downsizing living room HTPC

I

IDversusEGO

Supreme [H]ardness
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Oct 30, 2003
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I have moved my surround system to the basement and am looking to put together a compact 2.0 setup in the living room. It needs to be compact and capable of playing full quality bluray MKV files on a 720p display. Right now i have a tv and am looking for the following...

compact PC/appliance for playback. Leaning towards the sage HD box but would really rather have something more versatile in case I get away from Sage...which hasn't happened for any significant time over the last 6 years. Will have to comparable to the $150 price tag on the sage box, so that will be a tough request.

floor standing speakers capable of reasonable sound. I am loosing my sub so I need something that will at least fill out the voice range and maybe a little something tot he explosions. Not looking for fantastic sound, just better than the built TV speakers. Looking at the BIC DV-64 at about $270 a pair[/ur]

Something to drive the speakers with 2 sources (PC solution and Xbox 360). I don't mind using a source switcher if I can keep the devices small. This i have the least amount of ideas on so far but below is a little amp that might work out.

[url]http://www.parts-express.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?Partnumber=300-383

or

http://www.parts-express.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?Partnumber=300-812
 
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For a compact PC capable of doing different softwares I'd recommend taking a look at the Acer Aspire nettops. I had one for a while that did great at streaming media. The 1600 can be easily had used and occasionally new on sale for the price of the sage HD box. The 3600 will add dual core capabilities for about 100 more last time I checked. Only downside is they don't have IR receivers built in so you'd have to either use a wireless keyboard or add an RF receiver if you wanted that functionality.

Also Zotac has a similar box out but I haven't looked into it as much.
 
I have a USB MCE remote that I could easily use with a PC. I will take a look at them.
 
AMD AM3 65w X2
2GB RAM
cheapest HDD you can find
380w antec PSU
AMD 785g or 800 series motherboard and a case...

$150 is tough but not impossible if you have some parts you can recycle/repurpose and buy from the BST.
 
ID this possible solution is a little above your budget, but check out my post in this thread: http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1271201

The Zotac ZBOXHD-AD01 and or the ZBOXHD-AD01-U

Model ZBOXHD-AD01-U
Chipset AMD RS780M + SB710
CPU Socket Integrated Athlon Neo X2 L325 <-- This ought to kick any Atom's ass. CPU Comparison link
Dimensions 7.4in x 7.4in x 1.73in - 188mm x 188mm x 44mm
FSB 667 MHz
Memory Size Up to 4GB RAM
Memory Slots 2x 200 pin DDR2 SO-DIMM
Memory Type DDR2 800 SO-DIMM
Onboard Audio Onboard analog stereo high-definition audio/ 7.1-Channel LPCM digital audio (HDMI)/ Optical Digital S/PDIF audio output
Onboard LAN 10/100/1000Mbps, WiFi 802.11n/g/b
Onboard Video AMD Radeon HD 3200
Package Contents 1 x ZOTAC ZBOX HD-ID11
1 x Stand
1 x VESA mount
4 x Mounting screws
1 x DVI-to-VGA adapter
1 x AC adapter
1 x Power cord
1 x Warranty card
1 x User manual
1 x Driver CD
Power Connector DC19V
SATA 1 SATA (3.0 Gbps)
USB 6 (4 back panel, 1 front panel, 1 top panel)
Weight 4.0000 lb
Video Ports HDMI + DVI-I


I'll try to dig up some decent but inexpensive two channel amps for you, i normally try to keep up but haven't investigated them in a few months.
 
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so I still need to drop ram and a hard drive in that zotac right? still...would allow me to swap front ends at any point, if I wanted to..and is small. I think I have some spare laptop parts around to make that a non-factor.
 
For your sound have you thought about a wall mountable sound bar? I know they seam cheesy but I recently went through a shrink process and decided to take a chance on the vizio soundbar http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=5279677&CatId=4597
And it sounds really good for the price. I replaced a Logitech Z-5300e setup. While I did loose the hard hitting sub I did get a comparable sound field out of the new soundbar.
It has 2 analog and one toslink inputs, so I have my 47" LG HDTV and the soundbar mounted to the wall, and the ps3(optical) and pc(analog input) sitting below it on a table.

Just a thought.

Oh and you could probably get away with the computer in my sig minus the video card for less than 4 bills.
 
IDversusEGO said:
so I still need to drop ram and a hard drive in that zotac right?
Click to expand...

Sorry, hadn't thought of that, but Yes. It does have External Sata if you want to go that route.



Still looking out for a small but decent two channel amp, doing some catching up at DIYaudio where people breath that stuff.

I know ebay has tons of those small amps, very similar to the $100 amp you linked at parts express, for about 1/2 the price. Many of them are only around 10 wpc, but with a little digging we may find some decent 15-20 watt models.

Both of those parts express amps are really good btw.
 
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I havent made any changes yet. The wife asked me about the surround sound bars so I am trying to do some research on them. I know nothing but am willing to see. even if it the effect is just enhanced stereo I would prefer it to a couple of towers. That amp looks great. Good price and visually appealing, thanks. The dell...better than the zotac? it has been my leading candidate to this point since I think I can come up with hard drive and ram for little or no expense.
 
IDversusEGO said:
I havent made any changes yet. The wife asked me about the surround sound bars so I am trying to do some research on them. I know nothing but am willing to see. even if it the effect is just enhanced stereo I would prefer it to a couple of towers. That amp looks great. Good price and visually appealing, thanks. The dell...better than the zotac? it has been my leading candidate to this point since I think I can come up with hard drive and ram for little or no expense.
Click to expand...
The base Dell Zino -vs- the Zotac, that's a good question, it might take some quick and dirty research to figure out.

I know the Dell's V140 is a single core so it would take another $23 to upgrade to a 2.2ghz P340 dual core, it would be paired with 4250 graphics and the newer 880G chipset so the Zino is easily one step ahead of the Zotac, it'll almost positively buy you some future-proofing if that means anything to you. You would also get a 1 year Dell warranty which can't hurt. The Dell will also fit a 3.5" internal hard drive so you could eventually stuff a cheap 2TB hard drive if you wanted. The dual 2.2ghz CPU may be powerful enough to pickup the step if the onboard video failed at 1080P hardware decoding. The CPU is swappable so 2 years down the road you could pick up a used and dirt cheap, low powered AMD cpu to give it a boost.

The Zotac is an integrated but full fledged dual-core AMD at 1.6ghz and is using the 785G chipset but also comes in at a lower price and smaller footprint but no room inside for a 3.5" hard drive. Dual 1.6ghz cpu's would probably struggle A LOT, or fail, if the onboard video failed at 1080P hardware decoding. The fact that you're personally using 720P material and a 720P display helps a lot here, but i'm not sure how taxing high bit-rate 720P MKV videos are when relying on the cpu alone (?).

I see the advantages to both choices but i'm not sure if it boils down to price versus performance, or if dual 1.6ghz cpu's are up to the task of high bit rate 720P mkv videos with no assistance from the onboard video chipset? I think it is, but i'm not sure.

Hopefully someone who knows a lot more about this stuff can chime in with some evidence or facts?


Edit: Supposedly you can get a great price on used or refurb Dell ZinoHD's on Ebay, or maybe even the Dell outlet. If you don't mind used or refurb then it may be worth checking out. Don't forget to look up Dell coupons either way though.
 
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