Building a Linux HTPC

Doodsmack

United States7224 Posts

February 10 2014 06:34 GMT

I recently upgraded my desktop with a pretty good overhaul and instead of selling the spare parts, I decided to build a HTPC and use Linux (Ubuntu) for the first time. I may use Steam OS once that comes out (maybe I could install the beta as a second OS...), and in the meantime I already installed Steam and would like to do some gaming. So with the spare parts I had available, all I needed to buy was a case and PSU (not even going to use a disc drive). I spent some time searching for the right case, as I wanted one that has the right look for an entertainment center AND has good airflow and space for gaming purposes. I settled on the Fractal Design Node 605 which I would recommend to anyone looking into this. Granted airflow is still not going to be great with a setup like this, but I could fit an ATX mobo and 11" GPU.

So this is the lineup. Everything but the case and PSU is 2/3 yrs old.

Gigabyte ATX mobo
Corsair 450W PSU
Radeon 6970
AMD Phenom ii x4
4 GB DDR3 1600
1TB HDD
Logitech G700 mouse
Logitech wireless kb w/ touchpad

I didn't know anything about Linux but was surprised it's almost plug and play, with a ready-to-go UI, very fast install and very easy to setup drivers and everything else. Of course hardware compatibility is a potential issue but the only snag I'm hitting is my USB network adapter, which I will need to manually configure the drivers.

Overall an HTPC is an awesome upgrade to the entertainment center. Actually already had a smart TV which is great for netflix, but the HTPC will add a lot more. One nice thing is being able to access Twitch with an already integrated comp rather than having to hook up a laptop.

tl;dr HTPCs are a cool toy.

plz ignore purple splotches on pics

[image loading]

Birdie

New Zealand4438 Posts

February 10 2014 10:02 GMT

Oo very nice! It will be very interesting to see how the SteamOS plays out.

Any reason you went for ATX over mATX, given the small size of the case?

one-one-one

Sweden551 Posts

February 10 2014 13:25 GMT

Cool project.

I use a Raspberry Pi running XBMC for this. The media is hosted via NFS on another small ARM device which also serves as time server , torrent box, and Wifi-extender

Less powerful hardware, but it does the job and has way lower power consumption.

Why the USB network adapter? Most semi-recent motherboards has 1Gb ethernet integrated.
You should be able to find a method to get the adapter to work with some fiddling though.
But since you already invested quite a bit in the computer and plan to use it for gaming I highly recommend getting a proper ethernet card.

haduken

Australia8267 Posts

February 10 2014 13:52 GMT

I got that exact case but it won't fit my TV closet, fml

Crypdos

Netherlands110 Posts

February 10 2014 21:58 GMT

I did the exact same thing months ago, HTPC with ubuntu running XBMC. Really cool.

Doodsmack

United States7224 Posts

February 12 2014 21:06 GMT

On February 10 2014 22:25 one-one-one wrote:
Cool project.

I use a Raspberry Pi running XBMC for this. The media is hosted via NFS on another small ARM device which also serves as time server , torrent box, and Wifi-extender

Sounds like a cool setup you have. Maybe I could get into torrents for use with this...

In my case I have no form of stored media, I only stream music and movies. Though torrenting might change that. So programs like Xbmc are less useful for me I think, although I did download it and maybe it has more capability than I realize, including streaming video.

I had almost forgotten I could do this but I hAve an old Hauppage HD-PVR that will come in handy since it can be used with linux. Hoping I can capture audio and video from my comcast cable box with that too. Streaming some ps3 would be fun...

One thing that's annoying is that in order for the screen to fit to the edges of my tv I have to use the 1366 x 768 resolution...which would be bad for gaming and I'd also bad for watching twitch. I tried switching to proprietary drivers...there were two options for proprietary drivers though, maybe I'll try the other one.

Crypdos

Netherlands110 Posts

February 13 2014 18:53 GMT

On February 13 2014 06:06 Doodsmack wrote:

One thing that's annoying is that in order for the screen to fit to the edges of my tv I have to use the 1366 x 768 resolution...which would be bad for gaming and I'd also bad for watching twitch. I tried switching to proprietary drivers...there were two options for proprietary drivers though, maybe I'll try the other one.

You probably want the "fglrx" driver. To get the screen to fit the edges, you'll want to set overscan to 0. You can do this via terminal or via the ATI CCC I think.

As far as streaming goes, xbmc is pretty cool for that too. Download the browser plugin "play to xbmc" and you can remotely send twitch streams, youtube vids etc from your browser to your tv.

Please or register to reply.

Building a Linux HTPC

Completed

Ongoing

Upcoming