HTPC Build - Opinions?

[TollKeeper]

So am looking to build a HTPC that also will do streaming.

What I have in mind is....
Motherboard - ASRock X570 ITX/TB3 (already own this)
CPU - AMD Ryzen 5700G or 5600G
CPU Cooler - Corsair Intel 240mm AIO
Memory - Giel Trident Neo Z 2x16gb at 3600 DDR4
GPU - RTX 2060?? Not really decided here.
PSU - ABS Labs 750 watt (already own this)
Hard Drives--
1TB Sabrent Rocket Q NVME x4 (for OS, and short term storage)
3 x 14TB Seagate Exos (media library) in raid. 14tb because its cheaper than the equivalent Seagate Exos in 8tb, 10tb, 12tb, 16tb, 18tb, 20tb.
Case - Corsair Carbide 500R Artic White (already own this)
BlueRay player/burner
Projector - Sony or similar
Audio - Marantz or Denon 8.1 ATMOS or better
Speakers - Definitive Technology
Streaming box - Likely a Roku
Wireless keyboard/mouse
Windows 11

Screen size for the projector will be 120-144 inches, still working on viewing angles.

My thinking is that I can use the 5700G for the projector on the HDMI 2.1 out on the motherboard, without adding any workload to the GPU, and it can still handle some low level gaming.
Then use the dedicated GPU for the transcoding for the plex server.
Its a HUGE case, which allows for expansion if needed for hard drives.

Corsair Carbide Series CC-9011013-WW Black / White Computer Case - Newegg.com

Buy Corsair Carbide Series 500R Arctic White Steel / Plastic ATX Mid Tower Gaming Case with fast shipping and top-rated customer service. Once you know, you Newegg!

www.newegg.com

This leaves about 200-250 watt of headroom on the PSU.

I would love to use my Vega 64, but it doesnt support hardware transcoding

Will the computer work as I Hypothesize?

 

[coolasice]

So am looking to build a HTPC that also will do streaming.

What I have in mind is....
Motherboard - ASRock X570 ITX/TB3 (already own this)
CPU - AMD Ryzen 5700G or 5600G
CPU Cooler - Corsair Intel 240mm AIO
Memory - Giel Trident Neo Z 2x16gb at 3600 DDR4
GPU - RTX 2060?? Not really decided here.
PSU - ABS Labs 750 watt (already own this)
Hard Drives--
1TB Sabrent Rocket Q NVME x4 (for OS, and short term storage)
3 x 14TB Seagate Exos (media library) in raid. 14tb because its cheaper than the equivalent Seagate Exos in 8tb, 10tb, 12tb, 16tb, 18tb, 20tb.
Case - Corsair Carbide 500R Artic White (already own this)
BlueRay player/burner
Projector - Sony or similar
Audio - Marantz or Denon 8.1 ATMOS or better
Speakers - Definitive Technology
Streaming box - Likely a Roku
Wireless keyboard/mouse
Windows 11

Screen size for the projector will be 120-144 inches, still working on viewing angles.

My thinking is that I can use the 5700G for the projector on the HDMI 2.1 out on the motherboard, without adding any workload to the GPU, and it can still handle some low level gaming.
Then use the dedicated GPU for the transcoding for the plex server.
Its a HUGE case, which allows for expansion if needed for hard drives.

Corsair Carbide Series CC-9011013-WW Black / White Computer Case - Newegg.com

Buy Corsair Carbide Series 500R Arctic White Steel / Plastic ATX Mid Tower Gaming Case with fast shipping and top-rated customer service. Once you know, you Newegg!

www.newegg.com

This leaves about 200-250 watt of headroom on the PSU.

I would love to use my Vega 64, but it doesnt support hardware transcoding

Will the computer work as I Hypothesize?

It should work fine...
I use a dedicated unraid low power storage server for all my media which feeds 3 fire tv units via kodi/sql database. I don't game or transcode files. All my videos are 1080p/720p. I don't own a 4k tv so don't need any high res stuff. Everything is x264 or lower compression. The server is fully automated in the processing/storage of media and info.

 

[TollKeeper]

Just me thinking out loud here.. Chime in PLEASE if you have an opinion...

Those hard drives that @mrrsm posted about had me doing some math..

