Should I go HTPC or NMT?

[oj88]

I was at SM Annex Cyberzone yesterday and was already about to flip out my credit card and purchase new HTPC hardware. But then, I suddenly had cold feet and decided to hold on to my money until such time I'm sure of my purchase.

Since WinXP MCE came out several years ago, I've always wanted to get into the technology bandwagon and build one myself. But due to other priorities and cost, my plan never reached fruition. I only got as far as to get two standalone hard disk multimedia players which are basically glorified external USB drives as they're not network-attached. Though, two years back when I bought these, they did had that wow factor when they were still not as popular as they are now (ie. WD TV). Needless to say, it's come to the point that I've outgrown these players and I would like something more than just play music and movies.

For now, I have two choices; Build myself an HTPC running Windows 7 (Ultimate or Home Premium MCE), LinuxMCE, XBMC, etc., or get one of those set-top Networked Media Tanks (NMT). Based on the current pricing, I can build an HTPC for about 15-16k, give or take. NMT's that has the features I want (Web Services) costs approx. 13-19k. Web Services allows NMT's to stream YouTube, Google Videos, Internet TV and music, among other things, to my TV/monitor and receiver.

The one fabulous thing about NMT's is that they work right out of the box. Just power it up and connect it to your TV/monitor and sound system and you're done. They're purpose-built and streamlined to do only one thing. However, I'm at the mercy of the manufacturer to come out with new firmware updates, cooked or otherwise, to support new features.

With an HTPC, it's the entire opposite. Setting it up would probably take me a day or two to make everything work together (OS install, updates, applications, tuner setup, MCE remote setup, drivers, codecs, etc.). But I guess in the long run, the inherent modularity of an HTPC means I can upgrade any part of the hardware to keep it up to date. Additionally, HTPC's may include home automation features like being able to integrate IP cameras, or control appliances, etc. (using LinuxMCE, for instance), I'm more inclined to go this route. Electricity? Well, I'm sure the nuclear reactor I have in the attic will still be able to take the grunt. :D

These are so far the only things I can think of right now. Just spilling my brains here... please chime in if you can add something that can help me decide.

[boybi]

If you're not going to move around the HTPC/NMT, meaning take it with you when you go on holidays, they go with the HTPC setup.

[ghosthunter]

If you are willing to put in the effort for the build, I would rather go HTPC option. It is more flexible in what you want it to do as well as open to any software and hardware upgrades you would like in the future.

HTPCs would give you the option to view your videos and go on the internet to browse sites as well as other stuff like TV (USB tv tuners are getting cheap).

[oj88]

Ok, so I took the plunge today and burned some dough for my HTPC project. It's still incomplete but here's a peek at things to come...

[ghosthunter]

So what did you buy so far and how much did it cost you?

I just bought a e-machine for P15K. Not bad for a dualcore CPU, HDD, DVD-R and Nvideo 7050 equipped PC as the core of my current HTPC. I just added a wifi N adapter and USB tv tuner to complete it.

[oj88]

So what did you buy so far and how much did it cost you?

I just bought a e-machine for P15K. Not bad for a dualcore CPU, HDD, DVD-R and Nvideo 7050 equipped PC as the core of my current HTPC. I just added a wifi N adapter and USB tv tuner to complete it.

Here's what I've got so far:

Motherboard: Emaxx AMD780G-Pro
CPU: AMD Athlon X2 7750 (Dual-core * 2.7GHz)
Video: ATI Radeon HD3200 GPU (On-board); 1 x empty PCIx-16 slot with ATI Hybrid support
RAM: 2GB DDR2 800 Geil Dual-Channel (2 x 1GB sticks)
Optical Drive: Liteon IHAS424 24X DVD-RW SATA with LS
Case: Astone Enforcer Flex (SFF mATX)

Total cost as of the moment: P10.8k.

Pending items (in order of priority):
1TB Seagate HDD
MCE-certified PCI Tuner w/ remote
UPS
WiFi 802.11n USB or PCI - Haven't decided which yet. But for the moment, since this is a fairly permanent install, the on-board NIC should be more than enough for connectivity

As you can probably tell, this is far from a high-end system. But what's good about it is the AMD 780G chipset. Reading the specs, this guy is tailor made for media center applications. Originally, I was going to pair it with an AMD Athlon 4850e CPU, but it's not available anywhere I've been to. The 4850e boasts good performance but power consumption is a measly 45W, which is perfect for an HTPC... as opposed to 95W by the 7750.

The on-board GPU is also perfect for my application (playing local and online media). As of yet, I don't have any plans to play games on this system (I do have Q9550 quad-core desktop for gaming and video editing) so the HD3200 GPU is probably more than twice overkill for MCE. Among other things, it can also decode Blu-Ray for when I have enough moollah to start collecting Blu-Ray materials. That should make it somewhat future-proof for the next 3-4 years.