Home Theatre PC - August 2012

By Koen Crijns,

A Home Theatre PC (HTPC) or media centre PC serves as a music and film jukebox, as a video recording device, digital photo album and so on. The media centre is the centrepiece of the digital living room. The fact that it will reside in the living room puts unique demands on the device, such as an attractive design or a graphics card that can connect to an LCD television.

There are a couple alternatives for complete Media Centre PCs for around £85. The disadvantage of these is that it is not possible to download new codecs, unless they come with firmware updates. Media players are also not great at upscaling and improving a Standard Definition image on an HDTV.

The other option is a mini-ITX nettop based on an Intel Atom processor combined with an nVidia Ion chipset, or an AMD Fusion C-350 processor. Without operating system, it will cost you around £200. The downside is that both processors are too slow to independently play modern video codecs. If either the Ion chip or the integrated GPU are able to play the codec, you're fine. If a codec is not supported, then there is a good chance that the video won't be played correctly.
Recording TV is not recommended with either of these alternatives. It is possible with some tinkering, but performance won't be enough for recording HD.

Creating a Home Theatre or Media Centre PC gives you all the features of the cheaper alternatives, plus the flexibility of an actual PC, and the high performance needed for recording HDTV even on multiple channels. The price tag will reflect this, so you will have to decide what fits your needs the best.

Please note: the PC Buyer’s Guide is compiled based on independent component tests performed by Hardware.Info. If no new, superior products are released that should replace one or more of the components, then the component(s) will remain the same as the previous month.

If you want to know more about how we compile our PC Buying guides, have a look at this article.

Configuration

Processor - AMD A6-3500

The processor in the Home Theatre media centre PC was an Intel for a very long time after a long reign by AMD, but it has now again been replaced by an AMD one. Its Llano CPU is very interesting for this type of system.
The A6-3500 has three 2.1GHz cores, but more importantly a very powerful GPU with 320 shaders. This GPU has virtually perfect video processing capabilities: deinterlacing, scaling, and noise reduction. Our HQV HD 2.0 benchmark results were impressive. An advantage for true film freaks is that, contrary to the Sandy Bridge GPU, the AMD processor can play files with a frame rate of 23,976 fps (the SB GPU makes this 24p due to a hardware bug).
If we add to this a price lower than for the previous recommended CPU for this system, the Core i3-2100T and a very affordable motherboard, then the choice is clear.

Specifications Test results

CPU cooler - Scythe Big Shuriken 2 Rev. B

A silent CPU cooler is a requirement for a good Home Theatre media centre PC. Many known coolers are too large to fit into the case for this system. A welcome exception to the rule is the Big Shuriken by Scythe. This cooler combines excellent cooling performance with low noise production. On the very low 600rpm setting it produces the negligible 17 dB, which is completely inaudible in normal environments. Not only that, the Big Shuriken cools better than its "normal" predecessor.

Its successor, the Big Shuriken 2, is more widely available and was also tested by us. It has an additional heatpipe and is slightly more expensive, but is also an excellent choice.

Specifications Test results

Memory module - 4 GB (2x 2 GB) DDR3

We give the Home Theatre system 4GB DDR3 RAM. 2GB is usually enough, but considering the very low price of memory it is a wise investment to double this. More than 4GB you will never need for a media centre, however.

Specifications Test results

Motherboard - Gigabyte GA-A75M-UD2H

We picked a suitable SocketFM1 motherboard for our CPU in the shape of the Gigabyte GA-A75M-UD2H. This Micro-ATX board provides an HDMI and a DVI connection for the GPU in the processor. It has five internal and one external SATA600 connection, and four USB 3.0 ports. Additionally, this motherboard comes with the excellent Realtek 889 audio chip which is nice for those still using analoge audio connections.

This is not the cheapest Micro-ATX board with FM1 socket, but in our experience the UD boards by Gigabyte are excellent in terms of stability. The USB 3.0 ports and good audio chip justify the small extra investment, in our opinion.

Specifications Test results

Graphics card - Integrated

The graphics card integrated in the A6-3500 is completely compatible with video post-processing, and can therefore play all types of HD video. The Gigabyte motherboard we picked for this PC has an HDMI port for easy connections with modern TVs.

Hard disk/SSD - Crucial m4 128GB

Hard drives are still so expensive that, unless you need a large amount of storage, an SSD is the smartest move. The low noise production of SSDs is a second argument favouring this choice.

The 128GB of the Crucial M4 SSD we recommend is more than enough for an OS and hours of HD recordings, should you install a TV tuner. Expect about 2GB per hour at 720p or 1080i recording, and about 90GB of free space after installing your OS and the required software. Especially if you plan on writing to a NAS or Home Server, then this SSD has our preference for this system.

If you do want more storage space, then an alternative is the Samsung Spinpoint F3 1TB. It is cheaper than the M4, but also louder and slower.

Specifications Test results

Optical drive - Lite-On iHOS104 Black

The battle of DVD's successor has been decided, in favour of Blu-ray. Lite-On has released a very affordable Blu-ray ROM drive with the iHOS104, and it's perfect for the HTPC.

Specifications Test results

Case - SilverStone Grandia GD04B

Our long-time favourite, the Antec Fusion, has become end-of-life, but luckily we recently tested a worthy successor in the form of the Silverstone Grandia GD04. It's an attractively designed and well-built micro-ATX HTPC chassis that cools effectively without making too much noise.

You do need to a little adapter in order to run the third fan on low speeds, such as this Zalman Fan Mate 2

Specifications Test results

Power supply - Nexus Value 430W

A Home Theatre media centre PC needs a quiet and stable power supply. For this reason we picked the 430-watt Nexus Value, that was one of the most silent in our tests. This power supply has more than enough capacity for the components in this system. Its average efficiency is excellent, and the standby usage is very low. These last qualities are important for a PC that will likely be turned on a lot of the time.

Specifications Test results

TV card - Anysee E30 Combo Plus

The Hauppauge WinTV HVR-1100 TV tuner is a great option for analogue TV, with DVB-T as extra, albeit without the locked channels.

If you are planning on using Windows Media Center (and we would recommend this for a media centre PC), then there is only one type of TV card that will work out-of-the-box with MCE. That's the AnySee E30 Combo Plus.

The TV cards have not been included in the total price, due to the differences in hardware and providers.

Specifications Test results

Remote control - Conceptronic Windows Media Center Remote Control

The chassis we picked does not come with a remote control. This Conceptronic model will do the trick, and because it's a Media Center remote it is compatible with software such as XBMC and Media Portal. Another option is to get a universal remote such as the Logitech Harmony.

Specifications Test results

Configuration overview		Price
Processors	AMD A6-3500	£53.11
CPU coolers	Scythe Big Shuriken 2 Rev. B	£35.16
Memory modules	4 GB (2x 2 GB) DDR3	£28.63
Motherboards	Gigabyte GA-A75M-UD2H	£73.14
Graphics cards	Integrated	-
Hard disks/SSDs	Crucial m4 128GB	£101.34
Optical drives	Lite-On iHOS104 Black	£30.42
Cases	SilverStone Grandia GD04B	-
Power supplies	Nexus Value 430W	-
TV cards	Anysee E30 Combo Plus	-
Remote controls	Conceptronic Windows Media Center Remote Control	-
Add as wish list	Average total price:	£321.80