Do I rebuild my old server, and upgrade
or
Build new

To my surprise.. Building new is about 225 bucks cheaper, and a bit easier as I have to hack a PSU for the PCIE power. I guess I shouldnt be surprised. This is a server from 2009.. I was just hoping to keep going with something that is known, and well proven itself. Its been running non-stop for over 10 years in my basement now, and never even shown a glitch!

Rebuild of the old..

Old system - Dell	Brand	Quantity
HDD Raid	MaxDigitalData 6tb	x4 @ $68	$268.00​
HDD NonRaid	Crucial SSD 1tb	1​	$53.00​
Video Card	Nvidia RTX Quadro 4000	1​	$500.00​
Modification	6 pin to 8 pin	1​	$7.00​
CPU	Intel XEON x5670	x2 @ 7.50​	$15.00​
PCI to USB Card	FebSmart	1​	$13.00​
Already Owned Parts
Dell R710 - Complete			$0.00​
			$856.00​

Or build new (using some of my old PC parts)

New System - ASRock	Brand	Quantity
HDD Raid	MaxDigitalData	x4 @ $68	$268.00​
HDD NonRaid	Kingston NVME	1​	$51.00​
Video Card	Nvidia RTX 2060	1​	$200.00​
CPU	AMD Ryzen 5600G	1​	$113.00​
Already Owned Parts			$0.00​
Case	Corsair 500R Arctic		$0.00​
PSU	ABS Labs Tagen 750watt		$0.00​
DDR4	Crucial Ballistix 2x8 3600		$0.00​
CPU Cooler	Corsair AIO 240		$0.00​
Motherboard	ASRock ITX/TB3		$0.00​
			$632.00​

I could save $15 bucks by not upgrading the CPU's. But at $15 bucks for both of them..
Old CPU's are a XEON e5520 4c 8t @ 2.3ghz base with 2.5turbo.
For the uneducated, thats equal to a 3rd Gen Intel I-3 3250.. OLD!
New CPU's are XEON X5670 6c 12t @ 2.9ghz base with 3.3turbo.
For the uneducated, thats equal to a 4th gen Intel I-7 4790.. STILL OLD!

The issue becomes the 2x CPU's that are in the server are still slower than the new 1x CPU that I would be building in the new computer, at 6c 12t 4.7ghz 5.2turbo. While also going from a PCIE 2.0 to 4.0 (which is over 10x as fast for the uneducated).

No I couldnt save any money on the video card. Because of the slot capacity of this server, it has to be a single slot GPU, and be pretty powerful. The Quadro P400 that is in it currently cant even cut the mustard, so it would have to be upgraded. The RTX 4000 8gb or RTX A4000 16gb is the best solution for this.

So thats my current conundrum..

 

[mrrsm]

You might do well by checking out ALL of the Dell Precision T7500 Server Lines over on eBay ...but be mindful of the Packing S&H Charges when you are Factoring everything in:

Dell T7500 for sale | eBay

Get the best deals for Dell T7500 at eBay.com. We have a great online selection at the lowest prices with Fast & Free shipping on many items!

www.ebay.com

I picked up THIS Robust Dell Server System (Gamer's Box?) for only $365.00:




Here are "The Specs" on the Dual Intel Xeon X5675 CPUs inside THIS Machine:

Intel Xeon X5675 Specs

Westmere-EP, 6 Cores, 12 Threads, 3.066 GHz, 95 W

www.techpowerup.com

One very important thing to remember is that ALL of the Dell Precision T7400-T7500 Servers have MANY additional Upgrade Parts and Components being offered For Sale on eBay. You just have to pin down the Sellers for The All Important Functional Details and realize that anything cranking 48-64-128 Gigs of RAM will RUN VERY HOT... Especially the ECC Versions, so having a Very Good Airflow moving through your Server Room will be critical.

Follow Up:

This is a Six Year Old Performance Review of the Sapphire RX-480 Nitro Video Card included in this "BOX" with a Post Script Sound Example of the Card on "Full Tilt":

Inexpensive & Easy Replacement Sapphire OEM Cooling Fan Set (jik) :


...and another YT Evaluation performed in 2020 (ADULTS ONLY!) :

Guys... For God's Sake... Haunt eBay for the Dell Server Lines if you are Building a "Modest" Gaming Box or a Multi-Media Server that will be handling all of your Viewing Goodies... Go There... Dig In... Cover EVERY Page and... You WILL get Very Lucky if You Keep On Searching!

CAVEAT EMPTOR (Buyer Beware...)

