[barber76]

Assembled my first HTPC. Specs are:

Case: Grandia GD05B

CPU: Intel core i5-3570K

MB: Intel DH77EB

PSU: Corsair CX430

RAM: Corsair Vengeance 4GB

OD: some cheap OEM Asus CD/DVD

HDD: SSD Intel 330 60GB (mmm, those sweet newegg rebate...)

OS: XBMCbuntu

...plus HP MCE remote kit.


Well... It works. Photos aren't of much interest, since it is just a Grandia box, a lot of people have it.

So far, I only used it as a streamer from shared drive where I keep videos. But it was my main intention anyway. Still have to organize video collection for proper XBMC scraping.

XMBCbuntu didin't recognize my USB Wifi stick, and although I found missing drivers, I decided to go with powerline anyway, since I'm going to stream HD rips. Got Linksys PLSK400, tried one 720 and one 1080p MKV, plays back smooth (but my router sits just next room to HTPC/TV).


As expected, the most time-consuming part still ahead - setting & tweaking XBMCbuntu...

I still have only 32' LCD TV. Maybe will get something 50' by Christmas. Assembling HTPC was more of a fun home project, rather then something necessary.

 

[joe531]

Congratulations! This will be an adventure with it's ups and downs, so hang in there.

 

[barber76]



Quote:
Originally Posted by joe531  /t/1419396/first-htpc-assembled#post_22201892


Congratulations! This will be an adventure with it's ups and downs, so hang in there.

Thanks!

Btw, I went with stock Intel cooler, although I've initially got Corsair A50 ($15 after rebate - was hard to resist). I understand that stock one is worst, but it is much lower profile, and I thought that for my purposes CPU won't be much loaded anyway.

A bit surprising that XBMCbuntu interface navigation sometimes stuttering a bit. In general it is very responsive, and those stutters are rare and aren't annoying, but at the given hardware I wouldn't expect them at all.

 

[joe531]

I'm using the stock cooler and I can't really say anything bad about it. The installation was quite easy as well. I see a lot of people on the internet hating that thing. lol