When building your first home theater PC (HTPC), there seems to be too many options. What case to use – with fans – or go fanless? What minimum specification will do the job – what CPU – how much memory?
Don’t worry, I’ve been there as well.
I wanted to make it easy for you and help you from wasting your time and money on tedious research, so I have built and tested all these four builds.
Recommended HTPC Build Comparison
| 1080p HD | 4K 60Hz | 3D Stereo | VR Ready | HD Audio | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Starter
|
1080p
✓
|
4K 60Hz
✗
|
3D Stereo
✗
|
VR Ready
✗
|
HD Audio
✗
|
|
Budget
|
1080p
✓
|
4K 60Hz
✗
|
3D Stereo
✓
|
VR Ready
✗
|
HD Audio
✓
|
|
Value
|
1080p
✓
|
4K 60Hz
✗
|
3D Stereo
✓
|
VR Ready
✗
|
HD Audio
✓
|
|
Performance
|
1080p
✓
|
4K 60Hz
✓
|
3D Stereo
✓
|
VR Ready
✓
|
HD Audio
✓
|
Let’s take a deeper look at these builds.
Ultra-cheap System
Ultra-cheap system is the most affordable and smallest build which features the Raspberry Pi 3 board. Raspberry Pi 3 has developed and matured a lot as a media center during the past year and can be now used as a light-weight home theater computer at less than $100.
This system is powered by ARM CPU running at 1.2 Ghz, and a Videocore 4 GPU. The GPU is capable of Blu-ray quality playback, using H.264 at 40MBits/s. You can also play MPEG-2 and VC1 video files, but you need to buy a separate license from the Raspberry Pi Foundation.
See Ultra-cheap HTPC parts list.
Budget System
Budget system is a sub-$300 system that runs completely silent and you can set it up in less than an hour.
It is capable of doing everything you need for home entertainment expect for heavy gaming.
The system is based on a low cost AMD AM1 Athlon 5350 (codename Kabini) that runs only at 25W TDP, which means your system will be completely silent.
If you can buy AMD AM1 Athlon APU and motherboard somewhere with a decent price, this is still a great choice for a budget system.
I have chosen a compact and stylish looking Silverstone ML06 case that is also able to fit an Arctic Alpine M7 passive CPU cooler for fanless operation.
This system is one of the cheapest and easiest way to build a quiet and capable home theater computer that runs well on both Windows 10 and Linux operating systems.
See Budget HTPC parts list.
Value System
Value system includes the Intel Core i3 6100 Skylake processor, which uses the HD 530 series GPU.
I have chosen the Intel Core i3-6100 Skylake processor because it is a very low power, but fast CPU with only 51W TDP (Thermal Design Power).
I’m still recommending Silverstone GD06 as the ideal home theater box type of case. I bought and tested a newer and slightly bigger Silverstone GD09 case, but it supports only two hard drives.
After testing GD09, I concluded that GD06 is better choice as HTPC / media server. Silverstone GD06 supports 4 x 3.5″ hard drives and 2.5″ SSD (Solid-state drive).
If you are not planning to play the latest games with your HTPC, you will be fine without a separate graphics card.
See Value HTPC parts list.
Performance System
Performance system is a great choice for you if you are interest in playing games (even VR) in your living room or getting the ultimate 4K picture quality.
Building a small form factor gaming HTPC that is powerful and silent is not easy at all. This is my third iteration and I’m finally happy to say that this build delivers very good 1080p gaming performance while staying practically silent. Don’t waste money on trial and error like I did. This blueprint will show exactly how you can achieve silent gaming.
I’m using an Intel Core i5-6600 Skylake processor, which is a 65W CPU that runs super cool and keeps everything quiet while providing enough performance even for games.
Please note that there is also a newer Intel Core i5-7500 Kabylake processor, but you probably wont notice any performance differences with the i3-6600 Skylake model.
In order to get the best audio quality, I chose a bit more expensive ASUS Maximus VIII Impact motherboard that has a dedicated sound card (SupremeFX). The Impact motherboard has 8 pin connector next to the 24 pin connector for better cable management and advanced fan controls for silent gaming. It also runs cooler compared to other mini-ITX mobos.
Graphic card coolers can easily be the noisiest component in your computer, therefore I chose an EVGA GTX 1060 SC that is a perfect graphics card for super quiet 1080p gaming. It also supports 4K at 60Hz and VR.
EVGA GTX 1060 is 80% faster at same TDP (120W) compared to the older generation GTX 960 that I used in the previous Performance HTPC build, so you will do yourself a big favor by upgrading to this GPU.
Therefore, you may consider using GeForce GTX 1050 Ti instead, if you are fine to play latest games with moderate settings.
In this 2017 reference performance HTPC, I am still using a Silverstone ML07 case, which is a “home theater box” version of the revolutionary Raven RVZ01 case. The Milo ML07 has an advanced layout designed for maximum performance and a PCI-E riser making it perfect choice for your gaming HTPC.
Some builders might regard this computer as overkill for home theater PC use, but if you like playing games and want to have a future proofed setup, then this is right choice for you.
See Performance HTPC parts list.
What’s Next
Home Theater PCs have been my hobby for over 16 years and I know from personal experience that it requires knowledge and effort to integrate hardware and software to turn a custom built computer into an appliance that is reliable and easy to use.
Since 2009, I’ve helped thousands of people who have built their first Home Theater PC (HTPC) based on my build guides and several million people who have read my blog posts to enhance their media center experience.
So, are you reading to start building your own HTPC?