Gotenks98 Posted April 15, 2017 Share Posted April 15, 2017 (edited) Hi all, I am looking to build 2 HTPCs as cheaply as possible. The budget is $500.00. One of them will just be strictly a media center the other will be both a media center and a server. The one that will be a server needs to be powerful enough to virtualize other OSes while still being able to be a server to the other PCs in the house. I want there to be some room for possible future upgrades such as TV tuner and possibly 32GB of ram on the server, while a possibly adding a gaming graphics card on the media center once I get more cash. I do have 2 motherboards from older pcs that were upgraded. If building the 2 new systems become too expensive then would it be possible to find HTPC cases that will mid-size ATX boards? Here are my requirements. Server- 1.Must be AMD processor, I can't justify spending cash on anything intel when the performance difference is no longer extremely massive 2. Cases must be similar in size to a PS3 or Xbox 360 or slightly larger. I am just trying to make sure it fits in the current entertainment center stand. 3. 16 GB of ram upgrade-able to at least 32GB 4. Can run Linux or Windows 10 (possibly Windows Server 2016) 5. Lan port needs to be at least 1Gbps but would love it if it went to 10Gbps. 6. 6+ USB Ports ranging from 2.0, 3.0 and USB-C 7. HDD needs to be SATA, can be SSD if you see one that is cheap with more than 128GB of capacity. 8. Space for Dvd-rom in the HTPC case which will be upgraded to something blu-ray later. 9. Modular power supply 10. Space for TV tuner card Standalone Media Center- 1.Must be AMD processor preferably with APU processor, I can't justify spending cash on anything intel when the performance difference is no longer extremely massive 2. Cases must be similar in size to a PS3 or Xbox 360 or slightly larger. I am just trying to make sure it fits in the current entertainment center stand. 3. 16 GB of ram 4. Can run Linux or Windows 10 5. Lan port needs to be at least 1Gbps 6. 6+ USB Ports ranging from 2.0, 3.0 and USB-C 7. HDD needs to be SATA, can be SSD if you see one that is cheap with more than 128GB of capacity. 8. Space for Dvd-rom in the HTPC 9. If number 1 has the APU starting out, I will need space in the case and board to upgrade to a high end gaming card later. 10. Modular power supply Please let me know if this seems extremely unreasonable and I see about increasing the budget. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheReaperMan Posted April 15, 2017 Share Posted April 15, 2017 ae you going to be using any software on the server for live tv, plex, emby, kodi or will it be pure windows server 2016 and windows mce? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gotenks98 Posted April 15, 2017 Author Share Posted April 15, 2017 2 minutes ago, TheReaperMan said: ae you going to be using any software on the server for live tv, plex, emby, kodi or will it be pure windows server 2016 and windows mce? Kodi Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheReaperMan Posted April 15, 2017 Share Posted April 15, 2017 Is there a reason you want to run kodi instead of wmc on the media centre as you can install windows 10 on it? ifyou take my setup I have the following server 2016 essentails 16gb ram i3 250gb hd(os) 4x 2TB hD media dvb-t tuner(usb) dvb-t and dvb-s2 dual pci card this is all in a mini ixt dvblink server(tv software) mce windows 10 with windows media centre i5 16gb ram 250gb ssd hd540 cpie gpu slot load blu ray mini itx htpc case with vfd 2 x xbox 360(bedrooms) these run wmc and can acess media, tv from main server Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gotenks98 Posted April 15, 2017 Author Share Posted April 15, 2017 I have multiple raspberry pi's for my other rooms and I thought Windows Media Center died with Windows 10. I remember with 8.1 you could keep it but not Windows 10. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheReaperMan Posted April 15, 2017 Share Posted April 15, 2017 no you can run it on windows 10 no problem, you just need a patch to make it work. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gotenks98 Posted April 15, 2017 Author Share Posted April 15, 2017 I may keep that as an option with this setup. Thanks for the tip. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andre S. Veteran Posted April 18, 2017 Veteran Share Posted April 18, 2017 On 2017-04-15 at 4:16 PM, Gotenks98 said: Standalone Media Center- 1.Must be AMD processor preferably with APU processor, I can't justify spending cash on anything intel when the performance difference is no longer extremely massive Check how you intend to decode HEVC which is very computationally intensive. IDK if the most recent AMD APUs do HEVC decoding on the GPU, but otherwise it's going to be too slow for that. I know because I have one (overclocked A10-5800K) and in scenes with lots of fine detail (some movies have noticeable grain for instance) it does lag. Going AMD won't be cheaper if you end up having to buy a discrete video card. And if you do end up buying a discrete video card, APUs aren't particularly good value. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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