HTPC – what to choose?

That is the question. In this article we will consider what will be most suitable for our needs and what to choose for your HTPC. Different people have different needs and you have to decide what to choose for yourself to remain satisfied.

1. Destiny

The most important thing is we need to think about what we will need HTPC for. It can be used for standard use, i.e. watching movies and listening to music, or should it be at the same time a NAS server for data storage or a game console. A simple mini PC is enough for watching movies. If it is also to be a NAS server then we need a computer with a larger housing that can accommodate several at least two hard drives. If the computer is to be used additionally for games, it must contain an discrete graphics card.

2. Mini PC

The cheapest option will be a barebone computer. Such a small computer with an Intel celeron processor can be bought for about 150€/$. However, it will need to be equipped with ram memory and a hard disk. In this case, we have freedom and everyone will choose what they need. I would recommend 4 Gb ram for windows and 2 GB for lighter linux systems.

On versions with the Intel core i3 processor must already be spen over 250€/$.

A ready-to-use Intel NUC computer with an Intel core i3 processor, ram memory and hard disk is already about 500€/$ PLN. Such miniature computers are equipped with low-voltage core i3 units known from laptops.

3. Custom build HTPC

Here we can let our imagination run free and build what suits us best. The next articles will be about help in choosing components for our HTPC. You will have to choose all the elements of our HTPC, starting from the housing, through the motherboard, processor, hard and optical drives, power supply as well as any expansion cards such as graphics, sounds or television cards .