United Kingdom
I'm planning on building a mini-itx dedicated HTPC system but I'm seeking advice on whether people think my plan is possible and would appreciate views and opinions.
I have done a bit reading on the subject and understand there are a number of factors I need to consider. The situation is I would prefer to have one PC - both server and client rather than two separate machines. I don't want the PC for gaming so it would not need to be too high end but I would like to be able to play HD tv/films, encode movies, etc.
I have been looking at the Zotac Ion motherboards and recognise I have two choices: Dual Atom or Core2Duo. Dual atom would be great as this would be less power hungry, possiblity of passive cooling so less noise and cheaper. The downside to this though I guess is that the system would be limited in the tasks it could complete (video encoding
for example?) On the other hand Core2Duo might be able to handle more multi-tasking and more demanding jobs but need fans for greater cooling therefore a noisier system, be more power hungry and therefore need a more powerful psu (most itx cases/boards come with about 60W!)
The choice of motherboard and case I guess are going to be key to the success of this build. I've recently purchased a low profile dual dvb-s2 card (Mystique SaTiX-S2 Dual, 2xDVB-S2 HDTV/MPEG4/H.264 - DVBSHOP - Technotrend,Mystique,TeVii,Kathrein,Shop,DVB-S,DVB-C,DVB-T,HDTV,H.264,DVB-S2) and would like to use this in a mini-itx system so the board would need a pcie x1 bus and I know some of the Zotac boards have this. I would like the case to be small, hence the low profile tv card.
What do people think / recommend? Is it possible to have such a small computer and ask so much of it?!
I have done a bit reading on the subject and understand there are a number of factors I need to consider. The situation is I would prefer to have one PC - both server and client rather than two separate machines. I don't want the PC for gaming so it would not need to be too high end but I would like to be able to play HD tv/films, encode movies, etc.
I have been looking at the Zotac Ion motherboards and recognise I have two choices: Dual Atom or Core2Duo. Dual atom would be great as this would be less power hungry, possiblity of passive cooling so less noise and cheaper. The downside to this though I guess is that the system would be limited in the tasks it could complete (video encoding
for example?) On the other hand Core2Duo might be able to handle more multi-tasking and more demanding jobs but need fans for greater cooling therefore a noisier system, be more power hungry and therefore need a more powerful psu (most itx cases/boards come with about 60W!)
The choice of motherboard and case I guess are going to be key to the success of this build. I've recently purchased a low profile dual dvb-s2 card (Mystique SaTiX-S2 Dual, 2xDVB-S2 HDTV/MPEG4/H.264 - DVBSHOP - Technotrend,Mystique,TeVii,Kathrein,Shop,DVB-S,DVB-C,DVB-T,HDTV,H.264,DVB-S2) and would like to use this in a mini-itx system so the board would need a pcie x1 bus and I know some of the Zotac boards have this. I would like the case to be small, hence the low profile tv card.
What do people think / recommend? Is it possible to have such a small computer and ask so much of it?!