated graphics
  • ~15% better performance overall

HD 4400 on Haswell

HD 530 on Skylake

Roughly 2x faster graphics for sure.

edit: order placed, one vendor on Amazon says they’ll have it in stock in late November. We’ll see… and yes, it is built! Short blog post to come.

Here is a funny comparison of very low end CPUs, including the i3-6100 and the i3-4130 (not the low power T variants, though) paired with a high end video card. In many cases the difference in game perf is tiny.

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