Thread: HTPC building guide

This may be a rather new thing for some, but its is surely catching on. The HTPC, or Home theater PC, originally was just for watching your downloaded content on the comfort of your TV. As the market grew, we saw many manufacturers coming in with a range of HTPC cabinets with features like 7" touch screen. I would not go into those, as those are far to expensive for almost everyone here. I have 2 objectives with this build. Good Sound Quality (SQ) and Video Quality.I will be building this for different budgets and needs.

If you require top of the line SQ and video quality, combined with great style and plenty of $$ to spare, this one is for you:

SilverStone CW03, oh yea ! Full HD 7" Touch screen baby !

Processor: Core i3 530 - Rs6.5k
Motherboard : ASUS P7H55D-M EVO - Rs10k
RAM: 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 1333MHz Transcend/Gskill/Kingston - approx Rs5.2k
HDD: 1TB WD HDD - Rs4.2k
Cabinet: SilverStone CW03 HTPC chassis - Rs39,990
PSU: Seasonic 380W PSU - Rs2.7k
Optical Drive : LG Bluray ROM - Rs8k
Sound Card : ASUS Xonar HDAV1.3 - Rs12.5k

as you can see, i had told you, be ready for shelling out a ton of money, just to watch your favorite bluray,once a week,for the next 52 weeks .


Coming to more real terms, its hard to get a sound card to decode you Dolby TrueHD for cheap. You would have to shell out at least for that sound card (Xonar HDAV) if you want true bluray experience, for that i assume you already have a 7.1ch setup, if you don't, please go through this wonderful guide first:
the right speaker system ! (Home Theatre Blues - Part 3: The right speaker system)
You still need a good amp btw (that's like another Rs45,000, ouch!)

Well, bluray is not for all of us, not at least right now. Many are content with their 5.1 setups too. For those who want to cut down costs, drastically, with a good upgrade over conventional speaker systems, the next one make more sense for you.

So here is a system that lets you enjoy bluray video on your HDTV but with 5.1 audio, which is not too shabby (specially when you see the money saved). As this is what many will be looking, i will advice the speaker system too (please availability is an important factor).

Zebronics Pluto, small and cheap !

Processor: AMD Sempron 140 (2.7GHz, single core) - Rs1.7k
Motherboard: BIOSTAR TA785G3HD - Rs4.2k
Memory: 2x2GB DDR3 1333MHz memory - Rs5.2k
Graphics Card: None, use onboard HDMI out.
Sound Card: Asus Xonar DX 7.1ch (use optical out adapter supplied if needed) - Rs5k
Hard Drive: 500GB WD/Seagate - Rs3000
Optical Drive:LG Bluray ROM - Rs8k
Chassis:Zebronics Pluto - Rs1.7k
PSU: Use PSU that is provided with Chassis.


Took me a pretty long time to decide what parts to get for this build. Its so user specific. Many may want 1TB HDD and no bluray (too costly for many, or no Titles of your choice ? ). So you can go with a normal optical drive.

So here is my choice for a speaker setup : Logiech Z5500. Its a 505W (RMS,duh!) speaker system, thats plenty for a middle size room. At Rs18,000 its a good choice over many HTIB systems. For cheaper sound solutions, have a look at this:Best Desktop Speakers


You may argue that you can might as well get a Bluray player for almost half the cost,but then you get much better sound and video quality here. What you also get is a nice PC system that serve as a server for you to store all your multimedia.

Now, need a remote ? you can get a Windows Media Center Remote. You can get them for around Rs1000 in india, but cant find link on ebay as of now, will put it up here as soon as i find it.


Hope this was found useful by someone here, yes its costly,but its according to your needs only

Very nice guide. Please shed more light on HTPC cabinets. I believe that HTPC have special cabinets - they are costly but have very much reduced fan noise.

(Fan noise is a big put-off in an HT - unless you are using noise cancelling headphones)

Some observations:

1. It is not necessary to spend Rs. 45,000 on an AVR but it will be wise to invest in a slightly less powerful AVR. Nice AVRs are available from Rs. 16,000/-

2. Blu-ray may be too costly at the moment but one should always plan for the future growth and compatibility. No point spending a lot of money now and then realizing 2 years down the line that the system is compromised for future expansion.