Don't forget to Check each Potential Seller for their Transaction Counts AND their Star Ratings for indications of Product Quality, S&H Reliability and for any Return Acceptance Policies if such is allowed.

 

[TollKeeper]

I have been looking at those, and others.. The high end T7500 are about equal to my R710 (oddly, almost identical). I can upgrade my server to that X5675 CPU (cheaply).. But even with 2 XEON X5675 CPU's, its still slower than 1 new 5600G/5600X because I gain the PCIE 4.0 lane, while those XEON are still PCIE 2.0, It is still a 12 year old CPU.

Warning! - Technobabble commencing!

2 XEON 5675 have a theoretical GHZ combined package of x2 36.7 = 73.4 GHZ
1 AMD 5600G has a theoretical GHZ combined package of 46.8 GHZ
1 AMD 5600X has a theoretical GHZ combined package of 44.4 GHZ
1 AMD 5700G has a theoretical GHZ combined package of 60.8 GHZ
1 AMD 5700x has a theoretical GHZ combined package of 54.4 GHZ

Looking at those numbers, you would think the XEON is better. But because of the change in GHZ packages that happened, and turbo boost multiplier advantages that also came.. XEON uses generational 1.0 GHZ clocks. Ryzen Zen3 uses what is equivalant to Intel Generational 2.0 clocks. Intel and AMD are now on Generational 3.0/Zen4 clocks. All things are not equal. Thruput for L1, L2, and L3 cache also come into play.

And while I usually jump at the chance to use the AMD products... PLEX does not work, or does not work well with Radeon GPU. Which is why I am stuck using Nvidia. I have a excellent Radeon GPU, Vega64LC, that is equal to a RTX3060, but because of how transcoding works.. Radeon is not even in the picture.. I cant even sell my Radeon Vega64LC.. No one wants them. Shame really considering how good of a card it really is.

Looking at my excel price sheet above.. If I just delete the HDD/GPU, I have a computer up and running for 165 dollars. I saved a butt load of money because of recycling old PC parts that I already have. The main cost comes from those 2 items that are still expensive on the market, even when buying a used GPU, which was the plan.

Im still looking for the right GPU. A RTX2060 would work great for my needs, but getting something newer will give me a bit of future proofing. The cost of HDD are pretty much static at this point.

 

[mrrsm]

I hear you, Brother...

But ...Here is Yet A Little More Visual Grist for your System Building Mill involving Topping Out the Intel Xeon CPU up to a Pair of Intel Xeon X5690 CPUs as what COULD be the "Ultimate Ancient Dell Precision T7500 Server Performance Upgrade" without needing TOO Much More Moolah to pull this off... :>). What I've always loved about the Dell Machines is the amazing ubiquity of having TRUE Dell OEM Server Components around that seem to NEVER go out of style for replacement parts or upgrades:

 

[TollKeeper]

Thats where my server stops being upgradeable. The x5675 is the highest CPU I can put in it. The motherboard cant handle the additional wattage of the x5680 and up.

No argument about Dell.. other than they are still overpriced for what they are.

 

[mrrsm]

I was working on swapping in a set of "Topped Out" Xeon CPUs on a Dell Precision 690 after performing their ordinary R&R of the Two "Penthouse Tower" Passive Copper Coolers... but for the life of me...I could NOT find a Phillips Screw Driver LONG enough to pass down the narrow Corner Channels and reach the Four Fasteners.

So I checked over on Amazon and saw they have just few different Brands of Extra Long Flat Blade & #2 Phillips Long Screw Driver Sets, but I decided to get this Klein version because of their Quality... and the fact that they have the Extra Black Electrical Handle Insulation "To Boot":


Definitely indispensable for these types of Tasks... (and Amazon Knocked 36% Off the Asking Price!)

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000ODOUHM/?tag=gmtnation-20

 

[mrrsm]

I decided against allowing the Dell Precision T7500 Server even a momentary chance to "Boot Up" with a Foreign Hard Drive inside that might bring along more problems than solutions once I got finished taking it completely apart and Vacuuming & Alcohol Swabbing and Wiping clean every single surface, fan cage and fans, MOBO and RAM Stick inside of them all.

