Advice needed for HTPC system

[sixmillionways]

Hi, wondering if anyone could advise on a suitable system that would meet the following requirements (i.e. would the Low Power Silent Mini PC do the job?)

The system should be:

- as small and quiet as possible in order to fit unobtrusively into our living room.
- able to play HD movies from its HDD through our 32" Samsung TV
- able to stream HD movies from the internet (bbc iplayer etc)
- able to to browse the internet though our wireless internet connection
- able to play DVDs

Budget is ideally less than £300 (hence the question about the Low Power Silent Mini PC) but could stretch a little higher if necessary!

Thanks in advance

 

[PCS]

I have this spec at home in my living room:

Case
PCS Hush! Silent Mini-ITX Case + 60W PSU
Processor (CPU)
AMD® Zacate™ E350 Dual-Core Processor (1.60GHz) 1MB L2 Cache
Motherboard
ASUS® E35M1-I DELUXE: FCH A50, SATA 6.0GB/s, USB 3.0
Memory (RAM)
4GB SAMSUNG DDR3 DUAL-DDR3 1066MHz (2 X 2GB)
Graphics Card
Integrated AMD® Radeon HD 6310 Graphics - DX11
Memory - 1st Hard Disk
250GB SERIAL ATA II 2.5" HARD DRIVE WITH 8MB CACHE (5,400rpm)
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
8x SATA DVD±R/RW/Dual Layer (+ 24x CD-RW)
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Facilities
INTEGRATED GIGABIT LAN & WIRELESS 802.11N CARD (AS STANDARD)
USB Options
4 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL (MIN 2 FRONT PORTS) AS STANDARD
Operating System
Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence (£79)
Office Software
FREE Microsoft® Office Starter 2010 (Limited functionality Word & Excel)
Anti-Virus
BULLGUARD INTERNET SECURITY - FREE 90 DAY TRIAL
Warranty
3 Year Standard Warranty (1 Month Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 10 to 12 working days
Quantity
1

Price: £379.00 including VAT and delivery.

Configure Here: http://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/computers/amd-silent-mini-pc/

It's got better graphics than the Intel version and therefore handles HD flawlessly and is 100% silent!

The Intel based spec is a little slower and can't handle Blu-ray:

Case
PCS Hush! Silent Mini-ITX Case + 60W PSU
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Atom™ DualCore Processor D525 (1.8GHz) 667MHz FSB/1MB Cache
Motherboard
INTEL® D525MW: NM10 Express Chipset, Intel® Atom™, DDR3,
Memory (RAM)
4GB SAMSUNG 1066MHz SODIMM DDR3 MEMORY (2 x 2GB)
Graphics Card
Integrated Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 3150 + VGA OUT
Memory - 1st Hard Disk
250GB SERIAL ATA II 2.5" HARD DRIVE WITH 8MB CACHE (5,400rpm)
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
8x SATA DVD±R/RW/Dual Layer (+ 24x CD-RW)
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Facilities
ONBOARD 10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT - AS STANDARD ON ALL PCs
USB Options
4 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL (MIN 2 FRONT PORTS) AS STANDARD
Operating System
Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence (£79)
Office Software
FREE Microsoft® Office Starter 2010 (Limited functionality Word & Excel)
Anti-Virus
BULLGUARD INTERNET SECURITY - FREE 90 DAY TRIAL
Warranty
3 Year Standard Warranty (1 Month Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 10 to 12 working days
Quantity
1

Price: £302.00 including VAT and delivery.

Configure Here: http://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/computers/intel-silent-mini-pc/

I would strongly recommend the AMD based spec if your budget allows.

 

[sixmillionways]

Ok, thanks. I will probably go for the AMD version.

Can you please confirm that it will have no problem running Windows 7 and HD movies through a 32" TV?

 

[Wozza63]

windows 7 requires a minimum of 1gb or recommended 2gb

it should be ok playing HD movies but im just going by my laptop integrated graphics which only plays 720p

the AMD integrated graphics is much better than mine so you should be fine

make sure to get silver warranty though