Updated: The best media centre PC you can build today

Adrian Rundle
19 April 2012, 5:00 PM


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We take a look at the top individual components needed to build the best media centre PC you can.


A media centre PC needs to be built within a certain set of guide lines. It should blend in with its surroundings, it needs to be quiet, it needs to be fast, and if you’re anything like me, it needs to be fast enough to stream to my iPad, Xbox 360, ATV2 and iPhone on the fly, all at the same time, while downloading and acting as a file server.

Core System: $1,742


CPU: Intel i5 2500K –$239



Being a media machine, you'll want the fastest video playback and conversion. Intel has really raised the bar with the GPU in their Sandy Bridge chips. While not stellar for gameplay, nothing comes close within this price range for video encoding. Also means you don’t need to buy a video card and can spend the money elsewhere.

CPU Cooler: Stock - $0

Stock cooler is fine for this application, in both cooling and noise. This is something you need to think about when building a media box. Noise. The stock cooler, with the motherboard’s fan controller activated is usually all you need, but correct case choice is also part of the equation.

Video card: HD3000 Intel GPU - $0

The HD3000 GPU is available only in the K Series of Sandy Bridge CPUs, and since it’s only a few dollars more than the non-K CPUs, it's kind of a no brainer. Even though it might not be up to playing some of the more recent games, it has been optimised for video encoding, which is perfect for a media box.

NEW -- Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z77M-D3H - $139


Intel’s newest s/1155 chipset, and from all reports it is a little faster and slightly better on power.  A little bit of power-saving can’t be a bad thing for a machine designed to be left on 24/7. In this day and age, every little bit counts. It also fully supports the new Ivy Bridge chip, tipped for release soon.

Memory: 2x Corsair CMV4GX3M1A1333C9 4GB ($25 each) - $50



RAM is so cheap these days. 8GB RAM, less than $60, crazy. With this much RAM you won’t have any trouble running everything, all at once.

NEW -- Hard drive: 4x WD Green 2TB WD20EARX ($149 each) - $596



4x WD 2TB HDDs, in RAID 5: that’s 6 terabytes of redundant space and that should be enough to hold all your media, while doubling as a full file server. Before you say "that’s too much space" you’ll find pretty quickly that there’s no such thing as too much space.

PSU: CoolerMaster Silent Pro M600 600W - $115



Ultra high-quality, ultra-quiet power supply, with more than enough power for this application, even if you plan to add more hard drives.

Case: Lian Li PC-C60B Black USB 3.0 HTPC Case Black - $229



You just have to look at this case to see that it exudes quality, in typical Lian Li style. A better quality HTPC case you won’t find, and it's complete with USB 3.0, 3x 14cm fan spots, and able to run 6x 3.5in drives and 3x 2.5in drives.

Optical Drive: Pioneer BDR-207DBK Blu-Ray Disc Writer OEM - $129



It wouldn’t be a media box if it couldn’t play or burn Blu-rays, and they are cheap. Not long ago you would be lucky to find a writer for less than $300, now they are sub-$150.

Capture Card: Avermedia AVer3D CaptureHD - $145



This is a media box with everything, and the Aver3D is one of the most affordable full 3D capture cards on the market. Lets you watch the footy in full 3D! Obviously you will require a 3D TV or compatible monitor to watch 3D content.

Cooling: 2x Silverstone 140mm Air Penetrator ($25 each) - $50



There is more to fan choice than just air flow. The C60B case works best with a positive air pressure set. That means instead of sucking the hot air out of the case, cool air is forced in to displace the hot air. The Air Penetrator fans may not move insane amounts of air, but due to their frame design, they have a high static air pressure. This means that more air is forced into the further reaches of the case.

Core system cost - $1,742





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Gruntos (New user):

So where's the SSD for a primary system drive?

13 February 2012, 5:45 PM (1 year ago)report abuse Send to a friend reply

Gruntos (New user):

So where's the SSD for a primary system drive?

13 February 2012, 5:46 PM (1 year ago)report abuse Send to a friend reply

ss-rotel (User):

why does it need an ssd? this was built to basically stay on 24/7, so once it's online, the the SSD is moot. Just cos you can, doesn't mean you should.

But, feel free to add one, they re cheap enough, and that case has more than enough room.