The sheer amount of "Atmospheric Leftovers" I found inside there as *Sticky* Gamer's Dirt glommed up within this Amazing Box was staggering. I always perform this Safety Ritual on every "Questionable Box" before I ever allow them to cross my Threshold. In this manner, I've managed to avoid inheriting anyone else's "Bug Problems" by Un-Boxing these machines out in the Yard FIRST and being ready the Spray & Kill anything that might actually be hiding inside. There were "No Un-Authorized Passengers" on board THIS time. :>)

Once all of my House-Keeping efforts were finished, I was able to Fire Up and get this EXTREMELY NOISY Server to Quiet Down and Run Fast and Cool with just a bit more maintenance. I wound up replacing the Rear Case Blower Fan AND the Internal Hard Drive Cage Fan using Dell OEM Parts from a Box of Old Dell Server Projects that I've kept on hand going back to the days of the Old and STILL Reliable Dell Precision 690 Boxes. I opted to temporarily set the Sapphire Nitro Video Card aside because I want try it out inside of my other T7400 Server FIRST and then install it in the T7500 later on. The stand-in NVIDIA Corporation GF114 [GeForce GTX 560 Ti] (rev a1) Video Card will do quite nicely ...for now.

I suspect that THESE "Noisy Racket" Issues were the reasons for the "STEAL THIS SERVER" low, low price of ($365.00) via eBay. It felt GREAT to be able to do this Used Dell Server Revival and these repairs and wind up with the FASTEST, MOST POWERFUL MACHINE I'VE EVER USED! And Yet... Still the Quietest, Coolest Running One as well. It is important to mention that having taken many Dell Precision 690s and Dell Precision T7400 Boxes to their Topped Out Performance Levels over the past decade or so... THIS BOX is an Absolute *** World Beater *** by comparison.

So... Because I know that you are still working away on your Decision Process... I wanted to visit the "Terminal" Command Line Application and show what comes up after a PERFECT ridiculously rapid Installation of Linux Mint Ver. 21.1 "Vera" Operating System... and list the output data for the CPUs (lscpu) and also show you the PCI listings (lspci) from the MOBO Features to give you a Bird's Eye View of the 48 Gig of RAM (lsram) and what the Large Secondary Storage on that Enterprise Server Quality $67.00 Six TB 7,2000 RPM Hard Drive looks like after the Install. These Stats will give you an Idea of what it seems capable of doing via "Roomy Peek ...Under The Hood":



Here's Hoping this is *Product*- ive information worth looking over as you go forward...

Here are the Geekbench Testing Results:

Dell Inc. Precision WorkStation T7500 vs Dell Inc. Precision WorkStation T7500 - Geekbench

 

[coolasice]

too power hungry for me.

 

[mrrsm]

No Argument There... But I live with a Woman (...A Wife of Right at 50 Years of marriage to this Old Dude) and SHE likes to keep the House Temperature Cold Enough to Hang Meat... (65 Degrees Annually). Unfortunately, I'm a little too Reptilian to endure these chilly, at home climes, so when I enter the Server(s) Location... I always take advantage of the Terrible Waste Heat that must in due course, exit out of the Back Planes of these Boxes. Thus...I feel quite vindicated for NOT Wasting all of that 'Juice'... and I can remain Toasty Warm in the offing. :>)

 

[mrrsm]

​

​

On the Sub-Topic of Bigger Build Hardware… Beware picking up High End Graphics Cards from eBay for “Dirt Cheap” Prices. The reasons are Manifold:

(1) The current trend in acquiring these “Gaming” Cards has little to do with any actual “Gaming”. If the Card is inoperative or demonstrating Vertical Line Bars as Artifacts of Damage on cards that WILL Boot Up… it is likely this card has been used (and ABUSED) for “Bit-Coin Mining”.

(2) Of course, You will need to conduct some more research as this portion is Off-Topic. Just know that understanding this “need for performance” abuse phenomena beforehand is well worth investigating BEFORE You take any chances on buying ordinarily VERY Pricey Game Cards that cannot be fixed:

https://www.tomshardware.com/best-picks/best-mining-gpus-benchmarked-and-ranked

https://2miners.com/blog/how-to-mine-bitcoin-on-pc-with-one-gpu-at-home-step-by-step-guide/

(3) It Might be possible to REPAIR these Cards as these Videos will demonstrate. However, the Skill Set and the Tools Set required to perform these very technical repairs is NOT for the faint of heart nor those with no understanding of what follows:

Doubling VRAM? Upgrading an RX 480 from 4 to 8 GB

Upgrading VRAM on an nVidia GeForce GT640 GPU

 

[mrrsm]

