Cheapest ever HTPC that's decent. Proud of myself. - Page 2

Fulfilling in the sense that you don't ever have to wonder, "what if...?" I agree. Again, if this is your main source of income, you're a time bomb waiting to happen.

And if its not your main source of income its still a time bomb. And then you go to jail for something that wasn't worth the risk.

I am sorry. I just can't see your argument at all.

Its fulfilling because you just built someone the best product you could for the money. Not because of the legal reasons.

Yeah, I have tried to setup linux for non-tech people and it really doesn't work out.

Backing up movies that you legally purchased might not be meeting the user agreement with the company but I wouldn't say its unethical.

First, I'm not trying to argue the point for piracy, it was simply an option worth mentioning. Second, are you serious about going to jail? Yould be slapped with a meager fine (plenty of court cases to validate this). Also, big companies
like Microsoft aren't going to waste the dollars on small time pirates. They're going after the Internet providers and torrent sites. I respect and applaud your decision to always use legit copies of software you use, but don't say things that you are simply speculating on.

Never said unethical. I said its illegal.

Like it or not (or agree with it or not) it is illegal.

You can thank Hollywood and our government for that law.

That you could go to jail for doing something illegal like knowingly and willingly selling pirated software in the United States of America?

I don't think that's speculative at all. Maybe not likely but its definitely a possibility.

30 second google search...


I think I will pass on selling pirated software .

Are you from the states? Do you understand what a civil case entails? No company in their right mind is going to try and take a bunch of pirates one-at-a-time to court. Also, just because you googled and found the maximum penalty that can be applied for given law, doesn't mean it's upheld. Again, look up the many cases that have already been tried here in the US.

So help me out here. Exactly how does this build qualify to be an HTPC with out a Blu-ray drive? Seriously.

External. Drive on another machine. Etc.

Well for starters where does it say an HTPC has to have bluray?

Of my 4 HTPCs only 1 has a bluray. No need to have drives in all of them.

Does anyone remember Jammie Thomas-Rasset who was sued by the RIAA? I wouldn't take the chance on selling a PC with pirated OS.

It plays movies, music, TV, other home theater stuff. Heck, my main rig does not have a bluray drive full-time on it and i'm watching TV on it right now. It sure looks like an HTPC to me!
For blurays, i rip with makemkv on my secondary non htpc, bluray drive equipped drive.

Easy.
All my blu-rays are ripped and sit on my unraid server.

Good grief....this isn't 2004....I don't actually 'touch' physical media when I want to watch something...(shudder)...

I fought with Windows 8 last week when I decided to swap out my hard drive for a SSD.
I had the great idea I'd save my windows 7 license and use Windows 8....fail.

8 loaded perfectly, booted extremely fast, was working smooth as can be, and had a nice big interface for when I wasn't in the XBMC GUI.
Sadly, I almost threw the whole rig out into the street after the hours of frustration I went through trying to get the audio to work correctly.
Win 8 would insist on loading the windows audio driver and ignore my catalyst driver I repeatedly tried to get to work. It kept saying I only had a 2 channel capable system. I was up to 3am fighting it before I gave in and just loaded win 7 on it.
That said, there are posters on the XBMC forum using 8, so I may give it another go sometime.

Well, it probably isn't the most ethical way to do it but I got a Windows 7 from my little cousin who was going to college.
I think it was about $30 at the time with the student discount.....

Other than that the cheapest I have seen is a 3 pack deal for 119 or something like that.

Great builds guys! I love to see people pushing the envelope with what can be accomplished with a limited budget. Hell I even see more cuts/subsitutions that can occur. To start, I would sell off that junk PSU that came with the enclosure for $15-20 to some unsuspecting ebayer... I absolutely do not trust low tier PSU's since I've had a few experiences where they took out other components when they malfunctioned (no thank you). I would pick up one of the $15-20 Corsair 400W units that usually floats by during the year (I usually buy one if I don't already have one on hand if I see the deal). Next I would cut the memory in half because for my HTPC uses, I only need 4GB. Find a nice $10-20 AR 4GB deal on newegg and you're golden. Finally the SSD, since I base most of my HTPC's around network attached storage... there isn't much of a need for a SSD that's capable of fast large file transfers or storage in general... I'd cut it down a 64GB SSD, something that's below $1/GB. Even then I've been able to get away with 32 and 40GB drives although their price/GB ratio wasn't as good. With those adjustments right there, you could potentially knock off quite a bit more cash.

Regardless, great job on piecing together that budget build. Next I want to see similar specs but at the $200 price point .


Lol lets break down the term HTPC: Home Theater Personal Computer. Where the heck are you getting the disc drive requirement from?!?!?!? I have a bluray drive in mine... I've used it maybe twice. What a waste of money. I rip everything to my server and call it a day... getting up to change discs is too much work for me .


You have absolutely no argument here and I think you were just dragging it out for the sake of dragging it out. Bottom line piracy is bad and it is never ok to sell pirated software even if you aren't charging for it (just including it). Even though it might not actually be affecting consumer's pricing... these companies will continue to use it as an excuse to keep their prices where they are. You're just feeding their greed.

Wow it's easy to make it look like someone said something when they really didn't. You sir must be a master of the internet. Maybe you should type up a tutorial and post it here on AVS.

You're quoting and laughing at yourself now?

I get what Willie is saying, the poster should have put up a notice that said something like: "bare minimum network HTPC with linux". So us noobs with one HTPC don't get confused and sad that we spent so much money for our statup systems

You will have to purchase/have already purchased some or all of these to enjoy the HTPC:
OS
network/external tuner
mouse + keyboard
remote
storage drive
Optical Drive
various software licenses

I commend the OP for putting together a working list of low-cost items. This is a very attractive option. It seems like you essentially shaved $100 off my build, the only drop in quality was the processor from an i3. But a 25% decrease in cost for the essential hardware components is huge.

Great, every f*cking thread here is going to be about whether or not something is illegal, immoral or piracy.

@StardogChampion
You may want to edit this post to remove the obscured profanity. I was recently served an infraction from an AVS mod for "inappropriate language" when I posted an obscured profanity.

My infraction notice came by PM, and read as follows:




All it takes is someone reporting your post to the mods...

Just an FYI for everybody.

@Mfusick Have you tried 1080P playback, and if so how was the performance? Im sure it probably played it just fine, but I would still like to hear your opinion. Definitely like the idea of building the cheapest HTPC possible.