13 February 2012, 7:24 PM (1 year ago)report abuse Send to a friend reply

Mutley (User):

Adrian,
According to the ASUS website the ASUS P8Z68M-PRO only has 2 x USB3 ports at the back panel. None mid-board.
What do you propose to connect the USB3 slots on the front of the Lian Li case to?

13 February 2012, 8:45 PM (1 year ago)report abuse Send to a friend reply

ss-rotel (User):

hey... i can't believe i missed that. the case was actually something i changed half way throu the build, and the orginialy case, (silverstone LC16B-MR), which doesn't have USB3...

Made the change for cooling reasons.

IF This is an issue, swap the board for the Gigabyte GA-Z68X-UD3H-B3, it's like an extra $40?

14 February 2012, 9:18 PM (1 year ago)report abuse Send to a friend reply

Peter try hard (Cornerstone member):

Its a lot of money for a home server. Surely begs the question - why not take a top of the range panasonicdual tuenr recorder and add a simple media server. And this menas your family dont have to grapple with any windows problems.

13 February 2012, 9:40 PM (1 year ago)report abuse Send to a friend reply

ss-rotel (User):

MAYbe... but i have basically the same setup at home, (thou, not as powerful), and they have no problems with it...

but this is a media center. even with my setup, i can stream to my ipad to so my son can watch one thing, play a movie on my main TV, stream to my PC and download stuff, all via a draft 1 802.11n network, (the box sites near my TV, and there's not LAN out there...)

MIND you, the biggest expence on this is the storage. it's basically 1/3 the cost of the system. Hopefully, in a few months time, you'd be able to save $200-300 on this system right there.

14 February 2012, 9:27 PM (1 year ago)report abuse Send to a friend reply

John in Brisbane (User):

Nice specs. I like the fact that it's already got grunt plus an easy upgrade path... shame to waste that big tv on just 2d stuff! I'd only add a UPS.

14 February 2012, 6:48 AM (1 year ago)report abuse Send to a friend reply

sup? (New user):

Way over priced! Why do you need a k-series cpu? Also the Intel stock cooler is very loud, definitely not fit for a media centre. Not to mention, that case is expensive too.. What about the Antec NSK2400 (http://www.silentpcreview.com/Antec_NSK2400_Fusion)? What about an Asrock motherboard instead? The Asus one is nice.. but, what for? The Asrock one will provide similar functionality for a fraction of the price. A media pc is supposed to be hook up and forget. I'd actually not buy the 3x3Tb (again, what for?) the ideal situation in my mind, is to hook it up to a LAN and have all your info on a data server, but thats my preference.
Besides the fact that booting from a 3tb HDD will be very slow. A smaller (500gb) is preferred.

To conclude: With $1812 I'd be building a full SB-E system, not a media centre. Media centres should be an addition to the living room, ie cheap-ish, good quality, fast, and quiet.

15 February 2012, 4:12 PM (1 year ago)report abuse Send to a friend reply

John in Brisbane (User):

Look, the story is about "the best" media box, not the best value. From that point of view, the specs are pretty much spot on I reckon. All your points seem to be correct if value is the key criteria.

I run an overclocked e5400 C2D with an 8800gt and 2TB drive as my media box and it works well - it's snappy and smooth enough for general use and people love playing with google earth on a floor to ceiling screen! The whole rig, including projector, owes me about $1k - awesome value! If I was starting from scratch however, and wanted something that should last 4 or 5 years, the specs in the article are pretty much what I'd recommend.

PS - If I was buying today, I'd consider starting with just an SSD (and large USB stick?) and use the LAN or Wifi until HDD prices drop back.

15 February 2012, 5:04 PM (1 year ago)report abuse Send to a friend reply

J876 (User):

Hey APC how about doing a feature on Home Theatre PC Cases? That one looks pretty good but I want to see what else is out there.

16 February 2012, 11:41 AM (1 year ago)report abuse Send to a friend reply

AndrewH (New user):

Yep - a well overdue article... HTPC cases, that is.

17 February 2012, 3:20 PM (1 year ago)report abuse Send to a friend reply

ss-rotel (User):

rah... i have tried to reply to this 3 times now, and it won't let me...

21 February 2012, 10:09 PM (1 year ago)report abuse Send to a friend reply

ss-rotel (User):

rah... must be something that's in it does like... i'll put it in point form...