Say @TollKeeper ... I JUST Now (March 2nd, 2023, @ 11:44 AM EST) Spied THIS "BNIB" (Brand New In Box) Deal over on eBay and it looks to fit more in the scheme of the parameters that you mentioned:

CyberPowerPC Custom Gaming PC AMD Ryzen 7 5700X 16GB AMD Radeon RX 6600 XT 1TB H | eBay

Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for CyberPowerPC Custom Gaming PC AMD Ryzen 7 5700X 16GB AMD Radeon RX 6600 XT 1TB H at the best online prices at eBay! Free shipping for many products!

www.ebay.com

 

[TollKeeper]

Its not a bad price, but I need a Nvidia graphics for encoding/decoding/transcoding..

I built a bench tester rig last night..

Intel I5-3470, onboard graphics, Intel motherboard, onboard sound, 16g ddr3 ram.

Used it, and put it on the shelf, no use for after my testing last night..

Had a bunch of stuff to put up on eBay, and more this weekend..

Got another 5 3rd gen Intel CPU's, and 1 2nd gen Intel CPU to sell. And the Dell motherboards they came out of.

My current for sale list over there...

pontiac6ksteawd on eBay

Follow pontiac6ksteawd on eBay. Buying, Selling, Collecting on eBay has never been more exciting!

www.ebay.com

 

[mrrsm]

Just touching base on this week long "Burn-In" I did and so I ran a little "Health Check" to produce a Final Performance Health Report. I opted to try out ANOTHER Sapphire Nitro Gaming Card in a slightly higher functioning version (RX-5500 XT SE) for an additional Hundred Bucks... and it actually runs Quieter and Cooler than I thought it would. So... Here's Hoping that You WILL get everything in line and Under Budget that You want inside of Yours, too:

https://www.sapphiretech.com/en/consumer/nitro-radeon-rx-5500-xt-se-8g-gddr6

NITRO+ RX 5500 XT 8G GDDR6 SE

• GPU: Boost Clock: Up to 1845 MHz
• GPU: Game Clock: Up to 1737 MHz
• Memory: 8GB/128 bit GDDR6. 14.4 Gbps Effective
• Stream Processors: 1408
• 4K@60Hz
• Dual-X Cooling Technology

 

[TollKeeper]

Been running AMD cards for a long LONG time.. But alas, for this HTPC/Plex build.. Nvidia it has to be.

 

[TollKeeper]

Looks like I am heading down a different route with the HTPC/PLEX build..

Sold the ASRock X570 ITX-TB3

As soon as my taxes clear, I am looking at:
CPU - Intel 12600K
Motherboard - ASUS Z690 Plus TUF

Everything else will stay the same.. Except I will be removing the video card (for now), and upgrading the PSU to something... Also removing the RAID, and switching over to WSS (Windows Storage Spaces)
CPU Cooler - Corsair Intel 240mm AIO
Memory - Giel Trident Neo Z 2x16gb at 3600 DDR4
Hard Drives--
1TB Sabrent Rocket Q NVME x4 (for OS, and short term storage)
PCIE To SATA/SAS card (for more SATA or SAS ports)
3 x 14TB Seagate Exos (media library). 14tb because its cheaper than the equivalent Seagate Exos in 8tb, 10tb, 12tb, 16tb, 18tb, 20tb.
Case - Corsair Carbide 500R Artic White (already own this)
BlueRay player/burner
Projector - Sony or similar
Audio - Marantz or Denon 8.1 ATMOS or better
Speakers - Definitive Technology
Streaming box - Likely a Roku
Wireless keyboard/mouse
Windows 11

The PSU i was going to run is a very OLD PSU. Although it works, and functions properly... Its 18? years old! Its a 750 watt PSU, and even has LED's in it.. But most modern Intel motherboards need 2x 8pin PSU to CPU connections, and this one only has 1..

Its not the ideal motherboard, as the SATA ports are limited.. But the next ideal motherboard increases the price by $200! I can buy a 4x or 8x PCIE SATA card for about 40 bucks, and have all the SATA ports I need. And those ports would likely go un-used otherwise.

Of course I may still opt for a NAS. But likely not.

 

[coolasice]

Looks like I am heading down a different route with the HTPC/PLEX build..

