Please give me a how to / shopping list to build a mini ITX size HTPC

Darren Heal

Looking to build something small for the sitting room to replace the micro-ATX form factor box (15 inch x 15 inch x 6 inch roughly) hiding behind the TV.  I'm looking to build something much smaller, say 8 in x 8 in x 3 in or thereabouts that can sit on top the AVR / BD stack alongside the Amazon Fire cube, but I don't want to use a laptop that someone might be tempted to cart off and use as a laptop, if you get my drift.

It will mainly be used to stream Blu-ray quality movies already ripped to a server hard disk, but occasionally for streaming from the net or just as a PC in front the fire.  Atmos is a must so the case will have to accept a full size two-slot graphics card.  I can always use a ribbon adaptor between the motherboard slot and the graphics card if I need to turn the card sideways, provided the case is thick enough to do that.

Thinking AM3 or later i5-level 3 GHz ish CPU with 8 gigs of RAM and a 120 gig SSD, no need for a BD / DVD reader, but the large graphics card is a must.  If the CPU and RAM are a bit OTT so be it.

Wifi isn't needed as we have a fully ethernet-wired house.

Would appreciate recommendations for a case, motherboard (with or without pre-attached CPU), and power supply.  The power supply can go outside the box and be connected with a lead kind of like a laptop power supply if needed, in fact that might be advantageous if it reduces the size of the box.

Thanks

EndlessWaves

I don't keep up with that area, but are you sure you need a big graphics card? I was under the impression Atmos worked on anything that could bitstream.

Your size estimates are optimistic.  A Mini-ITX motherboard alone is 7" x 7" x 2". 8" depth is doable, but you'll either need 12-13" length (Sentry/S4 Mini layout) or 4-4.5" thickness (Dan A4 layout).

The AM3 CPUs are the worst choice generally these days, but particularly for a small system as they put out a lot of heat. There are none that are at i5 level any more.

I'd stick to the Ryzen 2200G/2400G or Intel Pentium G/i3 Models. I don't see any need to go for a high end model like an i5. Even the mainstream desktop processors are more powerful than any other computing devices sold.

I'd pick the case first, then you can find out which motherboards work well for that case in terms of layout.

You also want to make sure your memory sticks don't have any fancy decoration on them, or if they do it adds minimal height. Some memory these days is 3" thick itself, which obviously won't fit in a case that's 3" wide on the outside.

Darren Heal

Having looked at the options out there - and my budget - I think I can live with micro ATX :-(

John7

Why not get a media player? I have a Zidoo X9s and that plays BR and 4K rips with Atmos, streamed from my server with no issues. Very compact, power efficient and much cheaper than an HTPC. In fact, since getting the Zidoo, I haven't used my home built HTPC!