1)K chip has faster GPU
2)nsk's nice, but only holds 2 HDD's so not enough for some
3)this is a media center PC, not a HTPC, maybe a more fitting name is a media server, but anyway. This thing should do everything, stream, convert media,play stuff, record stuff, and all at the same time.
4)i dont see how a RAID5 array would be slower than a single drive
5)This machine's setup to be left on, the PSU's very effcient, my setup wouldn't be as good on power, and cost 4c per hour, (works out about a $1 per day)
6)the Asus board has a street price of like $130, which Asrock board's better?

Like i said, the most expensive part IS The drives. they are expensive ATM, and will come back down again. i remember when 2tb HDD's were sub $100. This will effect the cost of the system substancially

21 February 2012, 10:17 PM (1 year ago)report abuse Send to a friend reply

Pete2005 (New user):

This is something I plan to do in the future. Just a few questions though. What OS would you recommend for this? And I'll want to stream stuff to a TV in another room, what digital media receiver would you recommend?

22 April 2012, 11:33 AM (1 year ago)report abuse Send to a friend reply

ss-rotel (User):

Quoting Pete2005:
What OS would you recommend for this?


ok, without knowing what you're tech level here is, i'd say, Win7 Home Premium 64bit.

Quoting Pete2005:
And I'll want to stream stuff to a TV in another room, what digital media receiver would you recommend?

OK, I have a VSK-921. looking @ about a grand, depending on were you get if from... i managed to pick mine up for that, including a Bluray playerbut of which are network attached, and have ipod/iphone apps

BEST part about it, it is DLNA compatable and has airplay built in. The downside, it's audio only. I dont know of any affordable amps that do video.

Another downside with that you'll need to your the windows media shareing service, and that's a huge memory hog.

What i did was install and setup Media center on you media server, (just a mater or running it and following the prompts if you haven't run it before), and get a xbox360, and set it up as a media extender.




23 April 2012, 8:21 PM (1 year ago)report abuse Send to a friend reply

Jeff w (New user):

Is there a beginner's guide to media centers...I would like to buld this for my mother....she loves to download movies...is this the same thing? Im not dumb but new to this stuff

30 April 2012, 10:15 PM (1 year ago)report abuse Send to a friend reply

Competant Fool (New user):

Would you recommend the ivy bridge processor (3570K) over the 2500K?

09 May 2012, 8:16 PM (1 year ago)report abuse Send to a friend reply

John in Brisbane (User):

Maybe - the prices are almost the same and the 3570K has the smaller (cooler, less power hungry) architecture. The 2500k may overclock better. For no or moderate overclocking, I'd go for the 3570k. For maximum grunt, the 2500k may still be the better chip. Clocking is super easy but maybe doesn't fit the media centre mission, as being discussed here. Having thought that through, the 3570 fits the bill better, especially if it will be running for long periods of time.

10 May 2012, 5:05 AM (1 year ago)report abuse Send to a friend reply

ss-rotel (User):

Actually, i would recomened the ivy bridge CPU, as the GPU on the chip is better then the current sandy bridge.

they are supposed to run cooler too, (or so i've read), so yeah.

going to throu it out there, you probably dont need the K version, (the only reason it's listed here is that the K runs the better video card then the non-Ks)

we're not Overclocking this system, so that shouldn't be a concern here


10 May 2012, 4:33 PM (1 year ago)report abuse Send to a friend reply

Peter try hard (Cornerstone member):

Initial testing has shown that tyhe ivy bridge may not run cooler than the sandy bridge. Something to do with small size and difficulties in cooling the smaller area.

14 June 2012, 7:29 PM (11 months ago)report abuse Send to a friend reply

ss-rotel (User):

hahah... which is pretty much what John said :)


10 May 2012, 4:35 PM (1 year ago)report abuse Send to a friend reply

John in Brisbane (User):

ha ha

11 May 2012, 12:10 AM (1 year ago)report abuse Send to a friend reply

John in Brisbane (User):

Something's up with the forum system again - I got an email notification regarding a comment, I've come to reply and can't find it! Hmmm...

Anyway, to Mirek666, re - remotes - you've got 3 main options that I'm aware of. I'll list them then tell you what I use.