Sold the ASRock X570 ITX-TB3

As soon as my taxes clear, I am looking at:
CPU - Intel 12600K
Motherboard - ASUS Z690 Plus TUF

Everything else will stay the same.. Except I will be removing the video card (for now), and upgrading the PSU to something... Also removing the RAID, and switching over to WSS (Windows Storage Spaces)
CPU Cooler - Corsair Intel 240mm AIO
Memory - Giel Trident Neo Z 2x16gb at 3600 DDR4
Hard Drives--
1TB Sabrent Rocket Q NVME x4 (for OS, and short term storage)
PCIE To SATA/SAS card (for more SATA or SAS ports)
3 x 14TB Seagate Exos (media library). 14tb because its cheaper than the equivalent Seagate Exos in 8tb, 10tb, 12tb, 16tb, 18tb, 20tb.
Case - Corsair Carbide 500R Artic White (already own this)
BlueRay player/burner
Projector - Sony or similar
Audio - Marantz or Denon 8.1 ATMOS or better
Speakers - Definitive Technology
Streaming box - Likely a Roku
Wireless keyboard/mouse
Windows 11

The PSU i was going to run is a very OLD PSU. Although it works, and functions properly... Its 18? years old! Its a 750 watt PSU, and even has LED's in it.. But most modern Intel motherboards need 2x 8pin PSU to CPU connections, and this one only has 1..

Its not the ideal motherboard, as the SATA ports are limited.. But the next ideal motherboard increases the price by $200! I can buy a 4x or 8x PCIE SATA card for about 40 bucks, and have all the SATA ports I need. And those ports would likely go un-used otherwise.

Of course I may still opt for a NAS. But likely not.

Just out of curiosity why windows as the OS? Why not do a dedicated plex/storage server and something simple like a NUC for your HTPC?

I have a slightly different use case, a dedicated storage server that also hosts a KODI SQL shared database. I don't host anything over 1080p and have no need for surround sound. All my clients are either firesticks or laptop. I havent found a need for plex/jellyfin.

My storage server is simply an Asrock J4105m uatx board - fanless with 8gb ram, 450W 80 gold power supply with temperature controlled fan, a 8 port pcie sata/sas card, and a couple 2 port pcie cards along with 4x 2tb drives - 1 being parity, and a 512gb ssd for cache running on Unraid.

They whole system is power sipping - altogether with my router, cable modem, camera NVR, and the server they consume 110watts at full load...and fully automated for movie backup storage

 

[Daniel644]

For my "HTPC", not that it's used in that regard very much, I built it over the course of several years, it started life in the nearly gutted shell of the first PC case I ever bought to build my own PC back in 2002, I had done a few upgrades but really stopped and gave up on the desktop PC for over a decade. Then in like 2016-2017 I decided I wanted a Gaming PC to do VR with as I like the Gear VR on my S7 and wanted even more, I bought a then top of the consumer line Intel i7 6700k and scored a new 1080ti (when 1080ti's where 3 months old) for a final cost after rebates and cashback of like $583 then in November of 2017 I won a second 1080ti on some Twitter E-sports promotion Nvidia was running where every retweet was an entry, once I had 2 1080ti's I decided I HAD to get into crypto, after a few months I was making good money and wanted to expand so I ended up building a second PC "for work" that was a Ryzen 1600 and 1080ti's where going for like $1400 because of the mining craze so I bought a pair of Titan Xp Galactic Empire cards and a Define Meshify C case for them, eventually after mining cooled off I sold the 2 1080ti's for more then I had in them and that includes the EVGA Hybrid Cooler Conversion I did to them, with those gone I was down to one Titan Xp per computer.

Eventually I decided to do more upgrades (after the computers had more then paid for themselves in crypto, I sold off the 6700k and mobo and upgraded to a 3950X with a ROG Hero board of that generation of chipset and eventually did a Corsair 570X case and added the EK Fluid Gaming A240G kit and an add on 360mm rad for that kit, so the whole computer is liquid cooled, before that the other computer with the Ryzen 1600 got bumped to a 1700 and the 1600 went in my moms new computer I built her.

Anyway the way I turned the Ryzen 3750X rig into my "htpc" was I got a black friday deal on 2 10TB WD Hard Drives that where external drives where I shucked the drives and stuck them in the PC, so I got 20TB worth of Mechanical storage in the 2 drive bays, which so far is sufficient for the entire video collection I have currently. Being that the PC was going to be in the living room I wanted it to be quiet and look nice which is why I did the 570X and liquid cooling.

