Help with HTPC setup/creation

[apatel87]

Hi guys, I have been a fan of Plex for the last year and last Thanksgiving bought a 2.26 ghz mac mini and created a Mac Mini Plex box. It worked beautifully but I had to sell it because i needed the cash. I since bought a boxee box but that really has too many bugs and not nearly as awesome of an interface. I was wondering what people have done to create their own HTPCs. I dont mind using XBMC or Boxee but would much rather prefer Plex so it has to be hackintosh-able. I know that Plex is going to come out for Windows later this year so that may work too.

I have heard good things about ion nettops. Any recommendations? My budget is around $200. I already have a NAS so I dont need physical disk space on the nettop. Thanks!

Any help would be much appreciated.

 

[Dalton63841]

I have been researching nettops for a custom htpc of my own for the last few months. The only nettop I have found that would be half decent is something like this HTPC. In fact I am buying one of these in the coming weeks.

It is more than 200, but you get some pretty decent specs in a VERY small size, without the mini's price tag. Also, most Atom nettops are hackintoshable.

 

[roidy]

Hi guys, I have been a fan of Plex for the last year and last Thanksgiving bought a 2.26 ghz mac mini and created a Mac Mini Plex box. It worked beautifully but I had to sell it because i needed the cash. I since bought a boxee box but that really has too many bugs and not nearly as awesome of an interface. I was wondering what people have done to create their own HTPCs. I dont mind using XBMC or Boxee but would much rather prefer Plex so it has to be hackintosh-able. I know that Plex is going to come out for Windows later this year so that may work too.

I have heard good things about ion nettops. Any recommendations? My budget is around $200. I already have a NAS so I dont need physical disk space on the nettop. Thanks!

Any help would be much appreciated.

Pretty much any dual core Atom/ION nettop will run XBMC fine and give you hardware decoding of full 1080p content. The most popular one on the XBMC forums seems to be the Acer Revo R3610, I myself use the Asrock ION 330 because I wanted a built-in optical drive, I've also heard good thing about the Zotac Mag. There all pretty much the same spec and all run XBMC fine. Just make sure you get a dual core Atom, while a single core Atom/ION will still do full hardware decoding of 1080p the limited single core cpu will show it's weakness in XBMC's menu navigation. Be warned through, setting up XBMC isn't as easy as setting up PLEX.

On another note, where are you getting your information about Plex coming out on Windows? I know there's a Windows Plex client here but you still need a Mac running a Plex Media Server to use it.

 

[roidy]

I have been researching nettops for a custom htpc of my own for the last few months. The only nettop I have found that would be half decent is something like this HTPC. In fact I am buying one of these in the coming weeks.

It is more than 200, but you get some pretty decent specs in a VERY small size, without the mini's price tag. Also, most Atom nettops are hackintoshable.

Just remember that the system you've linked to is a bare-bone system so you also need to purchase ram and a hard-drive for it, adding to the cost.

 

[reebzor]

I use a 2009 Mini as a Plex box but I've been considering building a hackintosh plex media center. I think its a great idea and I love the design of these modern HTPC cases

Are there any remote receivers that would work with a hackintosh/plex?

 

[Dalton63841]

Just remember that the system you've linked to is a bare-bone system so you also need to purchase ram and a hard-drive for it, adding to the cost.

LOL oops...I sometimes forget that not everyone is like me and has all these extra parts lying around.

 

[roidy]

Yep if you've got the parts already then it's a good deal, but if you've got to buy them as well then it's just as easy to buy something like the Revo that is complete