small form factor pc

thinking of building this

smallfactor.png

edit - thre is a 750GB 2.5" HD I'll be putting in there

it will also be driving a HD enclosure with 3 drives (it has it's own power unit)

edit 3 - this will be running mythtv or kodi on linux
 
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If you're set on the DIY affair, I'd recommend this instead.

AMD Athlon 5150 @ R808
ASUS AM1I-A mini-ITX socket AM1 @ R714
Corsair ValueSelect 2x 2GB DDR3L-1600 @ R558
Cooler Master Elite 120 Advanced @ R661
Cooler Master Vanguard-S 450W @ R793
Total: R3534

That's saving you R1341, and you'll get a system that's quieter and takes up less space. It'll play and transcode H.265 content just fine, and you'll be changing systems when you move to 4K 60Hz in any case (something that I don't think will be necessary, but the option is there, as 4K 24Hz will be the prevailing standard for years to come). You can go heavy with MadVR filters if you want, and you can pop in a Blu-Ray drive later to benefit from Blu-Ray HEVC content.

It also benefits from some interesting things AMD is doing in their drivers to smooth H.265 playback, and you can install Steam to play some light games which don't need a lot of power.
 
Why not consider a RaspberryPi? The new one is powerful enough to handle HD videos. Has network, HDMI and expandable to WiFi if necessary. It is frieken tiny. PiShop even has n kit you can buy ready or use as a Media center for ~R1200.

Ship it with NOOBS and you seriously plug it in, pick your Home Theatre of choice it installs and you configure.

Should be perfect unless I am missing a requirement somewhere?
 
CataclysmZA said:
If you're set on the DIY affair, I'd recommend this instead.

AMD Athlon 5150 @ R808
ASUS AM1I-A mini-ITX socket AM1 @ R714
Corsair ValueSelect 2x 2GB DDR3L-1600 @ R558
Cooler Master Elite 120 Advanced @ R661
Cooler Master Vanguard-S 450W @ R793
Total: R3534

That's saving you R1341, and you'll get a system that's quieter and takes up less space. It'll play and transcode H.265 content just fine, and you'll be changing systems when you move to 4K 60Hz in any case (something that I don't think will be necessary, but the option is there, as 4K 24Hz will be the prevailing standard for years to come). You can go heavy with MadVR filters if you want, and you can pop in a Blu-Ray drive later to benefit from Blu-Ray HEVC content.

It also benefits from some interesting things AMD is doing in their drivers to smooth H.265 playback, and you can install Steam to play some light games which don't need a lot of power.
Click to expand...

well. i think this is it.

re the pi2 questions, i am currently using the original pi and it is suffering from the number of servces i am running on it. while i appreciate the pi2 is beefed up, i would now rather have a proper pc which i can be confident will meet all the services i need to run.
 
I am also looking into getting one of these.

my Budget is R4K.

I really like the ASUS VivoPC VM42 because of the Hard drive bay and how that all works. its quite nifty.

I have had quite a few discussions with otehr people that know more than me and everyone says rather build yourself then buy a pre made one, but no one has been able to explain why.

here is my plan with the VM42:
I can get it for R2999.
add in an SSD and new wireless mouse and Keyboard, totalling up to R4k.

the primary need is to run Kodi, some Chrome for the things that Kodi cant handle (supersport) and bittorrent once in a while. I need to connect up an external.

so with all the alternative builds out there what are the pro's and cons?
with the VM42, I get everything I need. I get an OS already, RAM, an HDD, a small form factor, some cool things and budget left over for expanding things.
building my own I will have to work to get the same value and then teach the SO linux because I dont have a copy of windows....
 
why would you need to teach your so linux if you will be putting kodi on it?
 
milomak said:
well. i think this is it.

re the pi2 questions, i am currently using the original pi and it is suffering from the number of servces i am running on it. while i appreciate the pi2 is beefed up, i would now rather have a proper pc which i can be confident will meet all the services i need to run.
Click to expand...

What are you planning on running on it for interest sake?
 
Werfetter said:
What are you planning on running on it for interest sake?
Click to expand...

it will be a mediacenter running mythtv (for music and video)

on top of that it will be running:
sabnzb
sickbeard
couchpotato
headphones
musicbrainz local server
 
milomak said:
why would you need to teach your so linux if you will be putting kodi on it?
Click to expand...

because we use more than just kodi.
as much as I love Kodi, there are some things we do on the current mini Pc that happen ourside kodi. its not much, but she will at least need to be able to get around
 
milomak said:
well. i think this is it.

re the pi2 questions, i am currently using the original pi and it is suffering from the number of servces i am running on it. while i appreciate the pi2 is beefed up, i would now rather have a proper pc which i can be confident will meet all the services i need to run.
Click to expand...

i went and bit on this
 
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