My HTPC's at Home

This HTPC works very good with 720-1080p streamed over the network on 100mbps wired connection and Plex. Also works very good for Windows Media Center and Live TV Streams from the HDHomerun Primes. They pull 30watts at idle and 35-40watts while streaming video. Very quiet, the loudest part of these are the stock Heat sink and Fan...



Motherboard: ASRock H61M-HVS ($49.99 @ Micro Center)
CPU: Intel Celeron G540 ($34.99 @ Micro Center)
HD: 320gb 2.5" HDD ($54.99 @ Micro Center)
RAM: 1x 4gb Micro Center branded memory ($19.99)
Case: Diablotek Diamond ATX Mid Tower Case with 400W Power Supply ($28.99 @ Micro Center)
Keyboard: Logitech K400 $29.99 @ Walmart
Remote: Rosewill RRC-126 $19.99 @ Newegg
Total: $238.93 + Tax
Edited by fventura03 - 10/5/12 at 6:29pm

aw, no love from anyone rating my setup

so far so good. I also have one with all these parts, and 2x 1.5tb HD's which does all my recordings (that gets shared to all the other HTPC's in the house), that one has been up 24/7 for over 3 months now. so I'd say it's VERY reliable with the cheap PSU.

the one listed in this thread is used every day and it goes into standby once it's not in use. no issues at all.

I don't need USB3.0 for any reason on this machine. nor do they need gigabit. so it's not worth the added expense to me. I have tested 3 recordings at the same time all on 100mbps recording on Windows Media Center from my HDHomerun Prime and all recorded fine with no issues.

all my other machines have Gigabit in the house, including my 40tb server and other desktops around the house.

pics:

this shows CPU and Network Usages on 3 streams, also shows temperatures. This machine is the same specs as above except it has 3tb of total disc space for recordings. it gets shared to all the other HTPC's and desktops in the network. as you can see, about half of the 100mbps built in Ethernet Adapter is being used (again, no reason to go Gigabit on this and spend the extra cash)


online photo sharing

online photo storage

this is one with a 320gb HD, you can see how much recording space they have, in the event someone wanted to record something that I dont have already scheduled


photo sharing websites

I still have three more motherboards I can use, none of these have HDMI so they are sitting around until I figure out what to build...


images

I'll try and get more pics up shortly, everything is pretty much in it's final place and working 100%. I've been at this since July building all these machines and configuring them so they work flawlessly (on a budget). Now I have to work on the wire management since most of these HTPC's are in a closet, or an enclosed space so they arent in direct view.

I agree about the SSD's. I had one of them with an Agility 3 120gb SSD that I got off newegg for $59.99 (no rebates), I wanted to compare between SSD and HDD and it was amazing, the only reason I put the HDD back is because I literally had zero space for any recordings. The wife made it clear she wants to record on any machine she's at and she's the boss, so I had no choice but to go HDD and sacrifice performance.

the 3tb handles 95% of the recordings though and for Black Friday I'll be looking for SSD's for all the HTPC's in addition to the 320gb HD's.

I only wish that I could schedule a recording on one HTPC and have that recording scheduled on the one that handles most of the recordings.

yup almost black friday !!!