 

[TollKeeper]

Just out of curiosity why windows as the OS? Why not do a dedicated plex/storage server and something simple like a NUC for your HTPC?

I have a slightly different use case, a dedicated storage server that also hosts a KODI SQL shared database. I don't host anything over 1080p and have no need for surround sound. All my clients are either firesticks or laptop. I havent found a need for plex/jellyfin.

My storage server is simply an Asrock J4105m uatx board - fanless with 8gb ram, 450W 80 gold power supply with temperature controlled fan, a 8 port pcie sata/sas card, and a couple 2 port pcie cards along with 4x 2tb drives - 1 being parity, and a 512gb ssd for cache running on Unraid.

They whole system is power sipping - altogether with my router, cable modem, camera NVR, and the server they consume 110watts at full load...and fully automated for movie backup storage

I am entertaining the idea of a QNAP/Terramaster/etc. But the transcoding is the problem, and I do have 1440, 2k, and 4k videos, which all would need transcoding for most of my clients. I could do this all thru a NAS type of system, but would need a bit more power than most for the transcode/encode clients. There are a few.. like 2 or 3.. that could do what I need. But those cost about 3x (or more) of what I am going to have into this system.

Windows OS is free for me, and I prefer it cause I know how to manipulate it to do what I want it to do. They are also just so much easier to setup and use. Hell, my Dell R710 server, with Windows Server 2012 R2, has been running nearly problem free for 11 years now. But it also cant do the transcoding I want because of hardware limitations. Those hardware limitations have work arounds, but I have to modify the PSU's, and the case, to do it. But I am still going to be limited by the 2x Xeons on the motherboard, and the fact that everything was originally built in 2009 before I got it.

The i-GPU on the 12600k has more horsepower than both the on-board graphics of my server, or the Quadro P400 video card also in my server. And that is the most powerful video card I can put it my server without modifying the case and PSU. From my research, I can do what I need to do with just the i-GPU. I can run that for a few years, and if need be, I can grab a Quadro RTX 4000/5000/6000 later. Or I can upgrade my video card in my personal rig, a 3080TI, and drop that in the HTPC.

Per my PSU calculator, this rig will be using under 200watt at full tilt, idling around 24-40watt.

The next reason for such a "power house" is the HTPC. Its going to be going to a Sony Projector, and on a 12 foot diagonal screen, so the demand for quality output is HIGH. That projector will be plugged directly into the HTPC, or the accompanying sound reciever. Not this exact projector, but one very similar.

https://www.bestbuy.com/site/sony-vplxw6000es-4k-hdr-laser-home-theater-projector-with-native-4k-sxrd-panel-black/6506687.p?skuId=6506687

 

[mrrsm]

Another area worth exploration is in "The Land of Linux", .and it won't even cost you One Thin Dime:

The Best Linux Systems for HTPC and Media Servers - The Digital Guyde

The best Linux systems for HTPC and media servers include Ubuntu Server Edition, OSMC, Plain Vanilla Ubuntu, OpenELEC, LinHES...

digitalguyde.com

 

[Sqrly]

We just run a Plex server on one of our gaming PC's. Then we have the Plex app on our Samsung TV. The TV upscales to 4K beautifully from the smaller 720p format of our local files. Both PC's have a full copy of our media library instead of using a backup or a NAS with a RAID 5 setup.

The Plex UI is beautiful. You can add online sources to it but we use it only for local media. This is just a libray main page. When you select a title it shows a lot of info.



PC #1
Cooler Master Elite 430 Mid Tower
MSI MAG Z790 Tomahawk WiFi
Intel Core i9-14900K Raptor Lake Refreshed 6.0 GHz FCLGA1700 (Gen 14)
Cooler Master ML240L V2 CPU cooler
32GB (2x16) GSKILL Trident Z5 RGB Series (Intel XMP 3.0) DDR5 RAM 6700MT/s
MSI Gaming GeForce RTX 4070 12GB
Monitor #1 Samsung Odyssey G50A WQHD G-Sync HDR10
Monitor #2 HP LA1911
Samsung 980 PRO SSD 1TB PCIe 4.0 NVMe Gen 4 Gaming M.2 (System)
Crucial CT2000MX500SSD1 2TB (Games)
Western Digital Blue WD60EZAZ 6TB (Data/Backup)
Western Digital Blue WD60EZAZ 6TB (Media)
Western Digital Blue WD60EZAZ 6TB (Storage)
Rosewill Hive-750S
Logitech Z-5500 5.1 THX 505w (Original 10" Sub with Polk Audio Sattilites)
Windows 11 Pro