3. Dolby is slowly loosing its share to DTS in the HD market.

4. I have listened to Dolby TrueHD as well as DTS HD Master Audio. DTS is definitely more active (and louder) of the two. That does not mean that I am saying DTS is better. I will reserve my comments for the time being.

Ok, here are some HTPC cabinets available in india. Most are pretty costly.

They come with 2-3 silent fans. If you have a normal, el cheapo desktop cabinet, you will really notice the difference in noise. When i got my HAF, it has 3 fans and one side is practically open, so the GPU fan and CPU fan noise is not damped at all, still, all fans are so silent that it is hard to make out if the system is open or not.


anyways, you should be careful while selecting the CPU fan, they are generally the cause of all the noise.


Here is a relatively cheap Cabinet that you can use for your HTPC. It can also be used as a gaming HTPC as it can accommodate a standard ATX PSU along with large graphics cards.

SilverStone Sugo Series:



Price: Rs4700+shipping (primeabgb.com, they got their store in Mumbai)


Antec NSK2480:
This is a really good choice for an HTPC cabinet, it can house a full ATX motherboard and has plenty of ventilation too. Try to get the black version as you may have color matching issues with the white one.



Price: Cant find in india

Antec Fusion 430:
This is a really good cabinet. Comes with a small LED display (you can connect it to USB headers on mobo) and the Fusion Max comes with a remote too. Has plenty of space and good ventilation. Looks good too.



Price: Rs9999 for the fusion and Rs12,000 for the fusion max.


If you are on a really low budget, have a look at the Zebronics Cube

The Antec Fusion 430 looks very cool.

Originally Posted by just4kix

The Antec Fusion 430 looks very cool.

Its cheaper in the US ($149), so its better if you get it from there,if you want one.

No need to buy from US. Check here: 20 North - Antec FUSION REMOTE Home Theater PC Enclosure



Sale Price: Rs. 8771
Customs Duty: 2493

^^^great....

Here is another HTPC Case: Dh 101 Htpc Case. It is priced at Rs. 12,500 or there about.



Check out this excellent guide also: How-to: Build a Blu-ray / TV tuner-equipped HTPC for under $1,000 -- Engadget

Damn, so much talk about it, makes me what it !!

How about a full blown HTPC as the prize for the next contest ? What say Aaron?

Originally Posted by rajan1311

Antec NSK2480:
This is a really good choice for an HTPC cabinet, it can house a full ATX motherboard and has plenty of ventilation too. Try to get the black version as you may have color matching issues with the white one.

Price: Cant find in india

Just stumbled across this.
May i point out 2 things please?
(1) NSK 2480 cannot house ATX motherboards. Only upto mATX.
(2) There is no white-coloured model. It's black with a silver(-coloured) face and an all black one.

Sorry for the intrusion but incorrect (partially/fully) info may lead some ignorant people on a wild goose chase, especially if they haven't done enough homework on the subject.

Antec NSK2480 is like the budget version of the Antec Fusion series.
It has amazing ventilation, maybe way better than even full fledged workstation/gaming rigs due to it's internal layout and design.
(Triple chamber structure isolates heat (and noise too maybe) from psu, HDD)
The silver finish is quite even and matte and (almost) matches most silver-coloured TV/AVR units available in the market, at least the budget models.
But yes, some may have colour matching issues- especially if they have high-end AVR units with glossy paint or genuine brushed-Aluminium finish, etc.

p.s. Rajan sir- Can you please post pics of the internals of your setup?
Just want to see how the Pluto looks from inside.

My bad bikey, your right, no Full ATX, only micro atx By white i meant grey, my point on that is that the color matching is a bit hard.

Well I dont have the pluto, but ill get some pics for you Its actually available in most stores, so next time you go and buy some great high end stuff, have a look at it too.
Nice to see you here, thanks for pointing out the blunder.

Via has launched a compact Box PC with loads of features for HTPC market.
For more details on this product visit contact Shresta eTechnologies Pvt Ltd., (Trying Googling)


Key Features include:

•VIA Nano™ 64-bit Processor
•HD MPEG-2 & H.264 video decoding hardware acceleration
•Space saving, palm size PC with 14.6 x 9.9 x 5.2cm (5.7" x 3.9" x 2") dimensions
•Multiple I/Os: HDMI, USB device port, 4 USB2.0 ports, VGA, Gigabit LAN
•Optional WiFi networking and SD card reader
•Supports Microsoft Windows 7 & Linux