Home Theatre PC Build

[SamdalabonaHD]

Hi All,

I am looking to build a HTPC (Home Theatre PC). I want it only for watching movies, netflix, hulu etc and to incorporate a Blue-Ray reader and writer. Absolutely no gaming, just internet streaming and watching movies.

So essentially I need someone to help me spec it.

I want it to be in a small-ish case so it doesn't take up too much room as well. OH, and I want it to be to be able to play in 4k.

What I have so far, i5 processor, 8GB DDR4 Ram and a WD Caviar Green 2TB Hard Driver. Will be Windows 10 with the OS loaded onto an SSD.

I need a motherboard that will have good sound and allow me to play in 4k or similarly have a graphics card that will let me stream in 4k.

Hopefully this is enough to go on, so people if you can help, let me know!

 

[Eximo]

Well, if you have a 4K screen then you will need HDMI 2.0 to get 60hz. I venture a guess to say that none of the onboard chipsets do this? [strike]The CPUs support it, but the motherboards don't seem to have the ports. [/strike] Correction the 6th gen CPU's only support HDMI 1.4 so 4K at 30hz.

So an RX460 or a GTX950 would be a good choice. Paired with an i5 and you have a machine that could easily run games, not necessarily at 4K, but 1080p looks quite good on 4K panels.

Pretty much any board will do. If you are going for true home theater you should probably start with a size of case to narrow down your board choices.

 

[SamdalabonaHD]

Well, if you have a 4K screen then you will need HDMI 2.0 to get 60hz. I venture a guess to say that none of the onboard chipsets do this? The CPUs support it, but the motherboards don't seem to have the ports.

So an RX460 or a GTX950 would be a good choice. Paired with an i5 and you have a machine that could easily run games, not necessarily at 4K, but 1080p looks quite good on 4K panels.

Pretty much any board will do. If you are going for true home theater you should probably start with a size of case to narrow down your board choices.

Eximo, I don't have a 4k TV yet but I will do within the next year, if I got at HDMI 2.0 port would I still be able to use a regular 1080p tv?

Also I don't want to game at all, so is a GTX 950 necessary?

 

[Eximo]

HDMI 2.0 is backwards compatible of course. It just supports higher bandwidth which allows full speed 4K, really a PC thing.

If you are happy with 30hz (most TV content is going to be 24/25hz) then you could get away with a lot less, possibly just the CPU for graphics.

Streaming 4K is a lot of work though, so a dedicated GPU could be good. I have no complaints on my system.

i3-4130t + GTX950 + 8GB DDR3 + 240GB SSD, and a 3TB mirror.

I'm not exactly an audiophile, but I found no problems with the basic realtek sound chipset.