1. Windows media centre remote: Comes with a remote control, an Infra red (I think) receiver for your box and works with media centre. Very smooth, seamless etc, assuming WMC is how you're happy to interact with the machine.

2. Smart phone via wifi. With android and iphones you can install software on you phone and computer and use the phone as a keyboard and touchpad. Enables the use of normal desktop environment.

3. Wireless(or long wires!) mouse and KB. Many couches have an armrest that a mouse will work well on.

I've never used 1. but seen it work well. I use numbers 2 and 3. You can buy wireless keyboards with a touchpad built in - maybe the best of all worlds? Only option 1 is practical for a normal TV sitting across the room - options 2 and 3 need either a projector (like I use) or a big TV close to you to run a decent resolution desktop that you can see OK.

14 June 2012, 3:25 PM (11 months ago)report abuse Send to a friend reply

turbodewd (New user):

I just built a HTPC very similar to this one. Core differences in mine:

1. Seasonic fanless 400W PSU. 400W is more than enough. 600W not needed.
2. 8GB RAM is also overkill, but its so cheap so who cares. I run 4GB, no issues at all.
3. Im deliberately only running the 240GB Intel SSD, 520 series.

My HTPC boots from power button to taskbar visible in 25s. Only fan in the whole system is the stock CPU cooler.

08 July 2012, 10:53 PM (10 months ago)report abuse Send to a friend reply

John in Brisbane (User):

Nice! I bet most of that boot time is just the mobo getting through bios etc...

09 July 2012, 12:07 AM (10 months ago)report abuse Send to a friend reply

Nathan S (New user):

I just set up a media box in my lounge room, cost $400.

29 July 2012, 11:25 PM (10 months ago)report abuse Send to a friend reply

Nathan S (New user):

If your only using the media centre for movies & music, this design is overkill. I just set mine up for under $400, 350wpsu 2.5tb, 4g ram, core 2 duo, light graphics card with hdmi out, wifi dongle, wifi mouse/keyboard.... Works a treat.

30 July 2012, 8:10 AM (9 months ago)report abuse Send to a friend reply

John in Brisbane (User):

Look that's similar to my projector rig and it's obviously fine for media but 2 comments:

1. The article is about "the best media centre ..." and if you wanted to build something with new parts to last 3 - 5+ years, this gives you that potential. Just unplug it during storms lol.

2. I used a pentium 4 for ages, then an overclocked c2d with better graphics, then I used my main overclocked 2500k gaming rig once and it totally changed my attitude - if you're using this HTPC rig a lot, the difference is awesome. Don't forget that the cpu will clock itself down to low power when simply streaming or rendering 2d.

A 2500k is a bit of a luxury item in this application but hell, buy the cpu and slowly accrue the other parts I say! You did yours for $400, cool, but for ppl with some stuff lying around, a 2500k, mobo, ram and OS is still under $500. cheers John

30 July 2012, 10:35 AM (9 months ago)report abuse Send to a friend reply

John in Brisbane (User):

ps- the forum software is a bit weird - don't hit enter after typing your password - only use the "submit" button with ur mouse.

30 July 2012, 10:36 AM (9 months ago)report abuse Send to a friend reply

Jon Peate (New user):

Is this a joke?
You can build a mini itx core i5 build for the same price in a mini-box.com m300 case with all the same specs or better including the 3d card, pico psu and you could have a 6tb nas plugged into the router for everyone in the house or you could have four 2.5 2tb hdds and an external blu-ray writer. This build is huge and as a huge psu with it. I have a htpc like this but i have a 90w pico psu and a WAY smaller 350 universal case.

19 April 2013, 2:55 PM (1 month ago)report abuse Send to a friend reply

Jon Peate (New user):

That is huge and has an overkill psu.

Mini-box.com m300 enclosure
Same specs but mini itx
Pci-e x1 riser card to fit capture card in case
4x 2.5 wd 2tb in 2.5 to 3.5 converter or nas with molex to 2 sata
External blu-ray drive
Biggest Pico psu

All you need

19 April 2013, 3:06 PM (1 month ago)report abuse Send to a friend reply

Jon Peate (New user):

Sorry everyone i thought new comments were at the top so i wrote twice.

19 April 2013, 3:08 PM (1 month ago)report abuse Send to a friend reply

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