PC #2
Cooler Master N400 NSE-400-KKN2 Mid-Tower
MSI MAG Z790 Tomahawk WiFi
Intel Core i9-14900K Raptor Lake Refreshed 6.0 GHz FCLGA1700 (Gen 14)
Cooler Master ML240L V2 CPU cooler
32GB (2x16) GSKILL Trident Z5 RGB Series (Intel XMP 3.0) DDR5 RAM 6700MT/s
MSI Gaming GeForce RTX 3060Ti 8GB
Monitor #1 Samsung Odyssey G50A WQHD G-Sync HDR10
Monitor #2 Samsung TU7000 55' TV
Samsung 980 PRO SSD 1TB PCIe 4.0 NVMe Gen 4 Gaming M.2 (System)
Samsung 980 PRO SSD 2TB PCIe 4.0 NVMe Gen 4 Gaming M.2 (Games)
Crucial CT1000MX500SSD1 1TB (More Games)
WD Blue WD40EZAZ 4TB (Data/Backup)
WD Blue WD60EZAZ 6TB (Media)
Rosewill Hive-750S
Sony Stereo reciever with Pioneer CS-911A Speakers.
Windows 11 Pro

 

[TollKeeper]

Wow... Talk about digging up an old thread!

I did build my HTPC. It was a fairly cheap build at the end of the day.

Intel 12600K w/ Intel UHD 770 Graphics
Gigabyte Z690 Aorus Elite AX DDR4
Trident-Z Neo DDR 4 sticks of 8gb 3600mhz
A very old Corsair 240 AIO CPU cooler
A very old Corsair Carbide 500R White
Samsung Q870 EVO NVME 500gb
Samsung Q870 EVO SSD 500gb
3x Seagate 14tb in INTEL Raid giving me 28gb of useable space
A very old 750 watt PSU
A generic BluRay DVD Burner/Player
Some other random HDD for misc storage for me and the wife.
a 20tb USB External HDD for backup.

All in, I was at 770 bucks.
The UHD 770 Intel Graphics, with the memory I am using, self promotes itself to Intel Iris XE. So its good for the 4k streams. I was able to get it up to about 12 streams, and it was only putting about a 40% usage on the decoder.

When/If I ever get 8k movies, I might consider dropping in some RTX Graphics. No need for it for many years.

The system, with 4 active streams going, uses about 36 watts. It idles right at 6 watts.

Of course no monitor attached to it currently, as I can use RDC to keep it up to date.

I am hoping I can run a HDMI cable from my upstairs living room, to the downstairs utility room where the HTPC is, and use it when needed. I mainly use Roku for all my streaming needs. However, the adblock on my PC browser is nice when I want to play YouTube.

 

[TJBaker57]

Hmmm, We don't have any TV or equivalent in the house! And until recently I didn't have a desktop PC either! A sibling passed and I now have her HP all-in-one desktop machine. Don't really use it though.

 

[Sqrly]

I have kids and they rarely let me control my TV but we try to do "Movie night" with everyone on the weekends. 4 of us from 3 generations.

We also have a 2nd 32" dumb TV mounted on the wall in the dining room. It was put there for remote learning so the kids didn't have to use the tiny chromebook screen and keyboard. We left it there and put a Raspberry Pi4 on the back of it. I actually just took the Pi off and put one of our old pc's in there running Linux.

As for the NASA grade PC's, I'm a hardcore 'Gamer' and my grandson is following in my footsteps so we need 2. I've hacked several of our games so we can play together over the LAN and the rest so they don't need to be connected to the internet.

I just built these new PC's in march of this year. Including the new 27" monitors they ran us just over 3k for the pair. We did reuse the PSU's, HDD's, and input devices. I also kept my original case but I had to get a new one for PC#2.

They both presented unique challenges. My case is older and smaller. Stuffing everything into it has to happen in a certain sequence and the 120mm x 240mm radiator is mounted outside on the top. I also installed a 100 cfm vent fan in the ceiling above it.

The other PC sits under a custom desk/entertaiment center I built. There's just no other place for it in the living room. I came up with a way to blow all the hot air out of the front so it doesn't air fry you while sitting at the desk gaming. People often underestimate how much heat a gaming PC can produce. Ours can put out as much as a 1500w space heater.